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The federal government had super strict emission laws for vehicles starting in the 70s. This was before computers were cheap and reliable enough to stick in ave
by tsomctl 5y ago
The federal government had super strict emission laws for vehicles starting in the 70s. This was before computers were cheap and reliable enough to stick in average vehicles, so the way automotive engineers got it to work was to have vacuum lines to send signals to the carburetor and distributor. They probably could've done it with analog electronics, but you already have a free source of vacuum (the intake manifold), and there isn't an simple way to convert an analog voltage to a linear position, while you can do that with a diaphragm and vacuum.
For a good example, any American V8.
- stickfigure 5y agoPeak insanity might have been this mid-80s Honda: https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/but-wait-theres-more/a1850371/wait-theres-more-1850371/ https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/but-wait-theres-more/a1850... Especially this picture: https://hips.hearstapps.com/autoweek/assets/s3fs-public/03-mid-eighties-honda-cvcc-hell-boxes-photo-by-murilee-martin.jpg?resize=980:*&keepGifs=1 https://hips.hearstapps.com/autoweek/assets/s3fs-public/03-m... Eventually the rubber hoses would get old, crack, and leak vacuum. Now your car starts running wonky and diagnosis is pretty much impossible.
- mikestew 5y agoThanks for illustrating the nightmare that three decades later will still roust me from a sound sleep. Back in my pro wrench days, I had to remove-and-replace the head on one of those Hondas. What should have taken an afternoon soon turned into a hellish day-and-a-half of squeezing a vacuum tester.