On Thu, 18 Jul 1996, wayne buletza wrote:
> During the early 70's the US experienced a gas shortage. Vacuum gauges were
> touted and sold as a device that would enable a driver to "maximize" the
> correct shifting points, thus "increasing power while improving milage"...uh
> huh. I have no idea how they worked or whether they worked at all. But I'm
> sure it looked quite "racey" banded to the steering coluum or screwed to the
> dash. Probably lots of uninformed folks thought it was a replacement for a
> tach.
>
> Wayne Buletza
>
Guess all of you are just too young. In car vacuum guages have been
accessory items as long as I can remember. A friend had one in his 66
Barracuda as a factory accessory. I don't know if they would be as useful
now as they were then--current pollution controls might produce
uninterpretable behavior.
Back then, however, if you kept the guage in the upper reaches, it
certainly would increase your gas mileage (since it meant you weren't
opening the throttle). The level of vacuum and the behavior of the guage
could tell you a lot about your engine condition.
Ray Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8910
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