While testing a starter on a 56 flat head, I explained and demonstrated how electricity works to my nine year old grandson. First I explained to him that a power outlet in a house is connected to a large network of lines which go back to some electrical power generating source, such as a water turbine.

The I showed him how one can move power from an outlet via a battery charger to a battery. I showed him how the charger did nothing until we plugged it into the outlet and then how the positive and negative clamps would then spark. We attached those clamps to a six volt battery and showed him how the needle indicated that energy was moving from the outlet into the battery. And finally how that we could prove that by touching a wire from the positive pole to the negative pole and a spark would occur which meant that we just let a little bit of energy escape from the battery.

Then we looked at the starter and and its motionless engaging gear. When we put two wires to the starter and that gear spun, his eyes were wide open. I then had him put his hand on my wrist and we repeated the action; then his hand on my hand then my hand on his wrist and finally he did it himself. When he touched that hot wire to that starter by himself and that gear spun, he was one excited little boy.

Tomorrow I will teach him that the starter is an electric motor and how that small motor turns over a LARGE engine. Later when the L6 is running, we will learn how the electricity flows from the generator to the spark plugs and etc.

Next week is going to be a fun week, and all because some eight years ago I picked up an old truck sitting on the side of the road and learned how to become a novice hobby mechanic. My success though is also the success of the many who have helped me and who continue to do so.