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If you're buying car parts, know what the f#$%K you drive and want.

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  • #46
    Having dealt with small engines (IE lawnmowers and tractors), knowing the size of the mowing deck would be a good idea, even if all you want it the blades! Oh, sure, the 42" blades will fit a 46" deck, but it'd leave streaks in the lawn. Wide ones. Do not try the 46" blades on a 42" deck.... just don't. It's messy.

    Know your model number too. It's usually found UNDER THE SEAT. That number will tell me what brand engine, because you can have a Murray engine, a Briggs and Straton, or Techumseh. No, not all small engines are the same. I don't give a shit who told you otherwise.

    KNOW THE PART YOU ARE LOOKING FOR. If you are sending your spouse, make sure to put the part name on the piece of paper you're sending with them. "The thingy that goes between the engine and the blade" covers a lot of parts!
    If I make no sense, I apologize. I'm constantly interrupted by an actual toddler.

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    • #47
      [QUOTE=SpyOne;1387804]At a guess, they expect your parents to teach you basic maintenance, but they expect your parents to have forgotten what a quadratic equation is.
      For what it is worth, 30 years ago when I was in high school they not only taught us first aid, but CPR certification was part of gym class.
      [QUOTE]

      Yeah, the took that out of the curriculum here because to quote, “it’s not very useful”. School is so bad here I took my grade 12 finals in grade 7 to prove a point. Passed with better marks then I did when I actually took them in grade 12. But I was told “we can’t move you up because your classmates would feel bad about being left behind” and alternatively “wouldn’t you want to graduate with your friends?” Umm what friends? The idiots in school were too dumb to hold an interesting conversation with me at that age and sometime I wonder if my tolerance for human stupidity came up after a riding accident that resulted in serious head trauma (I now have difficulty remembering things and I sometimes slur my words. Rattling the brain cage is bad, who would of guessed)

      Quoth SpyOne View Post
      My father had grown up on a farm, so he was a big fan of giving his kids gradualy increasing responsibilities...

      ...And that's how he raised three boys to become adults who can go "I've never replaced a wheel bearing before, but I have a good manual. Worst case I ruin the car, which is pretty much where it is now, so ..."
      See that’s parenting done right.

      The problem with expecting the parents to teach their kids life skills (other then the fact that school is supposedly there to teach life skills in the first place) is what if the parents don’t know? I sure as hell wouldn’t trust my mother with basic one dodger arithmetic never mind learning how to manage money from her. Hell, she still can’t figure out the chip card and she just learned that online banking was a thing. Why the fuck would I want to learn something that could destroy me from someone who has less of a clue then I do?

      And what about the next generation when the problem is compounded by the stupidity of the people in charge of last generations ‘education’?

      As much as I love complaining about humanity’s utter lack of common sense or even a basic level of intelligence a good deal of the problem lays with education. Particularly that “you tried hard we can’t fail you because it will damage your frail ego (have they ever even talked to a teenager?) and make you feel bad so we’ll pay you on the back and let you graduate with your friends anyway” mentality. They are never forced to think. They never have to adjust for their attitude or their laziness or their inability to pick up things as easily. (This is just my province I do know that other countries have much much much MUCH better education *looking at you Scandinavian countries in particular* which is why I’m doing my degrees overseas because A)education is viewed as an investment in your populace, not a money grab like it is here and B)free education for the ‘cost’ of two years working in a foreign country? Fuck yeah. That being said, no matter how much overlap there is between actual courses...never ever try for 4 masters at the same time. My brain hurts.)

      The fact that Canadian education has literally become a running joke both inside and outside of Canada says a lot about the quality. “But hey, at least we aren’t the states.”
      Don’t worry about what I’m up to. Worry about why you are worried about what I’m up to.

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      • #48
        I'm rooting for the virus when some retard calls me at a dodge dealership for a part for his honda "cause he got it here" .
        AkaiKitsune
        Sarcasm dear, sarcasm. I’m well aware that dealing with civilians in any capacity will skin your faith in humanity alive, then pickle anything that remains so as to watch it shrivel up into an immortal husk thus reminding you of how dead inside you now are.

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        • #49
          Well I don't know about cars, never learned, and if anything needs to be done on my car I fully intend to pay someone to do it. Just because I'm not knowledgeable about cars doesn't mean I'm stupid. And that means I don't wander into a parts shop and say "I need the thing for my car. It's four door and red." P.S. how do people not know the make, model, and year of their car? You need that for lots of things. One thing I used to do on my older car was to change the headlights. I brought the manual in, and always came out with the correct part.
          Replace anger management with stupidity management.

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          • #50
            Everyone doesn't need to know everything about their car but if you are buying parts you should know what you need.
            If you don't, that is why there are mechanics. Their job is to fix your car for you.
            I wouldn't try surgery because I wouldn't know what I am doing. I would pay the person with a lot more education and knowledge about it than myself.

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            • #51
              There's a lot of repairs I'll tackle on my own, as there's not that many complicated things outside of the engine/transmission. Brakes... I could probably do, and have it be just fine. Probably... NOPE! Until I know EXACTLY wtf I'm doing, I'm not about to try and put those in meself.
              Starters, alternators and such don't leave a ton of metal screaming down the road when they fail for whatever reason.

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              • #52
                Quoth Buzzard View Post
                ... Brakes...
                Murphy says on brake repairs: "You will always have extra parts that won't go back in."
                I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
                Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
                Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

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                • #53
                  Brake pad replacement is an issue where my brother and I have diametrically opposed positions, but for the exact same reason.
                  I want it done by a professional, he wants to do it himself.

                  Our reason? "I don't want my last thought before I die to be 'I'm so stupid'."

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                  • #54
                    Quoth dalesys View Post
                    "You will always have extra parts that won't go back in."
                    That's what she said...
                    The Copyright Monster has made me tell you that my avatar is courtesy of the wonderful Alice XZ.And you don't want to annoy the Copyright Monster.

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                    • #55
                      Funny thing is if someone is honest and says they have no clue and plays 30 questions with me they are better than the one who think they know.
                      AkaiKitsune
                      Sarcasm dear, sarcasm. I’m well aware that dealing with civilians in any capacity will skin your faith in humanity alive, then pickle anything that remains so as to watch it shrivel up into an immortal husk thus reminding you of how dead inside you now are.

                      Comment


                      • #56
                        Had a woman, after messing up the display, hold up a pencil tire gage and ask "what dis do".
                        I so wanted to say, "for you? Nothing."

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                        • #57
                          Quoth Slave to the Phone View Post
                          I have owned and maintained a 1979 Triumph Spitfire since it came off the boat. I KNOW what I need for my car. I KNOW that the battery listed in your book is different, but I don't want that battery. I want the battery I know fits. If you insist that I'm too female/old/stupid to know what battery I want, I will buy the wrong one you insist on, then pull the old, disabled, female card and insist that you carry it out and try to install it.
                          At least the Spitfire's battery is easily accessed Not so with my '70 MGB GT. I swear, the factory was on crack. Stock, there are two six-volt batteries hiding under the rear seat. They're a pain in the ass to install and remove--usually the straps fall off or corrode. Expensive and hard to find, mean that many of us have gone to a single 12-volt item instead. I know from experience that an Interstate 26R type will slot right in. It's pretty amusing to be shot down, and have the parts guy try to install something that I know won't fit. It's even more amusing to see them try to get it back out
                          Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines. --Enzo Ferrari

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                          • #58
                            Oh lord, under the back seat? The old Bugs used to do that as well. Heaven help you if you took the positive terminal protector boot off. The next time you have someone sit in the back, the seat springs can touch the battery terminals.... Good way to burn down a Bug and lose a friend!

                            Not to mention that any battery acid that leaked (or even outgassed!) caused the floor pan to rot away in about eight milliseconds.
                            “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
                            One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
                            The other, of course, involves orcs." -- John Rogers

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