Ricochet Rotor

[palallin]

Many of you read about my "Expolding Battery" adventure yesterday.

Today, we get even more weird: driving along almost the exact same stretch of highway, the truck begins to backfire, lug, and, finally, stops running. I manage to pull off the highway on a NARROW shoulder, inches between me and traffic on the driver's side and between me and the guard rail on the other. Traffic is heavy, fast, and full of semis; the weather is rainy.

I pop the hood--quaking in fear of the traffic (a neighbor of mine was killed about three months ago stopping to help a gal with a broken down car in almost the same spot)--and see . . . nothing at all out of the ordinary. The truck won't start; it just back fires through the tailpipes.

I trudge up a hill and around lots of trees to a place where I can make a phone call for a tow. A young guy shows up in a roll-back, and we get it home without further incident.

I then had to get back into town, but, on the way back home, I stop and get a Module for the HEI, thinking that yesterday's mayhem might have trashed it.

I pull the distributor cap; the rotor falls out onto the intake. OOOPS! Somehow, someway, the rotor had come loose from the top of the shaft and went banging around inside the cap: it was bent, scorched, and melted.

And I wondered why the truck wouldn't start. . . .

Now, I can't help but wonder: how the H@ll did this happen? I changed the rotor a few months ago--actually, I swapped distributors, too--but I was sure I tightened it down! I've driven the truck many miles since--not counting the downtime in the shop for the T-case swap.

Tomorrow, I take the BACK roads into town . . . .