My dad swore by leaded gas, I wish I had listened about the tune-up

Back in 1998, my dad told me to keep the dwell angle set right on my old Ford or it would eat points like candy. I figured he was stuck in the 50s and ignored it for about 18 months. Sure enough, the car died on the interstate near Toledo and the points were welded shut. Cost me $140 for a tow and a shop visit, when a $4 feeler gauge would have fixed it. Anyone else have a parent from that era give you advice that actually made sense 40 years later?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

olivia_chen3528d ago

Funny how "stuck in the 50s" was really just reality that repeats, my grandpa said the same thing about my first car and I blew it off too. The real kicker nobody talks about is that modern gas with ethanol actually makes old point systems worse, so the tune-up advice matters even more now than it did back then. Dad was basically diagnosing a problem that would get worse with time, not stuck in some old habit.

2