Wackiest Car Accessory / Gadget ?

[Steve Zicht]

You gotta admit, theres been a ton of crazy car accessories made over the years. Seems that JC Whitney listed most of them in their catalogs in years of past.

Anybody recall any of them ? First one that comes to my mind are those insanely silly fuel saving devices. I recall magnets that attached to the engine fuel line that claimed to ' energize ' the gas somehow for more fuel efficiency and power.

Come to think of it, those ' Tornado ' devices that slip in your engines intake filtering system seems to pop up when fuel prices suddenly increase. I tried to explain once to a guy that alot of this stuff was independently tested and it was proven to reduce power and didnt help with fuel economy at all.

I clearly remember in the early 60s that there was an early version of the Tornado. This gadget made a bit more sense though. It was a carburetor spacer that had small spinning turbines in it to mix the air and fuel after it exited the carbs throttle plates. Never heard about any lab testing however. I guess the only real concern Id have is those spinning blades coming apart and being ingested inside the motor. I do clearly recall that there was several two barrel versions and four barrel versions.

I was looking at some old car gadgets on the web from the late 50s and early 60s and one I saw was totally absurd to the point that I wonder if any were actually sold. It was a kit that allowed you to have two accelerator pedals to operate. If your right foot got tired on a long trip, you could use your left foot to operate another custom installed gas pedal on the far left. ( I guess cruise control hadnt been invented yet or was a very expensive option ) Lets see now........... right gas pedal, middle brake pedal, left clutch pedal and the extra gas pedal to the far left. I sure hope you didnt get the clutch and extra gas pedal mixed up in an emergency ! This was another JC Whitney catalog item for $ 1.85 plus postage.

Anybody else recall a totally crazy and absurd car accessory ? Im sure somebody here is going to mention all those gimmick spark plugs from the past and theres a few new ones on the auto parts store shelves now.

Anybody with a funny story to tell ???

[BCjohnny]

.....

[Nick Campagna]

There was a device that attached to the plug wires that (inductively?) bled energy to a set of Nixie (remember them?) tubes to show the evenness of the ignition and detect failure to fire.

[Steve Zicht]

There was a device that attached to the plug wires that (inductively?) bled energy to a set of Nixie (remember them?) tubes to show the evenness of the ignition and detect failure to fire.

I think I do remember that.

[pdq67]

Probably almost all of the multi ground electrode sparkplugs down through the years.

pdq67

[Steve Zicht]

Probably almost all of the multi ground electrode sparkplugs down through the years.

pdq67

Funny part is about spark plugs, they still keep coming up with gimicks to this day. Bosch and some other companies must be makin money because their still on parts shelves.

[pitts64]

Remember the big wind up key that stuck to the trunk.. Or the skull with red light bulb eye balls that connected to the brake/turn signals.. Goofy...

[woody b]

Some of the wackiest stuff is on modern vehicles. Cars today have so many bells and whistles it's a wonder anyone can drive.

I'm sure all manufacturers have similar stuff. My 2015 Silverado has built in wifi. Why does anyone need wifi while they're driving? It also displays incoming texts on the navigation radio screen. Instead of having all these distractions vehicles should have something to dis able cell signals while they're in motion. The built in Bluetooth is nice for hands free calling while driving though.

[Rizzle]

Some of the wackiest stuff is on modern vehicles. Cars today have so many bells and whistles it's a wonder anyone can drive.

I'm sure all manufacturers have similar stuff. My 2015 Silverado has built in wifi. Why does anyone need wifi while they're driving? It also displays incoming texts on the navigation radio screen. Instead of having all these distractions vehicles should have something to dis able cell signals while they're in motion. The built in Bluetooth is nice for hands free calling while driving though.

Passengers, rest stops could both be great reasons to have built in wifi - roaming data isnt cheap on some plans.
As for disabling cell signals - many smartphones have apps available that can detect speed [ie in a vehicle], disable incoming calls/texts, and send out a pre-written text saying you are driving. (Windows Phone has it - so every one else probably does too...)

That spinning visor is actually a really clever use of that idea. The snowplow trains use them as windows, so does my school's cnc mill. They are exceptionally good at self cleaning without need for a wiper of any kind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b2Efkrg3M8

[pdq67]

Anybody remember the carb/manifold gasket or intake gaskets that had something like "screen-door" screen in the openings so that supposedly would break up any fuel droplets to vaporize them better?

pdq67

[Barry_R]

CSL pellets. You would drop one in each cylinder through the spark plug hole. Then you would pour the activator into the oil and it would "replate" the worn cylinders as you blissfully rolled up the miles.

[Tuner]

That carb spacer with the screens thing that popped up in the late 70's was an exciting deal. A neighbor put on on his '74 454 ½ ton Chevy pickup QJet carb. It had a pair of cone shaped screens, one under the other, laminated between layers of heavy cardboard gaskets. The first version, which they did replace at no charge when the fun started, had no means to ground the screens to bleed off static electricity. The screens would build up a static charge until a spark jumped between them, or from one to the manifold ?, and the A/F mixture exploded, blowing flaming gas back into the air cleaner and setting fire to the element. I don't know if it depended on the local humidity, the gasoline blend, or what, but sometimes it would bang back every few seconds and other times it would be several minutes between events. He called the people who made the thing and they said, “Yeah, we noticed that, we put a ground strap on them now, here's another,” and sent him one with a 1/4” stainless strap coming from between the layers of gasket and going between the bottom of the gasket and the surface of the intake manifold. That one didn't backfire but it choked the 454 noticeably. It ran better without it and a lot better after the carb was re-jetted and the distributor was re-curved.


The magnets on the fuel line deal, I might have figured out how they work. In the 70's we went through a period of “Cow Magnets” on the fuel line. People bought them from the local feed store. I still have a couple around somewhere. Quite a bit of lore built up about which way to arrange North and South, whether both together NN or opposite NS, and if both together whether N or S pointed toward the carb. I think I figured out how they work when I took a pair off a divorced gal friends car (her husband had put on) and it went about 100 yards and stalled, flooded, with the needle and seat full of the steel flack the magnets had trapped inside the fuel line until I removed them. The gas pump nozzle makes little scratches in the fill tube and the little burrs of steel eventually find their way to the carb. If you have done enough carb work you have seen an accumulation of fine iron mixed with the dirt in some carbs.

[enigma57]

Mike Brown built Fish carburettors from 1981 to 1996. Looks like he was gearing up to build an updated version of the Fish carburettor in 2009......

http://www.mikebrownsolutions.com/NewFishProduction.htm









Can't find anything on them after that date. Did these new Fish carburettors ever get built?

Just wondering,

Harry

[pdq67]

Harry,

Try "people searching" in Springfield, MO for him.

And if he turns up, contact him and ask about his carb.

I am curious to know too.

pdq67