I'm so stupid... Was: Head Cleaners

From: Joe R. <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
Date: Sat Jul 3 13:39:32 2004

At 04:48 PM 7/2/04 -0400, you wrote:
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Joe R." <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
>To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
><cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
>Sent: Friday, July 02, 2004 2:59 PM
>Subject: RE: I'm so stupid... Was: Head Cleaners
>
>
>> At 06:00 PM 7/2/04 +0100, you wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> >Eventually we realised the noise we could just hear over the somewhat
>> >loud Metallica Black album was the rear screen wiper swishing back and
>> >forth across a dry screen.
>>
>> About 15 years ago I bought a really beat up 1962 Mercedes Benz 190SL
>> roadster to restore. After I got it home I was checking everything out and
>> I turned on the radio to see if it worked. Nothing, so I turned it off and
>> added it to the list of things to fix. Later in the middle of the night I
>> woke up and realized that the radio was so old that it probably used
>vacuum
>> tubes instead of transistors and probably needed to warm up before it
>would
>> work. It bothered me so much that I got up at 2 AM and went outside to try
>> it. Sure enough it was fine after it warmed up for about 30 seconds. My
>> only excuse is that I hadn't used a vacuum tube car radio since I was in
>> about 3rd grade!
>>
>> Joe
>>
>
>A car radio with tubes, man you must be old. I was into car stereos during
>the 80's audio explosion and seen a few crazy things go on. Ever see what
>happens when you put the fuse at the AMP side instead of the battery side
>and the cable shorts out in an ungrometed hole through sheetmetal?


  Hmm. Fireworks to go with your music!


  Unfortunately yes! Have you ever had it happen while you're traveling
down the raod at 90+ MPH? I have :-( I used to have the battery in my
Dodge Challanger mounted in the trunk and the cable got against the exhaust
pipe and the heat melted through the insulation. And since had a 440 cu.
in. high compression engine I had a BIG battery in it. I had very heavy
welding cable in it and it actually melted a large hole in the steel
exhaust pipe instead melting the cable. Lucky I guessed what it was as soon
as it happened and I got the car stopped and got to the battery within
about 30 seconds and managed to yank the positive cable off of it by shear
brute strength. However by that time the cable was literally glowing red
hot and I still have scars on the palm of my right hand where I grabbed it.
However at the time I was more worried about the battery exploding and/or
the car burning up so I considered it a small price to pay. BTW the car is
a 1970 Dodge Challanger RT convertible with the big block engine. The
convertibles were only built for two years total and there were only 269 of
them built with the big block engines so you can see why I very concerned
about it burning up.

     Joe

   Joe
Received on Sat Jul 03 2004 - 13:39:32 BST