TOWING TIPS

TOWING TIPS
Your car with automatic transmission will not run, and you need a mechanic. You have a second vehicle or a friend who offers to tow your car to the shop to save the towing fee. Do not do this! Towing a car with automatic transmission, even in neutral, will damage the transmission of many cars and cause expensive repairs. Your Owner’s Manual will tell you if your car can be towed without damaging the automatic transmission. The drive shaft can be disconnected so the transmission will not be damaged, but that is a job for a mechanic, not an amateur. A tow truck operator will lift the rear of the car to save the transmission. Another reason for not towing your car with another car is that you may be breaking the law in some municipalities. If your car has manual transmission, you may tow it without damaging the transmission, but be careful. Towing is risky, as you may damage one or both cars if they collide.

Tips if THE ENGINE WILL NOT START

Tips if THE ENGINE WILL NOT START - The battery has plenty of power to spin the engine, and the gas gauge indicates at least a quarter tank of fuel. The engine has been running recently, but now it will not crank. Either an electrical problem or an impedance in the flow of gas to the carburetor is the likely cause; two tests will help you to determine the cause. Make the electric test first for safety reasons.

Tips if THE ENGINE WILL NOT START

An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one form of energy into mechanical energy.To make a simple electric test, locate the wire in the center of the distributor. (The distributor is the round, octopus like device with wires leading to each spark plug.) Grasp the center wire firmly and pull straight up. Hold the wire you remove about Vs-inch from a metal part of the engine. Get a helper to turn the ignition key to turn the engine over several times. The electrical system is probably all right if a spark is produced by the distributor wire.

Suppose you do not see any spark when you hold the wire from the distributor to within Ms inch of the metal engine. The other end of the wire in your hand goes to the top of the coil. (The coil resembles a metal can about 2Vi inches in diameter and about 5 inches high.) Push this end of the wire firmly into the receptacle on top of the coil. Then try the spark test again. If there is still no spark between the wire from the distributor and the engine, the problem is in the electrical system and could be one of many things, most of which you probably cannot repair: coil, condenser, points, rotor button.

ENGINE WILL NOT START

Another Tips if THE ENGINE WILL NOT START as possible problem you can fix is when a wire inside the distributor is shorted against the metal side of the distributor. This happened to me. I was driving along when the engine suddenly stopped, just as though the ignition switch had been turned off. Another person and I made the simple spark test, and I saw no spark. I took a screw-driver and turned the holding screws on the side of the distributor one-half turn counterclockwise so I could remove the distributor lid. Then I noticed a wire with a bare spot, touching the inner side of the distributor. This bare wire shorted out the electrical system. I wrapped plastic electrician’s tape around the wire, covering the bare place to prevent shorting. I replaced the lid on the distributor and turned the holding screws clockwise to fasten the lid securely. Then I replaced the wire in the center of the distributor, started the car easily, and was on my way. The wire that shorted was replaced later with a new wire

Engine Not Start

To make a fuel test, open the hood and remove the air cleaner in order to look in the top of the carburetor. Ask a helper to pump the accelerator two or three times. You should see gas being pumped into the engine, or a white vapor coming out of the top of the carburetor. You may smell a strong odor of gasoline. Sometimes you can hear a slight hissing noise caused by the gas being sprayed through the jet as the accelerator is moved up and down. Do not smoke or have a flame of any kind near the engine while doing this test! In vapor form gas ignites easily. If you see no gas and your tank is at least one-fourth full, something is stopping the flow of gas between the tank and the carburetor. You need the help of a mechanic.

If the gas is flowing, but the engine still will not start, it may be flooded. Let the engine sit for five minutes, then depress the accelerator, holding it down to the floor. Check out our safe driving tips. Try cranking the engine two or three times, giving it five-second bursts of rotation. If the engine does not start, wait another five minutes, and try again.