You’ve Got Your Wires Crossed

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Back when I was working at a gas station in the 1970s I came to work one day and received a call from a fellow employee. It was his night off and the night before was my night off. “I tuned my car up last night but it’s not running right,” he said. “Will you take a look at it.” “Sure.” The guy only lived a couple of blocks away. I heard him coming. Pop, bang, pop, bang. He pulled into one of the station’s bays, jumped out and popped the hood. “It sounds like you have the wires crossed,” I said. Angrily he said at the top of his voice, “I do not have the wires crossed!” He pointed at each wire on the distributor cap and yell out the firing order. “1, 3, 2, 4.” “Calm down,” I said to him, “I’ll check it out.” I made sure all the wires were tight on the cap and plugs. They were. I popped the distributor cap and check the point gap. I checked to see if the wire to the condenser was tight. Everything seemed to be in order. I put the cap back on and told him to start it. Pop, bang, pop, bang. I told him to shut it off. I popped the distributor cap and look at everything again. I kept thinking it sounded like crossed wires. I had him crank the engine over. I noticed something strange going on. I put the distributor cap back on and uncrossed the two crossed wires. I told him to fire it up. It started and purred like a kitten. “What did you do?” The guy came flying out of his car. “Tell me, what did you do?” “I uncrossed your crossed wires.” “How can that be? I went over that firing order a hundred times.” “Your distributor turns backwards.” Since it was a four cylinder engine all he did was mixed up two wires. If it would have been a six or eight cylinder it would have been so mixed up the car probably wouldn’t have even started.