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Re: 77B Won't Start

To: MGS@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: 77B Won't Start
From: thorpe@kegs.saic.com (Denise Thorpe)
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 95 13:15:50 PDT
> > Anyway, I once had an inspection-type guy "reset" the carb on my Buick.
> > Although they aren't supposed to change anything on your car, it happens. On
> > the one hand, they are doing you a favor, but I'd rather they keep their 
>mitts
> > off my toys.
> > 
> > James B.
> > '71 MGB
> > '71 LeSabre
> 
> I had my 77B in for smog one time, and it was taking forever, so I looked 
> over the shoulder of the kid doing the check; he had the timing/dwell 
> lead connected to the GROUND lug inside the distributor, had broken the 
> wire going to the points, and had been messing with it for about 45 
> minutes like this. I called the ownwer over (it was his nephew or something),
> and complained and I was out of there in about 10 minutes with a smog 
> cert! Of course the timing was set so far off I barely made it home. 
>     Then last year, I went in for smog (diferent place), went for a walk, 
> had lunch, etc. I came back and found my car idling, with a small stream 
> of steam shooting out of the seam of the coolant recovery tank, and the 
> temp guage PEGGED on hot! When I yelled, the guy said yeah, it was a 
> little hot, he'd had to work on it a little longer than usual. I guess 
> the electric fans don't do all that well over the long run, because it 
> was HOT. Couple of days later I noticed that the head was cracked. Of 
> course, no way to go back to the shop and do anything about it (legally 
> anyway!).
>      Moral of stoy: Most "Smog Technicians" don't seem to know squat 
> about mechanics, at least the ones I run into. Or the ones I would like 
> to run into!
> 
> 
> David Simpson
> '77 MGB
> '81 Ford pick-em-up
> '92 Minivan
> '63 Wife
> 
Does your wife know she gets last billing after a MINIVAN?!?

I always hang around when my car is being smogged if for no other reason
than to tell the mechanic to stop leaning on my aluminum hood (bonnet).
Back when the car was positive ground, I also always had to tell them how
to hook up the timing light and where the marks are.  Now it's not a problem 
because they don't have timing specs for my car anymore.  All they do now 
is stick the sniffer up the tailpipe and rev the engine.  I could have an 
oxygen bottle mounted under the car feeding into the exhaust pipe and they
wouldn't know it.  And it irks me to be legally required to pay some clown
X amount of dollars every two years to swear to the state of California
that I'm not polluting the air when the clown wouldn't know it if I were.

Denise Thorpe
thorpe@kegs.saic.com

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