Timing Lights

An automotive puzzler for you this time! Finally. Stick to what I know best, as they say.

Here you go.

Years ago, one of my guys at the garage bought himself a brand new snap on timing light. I had one of these too, by the way. It was a great timing light, even though it was overpriced.

And this timing light, which was new at that time, had all these things built into it. Among other things, this timing light had a tachometer feature. It is very simple the way it works. You hook it up to a spark plug wire. And while it is doing the timing for you, it counts how many pulses there are, and then it counts how many times that happens in a minute. Basically, it figures that for every two revolutions of the crankshaft, the cylinder has to spark and it tells you how fast the engine is going.

So, he hooks this thing up to some GM car, don't remember which one. He hooks up this brand new expensive timing light and the thing reads that the engine RMP is 1900. 1900 RPM! And he says, "This can't be right. It's idling way too fast. It doesn't sound like it is that fast, but that's what it says... So, I guess it is."

So, he turns it down to 750. And at that time, the car stalls. And it won't run anymore.

So he thinks this new timing light is broken. So, he takes the tachometer to another car. Hooks it up, and it reads 900. And another guy uses his tachometer, and it also says 900. So he knows the new timing light is not broken.

He then takes it back to the first car, hooks it up, and it again says 1900 RPM. And he throws his hands in the air and says, "What is going on here?"

And that is the puzzler question today. What is going on here?

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

Chrome Plated

This is not new. Not automotive in nature, but still a good little puzzler. This one was inspired by a letter we got years ago.

Here goes.

Years ago, I took my boys to this Cub Scout rally at this air force base. It was held on a large air force base which had a civilian air field attached to it. This was someplace in Massachusetts. And this air field had a hangar. And airplane hangar, where they keep planes when not in use. There were all these planes there. Little ones, bigger ones. You know, Piper, Cessna... all those types.

All of them were propeller driven planes. And while I was looking at them, I noticed that they all had a little spinner right in the center of the propeller. That little cone shaped thing. I noticed that some of them are painted. Some of them are not painted, and some of them are chrome plated.

My boy goes, "Yeah, if you notice, there is a reason some of them are chrome plated..."

And I said, "Huh?"

He knew the answer. This is another case where the kid surpasses his father in intelligence. And he was just a boy then, so that should tell you something about me! Kids get taller than you, smarter than you, stronger than you... That is just the way of things.