What is the newest installment of 'Random Thoughts' on Physics Forums?

[zoobyshoe]

You lost me at "points."

There used to be a time when you couldn't walk down the street without stumbling over a guy who could explain how to adjust the points on a car and check them with a dwell meter. So many people used to fix their own cars.

How does one adjust points as in this VW case?

OCR's link shows a set of disembodied points removed from the distributor. Adjusting them is a matter of installing them in the distributor such that the cam follower bears on the cam the right amount so that the contacts are closed and opened through approximately equal amounts of cam rotation. A 4 cylinder car, like the Beetle, has four lobes on the cam. That's four 90 degree segments. Ideally, you want the contacts solidly closed for 45 degrees, and then open for the remaining 45. The number of degrees of rotation during which they remain closed is called the "dwell." The wonderful "dwell meter" will tell you exactly what your dwell is while the engine is running. If it is out of spec, then you have to stop the engine and physically push the points toward or away from the cam with a screwdriver. That is a very irritating, fiddly job because a small amount makes a big difference. I have heard tales of more enlightened distributors that make it very easy to adjust the points by the inclusion of an adjusting screw, but the Beetle does not have that.

Two or three companies make an aftermarket electronic distributor that does away with the points. That's what this guy I mentioned put on his Beetle because he didn't want to mess around with "adjusting the dots."

 

[zoobyshoe]

Kind of awkward: I overheard at the coffeeshop that I creep some people out because I spend hours working with a blank expression.

Yes, you should definitely be more expressive like this guy; everyone will warm up to you:

 

[jim hardy]

I have heard tales of more enlightened distributors that make it very easy to adjust the points by the inclusion of an adjusting screw,

GM's were that way. Access through a little door on side of the cap that slides up.

But on V8's their distributor was on the rear of the engine and difficult to reach.

 

[dkotschessaa]

I thought that was a pun about this... or something... lol

It was.. I am studying for my topology qualifier!

31 days!

Really 30 days and then the 31st day is the day of the test.
I've upped my studying from two hours a day to four.. 4-6 am (before work) 7-9 PM after work, homebabywife. It's a strain on her too because the baby is exhausting. I'll try to entertain him from 5-7 somehow.

I better pass this damn thing on the first attempt.

 

[Borg]

But on V8's their distributor was on the rear of the engine and difficult to reach.

I once spoke with a GM engineer about the cars a plant that he worked at. He told me that in order to remove the spark plugs on some models of the car, required disconnecting the motor mounts and lifting the engine several inches. Definitely not your average backyard mechanic capability.

 

[jim hardy]

He told me that in order to remove the spark plugs on some models of the car, required disconnecting the motor mounts and lifting the engine several inches.

GM had some issues in the 70's that i remember. When a new line of engines didn't pan out they had to shoehorn in an older bigger one. But those cars were fast so appealed to motorheads.

As emission stuff engulfs engine compartments it's just awful working on cars now.
On the other hand, spark plugs now last 150,000 miles . And the computerized fuel injection makes today's engines right out of the factory better "Hot Rodded" than we average guys could make them ourselves in the 60's.
My little fifteen year old Ford Escort with its four tiny cylinders has highway passing performance every bit as good as my 1960's V8's with 3X the cubic inches.
And does it on half the gasoline. Just got back from a 1025 mile trip on 31 gallons of gasoline = 33 mpg . Newer ones do even better I'm told.

In the four years I've owned the little car it's completely repaid the purchase price in gasoline i didn't have to buy for my V8 Oldsmobile .

Were it a Japanese make I'd name it "Madame Butterfly" because it has been faithful yet will one day be abandoned , left at the salvage yard. That'll be a sad day for me - i'll feel like Pinkerton..

old jim

 

[dkotschessaa]

There used to be a time when you couldn't walk down the street without stumbling over a guy who could explain how to adjust the points on a car and check them with a dwell meter. So many people used to fix their own cars.

Times have changed. Who walks down the street anymore?

 

[Borg]

GM had some issues in the 70's that i remember. When a new line of engines didn't pan out they had to shoehorn in an older bigger one. But those cars were fast so appealed to motorheads.

It was the 1980 Chevy Citation X-11.
From the https://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/features/100-worst-cars-of-all-time.html:

52. 1980 Chevrolet Citation: Chevrolet's first front-drive machine proves to be legendarily unreliable and one of the most recalled cars of all time. Yes, the Pontiac, Buick and Oldsmobile X-Cars were just as awful.

The engineer told me at the time that the Citation set a record for major and minor recalls. Most of the cars were a side mounted inline 4 cylinder FWD. The problem was the X-11 version was a V-6 that they stuffed into the same space so you couldn't get to the plugs on the firewall side.

 

[WWGD]

Yes, you should definitely be more expressive like this guy; everyone will warm up to you:

I remember this comedian saying that Charlie Manson at least had the decency to look insane first look you gave him, unlike all the normal-seeming people who end up displaying their insanity when you least expect it ( like, his implication , in a date ). EDIT: Sorry, my PC's sound is not working, will wait to see it somewhere else.

 

[WWGD]

There used to be a time when you couldn't walk down the street without stumbling over a guy who could explain how to adjust the points on a car and check them with a dwell meter. So many people used to fix their own cars.

OCR's link shows a set of disembodied points removed from the distributor. Adjusting them is a matter of installing them in the distributor such that the cam follower bears on the cam the right amount so that the contacts are closed and opened through approximately equal amounts of cam rotation. A 4 cylinder car, like the Beetle, has four lobes on the cam. That's four 90 degree segments. Ideally, you want the contacts solidly closed for 45 degrees, and then open for the remaining 45. The number of degrees of rotation during which they remain closed is called the "dwell." The wonderful "dwell meter" will tell you exactly what your dwell is while the engine is running. If it is out of spec, then you have to stop the engine and physically push the points toward or away from the cam with a screwdriver. That is a very irritating, fiddly job because a small amount makes a big difference. I have heard tales of more enlightened distributors that make it very easy to adjust the points by the inclusion of an adjusting screw, but the Beetle does not have that.

Two or three companies make an aftermarket electronic distributor that does away with the points. That's what this guy I mentioned put on his Beetle because he didn't want to mess around with "adjusting the dots."

You do know your cars. Unlike me.

 

[zoobyshoe]

GM's were that way. Access through a little door on side of the cap that slides up.

This is very nice and can't add very much to the cost of manufacture. It seems very stupid of VW to pinch pennies by not having this.

 

[WWGD]

This is very nice and can't add very much to the cost of manufacture. It seems very stupid of VW to pinch pennies by not having this.

You mean the company that recently doctored safety records is doing something stupid? :).

 

[zoobyshoe]

I remember this comedian saying that Charlie Manson at least had the decency to look insane first look you gave him, unlike all the normal-seeming people who end up displaying their insanity when you least expect it ( like, his implication , in a date ). EDIT: Sorry, my PC's sound is not working, will wait to see it somewhere else.

The main thing, though, is that you should learn to reproduce his facial cadenza in the video for the benefit of people who complain your blank expression is creepy. They'll beg you to go back to the blank expression.

You do know your cars. Unlike me.

Beetle geezers at the Beetle forum think I'm a moron. I'm not, but it can look that way to someone who has been fixing Beetles since they were first introduced to the states. Some of these guys, if you completely dismantled a Beetle, including the engine, they could put it back together without consulting a manual.

You mean the company that recently doctored safety records is doing something stupid?

To be fair, old Beetles were engineered by completely different crop of people and there was never any attempt to deceive anyone about anything with the old air-cooled VW's. They were very inexpensive because they achieved everything in the simplest possible way, which often meant the crudest way. Some Beetlers refer to them as glorified lawnmowers or glorified go-carts, but they are really, I think, enclosed 4-wheel, 4 cylinder motorcycles. In any event, once you get to know one, it's hard to think of them as real cars.

 

[WWGD]

The main thing, though, is that you should learn to reproduce his facial cadenza in the video for the benefit of people who complain your blank expression is creepy. They'll beg you to go back to the blank expression.

.

Good idea. I am also considering letting out the chant from horror movies: "Sha-sha-sha, kill-kill-kill"

 

[WWGD]

Wonder if it would make more sense for trash pickups to be alternated weekly so that all homes or businesses in a given block put the trash in the same spot, while rotating the spot weekly . I mean, say we have 6 places in total, p1,p2,...,p6 in one block putting out trash. Then the first week everyone leaves their trash in front of p1, following week they do so on p2,.., etc (and back to p1 after 6th week). Then the garbage truck needs to do just one stop. A small, workable problem may be for those picking up the trash to know where, what block, the trash has been left in a given week.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Wonder if it would make more sense for trash pickups to be alternated weekly so that all homes or businesses in a given block put the trash in the same spot, while rotating the spot weekly . I mean, say we have 6 places in total, p1,p2,...,p6 in one block putting out trash. Then the first week everyone leaves their trash in front of p1, following week they do so on p2,.., etc (and back to p1 after 6th week). Then the garbage truck needs to do just one stop. A small, workable problem may be for those picking up the trash to know where, what block, the trash has been left in a given week.

Be better if they just get replicator technology going. Then you could just put your trash into be broken down and reconstructed into just about anything.

 

[nuuskur]

Just a moment ago saw a philosophical topic attacking people who "delude themselves" with exact sciences. Reminded me of this masterpiece


Got to love hypocrites.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Went to the pharmacist today, and, having forgotten to bring a book with me to read, I pulled a Time magazine out of the reading bin. It was from August 5, 2013.

 

[WWGD]

Went to the pharmacist today, and, having forgotten to bring a book with me to read, I pulled a Time magazine out of the reading bin. It was from August 5, 2013.

Did you notice the date right away or just figured out it was dated by reading and then looked it up?

 

[WWGD]

Just a moment ago saw a philosophical topic attacking people who "delude themselves" with exact sciences. Reminded me of this masterpiece


Got to love hypocrites.

I remember it was a big thing a few years ago, mostly by social scientists, to trash the natural sciences. I mean, one can make some
legitimate arguments regarding flaws in them, but this bashing was largely, IMO, unjustified.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Did you notice the date right away or just figured out it was dated by reading and then looked it up?

I checked the date first thing. It was OK because I didn't read Time magazine once that year.

 

[Borg]

I checked the date first thing. It was OK because I didn't read Time magazine once that year.

Because you didn't have Time?

 

[OmCheeto]

Ug.

Time to do "taxes".

 

[nuuskur]

Ug.

Time to do "taxes".

How do you explain to a child what taxes are?

Simply buy him/her an ice cream and eat 30% of it before handing it over.

 

[WWGD]

How do you explain to a child what taxes are?

Simply buy him/her an ice cream and eat 30% of it before handing it over.

Whatever you do, make sure your pronunciation does not match that of Texas. I find it pretty confusing, surely they will do too.

 

[dkotschessaa]

Ug.

Time to do "taxes".

Did ours. Got our refund. Paid back bills. It's gone.

 

[WWGD]

Outlook's Spam filtering is horrible. I keep telling it the exact same names/sources are junk mail week after week and these never go directly to junk mail.

 

[dkotschessaa]

How do you explain to a child what taxes are?

Simply buy him/her an ice cream and eat 30% of it before handing it over.

Give an allowance of $10 a week for doing chores, but only give them $7.00 and use the remaining 3 for home improvements?

 

[WWGD]

Give an allowance of $10 a week for doing chores, but only give them $7.00 and use the remaining 3 for home improvements?

If you're a Libertarian, tell them someone stole the $3 from you. Many of them equate taxation and theft.

 

[jim hardy]

Outlook's Spam filtering is horrible. I keep telling it the exact same names/sources are junk mail week after week and these never go directly to junk mail.

Spammers are getting awfully smart.
I saved in a local folder a month's worth of spam from fake names all @yahoo.com

finally noticed in the headers very first "Received from" line was usually the same
Googling that name gave me a Yahoo admin address
to which i forwarded as attachments forty plus spams amounting to 23 megs with subject " Your (Participle Deleted) Spammer ! "

and included a header (in Thunderbird you click "View Source", copy and paste it into the cover letter identifying it as "header")

seems to have worked

good luck !