More humor at my expense

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Fishthatkills

Fishthatkills

Fish that kills
Joined
May 5, 2009
Messages
431
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Location
Austin Texas
Well folks,
It seems I am a lighting rod this month. Our local Mopar club decided to go to a cruise-in this past Saturday. It would be my first with my 67 Cuda. We were to meet at a burger joint and then go a couple of hundred yards to the Cabela's parking lot where the cruise in is.

I spent most of Saturday sanding the right side of my car down. I want to at least get the body all one color of primer even if it's rattle can (I am really good at the can method). Anyway I was not able to finish so I decided to wash the car and get her all cleaned up for the evening cruise. I was excited as several members of our club had yet to see Wanda. Me being the president wanted to show others that it does not matter what your car looks like. Only to enjoy them and show others your progress!

Cool, the time came and my wife and I were on our way. I took the time that afternoon to put a tool box together with common tools and made sure I had a jack, lug nuts for the spare (I am running Cragers) and tranny fluid, oil everything I might need just in case. Right?

We cruised up to the burger joint by means of the back roads and arrived with no issues. Not that I was expecting any of course. Wanda is a great car and would never leave me stranded. We went in to eat and a little over an hour or so went by. We began to leave and my wife had to hit the little girls room. No big deal right. So I wandered outside and walked towad my beloved Wanda. OH CRAP! I just remembered I had the lights on when we arrived. Of course I turned them off, I knew I did? I mean the lights are'nt on now!

I got that sinking feeling one gets when they know that there might be a problem. So I opened the door and yes you guessed it, Wait here it comes, Get ready! DEAD AS A DOOR NAIL! Not even a click, No interior light whatsoever. Drained battery. Great I am not prepared for that. No jumper cables!

I asked a member of another club (Modern Mopars of Austin) if he had a set of cables. No he said, So I had him call for me another member on his phone and requested his assistance. No problem! He came over and within a few we had wanda fired up and ready to go. Or so I thought. You see the guys thought I was on my way so they took off and left to join the cruise in. I am now there with just me and my wife in a busy parking lot. Oh yea the wife. When she came out to rejoin me she saw I was a little upset. I told her Wanda was dead and it was my fault. She gave me a good ribbing which seemed like forever. I told her Mr. Les was coming and we were jumping the car and everything would be cool.

So back to the "new" dilemma. Everyone has left and I backed out of parking space number one. Into drive I go and she hesitates and dies. Again. Not enough juce to keep the ignition going. Now I am floating amid cars and drive through traffic. I hop out and begin to push Wanda into parking spot number two. At this point I have no jumper cables, no phone numbers to anyone in the club (remember I called Les from another guys phone) and above all else the wife ribbing me and trying to make me feel better. I was upset and frustrated. The one thing that can leave you stranded I did not prepare for.

Luck was about to shine. About two hundred yards away from us was a Walmart. I told the wife let's go. She said where? I said we are going to go get a new battery. So we hoofed it on over and picked up a new battery AND cables. I had just bought a new battery about four months ago so this is getting expensive. We took the "new" new battery over to Wanda and I had her installed in less than three min. Turn the key and away we go.

We get to the cruise in about a half an hour after everyone else. Backed up Wanda with the other Mopars and began the night. Now I get to explain to everyone what happened and that I was not prepared. Me being the President of the Mopar Muscle Cars of Austin am falible and yes not always prepared for the unexpected. The rest of the night the joke was on me and about me. No worries though as I had a great time and so did the wife. We left around nine and cruised home. Wanda purred like a kitten all the way home and the night was an expensive lesson in what can go wrong when you least expect it. Owner induced!!!

I now have a spare battery, Juice anyone?

No Sparky,
John D. Beckerley
Austin, Texas
 
I offer a universal lights on warning buzzer for your car. Attaches in minutes at the fusebox. No cutting wires or drilling holes. Never leave the lights on again. 19.00 to your door.
 
That was a good story,thanks for sharing,had the same experince way back in 1972 .
 
I feel your pain. I had a similar embarrassment at a car show when my car puked coolant and I did not have anything to stop the mess from running across the pavement. It's an expierence you learn from.

I had the headlight thing happen to me too but I caught it in time. I installed a warning buzzer so that won't happen again.

http://www.earlycuda.org/tech/HeadlightChime.htm
 
I carry a battery pack in the trunk always,just incase I or someone else has starting issues or a flat tire.10 years with the same pack.(has a air pump,flashlight also).:cheers:
 
I took my pops for a cruise through downtown oceanside a while back, while we were there we stopped for a burger at the dairy queen. When we were getting ready to leave we saw a Green metalic 69 GTX 440 six pack car and began to check it out when the owner walked up. We began to chat about the car, nice guy btw. Anyways we had to go and said later to the guy, well as we were gettin in the valiant and firing it up he came up to the window and asked ''Do you have any jumper cables''?

Nope.
I felt bad for him and said 'well if you want, I can swap batteries with ya to get yers stated then switch back and hopefully that'll get ya home' but then where does he set the lift off hood?
The guy was not a motor head or wrench turner, he 'paid' for the car and was scared of my idea, so he had a tow truck pick him up.
 
Dummy................

Just kidding.

I know the feeling, it ain;t a good one.

I went and installed a battery cut off switch that kills everything to the fuse box, and I never leave the car without shutting that off, and I take the shut off key with me so nobody can play Macgiver while I'm away.
switch-4.jpg
 
I am the auto club! I do have a local wrecker's phone number programmed into my phone. Don't ever want to have to use it! Live and learn and PLAN!

John B.
 
Seems like every time I go on a cruise or to a show with my buddies, one of their cars always has some kind of issue that requires everyone getting their hands dirty or picking brains to find out what the hell is wrong now with their damn chevvies this time.
Luckily, I have not been there but I'm sure my time will come.
 
Make sure you check your alternator. I've seen this before where you are just slowly draining your battery and not recharging it.
 
Is it possible for your headlights and running lights to drain a battery dead in an hour and 20 min? The car started just fine all day.

John B.
 
Again, Check your charging system (alternator, voltage regulator). If it's not working, you're running everything off your battery. It won't take long to kill your battery while running down the road.
 
This is a topic that needs to be addressed from time to time: The electrical system in our beloved old Mopars. I agree to check your charging system connections, especially at the junction block on the firewall. Those terminals get hammered with every bit of crap that can get in there, oil...water...coolant.....road salt....road grim. And it all conspires to ruin a circuit.

Remove the bulkhead connectors from the junction block on the firewall and carefully inspect the contacts. If they look greenish/corroded clean them. You can take a cardboard nail file and trim it down to fit inside the openings. Carefully crimp the females ends together too. You want these connections to be clean and tight. Your charging system goes right through that bulkhead connector. Good grounds are important too. Nothing will kill a circuit faster than a bad ground. This is time consuming, but time well spent.

When I built my car I had Rick from Laysons fabricate me a set of battery cables for my car (PM Rick and see if he's still fabricating cables.... they are beautifully made and reasonably priced). They look like welding cables.... And I added an auxiliary ground from the scatter shield to the frame too underneath. See, I too had an embarrassing thing happen to me. I had a battery cable light up like a fuse when I first got my car drivable 9 yrs. ago.... 8)
 
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