My first car, I think I was 14 or 15, was a 1927 (the last of the breed) and
in it, I had a ball. It had one advantage over the older models ... it
had a starter motor under one's left heel.
Purchased for $10.00, it served me well for a couple of years and I
developed a timing problem that I was unable to solve. After a couple of
miles ... it was seven and a half miles to town from our homestead in
Tewntynine Palms, CA ... the exhaust manifold would turn a brilliant
reddish yellow. I believed it to be timed too fast, causing pre-ignition,
but it could have as easily been too slow which would have caused
extended burn. Either would have overheated the exhaust manifold. My step
father told me it was probably burned valves ... blow by could have had
the same result, I'm sure. It was a problem that was never resolved.
I had tried to retime the engine in both directions with no effect. Next
I removed the heads, took out the valves and set up a rather primitive
method for refacing. Heck, I was a kid in the middle of the desert and
had to make things up as I went along. After a time it was discovered
that grinding (re-surfacing) valves with the old Boy Scout fire starter
was too tedious ... it was never completed.
I was working my way through High School at the time and needed to
transport myself to school so I found an old Gardner Motor Car ... bought
it for fifteen dollars and discovered more and different problems.
I feel lucky to have been raised in a place where there were no policemen
(there was, in fact, little need) and there was ample wide open space in
which a child could develop his driving skills without worrying about
traffic jams (gridlock) on the freeway.
I suppose your ears are tiring by now so I'll say good bye. Thanks for
the nifty prose. I had begun to suspect that there was no one out there
in computer-land who could recall the things I sometimes do.
Send comments to Dan Machesky at dan@beesky.com