Comment by dylan604
2 years ago
These are the kinds of stories that made Car Talk so much fun. It was so much more than just hearing about mechanics repairing cars. It was the fact that the situations were so odd and unusual that the stories were interesting. It was also fun hearing how these mechanics had been around so long and seen so many of these unusual situations that they became normal to them. It didn't hurt that they were good story tellers
"Go to your mechanic and find the oldest guy in the shop. He might be able to work on a carburetor."
these days it's "just buy a new carburetor" - i remember rebuilding a few like 20 years ago - on small engines, but now a rebuild kit is, say, $12 and a new carburetor is $20. For an extra $8 you only have to remove two bolts and fasten the new one in, rather than take a carburetor apart and replace gaskets and floats (or whatever, it's been 20 years).
word to the wise - never use the shutoff switch on anything with a carburetor - use the fuel shutoff valve. This prevents gasoline from varnishing your carburetor bowl.
I probably won't use that word again for a year, now, heavens.
I acquired a generator from a family member, and unknown to me when I needed it to power the house the thing wouldn't run unless the choke was held closed with a wire tie. You can imagine how well that ran...
So, that sounds like a carb rebuild, right? Come to find out that for about $17 shipped a seller on eBay with something like 200K feedback will sell me a brand new carb. Fitted that, it starts on first pull. There's absolutely no reason to mess around with a rebuild on something like that.
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> He might be able to work on a carburetor
I'm absolutely a car guy, and I'm 41 years old.
Strangely enough, I've never owned a carburettored engine, and it seems unlikely I ever will (except, maybe, for a chainsaw)
I sat in one when it started burning on the highway, because of the carburetor :D
I think it was a Renault 11 and I'm not exactly sure how old I was, probably a bit before I got my license, so late 90s.
I suspect a common reason would be for a classic car or motorcycle.
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I liked their advice - “go to the auto store and buy a bottle of something with ‘miracle’ in the name.”