The Clutch Cable Conundrum

RAY: A guy came into the shop with his Volvo on the back of a tow truck. He says the clutch cable has broken five times in the last five months. I asked what happened, and he said, "I had a new clutch put in six months ago. When they put the new clutch in, they advised me to put a new cable in. I said go ahead. A month later they closed up shop and headed for some unknown Pacific Island when the clutch cable breaks."

The guy puts a new clutch cable in, thinking the one that the shop put in was defective. A month later that cable breaks. Another month goes by and that cable breaks. By this time, he says, "I was at my wit's end. I figured the clutch had to be defective, so I brought it to another shop and, what? They install a brand-new clutch. And, of course, what? A new clutch cable.”

A month later the cable breaks again. I asked him under what circumstances it breaks.

He says, "I start the car, I go to drive it away, I step on the clutch or I go to shift it into gear. I get to the corner, for example, and I shift into neutral. I wait for the light to turn green. I step on the clutch and the cable breaks."

I said, "Oh, my God." I asked him if the car starts now.

He said, "I don't even bother to start it. Since the cable was broken, what was the sense?"

I say to him, "I bet it won't start." He said, "Why shouldn't it start? It started yesterday; it has nothing to do with the clutch."

Anyway, we go out to the car and turn the key: dead. He asks, "What does that have to do with my clutch cable breaking?"

I say.. everything.

What’s wrong with the Volvo?

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Remember last week's puzzler?

Busting the Midnight Siphonist

RAY: It took place in the early 1970s, during the first gas crunch when there were long lines at gas stations, and Toyotas started looking really good to people who owned Detroit gas guzzlers. My friend Maryann lived in a rural neighborhood in upstate New York, and someone was sneaking around late at night in the inky shadows, siphoning gasoline, while the honest people were asleep. Maryann and the sheriff got together and hatched a plan to catch the thief. It involved using Maryann's car, and its full tank of gasoline as the bait.

Unlike many of her neighbors, Maryann did not own a locking gas cap, so her tank was very siphonable. The idea wasn't to catch the thief with a secret alarm, hidden cameras, or anything like that. They would catch the thief just by allowing him to siphon the gas and take it home for use in his own car.

The thief did strike and siphon her gas, and it was the end of the gas thefts.

The question is, what trap did they lay, and what was it about Maryann's car that made it easy to figure out who the gas thief was?