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Does anyone else find this disturbing?

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VERAULT said:
LEt me guess you had to drop the gas tank? My 89 acura has an access door to the fuel pump behind the rear trunk panel. I always thought that was smart.
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Yup--I did it (after siphoning what I could) by using a couple of ratchet straps to support the tank while I unhooked it. There are two fuel pumps on the 92 F-150, one in each tank. The design problem was that the tank switchover is accomplished by powering one tank pump or the other, with the respective inactive tank pump check valve holding back the fuel getting into the non-pumped tank. Of course, if one of the check valves fails, the active tank merely pumps fuel into the inactive one. I'll bet some Ford engineer thought this was clever. I've heard reports that some have simply jettisoned the second tank and plugged the fuel line that leads to it. My truck was assembled in Windsor, ON, and so has an "interesting" mix of metric and SAE fasteners.
 
havent done a fuel tank on a full size truck but i helped my buddy drop his tank more than a few times on his 84 mercury cougar because he kept blowing aftermarket fuel pumps..
 
Never had to change out a fuel pump. All I know about them is that if somebody hits your 86 Thunderbird in the rear at 40MPH as you are stopped waiting to make a left turn the fuel pump is cut off (shock sensor?).

The one thing all generations have in common now is that if the power goes out we all have nothing to do besides light a few candles and hope our cell phones are charged (power got cut for 30 minutes and felt like the world was ending since it was dark).
 
Unknown_K said:
The one thing all generations have in common now is that if the power goes out we all have nothing to do besides light a few candles and hope our cell phones are charged (power got cut for 30 minutes and felt like the world was ending since it was dark).
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sorry I really couldnt care less about my phone if the power goes out... What im watching on tv on the other hand... That I care about.

Cell phones are just annoyances.. and they make people annoying to be around.
 
I like to play solitair when I am bored so I use the phone. Also it's nice to be able to tell Ohio Edision the power is out.
 
In and around the Detroit area, and especially if you happen to be on the road, a cell phone is a must.
 
VERAULT said:
LEt me guess you had to drop the gas tank? My 89 acura has an access door to the fuel pump behind the rear trunk panel. I always thought that was smart.
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Sometimes the engineers actually think beforehand. Some times I think they think after. Like we need an oil filter. Where can we put it. There is some room on the rear of the engine. How will people replace it? Who cares. :) It will fit there, so that's where it's going.
 
resman said:
I just bought a 2022 Toyota Tacoma with the latest anti-theft device: a manual transmission. One of the last trucks you can buy with a stick - I think the Jeep pickup also comes with a manual.

Back to the original topic: My son is a freshman in college this year. They all got iPads for their schoolwork. I don't even know where files are stored on an iPad. Interestingly, I noticed when he and his friends were in middle school, back around 2015, they had an odd collection of knowledge. For instance, they all had a number of VPNs loaded on their computers to circumvent the blocked sites from the school's network. They had no real idea how it worked, but someone figured it out and shared the knowledge, much like script-kiddies. They also used the search feature for accessing files on their laptops. And from the keyboard - no mousing around to the search icon, all through hot keys. In some ways its actually more efficient than digging through folders to find a file. A different paradigm to interact with a computer, I suppose.
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Almost all of my vehicles over the years have been stick. I just enjoy driving a stick. Still do. My 2 Jeep Wranglers were also both sticks. I assume they still offer that as an option. But fewer and fewer cars can be ordered with a stick. Hopefully my current car is my last car purchase for me.
 
Thing is, some people are engineers and some just aren't :)

Our kids certainly aren't. No matter how much I tried, they just had no interest in how things worked but then again they are now doing things I have no real ability in.

One is a professional musician (look up the magnus archives ;) ), one is a primary school teacher, the other is a chef and the last is in social care.

So its me that has to fix everything.
 
You are 100% right about some people have it some dont. I always liked tinkering. I took everything apart as a kid to see how it worked. Some people have an engineering or troublshooting mind some dont. You can usually see this when a problem happens. Most people throw thier hands up in the air and some say, ok lets figure out whats going on.

Funny thing today is my kids for instance grew up in a "throw it away/replace it" school of thought. My daughter going to college has no idea what she wants to do. ITs the problem with many kids today. There is nothing I can do to help her she will just have to figure it out. She told me she was going to go into computers and I did everything in my power to dissuade her. I told her that she doesnt have the passion for anything computers. She has never shown an interest. I live and breathe this and have since I was much younger than her. I speny alot of free time with it. I love it. She doesnt. I know some of you may think its not right to dissuade someone but I honestly KNOW she isnt into them and she would just spend a year or two (and money) on those classes just to realize she was miserable in them. And shes stubborn she wouldnt want to admit I may have been right so up to 2 years is a fair argument.

Id hate to be that age today.. Shoot I wouldnt even know where I would fit into it all if it was me. I think Id work cargo ships and see the world....
 
People sometimes find that my curiosity about how things work is annoying. I explain (if they haven't guessed already) that I'm an engineer, which creates a certain mindset. I credit that to my late father, who taught me to always be curious.
 
That's one of my big gripes with most educational systems--they tend not to tolerate diversions from the course material, which results in a huge potential to discourage curiosity. While a certain amount of rigor is needed in life, it needn't quash inquisitiveness.
 
My problem with the educational system in this country is how it gears EVERYONE towards college and very few towards trade schools. Unlike Europe which starts expanding options prior to highscool so kids can have choices.

In this country it seems learning a trade is frowned upon.. Too blue collar. Everyone wants an MBA and to forgo the aldder climbing and become Insta-management.

I wish I went to a trade Highschool..... Just not in the shitty city I grew up in......

Then you have choices: Apprenticeship or work programs right out of highschool to complete your journeymans hours. Continued specific coursework in a precise field. General College coursework for engineering level. Etc, etc,.

Not the one size fits all, we will give you a loan you couldnt possibly pay off and dont worry, if you pay you get a degree in anything path they set out for everyone.
 
Have you seen what tech school charge these days? ITT Tech school (now defunct but I knew somebody who went there back in the day) charged $20K a year or more for course work you could not even transfer to any other tech school or college and their "degrees" were pretty much useless. Many tech schools are like that.

I agree there are people who would be much better off and happier doing construction or other skilled trades.
 
Most are still significantly cheaper than standard college. And ITT tech is more of a franchise at this point.
But yeah its true, you want to look into the course your interested in and how it may be transferable or not. Smaller schools might be a better choice than the large ones which pay for lots of commercial time.

And I was referring to highschool trade schools though which are public schools.
 
I started as a craft apprentice in a power station, and it annoyed me that most were not interested in how everything worked together. They would calibrate a CO monitor to an instruction, but had no idea how the detection circuit worked or how a CO monitor fitted into the system. I could walk around the plant and know what each pipe did.

I loved working on Kent computing relays but I needed to know how and why they worked, not just calibrate them.

Flapper and nozzle three term controllers, yeah !

Engineers are born :)
 
I agree it's good to know some details about the entire system, not just one part. Your one part will affect how other parts work. Your part may work fine
but may cause a failure in another part. That's why we always had to do unit and then systems testing.
 
Gary C said:
Flapper and nozzle three term controllers, yeah !
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Steel mill here. Askania jetpipe controllers, pneumatics (3-15 psi signal lines, thermocouples, recorder/controllers, you name it. Used to walk the lines with a wood-box L&N potentiometer, calibrating recorders by the hundred. Some very dirty work; e.g. replacing sensors in a rolling mill while standing in the oil sump or replacing thermocouples (4' long) on live furnaces in a blooming mill (you have 10 minutes before you start burning yourself). The coke plant was the dirtiest.

Wonder how many here have seen an L&N Micromax strip-chart recorder that uses a galvanometer and clamping mechanism to balance a bridge--no electronics at all...

Some of the happiest times of my life.
 
Chuck, sounds very similar to a 60's power station. Leeds and Northrop recorders, I remember them. We also had some kent flexair systems with air driven chart recorders. Pens driven by bellows and the chart driven by an air motor. The nodding chart recorders using valve amps to drive a servo head. Manually winding bobbins to balance RTD circuit bridges, the fun was endless.

3-15psi on all loops, positioners, fisher valves, power cylinders. Setting the bourdon tube links and 90deg at 9psi, so many things I learnt that fell by the wayside when digital took over.

Great days (and I'm only 55 !)
 
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