Aug 31, 2024
Puzzler time. This one is an automotive puzzler. Here we go.
Years ago, a customer came into the shop.
The customer complained about the following problem. He said, "When I try to climb a long, rather steep hill, about a third of the way up the hill, or maybe more, the car starts to behave peculiarly, as if someone has turned the key off, and then it turns it right back on. It comes back on and turns off, comes back on... So the car lurches severely. On level ground, I have no problem, and I can drive the car perfectly okay, at any speed I want."
And I was writing this down when one of my guys is standing behind me, listening, and the customer says, "Oh, one other thing. If I try to climb a much steeper hill, but shorter, doesn't happen. It doesn't happen at all."
And the mechanic behind me says, "I got it. I got it exactly. You don't have a fuel injected car, do you?"
And the customer said, "No, I don't."
How did he know that? And what was wrong with his car?
Good luck.
Answer time.
So how did he know that the customer didn't have a fuel injected car?
And what was wrong with his car?
Here it is.
So, if it had been a fuel injected car, the problem would have been the same, whether it was a steep hill or not. But because it behaved differently on the different types of hills, he knew it had to due with the carburetor.
He knew it had to do with the fact that a carburetor has the ability to store gasoline for future use. It uses a float system.
So, the car could climb a short, steep hill without a problem. But not a long, steep hill.
What was happening was the float chamber had gasoline that was being used up, and by the time the thing got to the top of the hill, if it was a short one, it was still running. The short hill allowed the fuel system to catch up.
But on a long hill, the thing would essentially be running out of gas. It would be running out of gas because the fuel flow is impeded.
Because the way the carburetor works is you pump gas from the tank into this little bowl reserve, and the carburetor sort of takes it out of this bowl as it needs it. And if the bowl runs dry, you're done for. You're basically out of gas, because that little bowl is empty.
We fixed it with an inexpensive gas filter because the gas filter was plugged up.
