Hum in an amplifier

Subject: RE: Ho Hum
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 17 Oct 01 - 08:28 AM

rangeroger,

I was going to mention the slant six. They were bulletproof. That Ford 300 six was awfully good too.

I was in the car business for many years. I ended up at a Subaru dealership for about five years. I knew nothing about them when I started. I couldn't beliver the number of these four bangers I saw coming in with over 300,000 Kilometers on them and they were still running strong.

'Spaw, I know I shared this story when a Lucas Electrics thread came up a long time ago, but I thought it's worth repeating. A buddy of mine had a car repair shop. On his lightswitch he had written "Lucas" in big letters and then had written "Off" in both the on and off positions.

Earthing etc. It would take me a long time to stop giggling if I moved to the U.K.

Subject: RE: Ho Hum
From: catspaw49
Date: 17 Oct 01 - 10:37 AM

Off-Off..........LOL......Glad you told that again Steve, I'd forgotten it.

The Slant Six........Until it had to succumb to emission control devices, it was without doubt the workhorse engine of all time. Like rangerroger, Denny and I bought a '68 off of a farmer who had become ill. We took care of his other vehicles and provided a lot of servicce to him so he gave it to us for $125. It had been sitting for 5 years and the engine was locked up. We had another slant six in storage, rebuilt and ready to go, but we thought, what the hell, let's try this one.

We pulled the plugs and the oil pan, shot it full of penetrating oil in both the cylinders and crank, and hooked it on the back of the wrecker. I drove down the road and Denny, in the pickup, dumped the clutch a few times and the engine broke loose. We figured that the rings were probably gone and the clutch too, but it was worth a try. We screwed the plugs back in, put the oil pan on and filled it with oil.............and it started! We let it run for awhile and then tried the clutch and tranny and..........they worked too! Having another engine available, we figured we'd still go ahead and drive it til the one that was in it let go....I mean the rings and cylinder walls had to be a mess.

Denny died 4 years ago and he still had the Dodge......same engine, same clutch. The body and bed were about gone, no floor pans left to amount to anything, but the old girl still ran and used very little oil. I was sorely tempted to take her, but I decided that even looking at it was a bit too painful, so Denny's son Jeff took it as and sold it about a year later. I wonder if she's still out there? It'd be a shame to think that someone sent her off to the junkyard without a few words being said over her.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Ho Hum
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Oct 01 - 10:59 AM

Hard to believe that Bruce Springsteen has not shown up on this thread yet, with all this yakkin' about cars!

- LH

Subject: RE: Ho Hum
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 17 Oct 01 - 06:27 PM

It's all very well to knock the old British cars, but it is a fallacy to think that their defects were caused by inferior engineering ability.

Fact is, these defects were deliberately incorporated into the cars as a character building exercise. Wind and rain blowing into your face, bumpy ride from defective shock absorbers, these were the things that helped build the British character and the British Empire.

Soon as we started copying the Americans and pandering to comfort, the bloody Empire collapsed and the country went to the dogs.

Those were the days .....................

Murray, TIC

Subject: RE: Ho Hum
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 17 Oct 01 - 09:27 PM

Spaw,

As good as the Slant Six was my vote for the workhouse engine of all time would be the 1600 VW. How many bugs did you see go a couple of hundred thousand miles before the rust ate the body away. The only thing that could be done then was to cut what was left of the body off and make a dune buggy. These usually went until the owner lost interest and abandoned them.

Unfortunately the worst heater/defroster system I've ever seen also goes to the VW bug. I always used to have an ice scraper close at hand to scrape the ice off the inside of the windshield.

Murray, thanks for enlightening us. I, for one, wasn't aware of that.