Hot Rods CARPE DIEM

I have been procrastinating for the last two weeks with changing the brake light switch on my old beater, I purchased the Echlin SL147 switch last week & sometimes push comes to shove.

Brenda's magnum wagon got hit in the rear quarter panel and it's at the body shop and she is driving my pickup so I had to get off my lazy arse and fix the problem this afternoon.

We all know that replacing a screw in brake light switch is a simple task and shouldn't take more than 30 minutes at the most.

Today the stars were not aligned in my world, jack & jack stands were easy enough and the drop light was were it was suppose to be, I start looking for my large crescent wrench, after wasting a good 20 minutes looking in all the tool boxes I gave up and opted for my large channel locks, crawling under the car to loosen up the switch I pulled the wires off, turns out they are female ends, the new switch has blade ends so I crawled back out, the wires are so short I couldn't replace the ends under the car so I made some short jumper wires and crawled back under the car.

Replaced the switch and connected the wires, turned out the lights in the garage and pressed the brake pedal, I saw a nice red glow on the garage door.

BTW, That 30 minute job ended up taking about a hour and a half. HRP

 

Hey, I’ve had 2 hour oil changes too. I know the feeling

 

I remember building my new shop 15 years ago when I was 55 and saying I don't need a lift, what was I thinking? HRP

 

I had a similar situation changing the headlight switch on my '63 880. I bought a switch off ebay...your typical Chinese made switch that is SUPPOSE to fit the car. (first mistake) After messing around with it for an hour, it finally fell apart in my hand! SO I end up taking the old switch apart and cleaning up the corrosion. Now I have dash lights. (and a broken Chinese made headlight switch to use for 'parts' lol)

 

The life time warranty brake light switch in my '39 p/u just died. Probably because I read the post here about brake light switch failures.Classic Performance Products is warrantying it but shipping is on me. BUT shipping is delayed due to Covid which is parts talk for they'll ship it whenever they get around to it. So just to make sure I have all my bases covered my wife ordered one on her credit card so I'll have a spare for the next time it dies since this one only lasted a year. It will be interesting to know which switch arrives first, the warrantied one or the one I'm paying full pop for? Want to bet the shipping charge for the warrantied switch is more? Yes I know I could change over to a mechanical switch but the way my luck goes it too will fail. Don't want to mess with Murphy so I'll stick with the hydraulic switch for the time being and hope the install goes better the HRP's did. But in the mean time, no brakes lights, no drive.

 

Never start any vehicle projects on an evening or weekend when the parts stores are closed.

 

It seems that it is seldom when things take as little time as I think they should. Since I am retired now, there is always enough time.....fortunately.

 

If you think it should take an hour, plan for four.

 

How about you change your oil and filter....start up the engine to move it around.....shut it off and from underneath is a flow of all the oil you had just put in there on your garage floor.........the culprit.........you didn't check to make sure the filter seal came out with the old filter!

 

30 minute job took an hour and a half???? That's a thing????


That's fucking wonderful in my world.....

 

Naaa, I get it, just yanking your chain

 

I lost a dime in the carpet too.
What’s that have to do with a brake switch?

 

The end result is what is important!

 

You got that right. HRP

 

Wife, “I thought you said that it wouldn’t take long!” Me, “Describe Long.”

 

Seems that comes with working on old cars HRP! By the way the term ARSE is one I mostly heard up in Canada. Not so much around here in the US. You horses arse!

 

Murphy’s law seems to plague me on a regular basis with projects & repairs as well. I usually try to imagine the worst case scenario (especially at work) so the outcome should be better than anticipated........


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Hey Paul at 55 I didn't have a lift either, but at 67.........
you bet I do!
One of the best investments ever!
KK

 

Great advice, but those are the times I can actually work on things.



Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

I just prefer to use the word arse as a alternative, everyone knows what I mean. HRP

 

There’s a good joke in there. But it might be family hour

 

I don't put a time limit on anything anymore. Customers stuff or mine. Lippy

 

That’s too much room for a man to work on stuff. Please at the minimum toss some stuff on the floor

 

Rarely does an auto or home project take less than twice as long as you originally planned.
Ask yourself when was the last time you did a project In HALF the time you thought it would take ?

 

Point taken! HRP

 

And cost half what you thought it would? It's usually double for me!

 

Did a brake job on my OT car a couple months ago. Discovered that when I had the car serviced, the monkey who rotated the tires used an impact gun. It took a breaker bar and a four foot cheater pipe to break them loose. Discovered some of the lug nuts and studs were galled, and what was supposed to take an hour lasted until the next day.

 

veni vidi vici would have been a better title.
good job Danny

 

HRP - - - If I did the math right, you're 70. You should know by now - - - figure out about how long the job is going to take and double it. Then it actually takes twice as long as that.

 

Ted, I had the option to use one of the only two Latin phrases I remember from high school, I knew I wasn't destine to be physician.

Remember the quote about Latin being a dead language? HRP