On the way down to the Volksfest show, I noticed the tach needle would occasionally jump, like an electrical issue or spike. The Rally Bug has always run pertronix inside a 009 that has a roughly two-year habit of causing this sort of issue. Where pertronix usually dies instantly, in the rally bug it gets 'noisy' for two weeks and then dies. I carry points in the glovebox, but figured I could limp it home or swap them when it died completely. Now, keep in mind that I had a 40min wait at a ferry and then a 55min wait for a highway closure. I had plenty of sitting time to swap out to the points.
Of course, by this point the famous double exhaust gasket temp-fix had also blown out completely...so orange flames shooting out the tailpipe become a standard 'feature' :P The exhaust leak causes the fuel injection system to go full rich, so the combination of randomized spark, and fuel injection computer completely confused, made for a bit of a rough final leg home. Got home, popped the distributor cap, and...would you believe it? Damned thing is running points. They had simply closed up, a quick adjustment and the ignition is stable again. Whoops!
As for that exhaust leak, the double gasket obviously isn't working...so I needed a new solution. Step one...draw up the part.
Second step, pull out the CNC Plasma cutter...
Clean it up a little...and this should be good to go.
Basically, instead of running a double gasket I'm simply just going to run the steel flange as the gasket...and the little bit of leakage that will occur I'll compensate for. This exhaust system only has to make it to the end of the driving season before my 'next plan' kicks in...so the band-aid fix is just fine. Besides, how else am I going to keep those sweet blue-flame backfires on decel? :P