I miss the old days of working on your car

i have been building old cars and bikes for twenty years and the other day i went to change a headlight bulb on my new Ranger.

well an hour later i was no closer, weird clips and screws i could not undo and plastic everywhere which snapped just looking at it, in the end the only way i could change it was to remove the battery which i could not remove because the tie-down bolt was completely rusted to the car.

so i now i still have only one headlight.

 

The techno geeks live by the mantra, it's got no moving parts so nothing can wear out. Of course they never see a privately-owned cheapy PC, nor any kind of computer more than three months old, so they won't really be able to relate to the fact that microchips not only have moving parts, but moving parts small enough to act like living tissue at a crystalline level. Hence they don't realise that for most of us in the real world microchips are wayward and ephemeral things.

The last microchip in my DD VW Golf Mk1 was in the alarm/immoboliser system. When that started threatening to strand me in bad neighbourhoods because of real-world intermittent/variable current inputs the module was made to trace a graceful arc over my right shoulder.

Electronic controls represent the holy grail for certain elements in the motor industry. It allows them to ensure absolute reliability over an absolutely limited period of time. Today's cars aren't really durable, they are merely designed to stand an unprecedented intensivity of use over a very short period of time. Hence the impressive mileages; but they really aren't suited to sparing use over a period of decades, never mind sitting in a barn for forty years.

So vehicle use levels come from the type of vehicle technology used, and that comes from legislation: and hence it becomes political very rapidly, I'm afraid; but as any old lefty worth his or her salt will claim, "everything is political" ...

 

Ditto for my son's old "99 Oldsmobile Alero and the 2004 Ford Explorer with the "slip o matic" we have here at work now!

 

Agreed

Lundy

 

One thing to remember... in the good old days tune ups were recommended every 10K...so we would need to work on it every 6 mos by today's driving standards.

 

Rubbish!

 

I totally agree. I remember wrenching on my hot rod out in the shop when I was a 15-16 year old kid and it was just so simple. Everything was just out in the open where you could get a wrench on it.

Over the weekend I had to figure out WTF was wrong with my daily driver. Turned out it was either the Distributor Cap/Rotor or plug wires (fortunately it was still a conventional distributor/coil setup). But the nightmare I had to go through in order to figure that out was just plain NUTS. I'm sitting here now with every knuckle on my right hand bloodied from trying to get access to stuff on the motor.

And who the hell had the bright idea to run the steering shaft in front of cylinder #3 on the S-series trucks???? You have to actually disconnect the shaft from the rack and move it out of your way in order to get to that plug! Not to mention to even get to the plugs at all you have to access them through the fenderwell (and not through the hood)!

And whoever came up with those plug wire looms can kiss my ass too.

 

Exactly. It has to be the other way around, since nobody seems to pay any attention to maintenance these days.

I see rotors worn through to the vents, engines with 1-1/2 quarts of oil, and check engine lights that have been on for 6-9 months. I see folks who don't know, or pay any attention to warning lamps of any kind, tape over them, or even take bulbs out.

Cars of today have to keep functioning through all of this. So if anything, they are more fault-tolerant. Trouble is, when the do actually break, they break big-time.

 

Wonder how many cars today will be worked on 30 or 40 years from now.

PS: I got that plug out without removing the steering shaft, but it wasn't easy, lol.

 

omg!!!

How the hell did you do that?!?!

 

Fuel filters in fuel tanks piss me off. It shouldn't take dropping a tank to replace a clogged filter.

Low pressure fuel pumps inside tanks piss me off too.

My frikin' Ford truck has filters and low pressure pumps in both tanks in addition to the high pressure pump and filter on the frame rail.

 

We used to replace those CV joints and boots. Today the whole rebuilt axle is half the price it cost us to rebuild them 20 years ago. Do you really want to go back to that mess? I love that I can get a reman half shaft for $65.
Keep in mind also that these are really throw away cars. If you get a couple hundred thousand miles, get rid of it and get a new car.

 

Torch

 

spark plug socket with the hex end on it, and a wrench. And a little patience, lol.

 

ya, they just dont make "JUNK" like they used to

 

Ah true....I guess I couldn't see too many cars built in the last 35 years that has the potential to be a classic. Unless in the future people obsess over plastic cars because theirs are built out of styrofoam.....

 

If you can afford it.

 

Hmm had a car crank but not start, no check engine light no clue as to the possible problem other than no spark which is computer controled (no dizzy) After much thought there were 2 options tow it to the dealer or replace the crank sensor. Of course with no way to check if the old one is bad replacing it is a shot in the dark. A week later a new crank sensor arrives in the mail and bingo starts right up. Frustrating its a dealer part costing over $100 and you may just be buying something you don't need.

 

Admittedly once I figured out that I needed/could easily get that shaft out of the way it made my life easier. It's just that I question why the engineers would have designed it like that. If the engine or shaft were an inch fore or aft the plug would have been accessible.

 

I think we tend to forget most cars today are thought of as appliances by their owners. We are a minority that actually likes to work on cars for fun. If you ask the average driver, men included, what engine is in their car most will shrug. Some may know it's a four cyl. or a six but that's about it. When i was a kid it was usually just the father that drove and he also did most of the maintenace on the family car. When i went with anyone to look at a used car we would pass by most anything with over 50,000 miles, that's when they started to "nickle and dime" you to death; by 100,000 they were junk. The newer cars can go tremendous amounts of miles with very little maintenance, even plugs are good well after 100,000 miles. If the new cars were like the old ones they would be real pieces of crap. Now you have a light to tell you when to change the oil or you might even get an E Mail to tell you it's time. If it weren't for this stuff some people might never think to do even routine maintenace. And don't forget if something does go wrong anf it's not obvious you can plug your vehicle into a computer and IT will tell you what is wrong. might be a pain to get to to fix, but at least you know what to do. i love the older stuff, but i was there and i worked a lot more on the older stuf than you have to with the new stuff. Might be a pain sometimes to get to something but you don't have to do it every weekend to get to work the next week.

 

Computer won't always tell you as it wouldn't tell us the crank position sensor wasn't working. Perhaps if we had had the dealer computer instead of the shop computer.

 

I'll take the older carbed stuff any day. '86 Cutlass 305 ... fuel pump $35, can replace on the side of the road (spare in trunk) in less than 15 minutes, try that with a "fuelie" with the pump in the tank. I keep a complete HEI dist, and an alternator in the trunk as well (along with belts etc). Sure I pay a little more at the pumps, but that's a trade-off I am willing to live with.

To each there own though ...

 

Me too(FoMoCo tech) .

Dealer computer won't even tell ya that. (BTW, a quick easy test for a CKP (crank) sensor is to crank the motor and watch the tach, if the needle moves then there is a good chance the sensor is working)

Sorry guys but I have to say this: The computer/scanner you plug into the late model stuff doesn't ever tell you EXACTLY whats wrong.... Yes, sometimes you get a code for a specific sensor or part (Component fault code) , and yes some times it is that part at fault, but there is no way for YOU or the computer to know if the component is at fault, if a wire(s) to the component are open/shorted, or if there is an internal fault in the computer, until some actual diagnostic work is performed. On the stuff I work on most of the codes are condition related (too lean bank 1, EVAP leak detected less then 0.020", EGR flow too high, random miss, ect), and the scanner/code are only a STARTING POINT...

Sorry for the rant, I just get real tired of people telling me "Oh your not a real mechanic, you just plug the computer in and it tells you what part to change"

As far as what I like to work on, doesn't matter if its new or old, each has it's own difficulties...

 

I did check the tach, thats how I narrowed it down to an educated guess on it being the crank sensor.

 

This is why the wife and I drive late model full size GM rear wheel drive trucks/suvs as DD's. Fundamentals are pretty much the same with some extra wiring and sensors.

 

*Harmonic balancer on Stepson's 92 ford last weekend.
*Fuel pump on Son's 92 Camaro this week.
*Driveshaft on Wife's 2000 Grand Prix yesterday.
I spent half the day Saturday towing cars home.

I just miss the good ol day's of working on my projects.

 

No kiddin'. I had a problem that kept giving me the codes for something to do with the O2 sensor. But the sensor itself wasn't the problem. It was actually something going on upstream of the O2 sensor. Well shit! Everything is upstream of the danged O2 sensor. (I can't remember what the problem turned out to be on that car)

 

Ever change the spark plugs on a late 60's early 70's, 428 Boss Mustang??? that will make you take up knitting for sure.

 

+1...

had a 71 mustang with a 351c and you needed gypsy hands to get the back plugs out. i loved that car though... ran like crap unless she was sippin premium gas with octane booster and i would have to change the plugs sooner...

 

As of right now I have 2 days fixing mom's car ,I could of pulled a sbc and had it in by now.A few more hours tomorrow and done ,Repair book sucks and is wrong ,Spent countless hours trying to remove oil pan which they picture out of the car ,Frame is in the way ,Had hoist liting motor to highest point according to book.I just want to work on my hotrod ,Fck these cars