swill453 wrote:bungeejumper wrote:Damn those ultra-reliable electronics on modern cars. They've taken all the old-fashioned skills out of motoring. And my faithful Colortune kit lies abandoned and friendless in my garage. Not to mention my decoke-in-a-bottle (more clouds of smoke, but black this time). Anybody ever use those?
No, but I've still got the orange plug thing that you put between the HT lead and the spark plug so you can see it sparking. And feeler gauge for the points.
I have eight of the HT lead thingies.
And a Colourtune although I never found it much use.
And a Gunson gas analyser.
And a carb balancer.
And a vacuum gauge for setting fhe idle.
And the remains of a bottle of Redex.
And several sets of feeler gauges.
Only the carb balancer is redundant, and that only because currently neither of my cars has multiple carbs.
Cold starting... wait for the fuel pump to calm down, then crank the engine a few seconds with no choke to start pumping up the lifters, then three deliberate strokes on the throttle, then with the choke knob just so crank it again, then immediately it fires push in the choke just so.
Yes, progress is wonderful, you will note that I haven't even needed to mention the starting handle.
And so far this year, I haven't needed to fit the radiator muff.
V8