Wanting an older point ignition vehicle.

[Torn]

I have a 74 Bronco I bought in 95’ that‘s my EDD (took it on the Hot Rod Power Tour last year) with a 302 HP, 3spd, carbureted, 9”rear end with Yukon axles, gears, Power Front Disc brakes, dual gas tanks etc. I upgraded to a run-ready distributor but kept the old distributor with wires, cap, points, condenser, ballast etc along with a lot of spare parts (belts, hoses, fluids) and tools in a box in the back (just in case).

The price on them went through the roof about 10 years ago but the fad is waining and prices are dropping pretty quick as people are moving on to the next fad. Easy to work on, lots of parts available, 4WD, room in the back and on the roof rack and with coil springs and radius arms in the front it has an unbelievable turn radius. Going to install a new front bumper I’m building with a winch this winter. Great BOV or GHV but anything still running and driving around after SHTF would be like a duck in a shooting gallery.

 

[spencer60]

I seriously doubt there is going to be any pulse that would wipe the amount of electronics and all out around the world that people are imagining would happen in a science fiction environment. This would be major league and would take something almost unheard of strength wise or even concerted together to do the type of damage folks are dreaming up.
Never gonna happen.
Also the people or madmen doing this would be screwing themselves as well….

Doesn't have to be an enemy nuke. The Carrington Event in 1859 was due to a coronal mass ejection (CME) that hit Earth.

A large CME could easily blanket the globe, and in that case caused telegraph lines to spark and catch fire. Not much else used electricity back then, so that was about the worst that happened.

Today it would fry the entire electric grid, as well as every piece of electronic gear that wasn't hardened or in a Faraday cage. Depending on the size it could take out a region, or the whole globe.

It's probably happened dozens of times before in human history, but the only way people would have known then is by the Northern Lights showing up way South of their usual haunts.

The good news is that the odds of a major CME exactly intersecting Earths' orbit are pretty low, less than 2% over the next decade from almost everything I've read.

 

[BillsCamino]

My son's company...Intelsat in Ellenwood...lost two satellites this past summer due to a solar event.
Y'all fly right over it when landing in ATL from the east.
My point is, the threat does exist...naturally or man made.

 

[letusbuyyourcar]

Got any specific

Kinda sounds like the Mercedes sedans and wagons from the 80s .

 

[41mag]

Yeah , yall are probably right. We are all screwed or gonna be screwed if there isn’t something done. Let me in on what you come up with that will prevent this, if anything is possible that can be done. If not, we will just have to go back to manually writing stuff down.

 

[spencer60]

There's a lot of stuff you can do...

One example... I have a small metal garbage can sealed with metallic tape that has some post-EMP supplies in it. Things like a solar panel charger and battery bank to power small electronics. A Baufang and some 2-way radios. Other small electrical stuff like that.

I open it up every 3-4 months and update a memory stick that has my PC backups in it, and there's another one that stays there with static data like family pictures and such.

Ideally it should be grounded but it doesn't have to be. Charge travels across a surface, and it's going to jump to the real ground, which it's literally touching, before it would damage anything inside.

 

[spencer60]

So, even in an older vehicle you would need to keep spares of any electrical parts (points, coils, alternator, starter) in a metal box, since those would probably still fry in a real EMP. Probably cook the battery too depending on how much current the wires connected to it picked up. Even a carb with an electric choke could be an issue.

And the thing about EMP is that any wire acts like an antenna, and the longer it is the more energy it can collect. How long do you think the wiring harness in a vehicle is? Even in a steel body there's no continuous surface for the charge to flow around, so it'll probably absorb more current than any of the items I mentioned above.

If there's a severe EMP, anything with wires in it will probably break as the wires melt under the load. That would include pretty much everything mentioned here.

An older vehicle would have fewer wires to replace, and no computer(s) to deal with, but I think you would have a lot of work ahead of you to get it running again, assuming you had stockpiled and protected all the parts you need.

 

[jaxyaks]

Seriously I wish I could find one of these.

They are out there, but so many have been customized and ruined.

View attachment 6513909

There is a white one listed on FB marketplace right now in Woodstock for $5200

 

[Boomer Mike]

Here is the only EMP-proof vehicle that has no wires or electronics of any kind:

 

[Just1more]

70s-mid 80s K-5 Blazer 4x4