Need a hand? Luckily, young Sidney was still on a adrenaline high from his tennis victory. Another lesson; those Prius guys are really not so bad.
Guessing something loose in the ignition system. The traditional way was hot rodders helping others then p***ing out club cards to improve the public perception. Sure hope Joey's track record holds and he doesn't have to require more ***istance. He will have to print out thank you cards to give to strangers helping him!
Check those coil connections bruh, I stalled out on 92 trying to merge onto 280 and it turned out my wire on the hot side of the ballast resistor was barely touching. Simple things first! I was stuck there for a while on the side of the merge ramp before I popped under the dash and it slapped me right in the face. I felt dumb after calling the car every creative obscenity I could come up with.
The amount of times I frustratedly blown **** out of a fuel filter on the side of the highway is more than a few. but he’s right. It is just part of it. great post. a photo of solidarity, somewhere in… Kansas maybe? Hours into a frustrating drive home taking some shelter in the shade of a farm driveway.
With my roadster...it was always one of the 2 condensers (Harmon Collins dual point/dual coil). Once I recognized the suspect quality, I carried a couple spares at all times.
Rescued a guy and his wife in a 1920s Austin last year. I’ve never seen a flathead head gasket fail so comprehensively, every head bolt had coolant coming out of it. Had a cup of tea at his house and went back on my journey, then backed into a car in the parking lot. No good dead goes unpunished!
Reminded of the young lady who gave my wife and I a lift from Montvale to Lynchburg in 11deg weather in her CORVETTE of all things... wife sat on my lap. Had a '72 Ford Custom (base model of the Galaxie body) with a 302 and a clogged fuel filter stall out on my way to the VA in Salem. Fun times. Almost 40 years ago now.
My wife and I were getting a VCR tape at our local video store in our 57 Thunderbird. It was a nice summer night and the top was off the TBird. Got the tape, went to start the car and the starter drive spring broke. After that the starter would just spin. The TBird is light and we live in a small town so I told the wife that we could just push it home. A guy and his son came out of the video store and asked if they could help. So there are 4 of us pushing the TBird down the street when a cop showed up. I explained what was going on and he said he would follow us so we would be more visible. His car had a big push bumper that lined up with the TBird well. Told him that if he could push me up to about 25 mph, I could probably get the car to start. He did, it started, no marring on my bumper. I thanked everyone and drove it home.
In 1974 I was driving back from my future wife's parents' home in Connecticut to Woods Hole, MA where my ship was based. I was most of the way there, when my '70 Datsun pickup just died. It was 4:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning in a remote rural area. No houses, no businesses, nothing around. It was very foggy, couldn't see very far at all. I coasted off to the side of the road, opened the hood, didn't see anything amiss. Did everything I could think of and no go, couldn't get it started. The ship was getting underway at 6 a.m., and I saw my career and my life p***ing away in my mind. This was decades before cell phones, so I was on my own. I sat on the side of the road and just tried to reflect, relax, let it go, and think that whatever it is, will be ok. A little background on the truck: I had previously pulled all the anti-smog **** (air pump and plumbing to all the cylinders, etc.), also pulled the carb and replaced it with a constant flow fuel injector made for a snowmobile. It ran soooo much better after that. Anyway, after a while, a car pulled over and stopped. Couldn't believe it because the driver couldn't have seen me parked along the side because the vis was so low. Anyway, an older man got out and came up and asked me what was wrong. I told him what happened, and he nodded, and asked if I had a screwdriver, so I got him one. He pulled off the air cleaner, and stuck the screwdriver down the fuel injector and banged the throttle plate loose. He said for some reason it had become jammed. He said to try to start it up, which I did, and it started right up, and ran great. By the time I got out to thank him profusely, he was already driving off. There is no way he could have known what was wrong and how to fix it with normal knowledge. To this day, I believe it was a guardian angel taking care of me. That was something I'll never forget. Anyway, got back to the ship just as it was ready to cast off lines. No harm, no foul. A lot of stress relieved.
Sounds like a divine appointment. You were in the right place at the right time to meet and make some new friends. It's part of it.
this club card is signed by the cousin of the builder (Jack Taylor built the car). Jack was one of the original Pharaohs Oxnard members founded in the late 50's This card sits in the car below the back window of my 30, it was there when I became the new caretaker and will stay there.
Mark should have a bunch of H.A.M.B. cards printed up. Provide them to members here for a small profit and let all of us spread the word of this club. Lots of my buddies havent heard of this site and always find it helpful when they visit.
took me awhile to figure out...I had a radiator cap in the fuel cap position on the Cabriolet stock gas tank... driving in the rain the water would wick up the cap into the fuel tank, fill the carburetor.....and dead on the side of the road..... before i figured it out, I was running in an extra heavy downpour when the car died.....I had the hood up and getting ready to drain the carburetor and sediment bowl when a Prius stopped and ask if he could help.....I answered, "I know it is an unusual request, let me get the umbrella out...and would you hold it for us so we don't get so wet?" He said "sure" and he did until I got everything drained..... a lightning strike too close for comfort terminated the exercise and I thanked him profusely as he left in a hurry.... Prius drivers aren't so bad.....
So it ran okay until that right turn at Krigers corner, just a wild guess, maybe the float or floats in the carbs malfunctioned!
Another story, long read. Back in the 70's a friend and I were on a road trip through Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and then back home to Sacramento. While going through Arizona we stopped at a little town called Aguila for breakfast. After leaving, my friend was driving and asked what the green light on the dash meant? I looked out the back window and there was a trail of oil down the middle of the lane. I told him it was the oil light and to pull over. We pulled over into this old gas station that was converted to a cabinet shop. Asked the owners if we could park there while we figure out what the problem was. We were in a vehicle that was a favorite of hippies that was made in Germany. Rich was a pretty good back yard mechanic so we pulled the motor and was trying to figure out where all the oil had come from. I gentleman in a dune buggy pulled up and asked what the problem was. Told him what happened and that we had a pretty bad oil leak. He came over and looked at the motor and said, well there's your problem. He pointed to an oil vein that should have had a pressed in plug but it had blown out. He went back to his house and cut the head off a bolt and rounded it off and came back with the make shift plug and epoxy. Turned out the guy was from Sacramento and had a VW shop which he sold and retired to Arizona. He had a daughter, still living in Sacramento going to Sac State. Did the repair work, but the clutch was slipping pretty bad but we were still able to limp back to Sacramento and make it home. I still think about it at times of what a coincidence that the man was from Sacramento and was a retired VW mechanic.
Last week my old truck powered out due to a clogged fuel filter. But I pack spare filters as I know the fuel tank is super rusty and keeps clogging them. After all of 90 seconds on the side of the road I was off again. The next day the truck started to act up, stalled on a major road and I couldn't restart. It turned out to be m***ively flooding, due probably to a crumb of old fuel line produced when I wr***led on the new fuel filter. I did eventually get it running and carried on at high rpm to work, where I fixed it in the parking lot at lunch. It turned out that there is supposed to be a little filter in the carb body itself that was missing. So those little guys are important after all!
I once thought it would be fun to see what would happen if I tried to push start my Fordomatic by putting it in reverse. Well I didn't destroy it, but it sure didn't like it!
Ooof, never fun to have to push your car alone. Glad those nice fella's talked you into letting them help! I'm glad you posted this story, Joey. It's nice to see how "the other half" live, since I lit-ruhly have never ever broken down in an old car or motorcycle in my entire life. xoxoxox
The Jalopy Journal
