Tom Nas starting his way home ...

[Buchholz, Steven]

Well, things didn't work out exactly as originally planned, but it looks as
though we reached an acceptable conclusion ... Tom and Paul are now starting
their return journey ... with the Fox still in my driveway!  Thanks to an
excellent suggestion from Dan H we found a transport company who will pick
up the car and deliver it to the folks who will pack it up and send it on
its way to Europe ... 

Things were not looking good at the end of the day last night ... we closed
up shop at about 1:30AM and the car still was not running well ... but we
had identified the likely cause ... the fuel system pressure was
astronomical ... 10 bar or more ...  I installed the FI system we had pulled
from a car at the PnP ... and the pressure was still high ... obviously the
control pressure regulator or fuel distributor were not at fault!  The
return line had gotten plugged ... before I went to sleep I figured out a
patch that might work well for temporary purposes ... we confirmed that the
plugged return was the problem in the morning and figured a way to plumb the
return to the vent line on the fill pipe ... took the car out for a spin and
it is running better than it has in a long time!  Given the crud remaining
in the tank it is not wise to attempt to drive the car on its own, but at
least we know that as soon as the tank is repaired the car should be
functional.  If only they didn't puncture the fuel tanks in the cars at the
PnP Tom could very well have been able to drive himself ... 

It was great to have an opportunity to see Tom again ... last time for me
was at MH99 ... and it was good he had a chance to do some sight seeing in
addition to working on the car!  Best of all for me it is exciting to know
that the car I purchased new in 1978 is not going to end up sitting in a
wrecking yard ... like that '77 Fox which supplied so many unique parts for
Tom to use in his restoration ... thank you ever so much Tom for giving this
project a go!  We wish Tom and Paul a safe and enjoyable journey back to
southern California ... and back home to Europe.  

Steve B
San José, Kaleefohnia (USA)