What are some car-repair jobs you always wished you could do

On Sat, 4 Nov 2017 18:17:11 +0000 (UTC), RS Wood <rswood@is.invalid>
wrote:

rbowman wrote:

I know what you mean. All mine have been chains, where some have plastic
chain guides or tensioners which need replacing - but I've never needed to
replace a belt - but belts are pretty common on cars nowadays, aren't they?

Serpentine belts are common, as are interference engines. I replaced the
belt on my Geo when it got up around 100,000 miles. I didn't know the
maintenance history on the car and assumed it had never been replaced.
iirc, the belt was around $40 and the job took a couple of hours. The
biggest problem was the limited space.

To me, it's a double crime to put a belt inside an interference engine,
even more than the original crime of putting 60K-mile part inside an engine
in the first place.

Oh? used to be the rings and bearings, oil pump, lifters, and half
the other moving parts in an engine required replacement within 60,000
miles. And the fuel and ignition system parts in less than half that.

Even timing CHAINS and GEARS often required replacement in roughly
that time frame. I replaced LOTS of GM timing sprockets long before
60,000 miles - and that was a lot more work than replacing a timing
belt.

The timing chains on Mitsubishi (Chrysler) 2.6 engines seldom made
100,000 km (60,000 miles) if you followed the "normal" oil change
schedule - and they were a LOT of work to change.

If you're gonna put a 60,000-mile part inside an engine, then you should at
least make it easy to access.

They are a LOT easier to access than they used to be on many
engines. Transverse engines make EVERYTHING harder to change - even
on an old Mini.

There are a lot of engines that I can change a timing belt on in less
than 2 hours - even on my driveway.

 

On Sat, 4 Nov 2017 11:25:21 -0700, The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com>
wrote:

On 11/04/2017 11:17 AM, RS Wood wrote:

So I don't see how you can ever do car tires right at home because you
can't finish the job right. For some reason, motorcycle tires work just
fine without dynamic balancing.

That's an enigma to me.

Why would bicycle and motorcycle tires work just fine without dynamic
balancing while car tires require dynamic balancing to work right?

My guess -- weight and speed are insufficient to cause problems.

Many motorcycles run and ride so rough you wouldn't feel the
vibration of an out-of-balance tire - and on many of the "cruiser" and
"bagger" class of MCs, the tires DO get balanced to provide a smooth
ride.

 

On Sat, 4 Nov 2017 11:30:22 -0700, The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com>
wrote:

On 11/03/2017 07:42 PM, RS Wood wrote:
What are some car-repair jobs you always wished you could do but have never
done?

Mine are, in this order of "I wish I could do it" order
1. painting

Did that, along with minor bodywork repair. Sprayed orange lacquer on
my MC tank and chain guard (with a REAL sprayer, not cans), which came
out really nice. Fixed a few rust holes on the 55 Chevy with fiberglas
and bondo before letting Earl Scheib paint it. The Clymer bodywork
manual was definitely worth the money.

2. alignment
3. replace/rebuild engine
4. clutch replacement

Does a MC count?

5. tire mounting and balancing
6. timing belt
7. head gasket and vcg

Did all the work except milling the heads and final torquing down of
head bolts -- I just wasn't strong enough and didn't have a long enough
cheater. What's a vcg?

I'm guessing Valve Cover Gasket

I've done electrical, brakes, shocks, cooling systems, alternators,
ujoints, pitman/idler arms & tie-rod ends and ball joints, tuneups,
emissions hoses and sensors, exhaust, electrical components, fuel pumps,
and fluids, but not the six things above.

Alternators, generators, starters, water pumps, motor mounts, brake
pads/drums, hoses, belts.

What are some car-repair jobs you always wished you could do but have never
done?

NONE! I did this stuff because it was cheaper to do it myself. Now I
have a used 2013 Corolla and I only looked under the hood when I bought
it because someone else lifted it. One of the tires has a slow leak
(indicated by a sensor so I don't even have to check!) which I pump back
up every month or so, and I do that with a certain amount of resentment.

Don't get the cheap $10 Harbor Freight compressor, splurge on the $35
one; trust me.)

I tried to re-wind a MC alternator. Local electrical shop loaned me a
spool of wire and said to pay for what I used. I gave up after only a
few ounces. The guy said that he knew tiny Hispanic women who could do
that. They're heroes.

 

[RS Wood]

The Real Bev wrote:

Did that, along with minor bodywork repair. Sprayed orange lacquer on
my MC tank and chain guard (with a REAL sprayer, not cans), which came
out really nice.

Given an air compressor of decent size, a vapor condenser on the end, and a
well regulated flow, it would seem to me that the paint will come out
evenly where the trick is technique.

Given that we said the trick with alignment is knowledge, and the trick
with car tires is tools, the trick with welding and painting seems to be
technique.

Fixed a few rust holes on the 55 Chevy with fiberglas
and bondo before letting Earl Scheib paint it. The Clymer bodywork
manual was definitely worth the money.

Clymer. I remember them. Hanes too. And of course, the FSM which always
seemed to be written in the japinish or germinish language.

Nowadays I use the Internet for the DIYs.

2. alignment
3. replace/rebuild engine
4. clutch replacement

Does a MC count?

Maybe. But a master cylinder rebuild/replace is not on the same scale.

An alignement takes a few tools and a lot of thinking.
An engine rebuild takes a lot of tools most of all the instructions.

A clutch, by way of comparison, is easier than those two as it only needs
one or two special tools and the instructions are pretty simple by way of
comparison.

Did all the work except milling the heads and final torquing down of
head bolts -- I just wasn't strong enough and didn't have a long enough
cheater.

Ain't you one of 'dem dat dere long-haired long-fingernailed high-heel
wearing members of society?

If so, you 'jes needs yo'self a bigger breaker bar!

> What's a vcg?
Valve cover gasket.
It's like doing a head gasket, only a lot easier.

Alternators, generators, starters, water pumps, motor mounts, brake
pads/drums, hoses, belts.

I think almost everyone has done that, where we can throw in voltage
regulators and batteries to alternators, and we can add starters and
batteries to that list.

With water pumps goes the entire assemblage of while-you're-there jobs such
as belts and fan clutches and radiators and harmonic balancers.

With motor mounts there isn't much ancillary work that people do, but with
brakes there's the whole shebang from pads and sensors to calipers and
rotors and bearings and speed sensors, and abs intricacies.

What are some car-repair jobs you always wished you could do but have never
done?

NONE! I did this stuff because it was cheaper to do it myself.

I get a satisfaction out of understanding what it takes.
I can't get that understanding by reading a book.
If we haven't done the job at least once, I think we can't understand it at
all.

Sure we think we understand it, but until we've actually done an alignment
or changed a tire or painted a car or replaced an engine, we really don't
know all that much IMHO.

We can just guess but guessing is 1/4 right and 3/4 wrong for most of us.

Now I
have a used 2013 Corolla and I only looked under the hood when I bought
it because someone else lifted it. One of the tires has a slow leak
(indicated by a sensor so I don't even have to check!) which I pump back
up every month or so, and I do that with a certain amount of resentment.

I understand which is that as we get older, we do less often.
That's why I think I missed my chance on these half-dozen "big" jobs.

Don't get the cheap $10 Harbor Freight compressor, splurge on the $35
one; trust me.)

Harbor Freight is something that you have to get used to since sometimes
they're the only place to get cheap-enough tools (like a transmission or
motorcycle stand) while other times they're the worst place to get tools at
any price (like any of their linesman pliers or drill bits).

I tried to re-wind a MC alternator. Local electrical shop loaned me a
spool of wire and said to pay for what I used. I gave up after only a
few ounces. The guy said that he knew tiny Hispanic women who could do
that. They're heroes.

Motorcyles used to have a rotating magnet inside three static coils of
about 50 feet of copper wire coated with a baked-on heat resistant enamel.
Without that enamel, the wires will short (ask me how I know).

The winding is pretty hard by hand because you only have three wires but
you have something like 24 posts, where that post has a cap which overhangs
and when you get to the last few windings, if you didn't wind it tightly
enough, there's no room for the windings on the next post (again, ask me
how I know this).

I'm _glad_ I wound my first motorcycle coil (which failed in just 100 miles
by shorting out) and I'm glad I replaced the entire sulfuric acid content
of my battery (which also lasted for only about 1/2 year), but neither are
things I'd do again.

Then again, I'm glad I hiked (I don't remember the names exactly) the
Kaibob to the Colorado River and then back up from Bright Angel to the top
but it's not something I'll ever do again.

 

rbowman posted for all of us...

On 11/03/2017 08:42 PM, RS Wood wrote:
What are some car-repair jobs you always wished you could do but have never
done?

Painting is something I have done and wish I never had... The best
paint guy I ever knew was someone you had to catch in the zone between
sober but shaky and falling down drunk. The runner up was a complete
stoner.

From the paint?

--
Tekkie

 

[RS Wood]

clare@snyder.on.ca wrote:

My guess -- weight and speed are insufficient to cause problems.
Many motorcycles run and ride so rough you wouldn't feel the
vibration of an out-of-balance tire - and on many of the "cruiser" and
"bagger" class of MCs, the tires DO get balanced to provide a smooth
ride.

That might be the reason because I don't know anyone (BMW bikes) who
balances their tires and they all mount them at home.

I think maybe another reason might be that almost no bike has crappy rims
but I don't know why motorcycle tires seem to work fine on beamers without
dynamic balancing. But they do.

The static balance is easily done with a horizontal axle.

 

[RS Wood]

clare@snyder.on.ca wrote:

I almost always ELIMINATE the friction by jackin the weight off the
tire. I'm too "thick" to fit under the car with the wheels on the gr
turn the tie-rod sleeves.

I don't understand how it would work to lift the tire off the ground, so I
assume you just remove some of the weight off the tire.

But isn't the alignment spec with the tires weighted with full load?

How can you do a proper alignment if you don't load the suspension?

Do you (a) load, (b) measure, (c) unload, (d) adjust, (e) load (f) measure?

(Of course I know all about loading for a driver and I know all about the
BMW-style loading to "normal" conditions which is defined by BMW as a
distance from the centerline of the hubcap to the middle of the fender
flare and which typically requires about five hundred pounds spread out
evenly - but I'm just talking about the generic loading of the suspension
here with a full tank and no people in the car.)

 

[RS Wood]

The Real Bev wrote:

Sounds like the Ford dealership jerk who replaced the starter on the 69
LTD. One loose bolt, one dropped on top of the starter and one
completely missing. He was partially right, it ran for a couple of
years afterward.

I can't count the number of times I've seen someone use a screwdriver as a
prybar on, say, plastic twist-off hubcaps, or who used a pair of pliers
instead of a socket, or who used an adjustable wrench instead of a socket.

The only time I use a screwdriver, is as a screwdriver.
The only time I use pliers on hex nuts is when simply holding down one end.
The only time I use an adjustable wrench is ... well ... almost never.

(I can't imagine what an adjustable wrench does that the properly sized
wrench doesn't do, unless you're climbing a lighthouse tower or something
where you just can't come down to get the right tool for the bolt.)

Now vise grips. They're useful. But for different reasons.

But the point is that many mechanics use the fastest method.
Not the right method.

Hence, that's why I think we always do a better job at home.

 

[RS Wood]

clare@snyder.on.ca wrote:

They sure make cars a lot better - experience and technology have
made a lot of difference. ( Remember, in 1959, the automobile, as an
object, was not as old as a 1959 car is today!!!!

I wonder if Japan had something to do with Detroit making cars better?

The reason just about anything else you buy today is NOT better is
everyone wants it CHEAPER and expects to upgrade long before anything
with any QUALITY would require replacement. Everything is changing SO
FAST.

That's what I don't get.

Why is everything but cars and computers cheaper and less reliable?

Cars are not cheaper but more reliable.
Computers are both cheaper and more reliable.

I understand the magic of computers getting more reliable but what's the
magic in cars getting more reliable?

 

[RS Wood]

clare@snyder.on.ca wrote:

Oh? used to be the rings and bearings, oil pump, lifters, and half
the other moving parts in an engine required replacement within 60,000
miles.

I hear you that engines used to last only about 100K miles in those days,
but is that true.

Are engines really far more reliable today?
Why?

Is it because they're mostly Japanese?

> And the fuel and ignition system parts in less than half that.

I do agree that PCV valves and condensers and points and carbs required
maintenance basically yearly or every two years at the longest.

Now, they're "almost" lifetime parts because they don't exist.

Even timing CHAINS and GEARS often required replacement in roughly
that time frame. I replaced LOTS of GM timing sprockets long before
60,000 miles - and that was a lot more work than replacing a timing
belt.

I'll agree with you that engines seem more reliable today than in
yesteryear.

But why?
What's the magic that makes a 150K-mile engine into a 300K-mile engine?

The timing chains on Mitsubishi (Chrysler) 2.6 engines seldom made
100,000 km (60,000 miles) if you followed the "normal" oil change
schedule - and they were a LOT of work to change.

That's bad.
I have never replaced a timing belt or a timing chain.
And I've gone well over 150K miles on cars with chains.

They are a LOT easier to access than they used to be on many
engines. Transverse engines make EVERYTHING harder to change - even
on an old Mini.

I never had a FWD car in my life.
Nor a 4WD.

Luckily, 2WD RWD cars spread out the "stuff" in manageable ways.

There are a lot of engines that I can change a timing belt on in less
than 2 hours - even on my driveway.

I don't even do an oil change in 2 hours. I take my sweet time.

I think for a home mechanic, time only matters when the car is still on
blocks on Monday morning when you have to get to work (if you still work).

Otherwise, time isn't the issue.

 

[RS Wood]

RS Wood wrote:

I don't even do an oil change in 2 hours. I take my sweet time.

I think for a home mechanic, time only matters when the car is still on
blocks on Monday morning when you have to get to work (if you still work).

Otherwise, time isn't the issue.

I should expound that time is the major factor in a shop where time isn't
at all a factor at home.

That reality ends up making a huge difference in everything.

For example, dumb people say you can't align a car at home because you
don't have the $100K (or whatever) to spend on equipment that a shop
spends, but the equation is completely different for them than it is for
you.

You don't have to handle all cars.
Just your cars.

You can take three weeks to do your alignment.
They have to do it in 1/2 hour.

My oil changes easily take me a couple of hours.
A two-hour oil change at a shop would be unheard of.

I admit that on Monday morning, the car better be road ready if you need to
get to work, and, if you have to match parts, you'd better get that part to
the dealer or parts store before they close at 6pm, but other than those
two circumstances, why would time matter to a home mechanic?

What I mean here is that the weight of tool factors is completely different
for shops than it is for home users. I'll bet almost every job we mentioned
can be done at home with a cost investment of just a few hundred bucks.

Sure, it takes longer to do an alignment or change a tire or put a new
clutch in with only three hundred dollars worth of additional tools for
each job, but I'll bet we can do the job BETTER at home simply because we
care more.

So the tradeoff, I think, is
TIME <=====> QUALITY

I think only in painting, will the quality of results probably never match
that of a shop (because we just can't afford the tools they use and they
have too much experience that we will never have).

 

[rickman]

RS Wood wrote on 11/4/2017 2:17 PM:

rickman wrote:

Same here. Any car of mine that needed an engine wasn't worth putting an
engine in. Older cars were not made to last and that was true for every
part of that car. Even things like seats and headliners were shot by the
time the engine was shot. My current truck has 240,000 miles on it and the
engine is one of a number of parts that shows nearly no sign of going
anytime soon. The parts that have been repaired often were not repaired
right so some have needed repairing more than once, but otherwise the truck
is very sound.

You make a good point which I don't know the answer to.

In my kid days, plastic toys did not exist (transistor radios didn't exist
either), so our Tonka toys were rubber wheels and steel bodies.

Nowadays, if you leave a kid's toy car outside, the sun alone will destroy
it within a year or two.

So they certainly don't build *some stuff* the way they used to.

However ... cars *seem* to be different. Are they?

My Chrysler's and Dodges days (in the olden days, we had brand loyalties
that sprang from the brand loyalties of our fathers) showed me that a
tuneup was needed every year, bias-ply tires lasted something like 20K
miles, and, as you said, the interior was shot by the time the engine went.

And that was in the days before plastic bumpers and plastic headlights
(they were real glass bulbs in those days).

But yet, it seems to me, cars last forever now.
In those days, 100K miles was a lot.
Now, it seems, 200K miles is approaching a lot.

Do they really make cars better but nothing else is better?
How can that be?

They make things to last as long as the consumer demands. Kids toys were
not all built solidly when we were kids. Tonka was a high priced toy.
Today they still make quality toys. I don't know if Tonka uses UV
stabilizers, but I know there are some kids plastic playhouses that seem to
last for many years outside.

Likewise I recall any number of metal toys that were assembled by bending
sheet metal tabs over. You could do this once and possibly twice if you
need to repair something, but try it a third time and the tabs would be in
your hand. There have always been cheap toys.

Cars didn't get better until the Japanese showed the US consumer there was a
choice. Detroit and Wolfsburg, etc only learned after the Japanese started
eating their lunches.

--

Rick C

Viewed the eclipse at Wintercrest Farms,
on the centerline of totality since 1998

 

[RS Wood]

rickman wrote:

They make things to last as long as the consumer demands. Kids toys were
not all built solidly when we were kids. Tonka was a high priced toy.
Today they still make quality toys. I don't know if Tonka uses UV
stabilizers, but I know there are some kids plastic playhouses that seem to
last for many years outside.

The only plastic that I know of which lasts forever outside is whatever
plastic the garbage company uses for those blue, green, and gray wheeled
bins!

I wish *all* plastic things were made out of *that* plastic, especially
pool tools.

Cars didn't get better until the Japanese showed the US consumer there was a
choice. Detroit and Wolfsburg, etc only learned after the Japanese started
eating their lunches.

I think I may tend to agree with you which is why I mentioned that Japan
may have had a lot to do with Detroit making more reliable cars.

I think also the EPA forcing the manufacturer to warrant the emissions
system for longer periods of time helped.

For example, in the olden days, how many rotted out "mufflers" did you
replace compared to today?

 

On Saturday, 4 November 2017 18:17:03 UTC, RS Wood wrote:

rbowman wrote:

I don't know anyone who does their own tires but when I watch the guys, I
wish I had that equipment, especially the air equipment, to just remove it
and put it back and spin it in between.


I do the tires on the bike with tube type tires. I would do the tubeless
but I worry about not having enough air to get the bead to seat. I
brought the bike to an indy shop for a new set and everything was going
good until the front tire. Even with a high flow air systems and the
tools he had a hell of a time. The sun was sinking in the west before
the bead finally caught and he could inflate it.

I've had problems getting the bead to seat correctly with tube tires but
with those you can deflate, beat on it, curse, inflate, rinse and repeat
until it goes.

I'm glad to hear nobody scream that we're all gonna die if we do any work
at home!

The reason people don't do these jobs isn't that we're all gonna die from
nuclear radiation if we do our own stuff.

I don't know anyone who does their own car tires but many motorcyclists do
their own bike tires and everyone does their own wheelbarrow and bicycle
tires.

Tires don't have the same problem as alignment because, other than safety,
you don't have to think all that much to do tires correctly.

Assuming you have a decently flowing air compressor I don't think seating
the bead is the issue usually although we've all had all sorts of times
when we just couldn't get something to seat, so I'm sure it happens. But
they're designed to seat with air so if we have air, we should be able to
seat the bead.

I think the far greater issue with doing tires at home is that you need
special tools that greatly extend your muscle power and worse - you will
never have the tools to do the dynamic balance.

So I don't see how you can ever do car tires right at home because you
can't finish the job right. For some reason, motorcycle tires work just
fine without dynamic balancing.

That's an enigma to me.

Why would bicycle and motorcycle tires work just fine without dynamic
balancing while car tires require dynamic balancing to work right?

I've watched truck tyres being changed by hand on non-split rim wheels. Not having a power tool to compress the thing proved a real pain in the ass. All he had was a sledge hammer and a tyre lever. No compressor either.


NT

 

On Saturday, 4 November 2017 18:17:09 UTC, RS Wood wrote:

Ah yes. You reminded me. I also replaced a Holley 4-barrel carburetor!

It was fun to watch how the accelerator pump worked squirting inside, how
the throttle plate worked way down below, and how the choke plate on top
worked!

Is there a car sold today that uses a carb?
Probably not.

I assume the hindustan ambassador does


NT

 

On Saturday, 4 November 2017 20:13:22 UTC, cl...@snyder.on.ca wrote:

Most people want to buy the latest and greatest even before today's
JUNK is worn out.

correction, the latest and most hyped piece of junk


NT

 

On Saturday, 4 November 2017 21:19:46 UTC, RS Wood wrote:

clare@snyder.on.ca wrote:

My guess -- weight and speed are insufficient to cause problems.
Many motorcycles run and ride so rough you wouldn't feel the
vibration of an out-of-balance tire - and on many of the "cruiser" and
"bagger" class of MCs, the tires DO get balanced to provide a smooth
ride.

That might be the reason because I don't know anyone (BMW bikes) who
balances their tires and they all mount them at home.

I think maybe another reason might be that almost no bike has crappy rims
but I don't know why motorcycle tires seem to work fine on beamers without
dynamic balancing. But they do.

The static balance is easily done with a horizontal axle.

car tyres are made unbalanced, the rubber thickness is not well controlled and the inside rough. Maybe bike tyres are made better in that respect.


NT

 

On Sat, 4 Nov 2017 21:19:45 +0000 (UTC), RS Wood <rswood@is.invalid>
wrote:

clare@snyder.on.ca wrote:

I almost always ELIMINATE the friction by jackin the weight off the
tire. I'm too "thick" to fit under the car with the wheels on the gr
turn the tie-rod sleeves.

I don't understand how it would work to lift the tire off the ground, so I
assume you just remove some of the weight off the tire.

But isn't the alignment spec with the tires weighted with full load?

How can you do a proper alignment if you don't load the suspension?

You can adjust it with the tie-rod on the bench if you want to and
are smart enough to figure out how many turns it takes. Only the
measurement requires the suspension to be loaded.

Do you (a) load, (b) measure, (c) unload, (d) adjust, (e) load (f) measure?

(Of course I know all about loading for a driver and I know all about the
BMW-style loading to "normal" conditions which is defined by BMW as a
distance from the centerline of the hubcap to the middle of the fender
flare and which typically requires about five hundred pounds spread out
evenly - but I'm just talking about the generic loading of the suspension
here with a full tank and no people in the car.)

 

[RS Wood]

clare@snyder.on.ca wrote:

How can you do a proper alignment if you don't load the suspension?

You can adjust it with the tie-rod on the bench if you want to and
are smart enough to figure out how many turns it takes. Only the
measurement requires the suspension to be loaded.

Thanks for answering as I know that the measurement is what takes loading
of the suspension.

I guess, at home, time isn't the issue, but it is a pain to load, measure,
unload, adjust, load, measure (repeat).

Then again, it doesn't really matter if it takes a week to do the alignment
as it's not a critical issue if it's close enough and not driven for long.

Of course, it has to be checked again after doing the camber and caster.

I forget the proper order from high school mechanics class.
I think it's either caster, then camber, then toe?
Or it might (offhand) be the other way around?

If toe is last, then unloading, adjusting, reloading makes more sense.

 

[The Real Bev]

On 11/04/2017 01:32 PM, RS Wood wrote:

The Real Bev wrote:

Did that, along with minor bodywork repair. Sprayed orange lacquer on
my MC tank and chain guard (with a REAL sprayer, not cans), which came
out really nice.

Given an air compressor of decent size, a vapor condenser on the end, and a
well regulated flow, it would seem to me that the paint will come out
evenly where the trick is technique.

Given that we said the trick with alignment is knowledge, and the trick
with car tires is tools, the trick with welding and painting seems to be
technique.

You need a viscosity meter and the willingness to pay attention to it.
You also can't spray an arc, you have to keep the spray perpendicular to
the surface. And you have to move at the right speed. Lacquer is way
more forgiving than enamel. We painted a school bus with white enamel,
but it didn't look all that nice, although it was OK from a distance. A
guy passing by saw it and traded his 58 Chevy pickup for it. A good
bargain for us, anyway. We hauled our motorcycles in it for a lot of
years and my son drove it back and forth to Berkeley for a year.

Fixed a few rust holes on the 55 Chevy with fiberglas
and bondo before letting Earl Scheib paint it. The Clymer bodywork
manual was definitely worth the money.

Clymer. I remember them. Hanes too. And of course, the FSM which always
seemed to be written in the japinish or germinish language.

The Clymer manuals were better than the others, although the Ducati
manual was kind of weird. It had a full-page labeled blowup of a spark
plug and a full-page labeled blowup of the entire engine. I could have
done without the sparkplug illustration. It also said that if I lost
the key I should replace it with a piece of metal of similar size.
Given that the key was made of 1/8" square stock, this was not
unreasonable. I replaced it with three canopy switches which had to be
positioned properly to let it start. You also had to prime the carb
very carefully with 3 full-throttle kicks and then three no-throttle
kicks. I'm sorry I gave it away.

Nowadays I use the Internet for the DIYs.

2. alignment
3. replace/rebuild engine
4. clutch replacement

Does a MC count?

Maybe. But a master cylinder rebuild/replace is not on the same scale.

No, but I think I replaced one, along with some wheel cylinders.

An alignement takes a few tools and a lot of thinking.
An engine rebuild takes a lot of tools most of all the instructions.

A clutch, by way of comparison, is easier than those two as it only needs
one or two special tools and the instructions are pretty simple by way of
comparison.

Did all the work except milling the heads and final torquing down of
head bolts -- I just wasn't strong enough and didn't have a long enough
cheater.

Ain't you one of 'dem dat dere long-haired long-fingernailed high-heel
wearing members of society?

You mean like the woman in heels and pearls on the label of the
snow-chain box? No.

If so, you 'jes needs yo'self a bigger breaker bar!

What's a vcg?
Valve cover gasket.
It's like doing a head gasket, only a lot easier.

Thread helps!

Alternators, generators, starters, water pumps, motor mounts, brake
pads/drums, hoses, belts.

I think almost everyone has done that, where we can throw in voltage
regulators and batteries to alternators, and we can add starters and
batteries to that list.

With water pumps goes the entire assemblage of while-you're-there jobs such
as belts and fan clutches and radiators and harmonic balancers.

I cut my hands to ribbons on the first water pump -- the fan (which had
to be removed) was attached with at least 4 bolts which could only move
1/4 turn without repositioning the 12-point box wrench, the only thing
that would fit. I swore I'd never do that again no matter how much it
cost -- until I found out how much it DID cost. Some of us are too
cheap for our own good.

> With motor mounts there isn't much ancillary work that people do,

The old one wouldn't come out. I spent a lot of time with my fingers in
an excellent position to be removed if the jack holding up the engine
failed. I ended up just slapping the new one on top of the old one.

but with
brakes there's the whole shebang from pads and sensors to calipers and
rotors and bearings and speed sensors, and abs intricacies.

The ones I did were simple. The hard part was remembering how the damn
springs on the drums went. I couldn't believe how easy pads were; it
took me longer to find the C-clamp than to do the work :-(

What are some car-repair jobs you always wished you could do but have never
done?

NONE! I did this stuff because it was cheaper to do it myself.

I get a satisfaction out of understanding what it takes.
I can't get that understanding by reading a book.
If we haven't done the job at least once, I think we can't understand it at
all.

That's true. Knowledge is good, but it comes at a price which I'm no
longer willing to pay.

Sure we think we understand it, but until we've actually done an alignment
or changed a tire or painted a car or replaced an engine, we really don't
know all that much IMHO.

Hints from those who have done it are useful, of course.

We can just guess but guessing is 1/4 right and 3/4 wrong for most of us.

Now I
have a used 2013 Corolla and I only looked under the hood when I bought
it because someone else lifted it. One of the tires has a slow leak
(indicated by a sensor so I don't even have to check!) which I pump back
up every month or so, and I do that with a certain amount of resentment.

I understand which is that as we get older, we do less often.
That's why I think I missed my chance on these half-dozen "big" jobs.

I just hit the 3/4 century mark. I'm going for 1-1/4

Don't get the cheap $10 Harbor Freight compressor, splurge on the $35
one; trust me.)

Harbor Freight is something that you have to get used to since sometimes
they're the only place to get cheap-enough tools (like a transmission or
motorcycle stand) while other times they're the worst place to get tools at
any price (like any of their linesman pliers or drill bits).

I tried to re-wind a MC alternator. Local electrical shop loaned me a
spool of wire and said to pay for what I used. I gave up after only a
few ounces. The guy said that he knew tiny Hispanic women who could do
that. They're heroes.

Motorcyles used to have a rotating magnet inside three static coils of
about 50 feet of copper wire coated with a baked-on heat resistant enamel.
Without that enamel, the wires will short (ask me how I know).

The winding is pretty hard by hand because you only have three wires but
you have something like 24 posts, where that post has a cap which overhangs
and when you get to the last few windings, if you didn't wind it tightly
enough, there's no room for the windings on the next post (again, ask me
how I know this).

I'm _glad_ I wound my first motorcycle coil (which failed in just 100 miles
by shorting out) and I'm glad I replaced the entire sulfuric acid content
of my battery (which also lasted for only about 1/2 year), but neither are
things I'd do again.

Then again, I'm glad I hiked (I don't remember the names exactly) the
Kaibob to the Colorado River and then back up from Bright Angel to the top
but it's not something I'll ever do again.

Daughter did the Angel's Rest (?) thing in Zion. She's fortunate she
didn't inherit my lack of endurance. I need to rest 3 times per 1-mile
downhill ski run :-(

--
Cheers, Bev
The stone age didn't end for lack of stones.
-- Troy the Troll