Does not take much to hate cars

[Charlief1]

I started working on them just as the "electronic" revolution happened and have seen more and more of the younger guys have no clue on how to work on the old ones. They don't teach the basics anymore since you don't see them that often these days. I know some of you have no clue how to work on a carb of any sort but you're not in the business. I even worked with 1 guy with an L1 cert and he was my age and didn't know how to set a carb for idle or rpm.  


When I get one of the older cars in I feel like a kid now since it's so rare that I get to work on something simple, unless it's a tractor.   Almost wish I had decided to do something else for a living but after 30+ years of doing it I really don't know what else to do these days.

[Steve Wood]

When I got this jeep, one of the many things wrong was no charging.  I looked at it and thought this thing needs a GM alternator with a built in regulator and a volt light on the dash...so I cut out the old wiring, regulator, etc. Put a GM type alternator on it, added a small jewel light in the dash and wired it like it was a Camaro or Buick...

Guy was selling it because it would not start without pouring gas in the carb...saw there was no accelerator pump shot, rebuilt the carb and adjusted the linkage so it would lift the pump high enuf to let gas into the well and it starts like a clock.  Older cars all basically are put together the same and you seen one, you seen most of them.  Wiring is generally rotten so just cut and paste.

[SuperSix]

I remember seeing a Buick wagon tow vehicle at BG -  with a dual quad 455

[tb3]

carbs???
if you cant plug your laptop into it...  its considered "boring", lol

[Steve Wood]

carbs have always been tunable  but the new ones with the screw in bleeds make it much easier

[Steve Wood]

I have been thinking about putting a power steering pump on it for about 15 years because it can get very hard to turn at an idle unless the rpms come up a little.  I guess there is a valve that controls the pressure in the pump that is sticky or such.

[daveismissing]

Pull out the welder to patch the truck.
Quick realize I have no gloves on.
I can only find one welding glove.
Three quartes thru the patch the autodark helmet craps out.
Batteries are fresh.No idea where the other one is, shut my  eyes and fake it.
Pull out the panel adhesive to attach some skin- its old but I chance it (3M).
Sun has gone down and the temperature plummets.
Now its midnight and the stuff isn't setting up very fast at all.
Hang light bulbs as a heat source around the patch after warming with the propane torch....
Sigh

[daveismissing]

Finally set up- good thing, would have looked funny driving to work with a plethora of clamps attached.

Keep forgetting about using cleco's till after the fact.

[motorhead]

I took the Buick out last night.  I had to go into the city for "work" so it was a good excuse to put some miles on it.  So I changed the oil, dusted it off, drained the catch can, aired up the tires, grabbed the laptop and headed out.  Why does it seem like this car needs a pre-flight check every time I drive it?

Also after having had concluded the oil change I determined that I had only driven the car 1498kms since the last oil change - in mid-May of last year!  I used to drive this thing 14,000kms a year...

[Steve Wood]

Saturday, I went out to the shop to swap the back springs out of the GN and put Eibachs back in because I had the road graded from the highway to the house and don't have to negotiated wash outs anymore.

Figured it would take me about 20 minutes.  Miscalculated how high I had to jack the differential up when I was putting jack-stands under the frame.  When I popped the shocks loose and dropped the diff, the tires touched the ground before the springs came loose so they would pop out.

Being pissed off, instead of jacking the diff up and lifting the car until I could raise both jack stands another notch for the required clearance, I jacked each side up, one at a time until the springs were loose.  Crawl out, pump the jack handle a couple of times, try it again...crawl out and give it a couple of more pumps...do that side and then repeat on the other side.

Bad enuf being senile but being mad really shuts down the thought process.  Took me 45 minutes to swap them out when that is about as easy a job there is

[nocooler]

Steve if you really want to hate cars - I'll let you come help me put this 4l80e back in 

[Steve Wood]

That is the reason God made you young guys...someone needs to suffer!