The following happened on the way to the annual Los Angeles Roadster show a few years back. As usual, I was by myself… guess no one in their right mind will go cross country in a roadster in early June. That sure nails me, doesn’t it?

I had stayed in Green River, Utah the first night out. I would head west the following morning on I-70 until it intersected with US 50.

It was about an hour after sunrise when I dumped my two gym bags in the rumble seat of the ’34 roadster. It looked like it was going to be great day… it was already 60 degrees and not a cloud in the blue sky. My kind of roadster weather. Checked out of the motel and piled into the roadster. Hit the starter button… the mill cranked over.. and over… and over. Wouldn’t start. Strange. Checked to make sure I’d turned the ignition kill switch on and the gas on. Tried it again. W ouldn’ t start. I have both a 6 volt and 12 volt battery in the rod. I had been using the 6 volt battery without any results. Thinking I might have flooded it, I went to the 12 volt battery side. It spins it over a lot faster and instantly the engine caught and ran. Warmed it for a minute before leaving the motel parking lot. The flathead engine wasn’t running right. I attributed it to the mill still being cold. Found a café about two blocks from the motel and parked on the street. Went in and had breakfast.

It was getting warm when I returned to the car to get on the asphalt strip. Same thing… it balked starting on the 6 volt. Odd. Went to the 12V side again….. it fired right up. Drove off heading west to get on Highway 50 about 129 miles to the west. It was after 10:00 AM before I got on Highway 50. Along the long road through Utah, Nevada, and California there are several signs that state “The most lonesome highway in America”! And I believe it. No towns for long distances i n Neva da and Utah. And not very many ranches either. And practically no traffic on the two lane road until you get into California. But I much prefer that type of road and driving. The engine still sounded slightly off for some reason. Probably needed new plugs. I would replace them that night at the motel.

Highway 50 hasn’t a town between Delta, UT and Ely, NV…… a distance of 152 miles. No gas station or anything. I was glad I knew this and topped of the gas tank in Delta. Most of this distance inside Utah is desolate with little to look at…. other than red spires and some red cliffs. And it’s mostly pretty flat. I was about 50 miles west of Delta in some rolling hills (mounds?) when I came over a small rise in the road to see a warning sign… “Watch for elk next 7 miles”. Yeah.. right… like there was going to be herds of them in this desolate country. I looked aro und… n ot a mountain or a tree in any direction. Went over a few shallow rises…. then saw a HUGE elk standing sideways in the suddenly narrower two lane road!!! Jumped on the roadster’s binders and got it slowed from 65mph down to 15 mph in a hurry. Crept by him as he looked me over before sauntering off. Once he’d left, I got back on the gas. NOTHING! Dead engine. Tried to start it as I coasted using the clutch. No luck.

Pulled over to the side… very little road shoulder. Nearly half of the roadster was still on the black top. Great… 11:00AM and I’m broke down about 30 miles east of the Nevada state line… and I hadn’t passed a single vehicle since I’d left Delta! Mr. Elk was out of sight… somewhere. Probably down a draw. Opened the hood. Checked for a possible loose wire. None.

Lifted up the bottom of the front seat to get to the tools and spare parts. I pulled the air cleaner off the back Stromberg carburetor. Pumped the throttle back and forth several times while peering down inside the carburetor to see if it was pumping gas. It was since the accelerator nozzle was squirting gas. So it had gas. Next. Pulled two spark plugs and looked them over. Looked normal. I pushed my thumb over the very hot spark plug hole in the head while I cranked over the engine using the starter solenoid. Burned my thumb instantly…... but I found out I had compression. Next. All that was left was spark. I pulled the coil wire loose from the distributor cap and held it about an half-inch from the engine. I cranked the engine over watching for a spark. A very nice ¾” blue/white spark jumped the gap to the mill. Now I’m really confused. An engine has to have compression, spark, and gas in order to run. I had all three, but the engine refuse to make even the slightest cough. “Turkey” I muttered at th e dead engine! (I confess I used a much stronger words than turkey!)
Neat… nothing on the road or in sight in any direction. The closest thing other than bare terrain was the sun… and it was a far piece even for a built-up flathead V8 mill! The temperature in the desert had already started climbing. I checked for gas, compression, and spark one more time. Same thing… no change. I sat down on a running board to think.

Right about then a Utah State Highway truck pulled up alongside the ailing roadster. I hadn’t the faintest idea where it came from (maybe it dropped out of the sun?). They asked if I need a lift. Said no… that I’d get the SOB (this is short for Shouldn’t Of Been in case you’re wondering) running or else. They left after a few minutes of looking over the roadster.

Back to my dead mill. Let’s see…. I had spark coming out of the coil. Okay, but was there spark at the spark plugs? Good question. I held a plug wire a distance from the engine and cranked it over on the starter to see if it was getting spark to the plugs. In my dreams! Not the tiniest hint of a spark! Okay… I had spark going into the distributor cap….. but none coming out! That was the problem. Now all I had to do was find out why. Th en fig ure out how to fix it with what I had with me. That should be fun in itself….. especially since it was now pretty hot. Took off the distributor cap again and checked it for cracks and/or carbon arcing. None. Pulled the rotor off and checked to see if the brass pointer and spring steel pickup were still on the rotor. They were. Odd. My feeble geezer reasoning said the trouble had to be either the cap or the rotor….. nothing else could be the cause. Got out the Volt-Ohm-Meter (VOM) from under the seat and used it to check continuity between the individual spark plug contacts in the distributor cap and at spark pl ug. Good continuity in each and every one of them. Alright…. nothing left but the rotor. I checked the rotor using the VOM. There was continuity. Confusing for sure. The older Mallory rotors are similar to most American cars except they have a large plastic washer siliconed up against the underside of the rotor at the brass finger. There is a small brass screw securing this brass finger and a strap of spring steel (which is the path for the spark from the coil). Everything looked to be normal. The VOM said everything was okay. I’m pre tty st ubborn and I still thought the trouble had to be the rotor. Dug out a spare rotor from my stash of parts in the roadster. Put it on the distributor and put everything back together. Turned the key on and hit the starter button… it started instantly!!! Hooray! It had taken me 20-25 minutes to find the problem and fix it. Try that with today’s electronic nightmares.

Loaded the tools, VOM, etc back in the compartment under the front seat and in the rumbleseat. Drove off… engine running really sweet and back to it’s original power. Life is good!

That night in the motel I found the problem with the rotor. The screw holding the brass finger on the rotor was a mite bit too long and had penetrated clear through the rotor. The electricity had jumped from the screw to the distributor shaft. The protruding screw could not be seen due to the large plastic washer up against the bottom of the rotor. The continuity checked because the screw wasn’t anywhere near a ground once it was off the distributor shaft. The later Mallory rotors came with a shorter screw.

In case you’re wondering… I never had any other problem the rest of the trip to Los Angels and up the west coast to Vancouver Island and home…. a total distance of over 6000 miles.

Paul Garrigan.