What was your combination

H

HardScrabble

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With the carb talk I got thinking about the days when cars did not have fuel injection like we know today. The days when starting you car could be an adventure, especially when it was cold. Seemed every car I owned (and I still have two) had its own required start up routine. Particularly those of you who may go back far enough to have woned a manual choke model.

The choke knob had to pulled out just the right amount and the accelerator pedal depressed just the exact amount and number of times to get the motor to fire up right away. Make a mistake on either of these factors and a dead battery was oft times the result.

My old hunting truck, which I still own, is a Ford from 1970 with the 360 motor. To get start on a cold damp morning which we often have during hunting season the choke must pulled out exactly the length of the end joint of my index finger, The gas pedal must depressed one half way and released. Do not touch it again, any more and the engine is flooded, any less and it simply will not fire.

There are probably a lot of folks here who might have no idea what I'm talking about. But those that do will remeber the anquish of trying to start one after either you, or more likely someone else, had violated the unique start up combination your vehicle required.

Ahhhh, the good old days! :)
 
Been there, done that.

I had an old Torino that required 2 full floor pumps, then don't even glance at the gas, wait a second or two, kit the key, when it catches floor it. Ran like a top after that little ceremony.
 
Had an old cutlass with the infamous Rochester "Quadrabog", er, Quadrajet carbeurator. Three foot pumps and a very quick turn of the ignition was the key. Kept starting fluid nearby just in case.

The old points distributor was interesting too. Not on the Cutlass, but several older heaps. Cold and wet were never friendly to that set-up. And in Ohio it is cold and wet pretty much from September to May. But those other three months we were cruisin'.
 
My 64 Galaxie with the 2 Holley 4 barrels would not start below about 25 degrees. Any attempt resulted in backfire through the carbs and an underhood fire was usually the result. Solution was to park the damn thing in the back of the shop for the winter months and run just the pickup and wife's VW.

I remember one incident at a Chevy shop where a car was towed in because of moisture in the distributor. This was when GM had the neat little door in the side of the distributor cap that allowed you to adjust the ignition dwell. This kid working beside me decided that the quickest way to dry out the thing would be to just give the distributor a healthy shot of starting fluid (ether) which will displace the moisture. The only problem was that he didn't give the ether time to evaporate, he jumped into the car and tried to crank it up.
The explosion which resulted was actually quite spectacular, it sounded about like a 12 gauge being discharged and we found pieces of that distributor cap imbedded in the cement block wall as well as the wooden ceiling. There was even a dent in the hood from the large top piece which still had most of the plug wires attached.

This same kid did some work on one of those professional type wood chippers and decided he needed to give it a test run. Fired the sucker up right there in the shop, went out back and found a couple of scrap 2x4's and fed them into the chipper. We had splinters flying around the shop like fragments from a hand grenade for a minute or two.
Despite all of this, the last I knew this guy was still working at the same Chevy shop. Maybe retired by now though. I don't think he ever killed anyone or even injure himself either. Simply amazing!
 
I never really had to deal with that. But my grandfather and uncle used to have their own business hauling milk. My grandfather's last truck was an old Mack with a gas engine - was basically a limited production truck that Mack tested and decided not to mass produce. Don't know all the specifics. But I remember him cussing and swearing like a sailor some mornings trying to get that thing fired up and out of the driveway. :)
 
Had a 60 model ford. Three times on gas pedel then hold it to the floor while cranking. That would do it every time. :D
 
I had a 63 Falcon with a straight six.Had the manual choke and tiny one barrell carb.You had to pull choke to the EXCACT amount,pat accelerator perfectly,ease choke in while doing so.....and pray every 'please crank this thing' prayer you knew!Normally,when the timing was right on those old-era Fords,they would crank like champs---but I had 'rebuilt' the little carb.Dissasembled it on the kitchen table,cleaned it,put it back together.

Possibly that contributed to the impossible to crank problem I had.Actually it seems like I did this more than once,come to think of it.......

Thank God for fuel injection.[just never try to 'clean' the injectors yourself!Trust me.]
 
Hey guys,

People are paying real big bucks for those junks now. They call them "Special Interest Cars", Classics (which none of the post war cars will ever really be), and the best of all are the "Muscle Cars".
Two tons of sheet metal which rusted through before you could get the car off the dealers lot, old fashioned ignition points and condensors, change spark plugs every few thousand miles, adjust the valves, dwell timing, idle mixture and idle speed every few weeks if you wanted the damn thing to start at all.
Not to mention four and five miles to the gallon of ultra-high test, replace the tires every eight to ten thousand miles, drum brakes that you stepped on the pedal and prayed, those fantastic suspension systems that were useless the first time you wanted to make a turn, (worked great with those old steering boxes which took two men and a small boy about 6 - 8 turns, lock to lock), manual transmissions which seemed to eat syncro rings and clutches which either blew apart or simply burnt up.....
and on and on and on!

Yep, those were great old cars.
Thank God they DON'T build 'em like they used to.

Now if I can just find another '53 Studebaker coupe and I'm sure someone out there must still have a rebuildable nail-head Buick......
 
LOL'

I do love the muscle cars, but unfortuantely what you say is true.

Read a comment somewhere from someone bemoaning the performance cars the factories are putting out now compared to those of the 60's and early 70's. Truth be told the Mustangs, Firebirds, Camaros and such of the last few years produced as factory muscle will absolutely eat their counterparts of thsoe years for lunch in every aspect.

Except of course for the sound...Nothing today can sound like those big blocks!!
 
HS,

Truth be known, most of the little buzz box Honda's, Toyota's, Kia's and those other assorted foreign coupes can eat the old muscle cars alive without too many modifictions and a minimun of money spent.
But like you said, it sure is the sound.
The only thing close I've heard lately are the Featherlite Modifieds and of course the ISMA supers which are still running big blocks punched out close to 500 c.i.
 
Oh, reading this brings back so many memories.

The 57 Chevy I had as my first car ---- on cold mornings, and to that car, anything below 70 was cold --- it took a couple of quick pumps on the gas before it would start. Then you had to let it run a couple of minutes, slowly easing down on the gas ---- hoping it didn't quit.

Usually after 5 minutes, more if it was really cold, it would smooth out and run like a top. Of course, the heater would never warm up until you were almost to your destination. LOL
 
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