Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Car trouble



I was filling up the van at a gas station, when across the street I see this scenario, nice car but it won't start, actually it does start but as soon as the key is released it quits. I listen to this repeat itself multiple times and my mind is combing the possibilities... carburetor, mechanical fuel pump... points/condenser in a distributor, Dodges were known for that fault.. ah ha! 
Tank now full, I wander over and ask him if he'd checked the ballast resistor on the distributor, ignition switch gives full 12 volts on start, drops back to 8 volts on run, governed by a somewhat fragile ballast resistor. He didn't take my advice gracefully so I offered him a hundred bucks for the car... He didn't take that offer either... 
 I guess that makes me officially an old guy, if I can remember troubleshooting from the 1960s. 

5 comments:

  1. Heh...

    Early 80s, heading to Loudon, Dodge quits on the interstate. Same symptons as you describe. Just as I'm jumping the ballast resistor with some galvanized wire, a state trooper shows up. I explain the situation, and he says "You mean that white thing? I just changed one in my car, follow me back to the station and you can have the old one."

    Made it to Loudon and home. As far as I know, the car went to the crusher with that resistor in it.

    Thanks, trooper.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wait, I thought all Canadians were pleasant and genteel.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It was a pleasant and genteel conversation, but he seemed to think his old broken down Dodge was worth more than $100?

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Advice is useless. Smart people don't need it, stupid people won't take it."

    ReplyDelete