Topic: Shop stories!

[dave500]

like this?

[HondaMan]

I was opening the points with screwdriver, while setting them in a carport. All of a sudden the bike backfired..extremely. Louds.. Scared the pissoutame...

I did the same thing a couple months ago. Small space and I thought I had killed the ignition. Bridged the gap with an errant screwdriver and POP!

I set some carbs on fire once, doing that very thing!

[bjbuchanan]

Yeah I somehow did that on my corvair. I was screwing with the dizzy cap and a big jet of flame came out to scare the bejeesus out of me from the right carb throat. Still can't figure out how I made it to 23 years old doing this stuff

[trueblue]

My first time ever working on a 903 PT Cummins I made a minor #$%* up on the injector adjustments.  I found out later that if you follow the instructions in the manual that it won't work, apparently they left out an important step in the manual that puts the cam in the wrong place when you do the adjustment.  When I fired it up it was smoking pretty heavily and when you gave it a rev it shot flames about 30' high out of twin 6" exhausts.  Not to mention the hell of a bang it made when it did such things.  After the correct adjustment it ran fine, but it won't be a lesson I'll soon forget.

[CycleRanger]

like this?

How did you know they were blond?   

[rtbmrgl]

My first time ever working on a 903 PT Cummins I made a minor #$%* up on the injector adjustments.  I found out later that if you follow the instructions in the manual that it won't work, apparently they left out an important step in the manual that puts the cam in the wrong place when you do the adjustment.  When I fired it up it was smoking pretty heavily and when you gave it a rev it shot flames about 30' high out of twin 6" exhausts.  Not to mention the hell of a bang it made when it did such things.  After the correct adjustment it ran fine, but it won't be a lesson I'll soon forget.

This reminded me of my buddies 360 Bultaco Bandito. I went through a water crossing, the engine burp and sputtered, still running grab the clutch then let it out then flew over the handle bars!.
 The engine staring running backwards. He changed from CDI to points, guess it was off.

[DH]

A friend once brought me his mid eighties ford bronco ll with a starting/slow crank issue. So, I start eliminating causes, checking this and that, battery/starter draw/cables/ends/charging rate. After several run cycles,
the thing finally refuses to crank. Hmmmm....Acts like the engine locked up
Verify by attempting to manually turn engine over with front crank pulley.
Yup, stuck....Gotta verify one more thing tho, check for hydro lock. Anti freeze full, hmmm. I'll take the 3 drivers side plugs out and have a look.....OOps,almost forgot to disconnect that mile long coil wire from the distributor cap.....I'll just ground it to this a/c bracket, it'll stay......This pos is
equipped with the boat anchor 2.9 v6, which had the reputation, at that time, unbeknownst to me, of fuel pressure regulators rupturing internally
and silently filling the engine with raw fuel.........OK, ready to crank. turn key
only to see coil wire jump away from ground point, create spark, spark ignites fountain of gasoline spewed from three removed plug holes, and
creates a gigantic orange mushroom cloud roaring out from under the hood.
Probly took around 35 secs to get to the fire extinguisher (I was outside luckily) although it seemed like several panicked minutes. Extinguished the last bit of flame JUST as the entirety of the vehicle wiring harness was beginning to melt. After nearly having to change my shorts, we decided to push it in, rack it up. Seemed like it drained for 5 minutes after removing the oil drain plug. I learned to always remove power from the ignition coil
itself, NOT grounding the coil wire, FOREVER thereafter.

[Don R]

Not to mention other greats, like the Daytona Charger and Plymouth Superbird: one of my friends in Peoria, which was one of the outlets for the 'limited production' vehicles like these, got a Charger Daytona. One night we went out on the highway east of town to see what it might do. I was in the back seat, had a view of the speedometer: we were cruising at about 120 MPH and it sounded absolutely effortless. My friend started gently pressing his foot to it and I watched the speedo instantly respond, and then I felt the back of the car sinking down, a lot. He did, too, and thinking something was wrong, let up on it: at about 90 MPH the sensation went away. He ran this routine twice more, 90-145 MPH and back down, and it was predictable, he said. We ran out of road and had to turn around, had taken about 15 minutes to reach the next town. On the way back, it took 10 minutes and about 30 seconds, and I could not see the bottom of the speedo, don't know how far down there it went: I think the dial went to 180 MPH. That car never broke a sweat, either.

But, that same night a 440 GTX met us, and being the dragster those were with their 4.xx:1 rear gears, dusted us but good. Then the GTX came up to a Hemi GTX in front of us, and that Hemi dusted the 440!


I remember cruising peoria well, it was an amazing rolling car show, I grew up in Galesburg so we had our choice of there or 23rd avenue in Moline. both were awesome. Was the mopar dealer Roanoak Dodge? My brother in law bought a viper there a few years ago.

[Deltarider]

Yeah, great cars as long as you like to drive in a straight line...

[72 yellow]

In the early 90's I was working in a shop that did police car conversions and repairs to other emergency vehicles.  One job I hated was removing the power supply from Whelen edge strobe light bars.  It was always after the guy drove through the rain and everything was soaking wet and you had to carefully remove it (it was a tight fit in the center of the bar) while leaning over the wet car.  It had a large capacitor to fire the strobes and it was always ready to shock the hell out of you if you were not careful.  Got bit more than once.

[Damfino]

Yeah, great cars as long as you like to drive in a straight line...

Killjoy!

[seanbarney41]

Yeah, great cars as long as you like to drive in a straight line...

Delta, have you ever even driven a 60's/70's American car?

[bjbuchanan]

Delta always has a slant to the posts if you have noticed. Little jabs at America here and there

[dave500]

he thinks a trabant is a big comfy car?probably drives a lada?

[754]

 America is full of straight life nest, and America grew up with big v8 power.
 
Europe grew up with cars like suitcases..

[750cafe]

America is full of straight life nest, and America grew up with big v8 power.
 
Europe grew up with cars like suitcases..

... and the power of a hamster's wheel. 

Eric

[HondaMan]

My first time ever working on a 903 PT Cummins I made a minor #$%* up on the injector adjustments.  I found out later that if you follow the instructions in the manual that it won't work, apparently they left out an important step in the manual that puts the cam in the wrong place when you do the adjustment.  When I fired it up it was smoking pretty heavily and when you gave it a rev it shot flames about 30' high out of twin 6" exhausts.  Not to mention the hell of a bang it made when it did such things.  After the correct adjustment it ran fine, but it won't be a lesson I'll soon forget.

Where was your digital camera in those days? That woulda been a good one.

[HondaMan]

My first time ever working on a 903 PT Cummins I made a minor #$%* up on the injector adjustments.  I found out later that if you follow the instructions in the manual that it won't work, apparently they left out an important step in the manual that puts the cam in the wrong place when you do the adjustment.  When I fired it up it was smoking pretty heavily and when you gave it a rev it shot flames about 30' high out of twin 6" exhausts.  Not to mention the hell of a bang it made when it did such things.  After the correct adjustment it ran fine, but it won't be a lesson I'll soon forget.

This reminded me of my buddies 360 Bultaco Bandito. I went through a water crossing, the engine burp and sputtered, still running grab the clutch then let it out then flew over the handle bars!.
 The engine staring running backwards. He changed from CDI to points, guess it was off.

When I had my shop, we sold Suzukis as one of the lines. I had a favorite little TS90 that I kept playing with a little at a time, raising the ports and cutting back the rotary valve. One day I went too far, and it became a very high-RPM only engine, power starting about 5K RPM. I was riding it up a test hill and it bogged: when I didn't let up on the throttle and clutch right away (just poured it on some more) it suddenly reversed revs and the bike shot out from under me, backward. The throttle cable was kinda sticky, and that poor thing roared down the hill in 2nd at near redline, backward, all by itself under it finally fell over!

[HondaMan]

Not to mention other greats, like the Daytona Charger and Plymouth Superbird: one of my friends in Peoria, which was one of the outlets for the 'limited production' vehicles like these, got a Charger Daytona. One night we went out on the highway east of town to see what it might do. I was in the back seat, had a view of the speedometer: we were cruising at about 120 MPH and it sounded absolutely effortless. My friend started gently pressing his foot to it and I watched the speedo instantly respond, and then I felt the back of the car sinking down, a lot. He did, too, and thinking something was wrong, let up on it: at about 90 MPH the sensation went away. He ran this routine twice more, 90-145 MPH and back down, and it was predictable, he said. We ran out of road and had to turn around, had taken about 15 minutes to reach the next town. On the way back, it took 10 minutes and about 30 seconds, and I could not see the bottom of the speedo, don't know how far down there it went: I think the dial went to 180 MPH. That car never broke a sweat, either.

But, that same night a 440 GTX met us, and being the dragster those were with their 4.xx:1 rear gears, dusted us but good. Then the GTX came up to a Hemi GTX in front of us, and that Hemi dusted the 440!


I remember cruising peoria well, it was an amazing rolling car show, I grew up in Galesburg so we had our choice of there or 23rd avenue in Moline. both were awesome. Was the mopar dealer Roanoak Dodge? My brother in law bought a viper there a few years ago.

Yep, Roanoak Dodge (although I think it was somehow spelled differently from that, like maybe Roanoke, or something similar?). They were on the radio ads every Saturday night while we cruised. Boy, those were the days, with 850 HP 427 SOHC Fords right out on the street!

Come to think of it, I gotta go see my old friend here in Denver: he has a 1965 Fairlane Thunderbolt in SOHC427 at 736 RWHP that I haven't ridden in for years, and 2 more 427 (pushrod) Fairlanes '65 & '66 as well..and a 410 CI FE (11:1 CR) made from the 390H (like mine) in the same car I have ('67 LTD fastback 2-dr) and 428 pistons, but with an 850CFM Holley aboard...and I recently saw a [rare] Mercury Comet version of the Thunderbolt driving in west Denver last summer.

You just can't miss the sound of that 427 SOHC engine...

[Don R]

 Hard to beat a SOHC even a ford one! I've been 0 to 172 in 7.6 seconds but I'd love a ride in that Thunderbolt! I remember one in a newer fairlane, it had angel hair all over the interior, a show car thing back then.
 I have a friend that was racing a 427 medium riser motor in a fairlane, he had two from a large wooden boat he bought. The owner died and his wife let the boat rot but the two 427's stayed loose. He bought it and cut up the boat to get them out. One day he realized how valuable they are and stopped abusing them. He was going with an aftermarket aluminum headed 460 last I knew.

[Retro Rocket]

America is full of straight life nest, and America grew up with big v8 power.
 
Europe grew up with cars like suitcases..

... and the power of a hamster's wheel. 

Eric

Very selective memory mate, most of the worlds fastest cars come from Europe and always have....

[Deltarider]

Fact: US carmakers have never been abe to export their cars to other parts of the world in significant numbers. I think it's safe to conclude that elsewhere markets weren't impressed. Overhere American cars were first choice however amongst pimps, criminals and for the rest people that we suspected to have an inferiority complex. I seem to remember they were all short and fatbellied. Oh yeah, we used them for funerals (at that speed they were safe).
They were OK to go in a straight line. Travelling the USA I understood why they needed that soft suspension. Besides the highways they had to deal with poor quality minor roads. On the highway and at speeds we were used to, turn the wheel an inch and, boy, you were in trouble. I drove American cars in the USA in the 70s. None offered the 'holding' I was used to. Once in Indiana I almost knocked a family of Amish over when the car after a perfect normal manoevre IMO, went all over the place and was hardly controlable.
I have had several cars. One of my favourites was the Peugeot 504. Car of the year in 1969, winner of several safari rallies, the model has been in production with only minor modifications for... 37 years. Name an American car that did that. Americans want new models every year. Read Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard and/or The Strategy of Desire by Ernst Dichter why this is. It's called planned obsolescence and the practice is not durable.
The 504 was the favourite sedan to cross the Sahara. I did it twice. Tens of thousands of 504s did the trip. The car was legendary for its robustness and will be in the historybooks... next to the pyramids. I prefer quality cars that don't show of. A matter of taste.
I never had a Lada. I believe they were not very good. But... guess what do Saharagoers consider one of the best 4X4s to cross the desert? It is the simple and robust (no gadgets) Lada Niva. A simple car but, mind you, no electric windows, no cupholders, nothing to impress the neighbours, so... not much for the US market.
I remember Lee Iacocca in an interview commenting on the Detroit automobile industry : "If only they could develop a car like the Honda Civic."
Ask people on the Scilly islands (and elsewhere...) who see their drinkwaterwells threatened by the ever rising sealevel what they think of 'them across the pond in their oversized toys'.
Discussing cars is fruitless. Enjoy whatever you want or need. Just tax the gasoline and things will be fixed.   

[dave500]

not the car makers fault you cant drive accordingly?those poor amish,good thing they wernt the mafia ones!

[trueblue]

My first time ever working on a 903 PT Cummins I made a minor #$%* up on the injector adjustments.  I found out later that if you follow the instructions in the manual that it won't work, apparently they left out an important step in the manual that puts the cam in the wrong place when you do the adjustment.  When I fired it up it was smoking pretty heavily and when you gave it a rev it shot flames about 30' high out of twin 6" exhausts.  Not to mention the hell of a bang it made when it did such things.  After the correct adjustment it ran fine, but it won't be a lesson I'll soon forget.

Where was your digital camera in those days? That woulda been a good one.

HM, the digital camera was sitting on the bench at the other end of the shop.  I'm not that old, but it was a few years ago .

[seanbarney41]

+1 Dave, plenty of examples of American cars spanking the Euros in rallies  (Valiants amd Falcons plus who knows what)  I have driven various 1970's BMW's, Mercedes, Volkwagons...and pretty sure I could beat these over-rated, fragile, under-powered turds with your basic Cadillac Sedan Deville on any road, curvy or straight.  Delta, it sounds like you have had plenty of "ugly American" experiences, and there certainly are plenty to be had, and for that I apologize.  You might want to stop representing yourself as "the cocky little skinny, dickheaded, Euro guy".  You are certainly not winning any popularity contests this way.