[6pack] A Lucas Fable...

[Bill]

Absolutely the best response ever written on the list, 'tis matters 
not be it forthright.  And even addressed to "Oliver"


>	Oliver:
>
>	Let me share a recent experience. It is more food for thought 
>than anything,
>because I feel it is so unusual as to be all but impossible to occur on anyone
>else's car.
>	Last year, I went to start the TR6 after a long hibernation 
>over the winter.
>I got a loud grinding noise but nothing else. Repeated attempts to start the
>car gave the same result. Not being certain as to what was wrong, I went for
>the easy stuff first. I took my battery to a local auto electric retailer.
>They tossed it on the tester and proceed to pull over 300 amps and pronounced
>it healthy.
>	"Drat" says I, "'tis the starter I'll wager".
>	Muttering anatomically unlikely unions of Mssr Lucas and the 
>engineers at
>Triumph, I proceed to pull my freshly rebuilt (well, ok, 2 years old but fresh
>enough) OEM starter and haul my sorry a$$ over to the tech that rebuilt it.
>	"A pox on thee, and thy rebuilt starter" I complain.
>	"Don't get thy pantaloons in a bunch" was his knowing reply.
>	The tech proceeds to strap the starter down to the test 
>bench, and then cuts
>a 2x4 in half with the merrily spinning starter.
>	Wide eyed with disbelief, I mutter "'Tis the work of the 
>devil. Perhaps an
>exorcism of my car is at hand."
>	I proceed to reinstall the starter and tighten all the 
>connections, whereupon
>the car starts just fine. "The car is possessed" is my official diagnosis.
>Over the next few weeks, the grinding no start condition reappears, then
>disappears. Finally, it appears and stays long enough for me to try jump
>starting the car with my trusty daily driver. Voila! The problem instantly
>disappears. So I drive the TR6 back to the auto electric shop and ask for
>another battery test.
>	"It has the stamina of the energizer bunny and the moral 
>fortitude of John
>the Baptist" the tech announces.
>	"Humbug!" says I, "Away with it."
>	"Methinks thou art too hasty" says he.
>	"Perhaps, but I am still persuaded to throw it on the dung heap."
>	"As thou wishes, my lord" says the tech, with a look of utter 
>contempt in his
>eyes.
>	A new battery is installed, a few coins of the realm are 
>exchanged, and the
>problem never returns.
>
>	Moral - Batteries can be intermittent and cause nasty grinding noises.
>

-- 
"Thinking is the hardest work there is. That's why so few people 
undertake it." - Henry Ford
Bill Pugh
1957 TR3
"Casper"
TS16765L
Wallace, CA