Rethinking "Made in China"

[LDosser]

ShopVac

[salty]

My scenerio remains very possible. Who says they replaced it with a

180 amp delco? I'm saying they did what they had to, to get the car back in service ASAP. Or, who knows? Maybe the alternator failed just before they were going to get rid of the car, and they put in the cheapest thing they could graft in there. Adapting brackets would be trivial.

A friend of mine had a Military Surplus Jeep that he bought at an auction. The alternator was totally shot. An exact replacement military alternator was $345. The Civilian alternator he installed cost about $40. Was it the equal of the original? I sincerely doubt it. But it got his Jeep through inspection and on the road.

[Jules]

Yeah, that'd do it, I suppose. Our line's around 7-8' down and only goes maybe 30' out to the well. Temp seems to stay pretty constant year-round.

[Jules]

Yes, but they make up for it by often costing a small fortune when something *does* go wrong...

... plus I like keeping it simple; if something does go wrong when I'm out in the middle of nowhere, there's more chance I can fix it by the roadside in an older vehicle than a modern one. I like that safety and convenience.

[Jules]

Yeah, I can believe that. I've know quite a few folk with old Saabs, and they were pretty reasonble cars.

Is there a direct comparison with models from the two? My father over in England has a Vauxhall (essentially an Opel) Astra with a 6-speed manual 'box and whatever the largest engine is that they offer (I'd have to ask him).

I borrowed and drove it as my daily driver for a few months before I moved to the US (I'd sold my own cars) and it handled itself pretty well on twisty roads, the 6-speed was pretty smooth, and the turbo on it was surprisingly good (I'd always been wary about vehicles with turbos, but I guess they've got better over the years).

I know Saturn offered a model with exactly the same body style (although I couldn't care less about that - I generally dislike modern car styling)

- but I've no idea if they offered the same drivetrain.

cheers

Jules

[cjt]

I've got a Saturn Astra that I bought recently. It's a horrible piece of sh*t, IMHO. I don't expect to have it for long.

[krw]

Not so much now. It's not like the '80s with the GM "computer controlled" carburetors. I had to replace all of the spark coils (two at a time - they wouldn't replace them all the first time) on the '00 Sable. It was a couple of hundred each time, but that's not so bad.

I did spend $3K on my '01 Ranger, but that was everything from breaks, to break lines, transmission lines, radiator, and whatever. The Vermont salt got to them and the Alabama summer finished them off.

The more chance you'll have to. I *like* fuel injection and all of that. The only repairs I've ever had to make to a fuel injection system was a leaking distribution rail in my Vision and that was under a (silent) recall. My '78 Granada went through at least a carb a year. While it was usually only $100 to fix, $100 was a lot more money then and fuel on the windshield wasn't a nice feeling ("I don't believe it's supposed to do that").

[krw]

Because you're on a deep well not because the lines are down' 7-8'. The ground temperature isn't constant (in northern climes) even 20' down. OTOH, at 400', and in the water table, it will be fairly constant. ;-)

[clare]

An the FACT remains, ford alternators are every bit as available, and generally in those years cheaper than a standard Delco. Putting in a Delco would necessitate rewiring for the regulator as well, unless they hacked it with a "one wire" delco - which didn't exist untill 10 or 15 years ago.

Accept it - your recollection was wrong.

[notbob]

Despite being in a couple sports car clubs, some as early as '58 (my parents), I've never driven or seen a Saab 2-stroke up close (3 cyl, no less!). The only time was in USAF boot camp in TX when we were taking a 5 min ciggy break on the drill field. Slowly, in the distance, we heard a gawdawful din slowly approaching. As it came closer, still unseen, the volume and horrific noise steadily increased. It sounded like a ...what? Army tank? Old diesel semi hauling slop from the chow hall? Old Johnny Popper with bad cylinder. Finally, the cacophony was so overwhelming, whole marching squads came to a halt and every one of hundreds of heads and ears were turned in the direction of the battlefield of thundering pops and bangs. Slowly, an old rat Saab lumbered into view, about a hundred yards away. Couldn't have been moving at more than 10 mph, but sounded like an artillery barrage at its height. I think, for a second, I was the only one who realized it was that 2 cycle Saab with no muffler whatsoever. Hilarious.

nb

[salty]

Incorrect as usual. Do a little research on "geo-thermal" HVAC systems and get back to us. They make use of the fact that groundwater is, in fact, a constant 55 degrees. They don't drill to 400 feet to get that, either. It's the same temp in New Mexico as it is in Rochester, New York.

[salty]

My recollection?

[Jules]

Well, I suppose a lot of the cost these days is in the labor to fix it, so if you can do stuff yourself you save a lot - but the parts on more modern vehicles that do go wrong always seem to be more complicated and therefore more expensive to me.

I have issues with any computer-controlled stuff, though. If it was accessible, they gave me full schematics and a copy of the firmware then I wouldn't mind; I can fix it myself if it does break. But I really don't like stuff that's "black boxed" like that and considered not to be field servicable.

Agreed on the "mechanical" side of FI, though - definitely better than a carb (although I've stripped and restored a few carbs now and they're not too bad and *should* work for a long time before they next need to be messed with).

How come? Was that a known bad design, or was something else causing the failure (the fuel used, lack of fuel line filter etc.)? I suppose it does matter how many miles you were putting on it, but I'd expect a good carb to go for close on 100k miles before needing major surgery.

(I'm starting to feel sorry for all these woodworking folk putting up with this thread :-)

cheers

Jules

[Nate Nagel]

The "one wire" (not really, it's a three wire - the "one wire" functionality is provided by changing the integral regulator to an aftermarket unit, and personally, I'd rather rewire rather than use a one wire) Delco was introduced at least by 1973; my dad's pickup has a

10SI under the hood.

nate

[krw]

I've found that I spend *way* less on repairs over the life of a car than I did 20 years ago. It's unusual for anything other than wear parts (brakes, tires, etc.) to go bad anymore.

It doesn't break, though. I have no use for schematics or firmware. I'm certainly not going to take the time to learn what makes it tick, much less rewrite any of it.

I have no idea. It was a 1bbl Carter but couldn't even get the one lung working right. Rebuilding it was a waste of time (they once tried it four times in three months). They were cheap but being without a car wasn't.

That's why thread kills were invented.

[Jules]

:-) I really did like the drivetrain and handling on my father's one - but the styling (both exterior and interior) I could certainly live without, and the inside had a horrible "cheapest possible" feel about it; I suspect it won't age well at all.

I'm not sure where they got the 6-speed from, whether it was developed in-house or bought in from somewhere else. It did good on mileage; my work was about 50 miles away and a mixture of small twisty lanes (i.e. lots of braking and acceleration) and then fast roads (used to keep it on 90-100) and I could still average 40mpg out of it.

I think that's perhaps the one thing I do like about modern vehicles; they do generally fare better in terms of fuel use...

cheers

Jules

[clare]

Terrible carb, and most of the "rebuilts" were even worse.

[clare]

I was sure the one wires came out in the late '70s or early '80s. - I mean the TRUE one wire regulator unit. The 10SI itself came out in 1972.

[David Nebenzahl]

On 12/16/2009 11:39 AM David Nebenzahl spake thus:

[snip own post]

Omigod, what have I done?

Do I get some kind of prize for such a long thread? A discount on a.h.r (or wreck) merchandise specials? A special mention at next year's Usenetties?

[Swingman]

Your cabal dues will be increased 50% in 2010 for all the bytes used, plus the appropriate carbon footprint tax ...