Apr 27, 2013
RAY: This was sent in fairly recently by a fellow named Morris Maduro. Here it is:
My friend Bob used to drive a VW Beetle. It was an old one, from the '60s. One day when he came into work a few minutes late, I asked him what was going on. He said that his battery died. I asked, "So you got a lift in?"
He said, "No, I didn't."
"Well, did you get a boost from a friend?"
"Nope."
"Did you get a new battery?"
"Nope, the dead one is still in the car, under the seat." Which is where VW had placed the battery in the Bugs from that era.
"Did you at least lift the seat?" I asked.
He said, "That's the same question my girlfriend always asks me! No, I didn't lift the seat."
"Did you push start it?"
"No," he said. "You know I park the car in a garage at the bottom of a hill."
"Gee, Bob, it sounds like you willed it to start! Did you even pop the rear hood?"
"No, but I did open the front hood."
"Are you trying to trick me? I know the engine's in the back on a Beetle. "
The question is, what did Bob do?
RAY: Here’s the answer. When Bob opened the hood, he found a pair of coveralls, a spare tire, and a jack. He got into the car, and turned the ignition key to the "on" position. There was no point to turn it to "crank," because the battery was what? Dead.
He pumped the gas a couple of times, like you would do in one of those old cars to prime the carburetor.
He then jacked up one of the rear wheels, which are the wheels that receive power from this engine. He put the transmission in gear; probably -- I'm guessing -- third gear. If you put it in fourth gear the engine would turn too slowly. If you put it in first, it would be too hard to turn the engine.
What he simply did was turn that tire that was elevated off the ground by hand with the transmission in gear.
He begins to turn the wheel really fast. Once it began to turn, the engine actually started up and ran and that wheel began to turn on its own.
The reason the other wheel didn't turn is because there's a differential, which will only send power to the wheel with the least amount of resistance.
Finally, of course, he would get into the car, take it out of gear, get out and lower the jack down, and if he was lucky he would drive to work without stalling.
So, do we have a winner?
TOM: Wow! The winner is Kate Kelly from Drewsville, NH. Congratulations, Kate!
