Richard Wilson
Well-known member
With all of the spirited debates this week about original vs modified, this story is about a guy that tried to have it both ways. 
Today a friend of mine called needing some help with a terrible running Model A that he had gotten in a car trade. He knows almost nothing about Model A's. He said the former owner had been working on the engine before the trade.
I went over to see if I could help. Once there I had him start it up. It would barely run and was missing, spitting and backfiring terrible. He shut it off after about 30 seconds. I raised the hood planning to check the condition of the distributor and the timing first thing. I popped the cap off and saw a brand new "modern" upper plate with the V-8 points and condenser installed. About the same time I noticed that the "original" condenser was still screwed to the lower plate. The former owner had forgotten to remove it when he installed the new "modified" upper plate.
As a country comedian says, "here's your sign"
Today a friend of mine called needing some help with a terrible running Model A that he had gotten in a car trade. He knows almost nothing about Model A's. He said the former owner had been working on the engine before the trade.
I went over to see if I could help. Once there I had him start it up. It would barely run and was missing, spitting and backfiring terrible. He shut it off after about 30 seconds. I raised the hood planning to check the condition of the distributor and the timing first thing. I popped the cap off and saw a brand new "modern" upper plate with the V-8 points and condenser installed. About the same time I noticed that the "original" condenser was still screwed to the lower plate. The former owner had forgotten to remove it when he installed the new "modified" upper plate.
As a country comedian says, "here's your sign"
