Automotive amateurs

I argued with a customer who wanted a valve cover gasket for his 3.3 V6 Caravan. After showing him the contents of the package he assured me it was incorrect and that there was only 1 gasket on his V6. He was so sure of himself that he decided to continue his search for the right part.

fasted58 wrote:

NOHOME wrote: As long as they are not being jackasses about it, I give full credit to anyone who is in the game and swinging.

me too I'd be more inclined to help this kind of person too.

Yeah, atleast they are trying. I have berkeleyed up my fair share of stuff and even have a box will small mementos to remind me(and for good story telling).

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine that was building his first car when he was 14 years old, a V8 Chevy Vega. He was there the first time I pulled an engine out of a car. He has built SBCs but never really got into working on newer stuff.

Well, his 97 Civic is throwing out misfire codes and I am reminding him to start with the basics, fuel, spark, compression, and timing makes it go boom. If you don't have a clue what it is start eliminating from there. Well he is insisting must be the intake manifold gasket, "I am going to pour some radiator sealant in the cooling system to see if that will seal it." I reminded him this is nothing like an old SBC and coolant doesn't go through the intake manifold on a Honda.

I could hear it in his voice that he really didn't like me correcting him but I was just trying to help. I feel bad because I know he knew more than me back in the day, but he has a wife and kids and doesn't have time to play with cars anymore.

I think I have told the story about me asking the kid at the counter for "plastagauge". I told him that they keep it behind the counter over in the first isle. But no he is consistent to the point of being rude that it was over on the other side of the store in Isle 4. So I go over there and he then follows me. In that Isle they had the VDO, autometer and what not. I tried to smile and be nice but when he asked me if I was looking for mechanical or electric I dam near lost it.

Anti-stance wrote: Yeah, atleast they are trying. I have berkeleyed up my fair share of stuff and even have a box will small mementos to remind me(and for good story telling).

Oh crap. I have that box, too, but we call it the "wall of shame". I have fragments of piston (25+ psi through a stock Turbo Coupe bottom end), fragments of clutch (7K clutch drop in the RX-7), fragments of gearbox (wheeling the 4x4 Hardbody), and science only know what else from things I've broken. There's a P71 coilpack, too, from when it blew a plug out of the head.

A customer didn't want me to put "that nitro" (nitrogen) in his tires because it could blow up.

Another one thought it improved gas mileage because it made the car float a little bit.

Yet another asked if mixing "regular air" and nitrogen would cause an explosion.

The best one. A guy asked if he could get high from inhaling the nitrogen and asked for a bottle.

skullsroad wrote: Yet another asked if mixing "regular air" and nitrogen would cause an explosion.

I work at a high end tire/wheel shop now and one of the "veterans" there was either trying to berkeley with me or was just ignorant, but he said he only filled up spares with air not nitrogen and not to mix it up. I asked him, "What the hell do you think you are breathing right now?" Don't try to pull one over on a former cryogenics technician about oxygen and nitrogen, you will lose.

Javelin wrote:

Anti-stance wrote: Yeah, atleast they are trying. I have berkeleyed up my fair share of stuff and even have a box will small mementos to remind me(and for good story telling).

Oh crap. I have that box, too, but we call it the "wall of shame". I have fragments of piston (25+ psi through a stock Turbo Coupe bottom end), fragments of clutch (7K clutch drop in the RX-7), fragments of gearbox (wheeling the 4x4 Hardbody), and science only know what else from things I've broken. There's a P71 coilpack, too, from when it blew a plug out of the head.

I have two pieces in that box that used to be one whole unit. It is a Sachs clutch and one coil from one of the springs. Still in my semi car-tard years, I had a Corrado that was making some funny noises while it was idling. Come to find out, the top of the rear motor mount was sheared off and the front motor mount was broken. All that was holding the engine and trans in was the trans mount and the top of the rear and front engine mounts as the brackets sat on them. All of the movement sheared all of the bellhousing bolts except the starter bolts that go to the trans/engine/front motor mount(or it was the rear bellhousing bolt near the axles, I can't remember). This caused the engine and transaxle to "clock" to where the pressure plate/flywheel was rubbing the top of the bellhousing... thus causing the weird sound I was hearing from the engine compartment. This is all hindsight as the remainder of this post will describe in order how I found this out.

So I bought another transaxle to solve this issue as I was certain is was the transaxle. When I pulled the trans out of my Corrado, I noticed the bellhousing bolt heads were missing. I also couldn't miss the top of the inside of the bellhousing was being machined away by the flywheel/pressure plate assembly, once again .

Assuming everything was fine with the pressure plate and flywheel assembly, I slapped the new(to me) transaxle in and noticed when I started the car in neutral it was fine but it wouldn't go in gear while running. It would go into gear fine while not running. So I re-racked it up to see what would happen if I started it in gear and it would immediately drive the wheels.

Huh...

I pulled the trans out... again... inspected everything as far as I went the time before... all looks legit. I put it back together. Same E36 M3.... BEEEEEERRRRRRRKKKKK!!!!!

Take it back apart again to the flywheel and pressure plate. I figure something has to be causing the clutch to stay engaged. I unbolt the PP, pull it off, ting ting ting. I look on the ground and see what looks like a bloated lock washer and pick it up. I look at the clutch as I slide it off the input shaft. One of the 4 springs is noticeable moving around. Apparently, one of the coils of the dampener springs on the clutch broke off and wedged itself inbetween either the clutch and PP or the clutch and FW.

This will be something I will remember for the rest of my life. Pulling out a transmission 3 times to fix something is hard to forget.

Ugh.

When I was young and just learning, I made the mistake of confusing (think Chevy V-8 here) small/big block with short/long block. The guy at the speed shop corrected me very gently.