<VV> So I have to ask how smart is the Corvair?

Marc Sheridan sheridanma1966 at gmail.com
Tue Sep 4 13:08:53 EDT 2007


Keith,

Thanks for the nice story. I think it should be published in the Communique
so the non V V people can see it.

My Corvair took me all the way to Detroit before the fuel pump failed in the
parking lot of the motel. It is a stock pump so maybe Corvairs just don't
want you to be stranded :o).

Marc Sheridan
Waverly OH


On 9/4/07, Keith Onchuck <keitho64 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> So I have to ask how smart is the Corvair?
>
> I live in the Chicago area where we have been blessed,
> or is that cursed, with a LOT of rain in August.
> About two weeks ago the weather finally broke and I
> pulled the Corvair out for some much needed top down
> therapy.  In this time I have logged close to 1,000
> miles and felt years of stress leave my body.
>
> One of the benefits of driving the Corvair is that my
> 13 year old son goes with me every chance he can.  As
> a side note the passing of the Corvair torch in my
> family will be heading to him.  He keeps telling me
> how on his golden Birthday, February 28th, when he
> hits 28, he gets the Corvair.  The jury is still out
> if I will be ready to give it up by then.  I guess I
> still have 15 years to decide.  Anyway the drives
> almost always turn into some ideal moments for father
> and son communication.  Sometimes the topics are why
> he should stay away from alcohol and drugs; others are
> how life is at school.  No mater where the
> conversation heads it is always memorable.
>
> Yesterday we were on our way home with him and a
> friend.  This is after 50 miles of driving and the
> Corvair just stops running.  This happened within 500
> feet of my house.  Well my son and his friend helped
> me push the car into the front of our house so I could
> check it out after lunch.  I find it interesting that
> of all the places the car could break down it decided
> to do it close to home.  Maybe the car is smarter than
> I think and wanted to test how I respond under
> pressure.
>
> Well after lunch I headed out to see what was up.  The
> carbs had fuel but the engine just cranked over with
> no signs of life.  I put the trusty timing light on
> the plug wire and had my son crank the engine.  No
> Spark!  Hmm…  I had voltage at the coil, and the
> rotor/cap were in good order.  One of the first
> upgrades I made to the car when I got it 13 years ago
> was to install the Pertronix ignitor.  Heeding the
> advice of smarter Corvair people, I left the points
> plate in the glove box with points and condenser ready
> to install.  I swapped in the original points and the
> car fired right up.  After some minor tuning it was
> back on the road.
>
> So after 13 years and about 10,000 miles my Pertronix
> failed.  The only non-stock part in my car failed
> within 500 feet of my home.  Do you think my Corvair
> is trying to tell me something?
>
> So for all you skeptics out there I still believe in
> the Pertronix and now I have a valid excuse to by the
> Pertronix II.  Just remember to keep a spare points
> plate adjusted and ready to go.  The swap took all of
> 15 minutes including the diagnostics.
>
> Now back to your regular scheduled programming.
>
> Keith
>
>
>
>


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