Lesson learned yesterday. Basic Old Cars 101. I was driving the NY'er around the local area yesterday on a 4 lane highway. The engine just quit running and I was stuck in a left turn lane with no shoulder and a Jersey wall blocking me and the light turned red. No choice, I couldn't get off the road with all the traffic. After an hour, I finally got her pushed across all the lanes and parked on the shoulder across the street. I started troubleshooting. Checked the fuel system and eliminated that as a problem. The problem had to be on the spark/electrical side. It ended up being that brand new Mallory ignition coil. What I learned is that I must have an emergency parts kit that needs to STAY in the trunk consisting of a ballast resistor, ignition module, coil, cap and rotor, and a fuel pump. And the tools to replace these parts. I know the list of parts can go on... brakes, hoses, belts. Hoses and belts aren't that hard to get and there is universal hoses that can be used in an emergency. Luckily for me, I was close enough to my local Advance Auto Parts. Besides a universal performance coil, they didn't have ANY of the parts I mentioned previously on hand. And it would take 5 days to get the fuel pump. I could just imagine this happening less than a week later driving to Carlisle. What a bummer that would be! The bottom line is that driving 35 to 50 year old cars always has a risk of breaking down at any given time. If any of those parts I mentioned fails...you are going to be SOL because no one carries those common parts for our beloved classic Mopar's anymore. Don't think that it can't happen to you. It happened to me with a vital part that was a few months old. I would recommend having a small emergency box of parts and tools in your trunk. Something to think about.
