Volkswagen Blues by Jacques Poulin

Author:Jacques Poulin [Poulin, Jacques]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cormorant Books

XVI

Chop Suey

Shortly before noon, the girl came back from Independence Square with a package that contained a contact breaker, a condenser, four Bosch spark plugs and three litres of motor oil.

She took a groundsheet from her knapsack and spread it under the rear of the Volkswagen because she wanted to check the valves; she thought they were knocking a little, but she wasn’t sure. Taking with her the tool kit from the Volks, she lay on the groundsheet and removed the caps that were on either side of the engine. Using a feeler gauge, she checked the play of each valve, going from one side of the engine to the other, and she was pleased to note that no adjustment was necessary.

“Everything’s fine,” she told the man.

It was at least thirty degrees Celsius on the paved surface of the trailer park, and the last thing she felt like doing was a valve adjustment. On the other hand, she didn’t mind giving the engine a little tune-up and even an oil change. She had donned her old pair of shorts and a paint-smeared shirt whose tails were knotted over her bosom. In the nearest trailer, a man was watching her from the window.

She started by unscrewing the spark plugs and then, because they were carbonized, she replaced them with new ones, after she had adjusted the gap between the electrodes. Then she took off the distributor cap.

“Would you bring me my timing light?” she asked Jack. “I’ll be needing it in a minute. It’s in my big bag. At the bottom. Between two sweaters, probably.”

She removed the rotor and saw at once that the contact breaker had a dark blue tinge, so she replaced the breaker as well as the condenser.

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