General Chat

Maggie saying about overhauling the gear-box and engine has made me realize how much I don't know anymore.Not much more than suck, squeeze, bang blow these days.

Last night, before I dropped off, I tried to remember the lay-out of a manual gearbox. All gone, have to Google it.

I am technically totally inept so could not even be a technician these days.

maggie .......... :-D :-D :-D

I was never mechanically minded enough to be interested.

My "job" at car shows and when looking seriously at a new car, was to get into the back seat, and announce whether there was enough leg room!!

Sylvia, I've never driven - it didn't stop me cleaning the spark plugs, connecting cables etc :-D

When we went to car auctions, I took great pleasure in lifting the bonnets of certain makes of moggie, and pressing the secret 'start' button :-D :-D
Many 'not in the know' were very impressed! :-D :-D :-D

I don't drive, never have driven, so no point asking me anything about a car.

OH much prefers manual, and so that is what we buy ............. some are still available, though if we need a new car a manual might not be possible.

He sticks to the same mechanic as long as he can ....... he's currently with only the 3rd one (son of the 2nd one!) since we came to Vancouver over 50 years ago, and he's been with him for over 20 years.

Once and once only, OH tried to do something with the car .............. he was hitching up the trailer to go to the cabin we then owned, and couldn't get the electrics connected. No trailer lights, no can go. So he tried and tried and tried.

Nothing succeeded, so he finally drove car and trailer down the street to the mechanic's place of work.

Brad took one look at the car, then looked at OH and said "xxxx, you stick to what you do best, teaching, and we'll do what we do best, repairing cars".

Only a little while later, everything was connected, trailer lights working, and mechanic paid.

NB ............. every mechanic he's had has been good, and never overcharges or suggests something needs doing when it doesn't.

It seems that, locally anyway, we no longer have mechanics, they are now vehicle technicians.

If you can operate a computer, you're in. :-0

a philosophical thought; if a vehicle malfunction can not be diagnosed by a computer, does it (the problem) exist?

It sounds like, nowadays, if a light doesn't tell them what's wrong, they can't workI it out for themselves!
Ex and I had an old Morris Van.
We'd overhaul the gear box one year, the engine the next - whether they needed it or not!
If anythng was wrong, we'd be down the scrap yard to get a 'new' engine or gearbox
:-D

The garage who would not change my brake pads because the discs were so worn they would be dangerous. I could not afford new discs so I took it home, went to the scrappy (y second home), jacked it up, off with the wheels and not a thing wrong with the discs!

The same garage hugely exceeded a quote on Fred's car too.

Not long afterwards, they went out of business and the owner wrote to Fred offering his services as a mobile mechanic!

I just wonder if all diagnostics are through a computer now.

Does nobody suck in air through their teeth anymore?

My sister had a problem with her car, took it to a couple of mechanics, they told her what the problem was and what it would cost to fix, I have to say she has an ample bust and is blonde, she told them what the problem was and that she is also a car mechanic when she told them this they asked her to leave.

I have not worked on a car since my forty-third birthday and I never was much good at it but I like to hang on to what knowledge I acquired.

My ears were never too good but that still doesn't stop me listening to the engine neurotically on any journey I take, in any vehicle and am not driving at the moment due to the cataracts.

Starting when OH found the biggest pot-hole h could to bump over in my two-seater Smart,she sometimes loses power (he says) but it feels to me like she is not in top gear.

Searching in the very dark recesses of my memory, I had a little think about automatic gear-boxes and thought I might know what was wrong.

I never would have taken on an automatic gear-box and there is no hope of my doing it now so we contacted our mechanic. I said "I think the annulus and planets are not engaging properly" and he said " I can't do it because it is not showing any lights on the dashboard it won't come up on the computer".

I am probably wrong about it anyway, I was never very good and have had the spit problem explained to me on many occasions but now I feel that I have been left behind in a past era as well!