Trouble ahead, trouble behind: participating in the 1967 Plymouth Trouble Shooting Contest

Old Cars reader Edward Bacon participated in the Sixth National Championship of the Plymouth Trouble Shooting Contest held in Detroit from June 19-21, 1967. One of the souvenirs that Bacon received was the trouble shooting souvenir program, which tells the story of the contest:

“The time was 1949. The place was Los Angeles. Plymouth dealers were finding well-trained auto mechanics in short supply. School officials were seeking ways to stimulate more young men to enter this vital field in the face of competition from more glamorous activities and pursuits. Out of these needs came the Plymouth Trouble Shooting Contest, “brainchild” of George J. Cutler, at the time Regional Service Manager, today the Director of Automotive Service for Chrysler Corporation. The aim of the program then, as now, was to give recognition and honor to talented young students and thereby encourage them to follow a career in the automobile service field. From the start, Trouble Shooting received enthusiastic support from educators, dealers and the motoring public, as it grew from one local event, involving 17 schools and 50 students, to a 1967 level of 72 regional and state eliminations in which 3,600 boys from 1,800 schools took part, concluding with this Sixth National Championship in Detroit. The Plymouth Trouble Shooting Contest has proved itself to be a public service activity in the fullest sense of the term, with important benefits for American youth, active support for the vocational education programs in the public schools, a supply source of qualified service technicians for automobile dealers, and very real values for the car-driving American public. It has received the sanction and support of leading education and government organizations, and holds two state and three national awards for excellence. An inspiring example to all Trouble Shooters of a man who started out in life as a mechanic is Walter P. Chrysler, founder of Chrysler Corporation, who made his own set of tools when he could not find what he felt were the proper tools to do his job right. Still only a teen-ager, the Trouble Shooting program has come a long way since that first lone contest on a high school athletic field in 1949. Its past has been one of growth, achievement and success. Its future appears to be one of even greater achievement.”

An internet search of the Trouble Shooting program provided evidence that the contest continued into the 1970s and may have even been held into the 1990s.

The following story by Mr. Bacon tells the story of his experiences in the 1967 Regional and National Plymouth Trouble Shooting Contest competitions.

It was around May 1, 1967. Classes were in progress at Framingham (Mass.) South High School automotive shop. Just before noontime, a shiny new 1967 Plymouth Barracuda hardtop was driven into the auto shop and parked in the middle of the shop floor. Two gentlemen exited the car and met with the shop instructor. There was nothing to show that this Barracuda was anything different from a regular automobile. It was light brown in color with a tan interior. Just before the lunch bell rang, a Plymouth Fury sedan pulled up outside of the shop. A half a dozen or so pizza boxes and bottles of soda were pulled out of the sedan and taken into the shop classroom where we were told to assemble. Present were Mr. J.P. Keefe, the vocational school principal; Mr. Robert Thompson, the auto shop instructor; Mr. Thomas Fraser, the auto shop classroom instructor; Mr. Paul Gerish, owner of Framingham Chrysler/Plymouth sales; and a representative from Eastern Massachusetts Chrysler Plymouth Dealers Association. It was explained to we senior class auto shop students that Framingham Vocational High School would be 1 of 24 vocational schools in eastern Massachusetts to compete in the Plymouth Trouble Shooting Contest. It was told to us that all the competing schools would be using the same make and model Plymouth vehicle throughout the contest. We were then told that the contest would take place on May 18, 1967, at the New Bedford athletic field.

The Barracuda was ours to keep in the shop to practice on, but not to drive on the roads. The Barracuda had a 318-cid V-8 engine and TorqueFlite transmission. The auto shop instructor was given a list of “bugs” that were likely to be concealed in the vehicle. There would usually be about 15-18 defects that needed to be analyzed and corrected within a 60-minute time frame. Plymouth supplied all the hand tools needed to work on the vehicle. There was also electric circuit probes, dwell meters, vacuum meters and a timing light.

We were all 17- and 18-year-old gearheads who craved competition. We had four teams of two people in our class. One team would “bug” the car while another team would find and correct the defects in the shortest amount of time. At the end of the week, we pitied anyone who bought this car after we were done with it. Steve Thompson and I were selected to represent the school as we had a perfect score and lowest time.The following week, we worked on our routine and dove into the Plymouth shop manual to look for trouble spots that we may have missed.

The day before the contest in New Bedford, the Chrysler-Plymouth people came and took the Barracuda away. On the next day, at the contest site, all the Barracudas were lined up on the athletic field with the school’s name on the roof of the car. Each car had a small table in front of it that had all the tools and meters on it. Also, there was a judge about 20 feet in front of the table, and he had a white box with what would be “good” parts in it. If you found a missing or defective part, you brought it up to him and described what the part was and why it was defective and he would give you the good part. 

At 11 a.m., the starter’s pistol fired and Steven and I opened the hood and dove into the confines of the engine compartment. Steve started his magic on the Carter carburetor and I pulled the left-side spark plugs out. Number 5 plug had a closed gap and I went up to the judge and he gave me a new one. I proceeded to check the gap on the rest of the spark plugs for .030 to .032 thousandths. Next, I wanted to spin the engine over to get it on No. 1 cylinder (top dead center, or TDC) to check the distributor phasing. I couldn’t do that because the battery ground cable was not connected to the engine. I asked the judge for a 5/16 by 20 x 1 in. bolt. Now I had battery current, but the engine would not turn over. I checked for battery voltage and it had just over 12 volts. I tested the voltage up to the starter relay and that’s when I found the gray wire to the neutral safety switch was not connected. I plugged it in and we had “spin cycle.”

By this time, Steve had found the carburetor accelerator pump check ball was missing and a main jet in the float bowl was non-existent. He also set the float level and found the dashpot was not retrieving when the throttle lever was released. I turned the engine over to No. 1 TDC, put the left-side spark plugs in and then checked the distributor orientation and it was good. Next, I pulled off the distributor cap and the points were missing. I went up to the judge to get new ones and returned to install them. I set the points to .018 to .021 thousandths and checked the rotor and cap for any signs of cracks or burns and placed the cap back on. I checked the plug wires for the correct firing order (1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2) and made sure the wires were tight. I took off the left-side rocker cover to check for any loose rocker arms or missing pushrods. They were all good, and I put the cover back on. Went to put the pollution control valve (PCV) back into the cover and there was no rattle of the check ball. Back to the judge to get a new one. 

Meanwhile, Steve had buttoned up the carburetor and he found a plugged fuel filter and then he adjusted the choke valve setting. He then pulled the right-side spark plugs and made sure they were gapped at .030 to .032 thousandths. He pulled the right side rocker cover and found nothing wrong. Next, I went into the car to turn on the ignition switch to the ignition position to check for voltage at the coil. I first checked for 12 volts at the ballast resistor on the firewall. I next checked for 9 volts at the ignition coil and got none. I removed the ballast resistor and made my way to the judge another time. (We were good friends by now.) I replaced the resistor and now had the correct voltage at the coil. Now it was time to crank the engine over and see if we had the right stuff. We did not! The carburetor filled with fuel, the choke was set correctly, but the engine cranked over and over but did not light the fire. Steve took off a plug wire and it gave no spark as it cranked. He pulled the coil wire and got no spark. Then he took the coil wire up to the judge who produced a new one. He put the coil wire on and it started right up. I should have checked that with an ohmmeter when I was checking the ballast resistor.

As we set out to check the ignition timing after the engine warmed up, it became obvious that there was a slight stumble when the carburetor was opened and closed around 1,200 rpm. We took out the vacuum gauge and put it in the ported vacuum line and it showed about 12 lbs. of vacuum when the throttle was slightly opened. Unplugging the vacuum advance line to the distributor allowed the vacuum to rise to about 18 to 20 lbs. We checked the vacuum advance hose and found that it had a slice in it. Took it to the judge and he gave us a new one and we were good to go. We checked the dwell angle and it was 28 degrees and we set the timing at 12 degrees BTDC. 

Before the contest, our instructor, Mr. Robert Thompson, reminded us to check for unusual things such as loose fasteners, wiper blades and low fluids. As we made way around the car, we decided to check for loose or missing lug nuts. When Steve pulled off the right rear hubcap, there it was, a missing lug nut. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. We checked in the trunk for any surprises and found none. We drove the car one lap around the field and placed it in the judging zone. Twenty-eight minutes had gone by us in a heartbeat. 

We were the first team done, but did we do everything right? We were told to wait in an area with our instructor. All the practice, all the time spent doing each other’s routine, it all came down to the judges’ final decision as they poured over the fruits of our labor under the hood of the Barracuda. About seven or eight other teams came in before the hour was over. Some other teams never finished. 

Our car checked out under the judge’s scrutiny. We were going to Detroit!

June 19, 1967, was a bright and sunny day in Boston, Mass. At the Eastern Airlines terminal, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. Hollis Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Bacon, Steven Thompson and myself were ready to board a jet airliner heading to Detroit. Steve and I had won the Eastern Massachusetts Plymouth Trouble Shooting Contest on May 18. We were representing the Framingham South High Vocational School at the 6th National Championship contest, held at the Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit from June 19-21, 1967. We would be competing against 72 other schools from across the United States. These high school and vocational school students had won their local state contests just as we had.

Each school sent its two top troubleshooters and their instructor to compete for top honors, tools and equipment, and a chance at scholarship funds to many associated schools in order to encourage students to follow a career in the automotive service fields.

When we arrived in Detroit, a bus was waiting to take us to the Whittier Hotel in downtown Detroit. Our first impression of the area was that it was a very busy city with lots of traffic all around. At the hotel, we went to the competition registration table and got our “goody bags.” They were filled with all kinds of literature, a ball cap, troubleshooter’s jacket and lots of performance car pictures. One in particular was of Sox and Martin and their ’67 Plymouth GTX “The Boss.” We made our way to our rooms and then we met downstairs for a buffet-style dinner and mingled with some of the other contestants from other schools. Steve and I were talking about the graduation parties that we attended almost two weeks earlier. We were not seniors anymore.

We kind of rehearsed our routine together in our heads, and where our hands would be. We thought, We got it.

Tuesday morning arrived and we went to the rules briefing breakfast. Basically, the rules were the same as the state competition rules. Now came a written examination. There were lots of electrical and math questions. We found out that I scored 89 and Steve scored 92. Isn’t it “bore times pi squared times stroke times number of cylinders” to equal cubic inches? Ask Marlan Davis (longtime Hot Rod technical editor). We all climbed aboard buses to take us to the Michigan State Fairgrounds about 15 miles out of Detroit. They served us lunch and again explained the rules. Since when do teenagers follow rules? 

We could all see that the cars lined up in the infield were Barracudas, just like at the state competition. We guessed that Plymouth wanted to sell a lot of these cars! 

A little after noon time, the officials had us line up in front of our school’s vehicle, and when the starter’s pistol fired, we ran “Le Mans style” to the Barracuda and opened the hood. Oh no! These Barracudas have Slant Six engines in them! There goes the routine Steve and I rehearsed on the 318-cid V-8 Barracuda. The carburetor and distributor were in plastic bags and all apart. They looked like components from an Erector set! What is the firing order of a six-cylinder engine? 

After the initial shock, Steve and I realized that we have worked on many Slant Six engines before in the auto shop, and we know our way around other engines. We settled down and started putting things together as we found nothing missing from the assemblies. Not even screws, balls or clips. Because the camshaft drives the oil pump, and that drives the distributor, the shaft has a tang on it that fits in the oil pump gear. That makes finding the correct orientation of the distributor easier. We had use of a remote starter switch button to connect to the starter relay switch to help crank over the engine from the engine compartment. 

Steve was making good progress putting the carburetor together. I pulled all six spark plugs and one had a broken insulator, so I took it up to the judge and he gave me a good one and I gapped all of them to .032 thousandths. I checked each plug wire with the ohmmeter and they were all good, but the coil wire read open. I took it to the judge and he provided me a new one. Steve had the carburetor bolted up to the intake manifold and was attaching the fuel line to it. He was certain that he had not stripped the threads, but the line was not going into the inlet fitting. He took out the fitting and brought it to the judge and he gave him a new one and he replaced it and threaded the fuel line into it.

Next, Steve and I looked at the large rocker cover and could plainly see that all the attaching bolts still had blue paint on them and didn’t look like they had been disturbed. We decided to carefully remove the cover to check for any missing rocker arms or push rods. Nothing was amiss, but it could have been a catastrophe if we did not check. When checking the PCV, it did not rattle when it was shook. We replaced it with a new one from the judge.

The ballast resistor was missing from the firewall, so I went to the judge and he provided me with a new one. I put it on and plugged the wires onto it. Time to turn on the ignition switch to see if we were getting current to the coil and test. The volt meter was attached and showed 12 volts to the ballast resistor and 9 volts to the coil. We went to start the engine from the ignition switch and the engine only cranked over, but did not start. I also made note that the windshield washers were squirting fluid on the windshield when the engine was cranked over. We rechecked the voltage at the coil and 9 volts at the ballast resistor with the ignition in the on position. We rechecked the coil wire and it was good. We tried to start it again and just as I took my hand off the key in the “start” position, it roared to life. However, it seemed odd that the windshield washers would only squirt when the ignition was in the start position. 

We checked the dwell angle, and the ignition timing was adjusted to 10 degrees BTDC. We checked all around the vehicle and found nothing amiss. There were no oil or fuel leaks, but the starting problem was still barking at us. We shut it off and tried thinking about other options.

Steve crawled under the dashboard and located the ignition switch to see if there might be loose wires or something else out of place, but found nothing. We talked over whether anything was different between the Slant Six and the 318-cid V-8 engine that was used in the state competition. We rechecked the wiring to the ballast resistor and to the coil, but could not find anything out of the ordinary. We decided to close the hood of the car and call the judge over so as to get ready to drive the car to the judging station. Steve drove the car one lap around the fairground and we were the first car in the station. We were sent to an area behind the car as the judges hooked up test equipment to the car. After what seemed an eternity a judge came to us and said that the vehicle was not ready for judging and that we should take it back to our position on the field and correct any problems that prevented the car from being judged further. 

We got the car restarted and took it back to our field position and raised the hood and proceeded to go over what we had already accomplished. Going over the wiring harness in the engine compartment, Steve came across the bulkhead connector on the firewall just under the master cylinder. Two brown wires had orange tape on them, but were still plugged into the connector. One brown wire appeared to be 12 gauge and the other was 14 gauge. A shop manual for the Barracuda was available on the work table in front of the car. It had the wiring diagrams and showed that the bulkhead connector had a 12 gauge wire going to the ballast resistor and a 14 gauge wire going to the windshield washer pump. We were able to manipulate the wires into the proper pins in the connector. We restarted the car and it worked properly. We drove it to the judges’ station and by then, there were a few cars ahead of us. When they got to our car, all was found to be correct and we were in 10th place. Steve and I were beside ourselves for not going to the shop manual the first time that we were having trouble.

A little while later, at the awards function, we were given 10th place. I guess that is a lot better than 72nd place. Each team had pictures taken with Robert Anderson, the general manager of the Chrysler-Plymouth division of Chrysler Corp. On Wednesday morning, after packing our bags, we boarded buses that took us to the Lynch Road Plymouth assembly plant for a tour. While we were there, we were told that there was to be a new Plymouth model being built in September. (Ed. note: The new 1968 Plymouth Road Runner.)

We next boarded the buses again for a trip to Detroit Dragway where we met Ronnie Sox and Buddy Martin of the Sox and Martin drag racing team for a performance clinic with their ’67 Plymouth GTX “The Boss.” They showed us some of their performance secrets, such as shaved blocker synchronizer rings in the four-speed transmission and adjustable collector tubes on the headers. After a few mid-10-second runs down the strip, we boarded the buses for the trip to the airport to get our flights for home.

As we all learn lessons from the mistakes made throughout our lives, some of them are more relevant than others. With that being said, just remember this is why printed directions are included in most items. Just because you have encountered projects without trouble before, doesn’t mean that it will be the same next time. “Trouble behind, trouble ahead.”

Following the 1967 Plymouth Trouble Shooting Contest, Edward Bacon pursued a career as an automotive technician. He says, “I stopped being a tech when newer vehicles started to be software driven and you needed to spend money for software licenses, and the Snap On tool truck prices were getting out of sight.”

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