The description of the car trouble in the Sherlock Ohms blog “Mystery of the Failing Ignition” was exactly how my 1961 Ford Fairlane acted. I was given the Fairlane to use as my winter “beater” so I could keep my 1971 Hemicuda muscle car stored during the northeast Ohio snow season.
The Fairlane's engine would simply stop running at random. Quite often, I could shift into neutral and turn the key to restart the engine while still rolling. I’d pop it back into drive and keep going. The ignition failure might occur within the next half mile or maybe not for days.
Watch out for the switch on the steering column of this 1961 Ford Fairlane.
I tried to remedy the situation by replacing all the ignition components -- coil, distributor cap, rotor, condenser, points, plugs, plug and coil wires, even the dashboard-mounted ignition switch. Then I checked for any loose connections or broken wires, all to no avail. The troubleshooting and ignition part replacement simply did not solve the problem.
About a year later, I gave the Fairlane to my brother-in-law. He had hopes of solving the problem himself but ended up having the car towed to the junkyard.
Many years later, I described the problem to an uncle, and he knew immediately what the problem was and how to fix it. Down on the steering column, under the dashboard, was a switch mounted with a movable contact attached to the shift rod. The purpose of the switch was to prevent cranking the starter motor when the shift lever was in any position except park or neutral.
The switch was about two to three inches long and curved to conform around the surface of the steering column. The switch was mounted with two screws, one on each end of the switch housing. The holes were elongated to allow adjustment of the switch position to match the shift lever indicator.
If the screws came loose, the switch could rotate out of position while driving. That would cut the ignition off. By moving the shift lever to neutral (or park if stopped), the switch could be pushed back into correct alignment, and away you'd go.
The engine on that Fairlane was the venerable 232-cubic-inch inline six with auto tranny. It was one of the most reliable engines on the road back in the day.
This entry was submitted by C. Doug Palinkas and edited by Rob Spiegel.
C. Doug Palinkas, 64, is a graduate of the Chandler Technical Institute in Willoughby, Ohio, coming out as an electrical engineering technician, AA equivalent. His jobs have included plant maintenance electrician, US Air Force air traffic control radar repairman, radiation measurement equipment technician, Westinghouse electrical engineer of 20 years, and other various technical positions.
Tell us your experience in solving a knotty engineering problem. Send stories to Rob Spiegel for Sherlock Ohms.
Then I'd love to see that extended to a survey to ask the consumer how important that feature really is to a consumer. I remember when automatic doors and windows first came out in cars. My grandpa never wanted to buy one because he just knew it was something else that could break. And why would you want to buy a car with more stuff that could break on it. Of course, now try and buy a car that doesnt have those extra features. You'll probablly have to speacial order it.
I'd love to see a study on appliances that looks at product failure by number of features. I would guess that the more features you add the more there is that can go wrong -- and does go wrong.
Sad but true. And the worst part is how many of the "features" are really necessary. Rather than ice and water, I'd rather my fridge just keep the fridge part cold and the freezer part frozen. I'd like my washing machine to wash and my dryer to wash.
And don't even get me started on the fact that I'd like to be able to drive 30 miles without dropping a call on my cell phone, rather than be able to take a picture or bring up a web page that's so small I can't read it anyway.
I agree completely, StuDent. I too am a congenital optimist. I thought I was the only one who used that term. I mean it literally. I inherited it from my mom. Two of my kids have it. It truly isn't my choice. It is a gene.
I once heard a pessimist say, "Pessimists are right, but optimists live longer."
Rob, if your children and my grandchildren are a good enough sample, then perhaps we are on the upward leg of the cycle. I'm a congenital optimist. In conversation with others, I sometimes reflect their cynicism, but reasonably quickly bounce back. The pessimist says that the glass is half empty; the optimist says that it's half full—but the engineer says that the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
My point with the Socrates quote is that adults have been downplaying the next generation for thousands of years, and, with few exceptions, have been wrong to do so for thousands of years.
I agree, StuDent. Although, as a father of two teenagers and a young adult, I find a good number of today's kids are more interested in your words and phrases than adults my age who have grown a tad cynical.
Rob, we could probably expand this discussion to the the loss of certain words and phrases from the language, such as "the bigger picture," "courtesy," "trust," "honor," etc. On the other hand, the following is a quote from Socrates: "Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food and tyrannize their teachers." Hopefully, we're in the trough of an ethical cycle.
Yes, StuDent, the 1970s were rough for the American auto industry. I had a friend who had a car shop in the 1970s. When it failed, he took a job with GM. He worked in the group that looked at cars that came off the line with problems. Having been an entrepreneur, he was accustomed to working at a speedy, industrious clip. The existing crew sat him down and told him he had to learn to work at the "GM pace," meaning slow, very slow. They taught him the "GM walk," where all movements were slow. He was both surprised and uncomfortable with the situation, but the existing crew was not going to let him show them up. You can't build decent cars with that attitude.
I remember the Monday-Friday discussions, Rob. I never found out if they were true. I had a 1976 Plymouth Volare that was a perfect example. I bought it used, mostly because it had the slant-six engine that was so satisfying in my old 1966 Dodge Dart. What a mistake! If the 1966 engine was like a frisky puppy, the 1976 version was like an old tubercular dog. The Volare had many little problems, mostly due to poor assembly and cheap components. It was also scarily unstable when driven over 50 mph. I cheered—secretly—when the car was totalled. The '80's were like a rebirth of the American automotive industry.
That's pretty wild about the tiger-to-pussycat engine, StuDent. The 1970s were a rough time for the American auto industry. There was sabotage going on along the line as well. If the workers were unhappy, they managed to mess up the vehicles.
There was a widely held view that you didn't want to buy a car that came off the line on a Monday or a Friday. I'm not sure how consumers could tell what day their car came off the line, but I do remember that view.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 3
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
12 
