The car needed a smog check and there is a light industrial area in the vicinity. Light industrial means wide roads and nothing to hit. Also on the weekend they are deserted. Perfect setup. Plus the BP meds were a tad too effective and I needed to drive up the numbers. NOT!
As per any normal first timer learning how to drive a clutch, he's having trouble with the concept of adding power with the right foot while the left foot adds load. We have to work on that. I only wish I could introduce him to the fully syncro-smash(tm) (e.g. unsynchronized) transmissions I learned with.
In addition to the previously noted anticipated repairs, I'd like to add the following:
1. A new starter. In 15 minutes training, we hit it 22 times.
2. A new battery. The reason we hit it 22 times and not 23 is because the battery was dead! It didn't have enough power to fire the Bendix. The SCSon learned another important lesson: the push start! That ended the lesson while we drove home and put it on the charger.
The SandCastle Queen adds her own prediction: Mucho Hair Dye to cover the grays!*
The good news of the day is the car passed the smog check with flying colors. 25% HC, 20% CO, 56% NOX (percentages of allowable limit, not total). Not bad for a 24YO car with enough miles to drive to the moon!
* Honest to God, her gray hairs do not register on my retina. I simply do not see them. But they bother her so, I'm OK with the colorants. Better living through chemistry! Rah!
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3 comments:
You have my sympathy, for what it's worth! Years ago I got drafted to teach the neighbor girl how to drive a stick (it was a Vega, just to set the time frame)while her boyfriend was deployed. For her it was dead idle & dump the clutch, or full throttle & dump the clutch! I never thought that a Vega could lay so much rubber....
Merle
Our lucky Kiddo got to learn on our '78 Toyota Landcruiser. Then he got to drive it to school. It hasn't been cranked for a couple years, so I have to do that soon.
My dad taught us with the old '69 Volkswagen Bus. The utter lack of engine power made adding power coupled to load a challenge, as it had more to do with spring-pressure from the clutch vs spring-pressure from the "accelerator" pedal than any actual load itself.
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