Do you remember when ...

[Newt]

You could open the hood of an auto, have room to work, and be able to do a tune-up without fancy electronic equipment?

 

1950 Chevrolet

 

[Kew]

I do sure do Newt, I am not a mechanic so it was so easy to work on the older cars, I have just sold a old 1991 Nissan that I used for a run around it was a 1litre ,cheap to run and when it needed a new fan belt it took 10 minuets to change because it was on the side if the engine and not tucked in some obscure corner. every thing was accessible in that little car.every nut ,screw lining ,light cluster etc was renewable and easy to change.`

 

I never go under the bonnet of the Audi I have except to check water and oil or top up wind shield

spray tank. when it needed a new timing belt and water pump the garage had to take half the car apart just to change it.

 

In my teenage years myself and mates were always tinkering with cars we would not touch them now. lotsa young men are missing out on part of growing up and learning for themselves about the cars they drive.

[Vagabond]

Same goes for motorcycles. In the late 1950's I used to buy clapped out motorcycles for peanuts, strip them down, replace the odd part or two (often second hand from a breaker's) and resell the bike at a profit. I made enough in a couple of years to treat myself to a brand new BSA C12.

 

These days I don't even know enough about modern machines to start one

Edited February 3, 2010 by Vagabond

[severus]

Reminds me of a 1958 Chevy Apache pickup I once owned. It had a floor starter, wood bed, and column shift (3 on the tree). More than once did I mistakenly step on the ignition and power-lurch the truck forward.

[chevin]

In The early '80s I went into the local branch of K-Mart, bought a set of points for my car and asked what the gap was for that engine. The guy told me that I would need a dwell meter to set them.. I told him that I had never heard of a dwell meter, let alone used one. He told me that it was impossible to set points without them. I put him right on that and eventually got the figure I needed. I set the points to that gap, and then knowing about dwell meteres I borrowed one and my setting was spot on. Simple on cars of that era. If I lift the bonnet on my cars today, I have difficulty in finding the engine let alone anything else. It is even necessary to have the car on a ramp to put on a new coil! Sod all you can do at the side of the road if you break down.

[Elton]

I used to love working on cars and it's a hobby I plan to take up again. The original post highlights exactly why I want to do so with older cars. Not only were things easier to access, but you could actually fix mechanical problems, rather than having to replace some sensor or other that has rendered your modern car motionless!

[chesters1]

still can Newt no engine management on golfs or volvo's over20 years old they both have carbs too the gti version is a little more complicated though

saying that the volvo engine is far to complicated for what it is there's a myriad of non essential pipes and wires

Edited February 4, 2010 by chesters1

[Worms]

I have a petrol/LPG engine in my Land Rover with a dizzy and a carb, so no problems there and the Wife has a Morris Traveller with a later A+ 1275 engine with the standard dizzy and carb. We got rid of her computerised Rover when we started having sensors fail!

 

As for bikes well...............no, I'm not going to start on that one!

[Sportsman]

still can Newt no engine management on golfs or volvo's over20 years old they both have carbs too the gti version is a little more complicated though

saying that the volvo engine is far to complicated for what it is there's a myriad of non essential pipes and wires

 

 

Just remove some of the pipes and wire and see how "non-essential" they are

[Elton]

Just to highlight how true some of these observations are, I have to change a front driving/fog light bulb on my Evo before it's MOT next week. To do so appears to involve having the car up and removing various bits and pieces in the way first.

 

All this for a poxy bulb!