Seems to be a shit load of these type threads lately. I'm all for helping someone out when I can, but it is getting out of hand. Buy a book, take a class, but expecting someone to diagnose what is wrong with a car over the internet for someone who doesn't know what a spark plug does is just, uh,-- crazy.
I agree. In a lot of cases the questioner has not even looked at the problem. My reply is, one of us has to and he is a lot closer than I am.
I love to try to help someone, like you, and will usually offer some suggestions. However, there are just so many possibilities as to why a car is not starting or having a problem that all we are really doing is throwing out ideas of where to start. The actual cause could be something totally different. A perfect example was the member who had the fluctuating oil pressure problem, and when he revved it up the pressure went to zero. We all tossed out logical suggestions, and it ended up being a spark plug wire retainer in the oil pan. There is no way in hell anyone could have thought that might be the cause ! I don't mind those so much but the ones that start "I've never built a car and have no tools, how do I go about building a frame?" slay me. Where do you even begin to try to offer any help on that one ? Don
I always try to think about the older guys that answered all my stupid questions when I got started all those years ago. They had patience with me so I try to use some with the young guys also. I also think about the young guys that are reading this stuff and hopefully others can learn something too. Always remember the lurkers. I suspect that there are a lot more than we think. Part of answering a question can be instructions on how to trouble shoot a problem.
Too many of these people have little or no mechanical skills as you alluded to. Some take a complete car and start changing things before they ever attempt to actually start it. It still boils down to the basics. Any gasoline engine needs: Fuel-air mixture, Ignition spark, and compression to run. It also needs all three together at the correct time to function right. It doesn't matter what gas engine it is as long it isn't a rotary all piston engines still work on the same principle. It isn't a SBC, flathead, nail head or hemi issue it's a piston engine issue if it won't start. The big problem for the younger guys is that quite often the HAMB is their Auto Mechanics class and those of us who answer their questions time and again As Squirrel does on a regular basis as they didn't have an auto mechanics class to go to at the school they went to because the powers that be have decided that auto repair and other real job skills aren't what young people need to learn any more. Also we have a number of members who got their interest in working on cars later than a lot of us older guys did. They went to school, developed skills that allowed them to get productive jobs that pay well and now rather than playing golf, buying a wake board boat, buying a bass rig or learning to fly they are getting into old cars for any variety of reasons. Some can write a program for your computer that will let you do or keep track of just about anything. Others are recognized in the field that they work in but have no idea that a half inch doesn't fit on a half inch bolt unless you were in the Army in the 60's and still think that the size of the hex is the bolt size rather than the diameter of the bolt it's self. I've thought about having my own website that had sections with straight forward automotive basics on it. Just hot rod basics 101 starting with shop safety and going from there but keeping to the basics as there is plenty of the way advanced stuff out there. Back to the car won't start thing. For any automotive gasoline piston engine. 1. Will the starter spin the engine over? 2. Does the engine have reasonable compression to run? Have you checked it with a compression gauge? 3. Do you get a spark from the plug wire or the coil wire when you crank the engine over? 4. If you crank it over and bring number 1 piston up on tdc with the timing marks lined up is the rotor pointing to the number 1 spot on the distributor cap? 5.Does the carburetor (we are only doing engines with carb today) have fuel? That can be just fuel poured down the float bowl vent tube to fill the float bowl. It doesn't need a gas tank to fire and run for 20 seconds. I've shown this before and contrary to a lot of people's beliefs you don't need a whole lot of crap to be able to hear an engine run for a few seconds. Engine, battery, battery cables. Wire from battery to coil and a bit of gas in the float bowl, that's it to fire one up. This is the 500 Cad that my buddy gave me for my 71 GMC It had sat at his place for several years. I just wanted to see if it would run before I got to doing anything with it. That's all it takes to hear one run.
Guys, my car won't start. Gas? Do I look stupid? I gave the kid $40 to buy gas just last night.... oh, never mind.
And if it's an automatic make sure it's in "park". When I had my shop I had two or three sevice calls a year when all I did was move the shifter to "park" and start the car.
they teach auto in the school here but i don't think they get into carbs much, or points, a younger guy who lives near me was part of the school team that won a ford service competition maybe two years ago, but he still comes here and asks about carbs, today its all about reading codes and having the right book to look up the problem.
Does the statement "There's no such thing as a stupid question", have any relevance in the real world? Consider the person asking the question, having a certain obligation to make at least a minimal effort to educate himself on the basics first. What good does it do to give the answer, without the person having the knowledge of how it was arrived at, or its order of events and individual functions of the system which was how the answer was determined? Nothing was learned. A saying I love, and seems to pertain here is; "Give the man a fish, and he eats for today-teach a man how to fish, and he eats for a lifetime"
http://youtu.be/YPM6ni4bQzc It's that simple. Same as all the "Show me pictures" threads. And "What color should I paint my..." threads.
I'm new in the field myself and what we're taught today is to hook up a computer first if an engine won't start. In other words, what would ordinarily be a busted timing belt would be a "Cam position sensor fault". So it's a little different now and the only real way for us to learn anything about older engines and carburetors is through the internet or asking stupid questions
He might be right, to a point. I had to educate one of our techs recently. I wanted an oil change on my new purchase (Falcon). Easiest to get done quick at the dealer where I work. Tech was sent out to get my car, and came back in - wouldn't start. I told him: press the gas halfway, let up, then pull the choke out halfway, it'll start. Next I heard was the cashier for the bill. That said, some of these queries are bloody stupid. Cosmo
i had it pretty good when i was young, my farther and his brothers were all fix it yourself kind of guys, i also got a job pumping gas when i was 13, and i had minibikes from the time i was 8, it wasent that my dad would teach me as much as iwas right there standing in the way all the time asking stupid questions, he also let me sell my snowmobile when i was 14 so i could buy a 69 chevy with a 327, i kept it at the garage i worked at and in my spare time i put a 4 barrel on it, Q-jet, and did the brakes and put tires on it, we got it insured and dad would take it for test drives, i would yell at him to stomp on it so the 4's would kick in, i sold that car when i was 15 so i could buy a new street bike for when i turned 16 and could drive, one thing i see alot on here is some folks are so quick to spend money, chances are if you have an old engine that hasent run in a while it just needs some things cleaned up a little, file the points, clean the plugs, blow out the air cleaner, check the carb to see if gas is coming and not flooding when you first get it rolling over, lots of time a little tap with a hammer to the side of a flooding card is all that is needed, check and check again before you start spending money on things you do not need.
Questions like this drive me nuts, too. Especially when you can tell that the person has no clue about automotive basics and no motivation/initiative to learn. They just want you to hand them the solution with minimal effort on their part to help themselves. To me, there's no good reason why an adult individual who proclaims (pretends?) to be an automotive enthusiast should have zero knowledge of the basics of how the thing works. They should have their car taken away from them and given to some kid that will really appreciate it.
It sounds like someone has a case of diaper rash. Don't answer, don't read, WTF, don't even log on. Still, it reminds me of my drag racing days. If any of our crew/gang/groupies/whatevers came by when we were working on our cars, the "challenge" might be issued at any time. "That fuckin thing won't start...", and you had to man up and start it on the spot. As a joke, we'd say it about engines on stands, or with the heads off, or other states of tear down. Sometimes a few of our neighbors wouldn't like us, getting called out at 11:00pm will do that!
I used to get calls at my shop when someone couldn't get the car to start. My 'favorite' one was: "It won't turn over." Three sentences later, it was established that the starter cranked. (getting that info out of them damned near required waterboard testing) Me: "Won't 'turn over'? Does the starter operate?" Neophite: "I told you, no, it won't start." Me: "Exactly what do you hear when you turn the key?" Neophite: "Nothing. Just that Rrr-rrr-rrr of the starter. But it won't start." Me: "Does it have gas in the tank?" Neophite: "It must have, I drove it home...Wait, I'll check."
And I always thought it was, Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, Teach a man to fish and he sits in a boat and gets drunk all day
I think Billy Bob Thornton said it best in Slingblade, "you check them points?, aint got no gas in it" "um huh"
It isn't like they are calling you at home when they post on this site. There are some on here that don't mind helping a novice. We were all at that point sometime. If it bothers you, don't click.
Actually...my truck wouldn't start. (I've been late night rewiring and converting to 12v) Discovered a bad ground at the battery disconnect and I had mistakenly removed the "hot" wire to my coil. Fixed it!
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