[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by Charles

Rat Shack. What a joke.

Several years ago my wife's LeSabre developed a problem with the ignition switch, the security system wouldn't let her start it.

Now the way the GM Passkey system works is there is a resistor in your key and little fingers in the ignition switch which makes contact on both sides of the key, the computer reads this to make sure you have the proper key, and then it will let the motor start. The little fingers would no longer make reliable contact. And replacing the ignition switch is not only expensive, but a pain in the ass.

So Mr. Wizzard here decides fuck that, the best way to fix this dog is to cut the wires to the little fingers and wire in a resistor that matches the one in the key, thus bypassing the Passkey feature in the ignition switch.

Do you follow me up to this point? Then you don't work for Rat Shack.

So I go to Rat Shack, tell the girl there that I want her to take an ohmmeter and measure the value of the resistor in the key and sell me a resistor with the same value.

Her response, "We don't make keys."

So I tell her, "I know you don't make keys. This key has a resistor built into it, and these are the contacts. I want you to measure the value of the resistor in the key and sell me a resistor just like it."

Her response again, "We don't make keys."

So I asked her if anyone else worked there. She goes in the back room and after five minutes someone a little higher up the food chain comes out and tells me, "We don't make keys."

Resisting the urge to ask that since they don't make keys, are they capable of pouring piss out of a boot, I took this guy through the whole scenario again.

Finally, he made the connection and sold me a bag of 100 resistors, none of which matched the value of the one in the key.

I suppose this was a moot point, as my wife determined to us this as an opportunity to club me over the head with the fact that she wanted a new car. She called it needed, I thought of it as wanted, but that's also a moot point as you can't fight city hall.

Sometimes you just can't win.

Chas

PS: Say Blue, what did they tell you when you asked for an L-pad, "We don't make keys"?

"A what?"

"L-Pads."

"What's it for?"

"Balancing the output between low and high frequency drivers while keeping resistance constant."

"Ummmmm, I don't know what that means. What does it go on? Like a teevee, or something?"

"Something like that."

Dave