Screaming Engine Prompts Generator FixScreaming Engine Prompts Generator Fix

Rob Spiegel

August 8, 2011

1 Min Read
Screaming Engine Prompts Generator Fix

Back in the good old days when you could do these things, I yanked a broken six-cylinder motor out of my '53 Studebaker and dropped in a nifty Chevy 283 V8. I generally drove home from Troy, N.Y. to Boston well after dark to keep the car's various illegalities from the prying eyes of police. One particular evening, on a long uphill section of Route 2, the motor started screaming.

I pulled into a gas station and discovered after some disassembly that the generator had seized. I needed a new rear plate of the generator with its sleeve bearing.

The helpful gas station attendant told me where I could find the nearest Chevy dealer. He pointed in the direction of a small town at the bottom of the hill and said there should be a salesman hanging around to capture the last customer.

Then I asked him the key question: "Is it downhill all the way?"

He thought it over carefully and said it was, so I threw the parts in the trunk and pushed off. A few minutes later, with no additional pushing, I found the salesman and convinced him to sell me a new rear plate of the generator with its sleeve bearing.

And to my amusement, the new part differed from the old part in one important respect: the oil reservoir was much, much larger.

This entry was submitted by Larry Baxter and edited by Rob Spiegel

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About the Author

Rob Spiegel

Rob Spiegel serves as a senior editor for Design News. He started with Design News in 2002 as a freelancer covering sustainability issues, including the transistion in electronic components to RoHS compliance. Rob was hired by Design News as senior editor in 2011 to cover automation, manufacturing, 3D printing, robotics, AI, and more.

Prior to his work with Design News, Rob worked as a senior editor for Electronic News and Ecommerce Business. He served as contributing editolr to Automation World for eight years, and he has contributed to Supply Chain Management Review, Logistics Management, Ecommerce Times, and many other trade publications. He is the author of six books on small business and internet commerce, inclluding Net Strategy: Charting the Digital Course for Your Company's Growth.

He has been published in magazines that range from Rolling Stone to True Confessions.

Rob has won a number of awards for his technolloghy coverage, including a Maggy Award for a Design News article on the Jeep Cherokee hacking, and a Launch Team award for Ecommerce Business. Rob has also won awards for his leadership postions in the American Marketing Association and SouthWest Writers.

Before covering technology, Rob spent 10 years as publisher and owner of Chile Pepper Magazine, a national consumer food publication. He has published hundreds of poems and scores of short stories in national publications.

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