Gus in the Woods

We have a good puzzler today for you all. And I know it's good because it's not mine. I stole this one. As you all know, I steal puzzlers whenever I possibly can.

Okay, here it is. You have to pay attention to all the details for this one.

It was a dark and stormy night. A warm, dark, and stormy night. A guy named Gus was headed up the lake for a weekend of fishing with his buddies. He's driving a 1963 Dodge Dart. And it was driving smoothly all the way from the city.

Now the highway had turned into a small dirt road curving through tall pine trees. The road became extremely rough and they could feel the engine lurching against its mounts as the car bumped over boulders in the road. Suddenly, a shot rang out in the night. Well, it sounded like a shot. It was actually a backfire. The first of many. The Dodge six cylinder began chugging and missing so badly that it soon lost momentum on the uphill stretches of road. The car eventually coasted off the road and stopped in the trees.

Gus got out and looked under the hood. The engine was still running but very unevenly. Gus glanced at it briefly and then smiled and close the hood. He grabbed his flashlight from the glove box and with a wave at his friends still sitting in the car, he walked off into the forest. His friends looked at each other in confusion.

After a short time, however, they heard Gus whistling as he emerged from the forest. He raised the hood again, fiddled with something under the hood for about two minutes, and then slammed the hood down. Then Gus said, "Okay guys, it should run fine now. Start it back up."

And they did. And he was right. The car started right back up immediately and ran smoothly for the rest of the trip.

So the puzzler is, what did he do in the woods and what did he do under the hood that made the car start back up and run smoothly?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

The Tune Up

Years ago, I received a call from a customer who said he needed a tune up. And he asked if he could come in right away. He was a long-time customer. Even though I've worked on his several of his cars over the years, I had never worked on this vehicle before. And I said, "Gee, I don't know if I will know how."

He was bringing in something that he had never brought in before. And I was trying to get out of it. I said, "I've never done one of these before though..."

And he said, "That's all right. An engine is an engine, isn't it?"

And I said, "Well, I guess so. But it probably won't fit through the door."

And he said, "That's okay. I will park in the street and you can work on it out there."

So, I agreed. About an hour later, he shows up. And I asked him if he had all the tune up parts with him because I wouldn't know what to get. And he said he has everything. He had a whole bag full of stuff for me to use.

So we go outside and there it is out in the street. So, I dive right in. I open up the bag with all the tune up parts and I dump out eight spark plugs and a distributor cap and rotor and spark plug wires and a set of points. And also a condenser. And I said, "Wow that's strange. How old is this thing?" And he tells me it is only about 4 years old at that time.

And I said, "Really?? I didn't think anyone used conventional ignition. I thought everybody used electronic ignition nowadays."

And he said, "I don't think you'd want electronic ignition in this thing if you didn't have to."

And I said, "Oh, gee, I guess you're right."

And the question is, what is it that he brought in and asked me to tune up?

Good luck everyone.