UNDER THE SHADE TREE

摘要

Sometimes I stop to help stranded motorists. There aren't many serial killers and axe murderers in rural Alabama, so it's still pretty safe. More than once I've seen vehicles smothered by a choke that never opened because of an inoperative choke heater. Those aren't hard to get going. If a vehicle is overheated, it's time to pull out the cell phone and call a relative or a friend for the distressed motorist. Usually the engine is toast in those cases, and there'll be no fixing the car beside the highway. Once in Savannah, I saw a dead battery on a Lincoln because the alternator couldn't get juice to it. Someone had disconnected a wire from the starter relay. For somebody who enjoys troubleshooting as much as I do, those dead-in-the-water vehicles are fun to toy with. This month's story is about a dead and neglected F150 that had been put in mothballs because, in the owner's eyes, it had become untrustworthy.