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Tried the water and baking soda long ago and it didn’t work. Unless that threaded stud coming out the top is actually part of the battery and not the wiring then I don’t see any way a puller would work. I’ve never seen a battery with a threaded stud on the positive terminal, but it would make more sense that that’s how this holds together. And yes everything I’ve tried has been with the nut off, that’s a mistake you only make once. I sprayed it with WD-40 Rust Release, which has penetrating oil in it and I’m going to let it soak in for a while and try again.
The worst car I’ve ever been in was my parent’s 98 Chevy Blazer. Literally everything on that broke multiple times. No matter how many times it was taken to a shop nothing on it could be fixed for more than a few months. My “favorite” time in that thing was having the fuel pump die at the gas station in 100+ weather. But my mom loved it for reasons that science has not been able to explain. She kept it until about a year ago and sold it for about $1500. I feel sorry for whoever bought it.
Oh do I have stories, but I’ll stick to my favorite. This is the one that really cemented me deciding to be a mechanic, if only an amateur one. I was with my Mustang soon after I’d gotten it running. I had taken it to a mechanic that I’d used before to have them give it a preliminary tune up and they wanted to charge me around $80-90. I said okay, dropped it off and came back the next day to realize that I had just wasted my money. Not only did they not tune anything like I’d asked them to, they did a dumb “Safety Checklist” that my car failed when things on the list of critical components included the washer fluid level, and they had decided to “fix” the problem of my carburetor not opening all the way by removing the transmission kickdown rod (that actually wasn’t even the problem, my after market carb didn’t have a place for the accelerator linkage to attach in a way for it open completely, I had to make a custom one to fix it). I was taken for a ride behind the shop so they could show me how much faster it now could go, which is very ironic considering what they told me afterwards. When we got back to the shop the one thing that they told me that has stuck with me for all these years was that my car was so dangerously low on brake fluid that they would not let their family drive it anywhere, and they did not refill it. WHAT!?! I know I should have demanded my money back since they didn’t do what I paid them to do, took my car apart to “fix” a problem I didn’t ask about, and released and drove the car when they admitted it was unsafe, but I was in too much disbelief that I didn’t. When I got back to my house I checked the master cylinder (which I had to open with a pipe wrench because of how tight they screwed the lid on and it was the only thing I had big enough) and found it to be almost empty. Which is it’s own story since I had the entire brake system replaced before hand, and since there were no leaks, the master should have been full.
It honestly depends entirely on the setup you plan to use. If you’re buying a kit they almost always have decently detailed instructions. I will also depend on whether you want the fan to always on or temperature controlled (wiring for the later will be more complicated).
Here’s some instructions I pulled from the fans at Summit to give you an idea
http://static.summitracing.com/global/images/instructions/summit%20electric%20fans.pdf
http://static.summitracing.com/global/images/instructions/der-16927.pdf
http://static.summitracing.com/global/images/instructions/flx-180.pdfHope this helps
I can’t exactly comment as to weather or not planned obsolescence is a real thing, at least in the automotive industry anyway. The consumer electronics industry however is most definitely guilty of it (I’m looking at you Apple). Software, phones, tablets, computers, there have been examples of planned obsolescence in all of them. And since people in general tend to just throw them out and get the newest, shiniest, thing as soon as it comes out they can get away with it for the most part. Obviously though no company (regardless of industry) will admit to it. Doing so would not only throw their reputation in the dumpster, but it also illegal.
As an aspiring engineer you are right about them Eric. While I can’t speak for everyone for the most part no engineer wants to design a crap product. Doing so would be pretty counter intuitive and could ruin their future job prospects. In fact as to how things are made engineers have the least say overall in the entire process. They get told that the product they’re working on, weather it be a car, phone, refrigerator, etc, has to do x,y, and, z, it has to be a certain size, look a certain way, and cost within whatever budget is set for them (which is usually arbitrary and far below desirable). Most of the time they don’t have much choice other than to design in lower quality parts because their budget simply won’t allow them to do so otherwise.
A quick update on this since the replacement purge valve has not arrived. Filled up the gas today and again, it was hard to start. That part seems to be getting worse the longer this goes on. But strangely when I checked the millage we were getting 35 mpg. It’s actually the best mpg we’ve ever gotten out of that car. Any ideas about that?
I’ve got my own mini fleet going. I have three cars, two of which aren’t supposed to be mine, but I’m stuck with them for the indefinite future. They are supposed to be my wife’s but since she doesn’t have a licence yet so I’m stuck with them till then. The three are: a 2005 Hyundai Accent, a 2001 Hyundai Elantra, and a 1965 Mustang all with their own problems.
The accent is having some EVAP problems, simple enough to fix and I’ve ordered the parts I think need to be replaced. The Elantra is now sidelined due to a dead transmission, but it also has an oil leak that I can’t find, a bent rear wheel, and a laundry list of other minor problems. The Mustang has badly leaking rear main seal, a possible blown head gasket, a dead spot in the steering, and the front suspension squeaks badly, along with another laundry list of things but I plan on taking care of these things when I finally get around to restoring it.
With both me and my wife being college students I haven’t really had access the money, tools, and space to do most of the work on them that they need but I don’t right now so I’ve had to make do. But hey, it makes fixing things interesting.
I couldn’t open the EVAP canister, but I pulled it out of the car and no fuel came out of any of the hoses. I also checked the purge valve. It was closed when I pulled it off the car and when I hooked up a battery it clicked but otherwise did nothing. My theory (please correct me if I’m wrong here) is that the purge valve being stuck closed is causing the computer to richen the fuel mixture since the extra vapors aren’t getting into the engine and the car is stalling at the gas station because the EVAP system is already backed up from the fuel vapors not having anywhere to go and flood the engine when new gas is put in.
No, I never top off the tank. I’ve heard some other people I’ve this about and most have said that it’s the purge valve, seems to be a common problem for Hyundai’s I guess. I’ll check the EVAP canister too though. I don’t want to just start replacing things unless I’m sure it needs to be replaced. I’ve made that mistake before and it got expensive…
I’ve never had the “pleasure” of buying a service contract, but it sounds to me like it’s just like any other kind of insurance, a scam. Insurance would be great if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s as far as I know the only industry that punishes you for using a service that you have already paid for.
I’d say that all you need is just a general interest in cars. I’ve met people who work in the industry who absolutely despise cars and I’ve met people who love them and have picked up a wrench in their life. Which was the bigger car guy? I suppose the best answer is the same as it is with most self imposed titles; do you feel like you are one? Do you feel like you’re a car guy? If you do, then yes you are one. If you don’t, then you’re not.
Just my two cents.
I’m pretty sure all of the high end manufactures have their own certifications and training programs. I know that UTI offers manufactures specific training programs. I don’t think they have programs for the really high end stuff like Ferraris or Lamborghinis but they offer Mercedes, BMW, and Porsche so that would be a good place to start.
Hope this helps
I’d say in general not really. In my experience as a classic car owner and someone who is somewhat in the restoration community, most people who are really passionate about their classics will do most if not all of the work on their cars themselves. Most of the time the people who pay people to restore their cars for them are the ones who really just want to have a classic just for the sake of having one, and as Eric said, there are a ton of people out there already doing it.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t try if it’s something you’re really passionate about. Since I consider myself an amateur I’d go around to the various classic car forums and ask them there especially if you have a particular car you favor. Who knows you might get lucky.
As to living in the past without all these complicated electronics and flashy gizmos and doodads, I’m right there with you, even though I’m not old enough to remember.
Whelp as requested I have a final update. Due to some recent events we no longer have the option to fix the car. I suppose it’s for the best anyway. As it stood there were just way too many ‘ifs’ involved with fixing it. IF we could find a cheep enough used one (since we couldn’t find one that was already rebuilt), IF we could get a transmission guy to inspect and service it for cheep enough, then IF it even was in working condition, and then IF I could rent/barrow the tools/equipment to pull the old one and install the new one since I already know that we can’t afford to have a shop do it. That’s four whole ‘ifs’, way too many to really justify attempting the job, assuming of course that it was still an option, which it’s not. What exactly will done with it we’re not sure yet. I’m going to try to sell it for a couple hundred dollars as a parts cars or something but I doubt anyone would buy it.
Anyway thanks everyone for replying and offering your two cents. I really appreciate it.
[quote=”grounded-b” post=149660]The oddest incident of thievery of items in one of my vehicles, was when someone got into my reliable POS ’93 Gr Voyager and stole a few items….
Did they steal the GPS which I had on the floor between the seats? No, they stole my jumper cables, 1 case of oil and two oil filters.
I can’t really figure that one out !!!
Steve[/quote]
That is weird. Almost seems like they were in some kind of desperate situation since that’s not even stuff you’d would even get stolen in the first place. Let alone that you had that gps ripe for the taking.
