Automotive Puzzle

[Tom Wesenberg]

This comes from a true story told to me about 1990. A lady drives her car to church on Sunday, and backs into her usual parking spot. After church is over she gets back in her car, but it won't run, so she calls for a tow truck to take it to the local shop. The shop said they could find nothing wrong, and it's running fine now, so she takes it home. The next Sunday is an exact repeat of the previous Sunday, so again it's towed to the local shop. Again she drives away from the shop and no problem was found. The third Sunday the same problem happens again, but this time someone found the problem.
What was causing the trouble?

[Mitch]

You dont say if it was a crank no start.. assuming it is:::
It could be a bad electric fuel pump in the tank. This happens quite often from the movement / vibrations of the car and fuel slosh when being towed. . Kinda like doing the tap test to the gas tank and then the car starts.
A module due to heat stroke will cool down and cause this too.

If it is a no crank no start, i’ll go with a starter or a neutral switch.

[BudP]

Might have something to do with "backing into her parking spot." Perhaps, back into a snow bank or hillside.

[Tom Wesenberg]

I didn't hear what year the car was, but I think it was one with a carb and mechanical fuel pump from the 60's or 70's, and it did crank over OK.

[Mitch]

60’s or 70’s. My theories are out the window

[DaWizard]

Seems to me that she might not been able to start the car because she was in the wrong car!

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

A BEAVER packed her tail pipe with RED CLAY?

[CHL]

squirrel in the air cleaner intake, I know it sounds ridiculous.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Might have something to do with "backing into her parking spot." Perhaps, back into a snow bank or hillside.

You got it pretty quickly. Did you remember from a few years ago when I posted it?
As unlikely as it sounds, she did back into a hill of dirt on the edge of the parking lot, which blocked off the exhaust.

In the 70's and 80's I had to fix some GM cars that would only idle due to the two layer exhaust collapsing the inner pipe and blocking off the exhaust flow. Since that time, to check for some engine problems, I will often ask an owner to give it the gas while I feel for good flow at the tail pipe.

[Mitch]

WTG Bud

[BudP]

In high school in Wisconsin in the Winter sometimes some guys would pack a tailpipe with snow and then watch from the window to see what teacher couldn't get his car started! Also, while in high school, I worked nights at A & P and at least once a winter some customer would come into the store after loading his/her groceries and say their car would not start: first thing we checked was whether they had backed into a snow bank around the perimeter of the parking lot.

[CarlG]

Somewhere along the line, I heard of stuffing a potato up the tail pipe to cause the same effect.