Maybe they thought it was some passing boat from Moreyville or up-Volga, with a balky engine.

If we'd had to deal with a balky engine, I doubt we would have had the time to do as much as we have.

Somebody was trying to start a balky engine in the driveway next door; it wheezed, it whirred, it coughed.

Crabbing is mostly grunt work, setting traps, tending to a balky engine, slicing up dead fish for bait.

Precious minutes were running down the drain as he attempted to get the balky engine into action.

It appeared, the officials said, that a sticky valve on the balky third engine had failed to close, causing the engine to shut down.

In some ways the thing had passed the limits of the clinically dead; sometimes they had to slam it into operation like push-starting a balky engine.

The sound came more clearly, the rumbling backfire of a balky engine, the clatter of loose metallic parts.