i do stupid stuff all the time, and can't see me stop any time soon !
case in point.........got my charger running last year for the first time since around 2006 or so. ran great ! then, for some reason early this spring, it got to be hard starting, then would run ok, but got to sputtering, banging around and just quit. sometimes it would restart ok, sometimes not. as there was just me, i tried the "usual" trouble shooting techniques, finding nothing amiss, so maybe i got a bad batch of gas ? drained & refilled the tank, and all seemed well, as if the problem was that all along. came to a stop light on main street, and the car quit. pushed it into a parking space, tried to restart it and run the battery down. a couple of guys saw the car and came over to check it out, and were good enough to give me a jump to get going again. car started through the intersection, banged a couple of times, then quit again ! several guys helped me push it through the intersection and into another parking spot, where the car wouldn't start. great ! got another jump, and while the car was trying to start, but not quite getting there, one guy hollered about seeing sparks.......what ??? great ! now it's gonna burn up ???? as the hood is up, and i can't see what is going on, i hop out with the wrench i always carry under the seat to disconnect the battery, so i can keep the fire damage to as minimal as i can ! under the hood, i can't see any "magic smoke", [what a relief !] so i ask where the sparks were coming from ? guy points to under the coil, where the coil wire plugs into. i pull the coil wire, and i discover a slightly loose crimp on the brass connector that has slightly discolored the brass terminal to a brownish color in a line about 1/16" wide, the length of the connector. digging out my trusty,rusty, dull pocket knife, i spread the connector off the coil wire, cut the wire about 1/2" shorter and strip the end, scrape the connector inside and out to shiny brass everywhere, reassemble the coil wire by "crimping" the connector on the wire by bashing the terminal with the end of my pocket knife with the wire laying on the curb. plugged the coil wire back in, and the car lit right off instantly ! amazing ! ran the car back home [only a few blocks], made up a new coil wire [the correct way this time !] and it has been starting and running perfectly ever since ! why didn't i think of this before ? probably a too simple solution, when it should have been something taking much longer to check, such as bad ballast, bad ignition, bad coil, etc.
