Bonus points if you parked that damn car up a hill, pointed downhill, to let gravity do the work until you could afford a new alternator, or new battery
Bonus points if you parked that damn car up a hill, pointed downhill, to let gravity do the work until you could afford a new alternator, or new battery
Which Time!
ReplyDeleteAnd you also learned to use second or 3rd. gear.
ReplyDeleteI ran my old Jag without a starter for a couple of weeks by strategically parking on hills.
ReplyDeleteCars today don't have that "safety net" built in ..
True Story: I knew a man who was dating a girl in the 1940's. He was driving his father's manual shift car. They left the radio on to enjoy the popular music of the day. They also used the back seat. When it was time to take the girl home, the man depressed the floor button (the starter switch) and nothing happened. The battery had drained! He was also drained. In that condition he had the girl at the steering wheel as he pushed the car and she popped the clutch. Then he had to jump in, fiddle with the controls to keep the engine from stalling so that he could drive her home. They said "good night" in the car as the young man needed to keep the engine running to charge the battery.
ReplyDeleteI remember a friends '86 Toyota pickup and doing this. Now he and his kids drive for Monster Jam.
ReplyDeletewow! Good for them! That must be a fun life!
DeleteYeah, they seem to be loving it. Look 'em up, TomFoolery Motorsports.
DeleteI had a 1983 Chevy Cavalier that had a dead alternator, and I was a broke 19 year old, who could barely scrape up rent. I always made sure to park somewhere where I had a good 30-40 foot run, so I could pop start it whenever I needed to go somewhere.
ReplyDeletewhen I was 18-29 I was broke too, I enlisted, and the pay was about 350 a month to start. 1989-1999. Right out of bootcamp, I went to a year off schooling, and myself and my classmates were so damn broke, a car payment and insurance was about all there was money for in the paycheck. Most of us either had a car, or had gas money, and either you gave rides for gas money or you got gas money for rides. I remember one fun classmate, Johnny, he'd gotten a trans am for high school graduation, and his paycheck was 10 dollars less a month than his car payment and insurance. he actually was a one man taxi, and took everyone everywhere for the money, just to cover the bills, and put a little extra gas in the tank for himself. Right out of high school graduation, 2 days later, I was in boot camp, 10 weeks later I was on leave, and bought a vehicle for the 1st time ever, and so I began my decade in the Navy with a car payment that kept me perpetually paycheck to paycheck. The first 6 years or so myself, class mates, shipmates, friends, pals, we all were just broke as hell, there is no pay raise in the military unless you get promoted, and that's a rare thing. Luckily, the price of gas stayed under a buck until April 1999. Except for the spring of '91 during Operation Desert Storm of course, 2.15 a gallon, but not for long, back then they left the war to the HMFIC and in 1 month that shit was over. Then gas went back to 90 cents. We had to jump batteries, push start cars, buy used tires... ride share on Xmas vacation... we were broke.
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