Transistor was shorthand for portable radio when I was in school. Before that we had vacuum tubes. Turn on the radio and wait ten seconds for it to “warm up”. When I turned on the radio in my 53 Buick the headlights would dim.
I still have a tach and dwell meter in my workbench. Somewhere along the way I got rid of the GM points adjusting tool. It’s real hard to just dump old tools but around here we have a website called Freecycle where you can give stuff away or ask for stuff. That’s been useful to shed things. Sometimes people post that they have put a box of old tools out in front of their house and anyone can just come and take what they want. That works, too.
I will look up freecycle, thanks. I just remember using an Allen wrench on the the points through an aluminum slide on the distributor cap. Maybe older than some others on this board, so call it a senior moment if that is not the case. I think my first portable radio was 7 transistor!
Now that you mention it, I’ve got a screwdriver handle with a flex section and an allen on the end. I guess that’s what I used. It just sits in my tool box and keeps get moved back farther and farther. Maybe I’ll tape it to the dwell meter.
When I was 19, an elderly widow gave me many of her deceased husband’s mechanics tools. I was starting my “career” as a mechanic, was penniless, was very appreciative to receive them, and I put them to good use over the years.
Now I look at my livelong collection of tools and hope that I’ll be able to find a young aspiring mechanic that I can give them to.
I’m holding on to my obsolete tools until I retire. Who knows what I might get interested in? Another place to find a dwell meter user would be a classic car club, I’d think. But if I ever do get a car with points, electronic ignition will be one of the first things I’ll install.
I converted each of my collectible cars from points to electronic within a day or two of bringing them home. Pertronix makes the kit I use, fits in the distributor so car show judges don’t ding you.
Working on waking up a 1967 Honda CB450. It has dual points, dual capacitors and dual carbs. It was running on one cylinder but the other was just popping and flashing back. Good compression both sides. Today I think I discovered that the exhaust camshaft was one tooth off on the timing chain. Used my old timing light on it. I feel like such an old geezer when I start messing with these tools that have been lying around in the workbench for 30 years.
Going through my tool chest looking for something and I come across some strange home made item that I have no idea what it was for. I know one was for putting the steering wheel back on, but other stuff no idea. No I have learned though to put the stuff in a zip lock bag and label it.
Also pic of the back with the timing light and all attachments. Wife tried to throw it out several times…But I’ve kept it. It’s got to be close to 40 years old now.
It’s nice to know that I’m not the only wacko who hangs on to stuff like this.
I just recycled my radar detector. It was all packed up 25 years ago. I still have a digital watch from at least that long ago - needs a battery. Should I ditch it?
Sometime prior to 1980, I traded my 8 track tapes to my neighbor for his radar detector. Never was very useful and been long gone. He had a player in his car but no tapes and I had tapes but no player anymore.
I never purchased either a dwell meter or timing light. I used a feeler gauge to set the point gap. I timed the engine by moving the timing up until the engine pinged under acceleration and then regarding the spark timing.
I had a 1965 Rambler where the timing marks were off. When the timing was set to specifications, the engine wouldn’t run right. A timing light wouldn’t do any good with this engine.
I used to do timing by ear retard it till it slows then advance 1/4 turn. Got me through many years, luckily the timing light worked when I splurged and got one, but remember you had to disconnect and plug the vacuum advance line.
That’s the way my diesel Olds was. The book called for aligning the marks from the injector pump. Once I took it to a real diesel place, they offset the timing and it never ran better. When I told the guy I used before who was an Olds diesel mechanic, he just kinda looked at me dumb. Some stuff isn’t in the factory repair manual.
@Barkydog That Rambler was the newest car I had ever owned. It was a 1965 Rambler Classic 550 that I bought in April of 1965. It had 7000 miles on the odometer and I got the balance of the 2 year, 24000 mile warranty. I had the dealer do the first tune-up. It ran worse when I got it back than when I brought it in. I made repeated trips back and the dealer got it through the warranty period. I was afraid to really work on the engine. Every time the engine had a tune-up, it ran worse than before the tune-up. I had plans to return to graduate school and didn’t want to buy a newer car. Different shops had tried different things–a new carburetor, a fuel pressure regulator and even a cotter pin in the vacuum advance lever to limit the spark advance. Where I lucked out was I had a colleague in another department that had a couple of businesses on the side including a service station. I was seated at the same table with this colleague and several other faculty members when this colleague started going on about his service station and the great mechanic he had. I spoke up and said that I had a car with a real problem. If his mechanic could fix the problem, I would buy him lunch for a week. If his mechanic could explain what was causing the problem, but it was beyond what could be done in the service station, I would buy him lunch for a day. If his mechanic was as stumped as all the other shops, he had to buy me lunch for a day. Since my colleague had bragged so much about his business, he had to take the bet.
I made an appointment and took the Rambler in that week. The mechanic got out a notepad and asked me questions about the car and made notes. I left the car and in the middle of the morning the mechanic called me and asked if he could remove the fuel pressure regulator and all the other modifications other shops had tried and begin with the factory specs. I told him to do anything he wanted to do. When I picked up the car, he wanted me to drive it before I paid up. I took the car around a couple of blocks and it ran beautifully. The hesitation was gone. When I asked what he did, he said he had replaced the spark plugs, the ignition points and condenser. When I said, “You had to have done something else”, the mechanic just grinned and said that the timing marks were way off and he just adjusted the timing by feel.
I think my bill was $15.75 (this was back in 1969). I gladly bought my colleague who owned the station lunch every day for a week. I drove that Rambler through my next round of graduate school and a couple more years. The money I saved by not buying another car we used to make a down payment on a house.
