RAY: Well, talking about puzzlers. Here is today's new puzzler. We had a car recently in the shop that was making not an unusual noise but a very common noise of a spark plug wire or a bad coil or something like that discharging. You would hear that snapping sound. So the engine would run and every once in a while, maybe every minute or two minutes, you would hear, snap, snap, and the driver could hear it. So sitting in the car with the radio off you would hear this noise. Although it was not accompanied by an engine miss.

TOM: It was not.

RAY: It was not accompanied by an engine miss. We were convinced it was something to do with a misfire that somehow or another a spark was jumping to ground and in fact, I will give you the hint that it was except we couldn't find it. An examination of the secondary ignition system turned up nothing. We investigated the wires and all that.

TOM: Whew!

RAY: Then, then, then I had a brainstorm. It started to get cold and dark and rainy. And realizing that we are now on standard time and it gets dark at 2:00 in the afternoon and it was getting damp and rainy. I told the guy who was working on it, stick the car outside. In a few minutes it will be dark, and it will be wet.

TOM: And we'll see it.

RAY: It's going to exacerbate the problem because if you have a bad spark plug wire or a bad cap or bad coil, you will see it, you will hear it. It will happen more frequently. So we put the car outside.

TOM: Let me guess. It stops doing it.

RAY: You spoil all the fun. We put the car outside. An hour later my guy goes out and he starts the thing up and he says, "guess what -- the noise is gone!" "How could this be?" I ask. He says, "I think I know the answer." I say, "you do? Give me a hint?" And he says, "your brother's hair."

TOM: Wow, what a puzzler.

RAY: Now if you think...

TOM: Yeah!

RAY: Yeah!

TOM: Yeah?

RAY: If you think you know the answer...

TOM: I think I've got it!