Started out early, had an appointment to get the shift points raised on the car's 700R4. Left the house around 6:50 AM, and stopped for a Big Gulp. Life was good.

Traffic was moderate on the Hollywood freeway, and I reached Topanga Cyn in no time. At the first light on Topanga, the car started to idle a little rough. No big deal, just par for the course. The car stalled a couple lights later, but restarted immediately.

Less than a mile from my destination the POS stalled and would not re-start.

I run a tach drive distributor with a GM HEI module conversion. I cooked the module last weekend within minutes of installing a new MSD Blaster 2 Coil (Note: they are now made in China). So, I replaced the MSD coil with a new Napa coil, and installed a new Napa module last night. The car stated and idled good. The MSD killed the module within minutes.

Being the type to plan ahead, or perhaps just a pragmatic C1 owner, I had a spare distributor curved and set it up with a Pertronix Ignitor 2 this week. It was in my trunk, with a new spare coil. I touched the module, and it wasn't too hot but the coil was... just the opposite of what happened with the MSD. So, I swapped in the Pertronix coil. The car started and died. So, I called Ron (CuisinartVette), since he lived in a cave nearby.

He asked if I was out of gas. Hold on... sure enough, I was. Ron stopped by with some gas, and the car fired once and immediately died. It would not restart. The distributor had moved, or was bumped. Timed it by ear and we were on the road.

The car died and would not restart, fortunately, I was able to coast down hill to a side street, and parked in front of a C4 that was for sale. Things were starting to look up.

Checked the module, and it was scorching hot. While I'm unloading the tools and spare distributor, a cute blonde in a late model Acura pulled up and said,"Excuse me, I'm sure you get this all the time..." I'm like, excuse me, thought she was gonna ask for change or something. Then she said," Well, I just wanted to say you look great." (or something along those lines) I was like thanks... She drove away. Could she have been my next ex-wife, I may never know.

Anyway, Ron and I kinda grinned at each other, but there was work to be done. We dropped the new distributor, and the car fired right-up (almost), and has ran fine so far. I still need to get a timing light on it, re-check the floats, and adjust the mixture screws.

Excellent! ;-)

Almost sounds like life with a '73 Ford F250. 'Cept my floormats weren't spray painted. But my sun visors were...

Quote:

Good story, sounds almost believable, until you get to the part about the floor mats. Everybody knows that 73 ford trucks didn't come with mats. Heck, probably didn't even have carpet, just a rubber pad. Good story, though.

Sounds like an adventure. Not one I'd like to go on, but an adventure none the less. Glad you got it going.

So what did Ron do while you were fixing the distributor? Hold your Big Gulp?

Matthew

Quote:

The C1 made it home under it's own power, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, the big gulp had long since been emptied by the time Ron showed-up.

With regards to the distributor swap, we were working in parallel. Probably only took us 15-20 minutes.

If you had an LTx C4, you'd have to carry a lot more stuff in your trunk to swap distributors. And the cute blond probably would've just kept on driving ;-)

I actually like C4s, but I can't see myself owning one because they are at the age where stuff is starting to break, and trouble shooting and fixing it would be problematic at best... especially the dash and inside the car electronics.

I've been contemplating late model engine swaps for our cars, but beyond the electronics for the engine/EFI, my cars will remain in the stone ages.

I give props to those commuting daily in an older C4 or C5.

Timing set 20* initial 38* Total
Idle RPM Park 800
Idle RPM in Gear 625
Idle Vacuum in Park 18" and steady

Given my somewhat healthy cam, I think this is pretty good.

Quote:

LOL! Some middle eastern guy (type that doesnt need a phone they are so loud) pulls up in a van and asks how much the way it sits?
I answer 45.
"Whats wrong with it that thing is @## sweet!"
"Module"
"Oh...man that thing is beautiful! Then points at the C4 behind us and yells, "You know what that is, thats a POFS!" and laughs;
Points back at the 62 and yells, "Now thats a Corvette"!
Glad I didnt pipe in and say uh yeah, got one of those.

Ron, it must of been karma or something. I get hit on by a nice lookin younger blonde girl, and you get leg-humped by an older ME dude. Oh well, thems the breaks..

BTW, thanks again for the help.