From: jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond)
Subject: Re: Good books to learn auto mechanics?
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 92 05:05:34 GMT
Organization: Dixie Communications Public Access.  The Mouth of the South.

epc1@quads.uchicago.edu (Merlin) writes:

>>> You wanna be an auto mechanic?? I hope your five years old. Because that
>>> is the best age to start learning. 

>I want to learn about cars so that I never have to rely on a mechanic.
>I recently bought my first car and I'm having some trouble with it.

>Is there REALLY more to being a mechanic than installing a water pump?  Like
>not being able to spell - by any chance?

I beg to differ with the previous poster.  Though 5 is a good age to start
(speaking of myself :-), it is by no means necessary.  I classify car
people who do mechanical work into  three catagories:

Parts changers
mechanics 
master mechanics. (tuners, machinists, etc)

I don't use the term "parts changers" in a derrogatory manner here.  A 
person who learns to look for basic symptoms and change the offending
part can do quite well by himself.  Implicit in this catagory is the 
ability to know when to punt to someone with more experience and training.

The mechanic has the ability to troubleshoot most things on a car and
put the problem area back to stock factory condition.  This may involve
nothing more than parts changing or it may require more advanced skills
such as hand machining, welding, metal forming, and parts fabrication.

The master mechanic/tuner has an ability to feel and know the machinery
that I don't believe can be learned.  Those of us who have it easily
recognize others who do. Those who don't think we're crazy for claiming it.
People in this class can, for instance, torque a bolt to within a few 
ft-lbs of a specified figure without the aid of a torque wrench.  He 
can feel metal's fatigue point and avoid breaking things that others
easily break.  He has the patience to work with a difficult part or fit
until it works or goes together where most will give up or break the
part.  

One key indicator I've found is the ability of an individual to make 
just about anything work without training or example.  personal example,
I was able to cut a grade the first time I sat on a bull dozer, figured
out how to run a locomotive without help (though closely supervised :-),
once walked up to a milling machine for the first time and convinced
the machine shop owner I'd been running one all my life and was
able to start up and control a nuclear reactor (on the simulator, of course)
the first time out.  I was tuning lawn mowers for neighboors by the 
age of 10 so I don't think the ability is learned and from past experience
in trying to teach it, I don't think it can be taught.  

This ability is NOT necessary to be a good mechanic.  All it takes is 
the ability to calmly observe the problem, decompose it to its parts
and solve each in turn.  The lack of orderly methodology is the single
biggest killer for most mechanics.  Otherwise known as the "shotgun" approach,
the bad mechanic goes in and willy-nilly changes many things hopeing to 
"shotgun" the problem.  As in science, the scientific method of changing
only one thing at a time and observing the results never applied 
stronger.  If I could ever teach a budding mechanic only one thing,
that would be it.

To the original question that started this thread, what book to read.
I've yet to find a better teaching tool than to get the factory service
manual (NOT chiltons or whatever) and read it from cover to cover.  Then
with manual at hand, take some things apart on the car and learn how they
work.  Doing this to things that are functioning is the absolute best way to 
understand how they work.  Scarcely a thing comes in my shop that does 
not get its cover removed before being placed in service.  (I've even 
done that to hard drives but don't tell anyone :-)  Many things can be
observed without taking them apart.  Particularly with modern engines, 
bunches of stuff can be learned by cycling through the diagnostic codes on
the ECU.

Another way to learn is to go out and get the stuff to set up automotive 
systems on the bench so you can see how they work.  That's right, set up
a complete ignition system or an air conditioning loop and observe and
measure its operation.  if you plunder a junk yard, this won't cost much
and will teach you more than any book could.  Consider buying a lawn
mower=type engine or even better, a small 120 volt gas powered generator
to experiment with.  The generator is nice because you can easily
electrically load the engine.  Consider it ultimately sacrificial and 
don't worry if you break something.  Discover how everything on the 
thing works.  I probably learned more about engines running and sometimes
blowing up lawnmower engines than any other single thing I ever did.
If you think a couple or three hundred bucks is too much to spend 
learning, consider that even a simple job like changing a blown head gasket
will cost more than twice that amount.

Last bit of advice.  Buy tools.  Massive quantities of good tools.  Every
tool you can afford.  You don't have to have Snap-Ons but avoid flea-
market pot metal tools like the plague.  One of my basic philosophies
is when I'm learning about something new, buy a ready-made unit at first to
learn from.  You can likely sell the commercial unit after you build your
own replacement.    I'm doing that right now regarding an exhaust gas
analyzer.  

John
-- 
John De Armond, WD4OQC               |Interested in high performance mobility?  
Performance Engineering Magazine (TM) |
Marietta, Ga                         |Interested in high tech and computers? 
jgd@dixie.com                        |Write me about PE Magazine
Need Usenet public Access in Atlanta?  Write Me for info on Dixie.com.
Newsgroups: rec.autos.tech