Tom Hoczyk
PCS Past President
I did have the darnedest thing happen with the car in Dearborn, though. Saturday evening we dined at Cedarland, an old, established, wonderful middle eastern restaurant. After that, I drove about 1/2 mile to visit Shatila, the most marvelous bakery you'll ever see. I was full from dinner, but my mouth was still watering, seeing all the fabulous middle eastern confections they had.
The drive between Cedarland and Shatila was only about 10 minutes long. Up to this time, the car had run great. After purchasing some baked goods, I started the car, and immediately heard a scratchy metallic sound coming from the engine. As I had just installed an electronic ignition system in the car, I thought that perhaps the distributor had lifted a bit and that the gears weren't meshing correctly.
I shut down the car, climbed into the engine compartment to examine the distributor more closely. It seemed fine, as did everything else I could see in the engine compartment. Very mysterious! I started the car once again and this time it started right up and sounded normal, so we kept driving back to the hotel without any problem. Needless to say there were a few panicked (did I spell that right?) moments in which I had a vision of the car on a flatbed headed to Indiana. In the end, though, I remembered that several times, while starting the car, the solenoid did not throw the starting gear into the flywheel, it would just spin free. Another try, and the car would start. I'm reasoning that this time the starting gear just didn't retract after the car was started. I'll have to pull the starter and have this checked out.
Does anyone agree with my assessment, or have alternative causes for what happened? Thanks.... Tom
The drive between Cedarland and Shatila was only about 10 minutes long. Up to this time, the car had run great. After purchasing some baked goods, I started the car, and immediately heard a scratchy metallic sound coming from the engine. As I had just installed an electronic ignition system in the car, I thought that perhaps the distributor had lifted a bit and that the gears weren't meshing correctly.
I shut down the car, climbed into the engine compartment to examine the distributor more closely. It seemed fine, as did everything else I could see in the engine compartment. Very mysterious! I started the car once again and this time it started right up and sounded normal, so we kept driving back to the hotel without any problem. Needless to say there were a few panicked (did I spell that right?) moments in which I had a vision of the car on a flatbed headed to Indiana. In the end, though, I remembered that several times, while starting the car, the solenoid did not throw the starting gear into the flywheel, it would just spin free. Another try, and the car would start. I'm reasoning that this time the starting gear just didn't retract after the car was started. I'll have to pull the starter and have this checked out.
Does anyone agree with my assessment, or have alternative causes for what happened? Thanks.... Tom
