The problem is addressed on some forums. With digital cameras and the ease of putting stuff on line quite a few people have done step by step logs. Unfortunately they're model specific. The Toyota forum has saved me a lot of pain. I've got the manual but I'm sure the replace the radio page starts with 'remove dash trim'. Yeah, right. You start down at the transmission hump with a plastic putty knife popping off little plastic bits until you work your way up to the speedometer housing.
Bikes are getting just as bad. I had a driveway full of plastic pieces, a gas tank, and other odd and ends before I could get to the regulator to unplug the stator to replace it.
Some days I dream of finding a 1965 VW in good shape.
Yup. I've got the shop manuals for everything but the pickup. Some parts are good, some not so good. Then there are the five pages of specialized tools that you absolutely need which somehow I've never needed.
Either it's a Hanes or Chilton which covers too many models, or, it's the FSM which covers your model, but the factory re-used the diagrams from previous models so a good proportion are wrong.
The manual I'd write is EXACT since I would have done EVERY STEP, so it would be model specific for sure.
It would only pay, I think, for cars that I can get a junker for cheap, to tear apart, and it would have to be a "common" enough car to have a market.
The actual work would be easy, I think.
Buy a complete car (it doesn't have to run even, but better if it does)
Tear it apart, piece by piece, putting each piece back since my DIYS cover reassembly where it's almost never the reverse of removal.
Sell the book.
I think it "could" have a market, simply because it would be unique, as nobody does the detail that I do ()and I've had shop manuals since the dawn of my driving days).
I don't have Mitchells though, or AllData, so I don't know how good (or bad) they are. Clare might know more.
Agreed. I have the Toyota FSM and Hanes somewhere. They suck. My Q45 came with an FSM in the trunk, if you can believe that. I get them for my bikes. I have the Bentleys for my Bimmer.
They all suck.
Yet, they each suck for different reasons. None ever are as good as my DIYs. Never. Not even close.
You know why they all suck so I won't belabor the issue. Suffice to say they're better than nothing - but not much better.
At this point, I don't remember your "suggestion" ... but ... bearing in mind very important facts:
I did the job so it's related to this newsgroup, and,
I have been posting to Usenet for decades, where
Cowardly bullies like Tekkie are a detriment to this newsgroup.
The facts are I clearly removed, and replaced that clutch, and I just as clearly wrote the extremely detailed DIY (and am still working on improving that DIY so as to give back to the team - which is because I'm purposefully helpful and a great Usenet citizen), snapping almost a thousand pictures, of each removal and replacement step and describing for the next person, how to do what I did (with the purposefully helpful & timely advice from many others here).
So it's eminently clear that I responded to everyone who had purposefully helpful intent and am only now getting to responding to the worthless trolls who wouldn't know a clutch plate from a dinner plate.
Given that a. I actually did the job, and, b. I am very smart and can handle complex details, and, c. I didn't have time to shut the bullying cowardly trolls up,
*I'm only now getting to your worthless posts*.
If you feel that I didn't have an "interest" in your suggestion, then you can rest assured, since I'm rather intelligent and logical, that I most likely thought your suggestions were worthless and not even worth at response at the time that I needed help.
If you feel otherwise, then you're welcome to make a technically on-topic and technically valid post. I challenge you to do so, in fact as I do believe that even you have some value to add to the technical topic.
Notice that the guys who are the dumbest on this newsgroup, always find something that is completely unrelated to the clutch job, which is teh topic here, to "complain" about.
*This post by Tekkie proves, yet again, that he's an utter moron.*
The point here is that Tekkie has *never* once in his entire life added on-topic technical value to *any* thread. He's _that_ stupid, that he can't possibly add on-topic technical value.
Why do I say this now, after the clutch job is done?
Because Tekkie is a cowardly bully troll. a. He is a coward. b. He is a bully. c. And, worse, Tekkie proves how utterly _stupid_ he is in every post.
I confront cowardly bullies - in threads I care about - because I want those threads to come to a technical resolution.
Tekkie can be a cowardly bully on any thread that he wants to bully people on, and I let him be (yes, I read his idiotic posts all the time).
But that doesn't change the fact that Tekkie is a worthless cowardly bully. That fact is proven every time he posts - as he did here.
Meanwhile: a. I post a valid question, and I respond to all valid inquiries. b. Usually I have time to confront cowardly bullies - but not this time c. Yes, I care about my privacy - which is the only thing Tekkie sees.
Tekkie never once saw a 'clutch job' in this thread. Not once.
He's _that_ stupid (and it irks me that people are really as stupid as Tekkie proves he is every single time he posts).
Two related things irk me:
Cowardly bullies like Tekkie who have zero helpful intent, and,
Outfits like Sears/Midas/AAMCO who screw their trusting customers
I wasn't warned. It didn't occur to me to look. And that was *after* taking a high school shop elective in car repair.
The one beautiful thing about that high-school class though was the teacher, whom I thought was excellent, taught me about "systems".
I'm sure Clare, who teaches such things, would concur, where the "cooling system" is treated as a whole, and the "lubrication system" or "starting system" or "fuel system" or "emissions system" or "electrical system" or "drive train" or "suspension" is treated as a complete "system".
Having worked on both German (bimmer) and Japanese (toyota) vehicles, I can say that they both know individual "systems" well, where the Germans excel in integrating the "drive train and suspension" systems, but the Germans can't seem to make non-drive-train-related systems work while the Japanese seem to integrate all the systems well.
For example, in the bimmer, I can't count the number of silly things that go wrong (e.g., CCV in the emissions system), that just don't go wrong on the Japanese vehicles. Don't even get me started on the German "electrical system"....
I had an early Audi that was a lot of laughs. I was in upstate New Hampshire headed for Canada when it stopped raining. I turned the wipers off and they didn't. Fortunately I found a phone to call the dealership and ask where the relay was. The alternative was to remove the arms but that wasn't as easy as it sounds. Then there was the plug wires. At around 15,000 miles that car wouldn't start. No warning, no rough idle, just no start. I learned to keep spares in the trunk.
VW was also in the learning process of swapping ends from rear engine/rear drive to front engine/front drive. That didn't go well.
Finally, there was the national 55 mph speed limit that got slapped on us. The car wasn't geared to do 55 except as a momentary point on the way to a reasonable cruising speed.
That was my last German car. Audi must have improved quite a bit.
I might be one of the few members of my generation that never owned a beetle, never rode in one for more than 5 miles, and never drove one further than 50 yards. The design philosophy fascinated me though. You could pretty much take a few apart, mix and match, and put them together again. In an era where US manufacturers were doing their best to make sure every model year was utterly incompatible with the previous, that was something.
I still get irate at times. How many frigging oil filters that almost but not quite the same does the world need? Those little plastic bits?
Another one who had 3 or 4 completely different toolkits in the dark ages. I had full sets of Whitworth, BS, AF and Metric spanners and sockets for all the different types of cars and trucks I used to work on.
I've got a Japanese car and two Japanese bikes and they are metric, end of story. My 'made in America' F150 and Harley throw a little metric in the mix to make sure you have two sets of tools.
The one advantage of metric is communicating to the spousal unit when you're under the car and need another wrench. Women grasp whole numbers a lot better than 'get me the goddam 11/32!"
I still have a significant quantity of Whitworth and BS stuff. Obviously not used in a very very long time. The US is, in the automotive industry at least, metricating so you will see significantly more metric in your 'made in America' vehicles in the future.
I keep my spousal unit away when I work on cars so your issue doesn't affect me. That said, since we metricated here decades ago, many of the younger tradespeople - male and female - have no idea of imperial fractions either.
Lisle 55600 Clutch Pilot Bushing Remover "This Blind Hole Bushing Remover Uses Hydraulic Pressure to Quickly Remove Brass and Bronze Pilot Bushings from 1/2" to 4/4" ID. Not for Use on Steel Bearings."
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