Apr 20, 2024
Time for this week's new puzzler. And it is new this week, I'm happy to say.
Years ago, an older gentleman came into the shop. And he gave me this puzzler. He said he thought we could use it. So here it is.
He was driving his old car, an old Chevy from the 60s or 70s, so a really old car. He is driving along out on the highway. All of a sudden, he hears a noise like he's driven over something in the road.
And he thought, "Oh my god, what was that?"
Immediately after that, he feels this incredible vibration from the engine. So he slows down to about 5 or 10 miles per hour. The vibration is still there, but it is reduced because he is going slower now. After a bit, he tries to speed up, and the vibration gets worse. It is shaking like crazy.
So, he stops the car. He turns it off, opens the hood and everything looks okay in there. He looks under the car and everything looks okay there too.
So, he slowly makes his way to the nearest gas station. The gas station attendant looks at the car and can't find anything wrong with it. He has the guy start the car, and then says, "Shut the car off for a second." The owner shuts the car off. Then the attendant says, "Ah ha! I see what's going on here."
The attendant spends about 30 seconds under the hood of the car. He takes something and throws it in the trash. Then he says, "Okay start it up. I fixed your problem. The vibration is all gone."
And the driver says, "Am I gonna make it home okay?"
And the attendant says, "Yes, if you don't get stuck in traffic for too long. Make sure to get it fixed when you can though."
What was wrong with the car?
And the hint is, the car was from the 60s or 70s. But it is unlikely that the car was from the 90s.
Good luck.
Answer time.
So, the hint for this one was that it was an old car. It was from the 60s or 70s, but was not from the 1990s.
This old car had a fan, like most of them used to. It was a rather massive fan as well. These old cars had air cooled engines.
So the noise he heard was one of the blades breaking off the fan. That was the sound he heard, and that is what was causing the vibration, because he was missing a blade on the fan. Those fans usually had either 4 or 6 blades. Had to be an even number. So when one broke off, it was causing this vibration because it was unbalanced.
So, the mechanic broke off another blade, directly opposite the broken blade, to balance the fan. And he told the guy he would be fine unless he got stuck in traffic. Because if you have a faulty fan with an air cooled engine, and you get stuck in traffic, you'll overheat.
Great automotive puzzler.