mm wrote:
On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:02:55 -0500, Jeff Wisnia
wrote:


mm wrote:


snipped

BAck to the first small charger. I had the 6-volt '50 olds in Chicago
during the winter of '67 - '68 and it was cold, so I ran a long, heavy
duty, "cloth and wax"? insulated extension cord I had made up from the
pantry of the frat house to the no parking sign, and I put the charger
under the hood and plugged the car in whenever I was there which was
all but 3 to 8 hours a week. The 6-volt setting didn't seem to be
enough, so I put it on the 12-volt setting, and the clear glass, xmas-
tree-light-like circuit breaker would trip after about 8 seconds, and
reset after about 3, and it did that for at least 4 months, day and
night. 6000 times a day, 120 days, 720,000 times. And it worked find
and the battery stayed charged fine, except for one night it was down
to zero when the tow truck couldn't start me either.

I had an apartment mate in college whose car was so difficult to start
during Boston winter weather that he'd stagger out of bed in the
morning, clomp down the two flights of stairs to the street and plant a
lit Coleman gasoline stove under his car's engine's oilpan, then come
back up and wait about a half hour before trying to start the beast.
(Oil pans were a lot higher off the pavement then than they are now...)

It gets me to realizing that some things about cars have gotten better
since I started driving. I can't remember the last time I suffered with
a flat tire, but they seemed to be almost monthly occurances when I was
younger. And, even though I usually hang onto a car until it's at least
ten years old I haven't had a winter starting problem in a long time either.

I suppose the trade off is that many parts of cars seem to require less
maintenance nowadays, but the cost to repair them when needed has
escalated out of proportion to anything exept maybe college tuition and
gasoline. G Thanks to computerized cars I'm fnoticing that the most
frequently used tood I'm fixing my cars with lately is....you guessed
it....my checkbook.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.