[omegaman]

Originally Posted by Captain Tom Coughlin

Ugh, car trouble. I hope you can get it fixed without too much cost.

Very doubtful Tom!

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

New car time?

[omegaman]

Yeah, I wish. Lucky we have a second car! Maybe a new motor though, that's about all we could afford at the moment!

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

are you good with working on cars?

[omegaman]

Originally Posted by Captain Tom Coughlin

are you good with working on cars?

Use to be, back in the day! Stripped and rebuilt a few motors from cars and motorcycles back them. Did a tappet job on my mates motorbike (Honda CB450 twin) in the middle of the night in the dead of winter, in the coldest part of the country. Only way to get him back on the road!

Sadly those days are gone… well not too sadly… I hate touching motors or cars these days!

Good news and after $450, the car is drivable again. Seems there was an oil blockage on the positive pressure side. But now I've noticed some new noises in the suspension like somethings loose! Go figure!

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

450 isn't bad at all!

I wish I could work on cars, I'm not real good with that kind of stuff.

[omegaman]

Hey you'll find this one funny. One of the motors I rebuilt and reinstalled had to be pulled out again immediately. Had a mate helping me and I trusted him to install the piston rings!
No problem there except he put them in with the grooves all lined up!
Ha, that was one hell of an upset. Can only laugh about it now though.

The reason the motor had to be built was the way the van (Mazda Bongo Van) was designed the motor was receiving air through the engine frame channels that the body was mounted to. Got its air this way because the motor was in the rear, like a VW van.

The only problem was, I went through a flooded causeway out on a lonely road miles from anywhere and yes you guessed it water shot down the chassis channel and up into the motor. Stopped dead in its tracks. Lots of internal stuff like the pistons and con rods (I think they were corkscrewed!) were damaged. Spent the night in the van, lucky I had bed in the back. The local tow truck arrived the next morning. Someone must have reported they I was broken down. No mobile phones back then.

You gotta laugh!

[omegaman]

Originally Posted by Captain Tom Coughlin

450 isn't bad at all!

I wish I could work on cars, I'm not real good with that kind of stuff.

Yeah, I stopped when they became computerized nonsense. Give me a nice straight six like in my Ford Falcon I used to have. Heaps of space to work on them and you knew where everything went and what it did.

I learned by watching my father. He was a Jack-of-all-Trades, I learnt how to weld. He used to build boat and box trailers during the weekends and sell to make extra cash. Also learnt how to drive a bulldozer. He could drive anything. Got his "C" class license simply by backing a high semi out of a narrow lane beside the police station into the main street! Pretty simple test back then!

I'm pretty savvy when it comes to stuff. Use to manage the IT for the advertising company that I worked for. Worked on Macs and PC's, software installations, that sort of stuff. Won't touch Microsoft Windows anymore though. Only work with Mac's or Linux machines.

Most of my time these days is spent graphic designing and coding websites.

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

I love the older muscle cars

[omegaman]

Originally Posted by Captain Tom Coughlin

I love the older muscle cars

Nice.