Here's your sign...

lakeside013104 wrote:
A number of years back the neighbor packed up his older class 'C' and prepared to leave. He attempted to start engine by cranking and cranking on the starter. After several attempts he pops open the hood and takes a look. After watching his other neighbors gatherer around I noticed many appeared to be scratching their heads.

I walked over and peeked into the engine compartment. I noticed the coil wire hanging off the top of the coil. I mentioned to the owner that I would be glad to help and that the problem might be simple. He stated that he had plenty of help and did not need any more opinions.

I bid him good day and left. A couple hours later a wrecker came and towed him out of the camp ground. I found out later that the gentleman had paid for a wrecker bill and a service call to the tune of $300 for replacing a coil wire.

I was willing to help, but not willing to force my assistance on someone who did not want that help.

Lakeside

Out of curiosity, when you offered to help did you point out the coil wire? Or did you just say a generic "the problem might be simple"?

This actually happened to me a couple years ago. Stopped at a gas station and the clipper wouldn't start back up. A guy came over and mentioned he does a lot of work on older vehicles (he was driving a 60's pickup). Then he mentioned that it's likely the coil and he could check it out and install a new one for me in a couple minutes. I took him up on his offer and the clipper was up and running again. Had he just said "I can take a look, might be something simple", I would have called the tow truck.

I know enough about engines to be able to figure out possible issues, but I don't know enough to figure out which one is the actual problem at this moment. So, if you give me something specific, I can usually tell if you're full of cr@p or not. If you give me nothing, then I don't take the chance.