Wife solves my tune-up problem!

If you've been following the thread "Car runs worse after tune-up", you'll know that I've been trying to track down the source of my engine flooding and loss of power at high rpms.

My wife went antiquing with a friend today, so I had the whole day to myself to tinker with the car and see if I couldn't finally track this problem down. I spent the day testing everything again: battery, alternator, timing, plugs, etc. About 4 o'clock, Tammy comes home. After putting our 2 year-old, Kyle, down for a nap, she comes out to the garage to see if she can help. She's likes to act interested from time to time. So she starts by asking me to tell her what the problem is, what have I tried, what do I think it is, etc. Then she asks, "What about that new thingy you put on?". "You mean the thermo-time switch. No, it can't be that. The old one was definitely bad. With it connected the starter solenoid was shorted out. Now that the new one's connected the starter works, so it must be good", I replied. So then she asks, "What's the switch supposed to do?". So I proceed to explain how it operates, and how it's connected to the cold start valve, and how the valve gives a burst of gas when you first start the car. She's listening the entire time, trying hard to seem interested. As I'm talking I remember Warren asking if the cold start valve could be stuck open. Then it hits me. It couldn't be that simple, could it. I pull the red/black wire from the thermo-time switch, start the car, and what do you know, but now it runs without flooding. So now I need to go back and test the new thermo-time switch and see why it's remaining closed.

But, once again, my wife has rescued me. On several occasions when I up late working on some code, trying to track down some elusive bug, she'll come over and start asking questions. Next thing you know the problem is solved. She's a keeper.

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Greg
72 911S

It sounds like you two have a system. She asks questions, which forces you to re-think each step. I've also found that eplaining a problem to someone helps me ferret out new possible solutions.

At any rate it works!!

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Mark Isaak
'74 Targa

Does she have any sisters???

Get her one of her own, so there'll be no fighting about who gets to drive the car today. Or work on it.

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Mark Szabo
1986 911 Targa 3.2
1987 Escort 5-speed 1.9
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