Quote:
Originally Posted by H. L. Chauvin
Hi Brent,
Good point!
FWIW:
We use the term "retarded" quite often "only" in refering to our Model A distributor timing.
I think after seeing us working on our Model A's until late at night, some of our modern day neighbors think about us & the meaning of "retarded" in a more general sense. LOL
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I guess I was being vague above as to slightly protect the guilty.
FWIW, the term "retarded" is used in the
Model A Instruction Book (owners manual) to describe the spark lever position, so I am sure that is why many folks still use that term today.
I do not know for a fact (...and likely never will!!
) that the spark lever was retarded when all that happened however the driver complained the vehicle was really underpowered and felt like it was really laboring. Instead of pulling over to ask questions, they proceeded until it blew all the water out. It even split the lower tank on the Brassworks radiator. They sent me a video of it ...and the steam blowing out the bottom would have made an old steam Train Engineer proud!!
I offered to fix it under warranty for the customer since it only had a couple hundred miles but in retrospect, I think "guilt" got the best of him as he chose to use another vendor to rebuild the engine. It had less power afterwards since that vendor advised him to go with a 5.5 head instead of a 6:1.
THAT seemed 'retarded' to me!!
.