SLIDE Solomon was a man of few words. According to the local gossip mongers, he told his wife on their first wedded night that he married her because he loved her, and that was the end of it. He wasn’t prepared to discuss the subject again – ever. At the time, his wife didn’t believe that he was cold enough to keep his word, but she confessed later that he never relented.
He was a retired university lecturer and earned his nickname because most of his lectures consisted of the phrase “Next slide, please”, addressed to the student who operated the overhead projector. Occasionally, he would say, “Oh hell, that’s the wrong slide.” All his notes were on slides and the students had to copy them.
He turned up one day at the workshop with an irregular misfire on his Volkswagen Beetle. Hennie tried all the usual diagnostic tricks but could not find the fault. The plugs and leads appeared to be in a good condition and the misfire could not be traced to any particular cylinder. The coil was swapped for another one, but the misfire continued. The distributor-points gap was slightly wide, but not enough to cause a misfire. As soon as Hennie tried to reset the gap, he realised the distributor shaft had too much play. When the engine was running, it would wobble in its bush, changing the points gap continuously. This will definitely cause a misfire.
We had to order a new bush to rejuvenate the distributor. Slide didn’t say much when I gave the car back to him except for the most important word: “Thanks.”
