Measure without tape measure.

[DerbyDad03]

Reminds me of the vehicle from the 70's where you had to tilt the engine up to remove one of the sparkplugs. This was back when tune-ups were a common preventative maintainence. A typical case of the design engineers not getting the maintenance folks involved earlier enough. No one asked "Hey, guys, if we build it like this, can you fix it when it breaks?"

It took some backyard mechanic to figure out that if you drilled a large hole in the wheel well, you could get to the spark plug, Mechanics would use a hole saw, then install a sheet metal plug to seal the access hole.

[Robatoy]

IIRC, the Chevy Monza ( late 70's) with a 307(?) had a few issues like that. The hole in the inside fender was the only way to go.

[dpb]

Late sixties (like '68, '69, ...) Charger w/ 383 or larger CID.

But, nothing then was even close to the nightmare of the modern transverse engine jobbies w/ smaller frames to cut down weight...look into how to replace a battery on a modern Chrysler 300M or similar... :(

[Morris Dovey]

| HOW many can YOU do? (From Popular Mechanics)

It's an interesting list, more so with the additions that've been suggested - and I've enjoyed Heinlein's list ever since I began reading his Lazerus Long books.

To my surprise I've done most of that stuff except extending a wireless network (mine is already planet-wide - I'm a ham radio operator), setting up an HDTV (I've never had one to play with), and dying gallantly.

That last provoked a train of thought that wandered hither and yon, and ended up with another (to me, at least) somewhat related question:

Reaching back through time to consider those people you for whom you have the greatest admiration, what skills did they have (or probably have) in common?

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Robatoy]

DaVinci. Hands down. (My bookshelves pretty much show that admiration.) For his ability to imagine and then having the artistic discipline to put his ideas to paper/canvas.

r

[Patriarch]

B A R R Y wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I went into the dealer after about three years of messing with the auto parts store lamps lasting a short time. The old guy at the parts counter reached into a box under the counter, pulled out three or four lamps, and said "Here, these should work. No charge." And they did. One finally burned out, and I can't find the others in my garage now. ;-)

I suspect they knew they had a problem.

No sign of burning on the lamp socket, but this is a warm weather truck that's seen snow MAYBE once...

Patriarch

[DerbyDad03]

She somehow found the good in everyone she met, regardless of how little there may have been, and always managed to bring it to the surface. I've watched her take lives that were spiraling down the drain and raise them to heights no one would have imagined possible.

I miss her.

[Jim Behning]

Were they hard to change in Mopars? We had a 67 Monaco with a 383, a

70 Fury with a 383, a 75 Gran Fury with a 440 and a 72 Polara with a 440. I don't recall swearing over spark plugs but my Dad was the son of a minister. I was a kid who was not in charge of spark plug changing. Maybe taking the garbage cans to the street and shoveling snow. I do recall it being tight but do-able unlike the infamous Monza spark plugs.

[Tim Douglass]

The official procedure for changing the back three spark plugs on my

2000 Astro is to unbolt the body from the frame and jack it up about 3 inches. There is evidently a "dealer only" tool that will do the job without that, but I kind of doubt it, there just isn't room to get the plug out even if you could get a tool in.

Tim Douglass

of a teenager: God's punishment for enjoying sex.

[B A R R Y]

Ever work on a Ford van with a big block?

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[Robatoy]

No, I haven't. THAT is one temptation I have succussfully fought off. I have WANTED to......

[DerbyDad03]

- Ever work on a Ford van with a big block?

No, but the block I lived on in NYC had a perimeter of 2 miles and I worked on my lay-down Rambler a lot.

OH! You meant a big block *engine*. Sorry.

[B A R R Y]

One of my PA hauling trucks was a 460 powered ex-Penske 14.5' Ford Hi-cube. These vehicles were famous for (6) plug spark plug replacements! You COULD NOT get to the middle of the engine! At least the 351W power trucks could be serviced! However, the 460 Ford would pass anything but a gas station... 3-4 MPG, empty or loaded!

My other trucks were ex-Ryder rental 22' and 24' bodied GMC 7000 and Chevy C70, 366 V8 powered (ceramic clutch and all!) trucks that were amazingly easy to service. Ryder would sell off their 4 year olds, paint 'em whatever color you wanted and give a 1 year warranty.

I also had a twin-screw 28' Top Kick, but it was a diesel, so the maintenance was much different.

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[Richk]

I had one of those Monza's with the small block. I think it was actually a 262, not the 307. I changed that plug once. Never again. It was pretty old when I was driving it and I ALWAYS kept a tool box in the trunk - and I regularly drove it 550 mile to and from college. Nowaday's I suppose that would be pointless - not too many things you can repair roadside - and probably not a lot of college kids who've grown up working on cars. I work with a couple of younger engineers, and it's always surprising that they call a plumber or electrician for the simplest home repair. Hell, I would always at least attempt it first, and then make a call if I really screwed it up.

Rich

[J. Clarke]

That was the AMC Pacer and the real problem was that it was designed for a Wankel engine that didn't happen, but by the time it was realized that the Wankel wasn't going to happen it was too late in the design cycle to fix the problem.

[asmurff]

#3 Needs to be replaced with...Get a teenager to clean their room. #8 Some people should never touch any electrical components #9 Isn't this why we have wives

[BillinDetroit]

I don't want an HDTV and I have neither a boat nor a rifle, nor have I caught a fish in decades, so I claim exemption on those.

That's their list, though, so I'll substitute a few of my own:

1) build & maintain a compost pile 2) sharpen a drill bit freehand 3) train others to do everything I can 4) build a computer from parts 5) low-level a HD and install an operating system. 6) preach one-on-one 7) convert currency in your head 8) drive on the opposite side of the road in an 'opposite' car 9) live a belief -as written- 10) Make adversity look like part of plan "A"

[BillinDetroit]

Chrysler Newport with a 383 was unlikely to have ever had plug #3 changed. Needed a double articulating wrench handle.

[BillinDetroit]

Compassion.

[Jack Stein]

That's nothing. While I can do everything on the list, I was unable to turn my headlights OFF in my 2001 GMC pickup a year after I bought it. I was picking my young son up at the school parking parking lot after a school ski trip. It was 12:30 a.m. and very cold out, lots of cars waiting for their kids. Every time I started the truck to warm it up, the lights would go on automatically, blinding the folks parked in the little car in front of me. Nothing I did other that shut the truck off would turn them off, so I was greatly annoying to the people in front of me. Eventually I found out you had to have the parking brake on before the damned lights would go out... What if I was running moonshine and wanted to hide from the revenuers at night? Who would have thought you would need a damned owners manual to figure out how to turn off your headlights?

Now, I'm trying to figure out how to turn on the running lights... they must go on auto magically cause I can't get them to turn on to see which one is out. I did learn the best way to fix your ABS brakes is to simply pull the fuse:-)