This afternoon in Omaha was a balmy 35 degrees. I'ts been 35 below with the wind chill only 2 days ago and the sudden heat wave made me jones'in for a ride in my coupe. Never mind the streets are nasty with snow melt, pot holes and neighbors coming home from work in their SUVs and crossovers. I HAD to go for a little local cruise in my trusty coupe. Jumped in after opening the garage door, twisted the key to ON [was already in the ON position] and hit the start button.....nothing..ah shit. Battery was dead. Key left on and the battery is in the trunk....only 3 feet from the coooooooold outside temps of the last week. Sigh.......... I put the battery on slow charge and went in to clean up my little workshop, have a bite and watch a little Velocity TV for an hour. Came back out to the garage and sprayed some starting fluid on the air cleaner .....cranked it over and it actually fired! No start. just fire....SONUVABITCH! The air cleaner was on fire! I unscrewed the nut and lifted it off, losing the flat washer in my haste...ran outside with the towering inferno in my hands, which were carefully covered with 2 plastic grocery bags that were close by in my trash can...amazingly I managed to not catch myself on fire. I searched down the carb throat for the missing washer and didn't see it. OK...lit the engine off and it ran choppy with no choke in the AFB so I let it sit at fast idle for 10 minutes, checking that the charge system was ok...ok. Oil pressure, check-coolant temp coming up. and 1/4 tank of gas. I cruised around the snowy neighborhood for 15 minutes or so and saw several neighbors checking their mail, paperboxes and staring at me like I was nutz or something. I waved good naturedly and smiled as I loped past, flicking slushy crap everywhere with the open wheels. Even up on the windshield on the turns. I didn't really give a shit...I was cruisin my hot rod! God, it felt good. Spun the tires up my steep drive way and into my garage again....AHHHHHHH. No harm done except maybe a frozen/dead/possible junk battery, a smoked air filter and salty, briny crap on my car. Man, I cannot WAIT for summer!!!
You are fucking crazy!!!! But the GOOD kind of crazy!!! Awsome story ya musta been a sight to the neighbours rooster tails off all 4 wheels in your Jalopy !! Love it!
hang there - skip spraying starter fluid into air filter, unless you are trying to keep everything real warm - maybe add a good battery kill switch to help avoid dead battery - think of what it is like in Hawaii to fight off going stir crazy
Oh man.......look at that. Beautiful. I'm still wearing my boots, jeans, long sleeved t-shirt, sweatshirt, company work shirt and another sweatshirt over all that... BTW, I have a battery cut-off switch but forgot to trip it....duh!
After the other mishaps/glitches, I was SO afraid you were gonna say... "I was loping along and waving to the neighbors when the washer made its way past an intake valve and embedded itself into the top of a piston. Whew...ok...back to your ride. Woohoo!!!
The Jalopy Journal
