There, I fixed it
There was a time when that meant something worthwhile:
I don’t want to sound like I’m making a paean to some imaginary bygone age here, but there was a time when the general assumption of society was that the average adult American male was at least minimally mechanically competent: garages had timing lights in them and drug stores had vacuum tube testers, and patching an inner tube or setting the gap on a spark plug were not lost and arcane arts.
The microchip has freed us of many things and transistorized electronics are amazingly rugged compared to their fragile forebears of bygone days. The idea of “fixing” a radio or TV is foreign to us now, and the underhood areas of modern cars are shrouded in plastic fairings that practically scream “No User Serviceable Parts Inside” (and with the first spark plug change not scheduled for 100,000 miles, why would there be?) and unless you’re some kind of weirdo bicycle hobbyist you’ll probably never clap eyes on an inner tube, because even your riding mower’s gone tubeless. These days one can get a reputation as “handy” for being able to plug a video card into your computer’s motherboard.
Of course, when these amazing solid-state components become slightly less solid, the expense is considerable. Not so long ago, you could get a set of spark-plug wires for somewhere in the two-digit range; the big thing now, though, is individual ignition coils, which perhaps can be had for a shade under $100. Each.
And I don’t trust anything to sit in an engine for 100,000 miles, especially if it’s involved in explosions.
(According to her service record, which predates my ownership by several years, Gwendolyn is on her second set of replacement plugs. They’re averaging a hair over 50k, which is about as much as I’d be willing to risk. Besides, they’re $12 apiece, and as is typical with a sideways V-6, the back three are damned near impossible to get to, which discourages more frequent changes anyway.)
The title comes from There, I Fixed It: Epic Kludges + Jury Rigs, which offers further evidence of the post-competent society.
McGehee »
25 November 2009 · 8:21 pm
My wife has even accused me (though not in recent years — hmmm) of being “mechanically inclined,” an epithet I have earnestly disavowed. I insist, in fact, on the only slightly less undeserved “handy” to keep from disillusioning her altogether.
McGehee »
25 November 2009 · 8:23 pm
My mother once had a 4-cyl. Nissan pickup on which I tried once to perform a basic tune-up.
I tried.
Once.
Apparently the damn thing had only four cylinders but eight spark plugs — and half of those were inaccessible to the shadetree wannabe.
CGHill »
25 November 2009 · 9:15 pm
A Z-series engine. Supposedly, this helped in reducing emissions.
More climate change shenanigans? « A Conservative Shemale »
26 November 2009 · 7:23 am
[...] Dustbury talks about the disappearance of basic mechanical competence in America. I’m not sure that’s entirely true, I think a lot of it is just going in different directions [...]
McGehee »
26 November 2009 · 8:58 am
It didn’t reduce my own emission of heated oratory. Not at the time.
CGHill »
26 November 2009 · 9:55 am
Well, yeah, but at the time there was no mandate to control those emissions.
McGehee »
26 November 2009 · 3:39 pm
Maybe not from the government…