I'm gonna go off on a rant today 'caue I can and I want to. The cause of this rant is the fact it isso much harder to work on modern machinery, stuff that has been made within the past 10 years, than it is to work on stuff that is around 40 years old.
Yes I understand that with all the pollution nonsense, computer thingamabobs, safety doodahs and whatever, it does tend to make things harder to deal with, repair and just plain fix and that has to do with complexity.
A good case in point is the difference between my project BSAs which are about 40 years old each and my pickup which is a 1999 Ford Ranger.
Though I admit to not being a full fledged, know everything about the stuff and can fix anything with a roll of duct tape and a Swiss Army knife kinda guy, I have a slight bit of knowledge that I have managed to pick up over the years throught the osmosis process.
I have stripped the frame of Vicky down to nada and have a really good idea where everything goes and can figure out which spanner to use if need be.
However, in order to change out a simple fuel filter on my truck, a degree in some type of mechanical enginerring is more or less needed as it requires a special little tool in order to release a garter spring that will uncouple the filter from the fuel line. I have the tool and did it work????? By heck it did NOT and the more I try, the more I get frustrated with the whole bloody mess.
Where as on Vicky, if I want to remove the gas tank, I jsut remove the rubber bung, undo the nut from the bolt, loosen th ehose clamp on the fuel line to the carb and pull it off, lift and the tank is sitting on my bench doing SFA until I decide to put it back on.
Easy peasy and simple as hell right??? So why isn't the Ford? Stupid engineering? A diabolical trick to make sure that peopl like me CAN'T learn anything about mechanical stuff or conspiracy to keep the local garages rolling in the money with HIGH labor and parts charges for doing a simple job that most should be able to do themselves but are now forced to have some else do as it's too difficult to do now 'cause specialty equipment such as the diagnostic machine is needed?
So now I have to pay someone to do this simple task as well as possibly replace the fuel pump as it's located in the fuel tank and as it could be a "hazardous" job, someone who knows what they're doing should be doing it instead of muggins here who just wants to get it done so he can drive the truck to work,
Give me a simple machine made 40 years ago that has one or two cylinders, parts don't for the most part cost an arm and a leg for, has a beautiful throaty roar to it when running, is British and I'll be happy.
OK rant over, carry on!!!!!
Wee Smokey
2 weeks ago
In reference to the filter and a comment I left in your previous posting....actually my brothers Ranger is a 94 like mine, his Sportster is a 97...he was outside earlier, working on his bike when I asked about his Ranger...yes, Hooker headers are loud. He isn't much help, he's never replaced his filter. I did my filter once....but I don't remember needing a special tool. I guess it was too easy for us consumers, so they had to make yours harder and then sale you a special tool to boot...so I'm not any help either. I googled and found a place...WWW.ehow.com that had info on an earlier year Ranger that sounded about how mine went. They might have some other years in there. Also there was another place..www.blurtit.com that had a ton of automotive questions and answers. Gee Chief, good luck with it. Sounds like it might be as bad as changing a nuetral saftey switch on a Cherokee...give me an old Brit Bike anyday. Hairy Larry
ReplyDeleteI'll have to check those out HL, maybe something there that the fabulous Haynes workshop manual has not included.
ReplyDeleteBack again CB, Say, your not having a problem where your truck is having an intermittent starting problem are you? I had a problem like that, which took me awhile to trace to the fuel pump relay going bad. All the local experts were sure my fuel pump was the culprit...not so. In warmer weather the relay wouldn't work if it overheated. As soon as it cooled it would work again. Manuals were no help that time either. Poking around I finally found the relays in a plastic box...swapped the fuel pump relay with another on the truck that was the same, and once again I was liking my truck. Yes, things should be simpler. I've actually looked into converting my Ranger into an electric vehicle someday, now that I have the Cherokee. I'm lucky to have a bunch of gearhead guys at work to pick the brains of, on automotive related stuff. Maybe Kawa might have some ideas? He nailed the years on the Chev pick-up and T-Bird pics over at GBC'S. HL
ReplyDeleteI can sympathise with your problem, an I can usual fix vehicals, its all the special tools you have to buy, sometimes just to do the most basic of tasks. I try not to buy special tools unless I know an going to use them more than a couple of time. One example that I've bought in the last few months was a fault code/ reset hand held tester. In the past its been a pain having to nip over to a mates to check codes. Now It seems to get used every other day and has saved me hours finding faults ( usually Renaults for some reason).... maybe some day someone will bring out a car / bike with points and a carb again once all this greenhouse gas / glodal warming / emissions stuff has been expposed for what it is...just the world going through its cycle... thats my thoughts / rant ;-)
ReplyDeleteHL- Fuel pump relay...good thinking Batman, will have to check that as well
ReplyDeleteKawa- Quite right about not wanting to buy the "special tools" but had to as I live about 15 miles outta town in the sticks. But this has gotten me as GBC would say, a little crabbit. But I'd still rather see everything go back to normal as you say. All this new fangled stuff I can do without sometimes. That's the beauty of these old nails I've/we've got to tinker with.