old mechanic in a pub
Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2015 12:26 am
read this to the end - it's worth it.
When I was young I had a Nissan Pulsar, the Turbo model, great little shopping trolley.
At one point the engine would not go into boost mode and would misfire awfully.
It had a manifold pressure gauge on the dash and I could watch as the vacuum started to turn to boost
but when it reached the pressure balance point and the positive boost pressure started coming in the
engine would just misfire.
We tried everything, new plugs, new rotor and dissie, timing, fuel supply, fuel filter, everything.
Sounds like an MGF you should be thinking. All to no avail.
On a trip in the country to visit some friends I ended up down to 15 miles an hour going up a hill, driving in the breakdown lane
most of the trip on the freeway. It was so bad it was getting dangerous.
Anyway, we parked the car and got a taxi to the pub, good boys we were.
At the pub we ran across and old retired mechanic, and I moaned about my poor little Nissan without boost.
He paused and thought for a moment and asked me some weird questions:
" How old are you?" 24 years
"Do you live at home with you parents?" - yes
"Have you got a girlfriend?" - yes
"How long have you been seeing her?" - 1 month
At this point he smiled and ordered another round of beers, which I dutifully paid for awaiting his advice on my car.
"Have you been 'parking' lately?" - Well eh em , yes.
" Did you have fun?" - = Yyeess..
But what's this got to do with my car?
Well there's your problem solved. Go and look under your front seats.
We thought we knew about cars but couldn't believe the advice.
Next day after we got home and recovered from our night out we followed the old mechanics advice.
Sure enough, under the passenger seat was the car's computer, knocked from it's mounting and floating about on the carpet.
It was still plugged in but was clearly not earthed.
We polished and cleaned the metal mountings, bolted the computer down, and pointed it at the nearest substantial hill
and it was as good as new.
The moral of the story - on that night of parking the earth moved for both of us!
When I was young I had a Nissan Pulsar, the Turbo model, great little shopping trolley.
At one point the engine would not go into boost mode and would misfire awfully.
It had a manifold pressure gauge on the dash and I could watch as the vacuum started to turn to boost
but when it reached the pressure balance point and the positive boost pressure started coming in the
engine would just misfire.
We tried everything, new plugs, new rotor and dissie, timing, fuel supply, fuel filter, everything.
Sounds like an MGF you should be thinking. All to no avail.
On a trip in the country to visit some friends I ended up down to 15 miles an hour going up a hill, driving in the breakdown lane
most of the trip on the freeway. It was so bad it was getting dangerous.
Anyway, we parked the car and got a taxi to the pub, good boys we were.
At the pub we ran across and old retired mechanic, and I moaned about my poor little Nissan without boost.
He paused and thought for a moment and asked me some weird questions:
" How old are you?" 24 years
"Do you live at home with you parents?" - yes
"Have you got a girlfriend?" - yes
"How long have you been seeing her?" - 1 month
At this point he smiled and ordered another round of beers, which I dutifully paid for awaiting his advice on my car.
"Have you been 'parking' lately?" - Well eh em , yes.
" Did you have fun?" - = Yyeess..
But what's this got to do with my car?
Well there's your problem solved. Go and look under your front seats.
We thought we knew about cars but couldn't believe the advice.
Next day after we got home and recovered from our night out we followed the old mechanics advice.
Sure enough, under the passenger seat was the car's computer, knocked from it's mounting and floating about on the carpet.
It was still plugged in but was clearly not earthed.
We polished and cleaned the metal mountings, bolted the computer down, and pointed it at the nearest substantial hill
and it was as good as new.
The moral of the story - on that night of parking the earth moved for both of us!