Author here! Thanks for all the comments. This post isn't meant as a lesson or a judgment, something to tell "just shut up and adapt like my ancestor did". The situation is hard, and I wasn't trying to dismiss anyone's anxiety. No one wants to hear "you'll be fine" when something bad just happened.
It's mostly a personal story. You can see it as a kind of tribute to a great-great-grandfather I never met, partly because I'd never heard a story like it before. It's banal but still a big adventure in the family. I find it fascinating that he grew up in a completely different world from mine and still felt some of the same doubts and anxieties I do today. And I'm really proud of him, because his "pivot" let my family stay in the village instead of maybe leaving to work in factories in the city. My father loved his job, and in a way that's thanks to him.
Sounds amazing. How on earth did he go from shoeing horses to learning about the internal combustion engine? Seems quite the leap that not everyone would be capable of.
Early automobiles were very simple machines. I you knew how to repair a carriage or a wagon, you were pretty close to being able to work on an early automobile. You should check them out.
Honestly I think people forget this fact. You don't have to go that far back to find vehicles that you absolutely could do anything to yourself with basic tools.
We're fixing up a 1987 Jeep Wrangler for our son. I could strip it down to the frame with 3 or 4 tools. It's kind of amazing how simple cars were, and that was in the late 80's.
Yeah as long as you ignore the engine (ECU/PCM/TCUs) in cars in the 80s, they're quite simple. Go back to the early 70s-before and it's mostly all analog or trivial electronics.
This was the video that earned my sub. Even though it covers stuff I mostly already knew, it's done in such a way that that it breaks down the whys that may not be apparent to people without a background in this stuff.
This and the video on hybrids, are, imo important works, because they break things down in a way that disarms tribalism, and explain how it is that we got to where we are. There are very real stakes in ownership, right to repair, and freedom of movement that rest on people having a good baseline understanding of this stuff.
Even as late as the late 90s, probably into the mid 2000s for manuals. The complexity of vehicles from that era is mostly in understanding the role of the sensors (or that they even exist in the first place). Once you understand that, they go back to being pretty straightforward. I guess the exception here is probably immobilizers.
The complexity of modern vehicles comes down to software coupling between the systems, which (to my knowledge) started with automatic transmissions, and then spread to everything else. In very modern vehicles, even the sensors register with the ECU and communicate on encrypted channels.
The reason for these measures is ostensibly security and quality, but automakers don't seem to mind the fact that it also makes many repairs more difficult or impossible.
My first car was a 1986 Grand Marquis and I spent every other weekend of high school fixing something on it. What an incredible waste of time: I worked a part time job so that I could afford to keep a car running so that I could drive between school, home, and my part time job instead of riding the bus.
But it was easy to work on. My dad (not a mechanic) usually had a strong hunch about what the problem was. Lights went dim while you were driving and five minutes later it sputtered out? Alternator is dead. Flip through the manual to find a diagram of where all the bolts are, take it off, run to Auto Zone, get another one, bolt it on. By the end it was usually dark and I was finishing the job with a shop light hung under the hood.
I drove a series of beaters from the 80s and 90s and did all my own repairs until my mid 20s. Alternators, water pumps, break pads, break lines, ignition solenoids. All of it is just parts that you unbolt and bolt a new one on. When I got my first modern car (a 2008!) one look under the hood made me realize I had joined the yuppie class and would not be changing my own spark plugs anymore.
I always did my own maintenance including changing spark plugs. Then I bought a Subaru. That weird 4 cylinder has plugs facing slightly down that you either have to cut the wheel well cowl or UNMOUNT AND JACK THE MOTOR OUT OF THE ENGINE BAY to change.
My solution was to use like 11 wobble extensions and pray that I didn't drop anything. 8 hours later I changed 4 plugs and understood why it cost $250 at the dealer to have them to it. Then I gladly started paying that money.
Conversely, carriages (and other pre-automobile machines) were also surprisingly complicated. Steering mechanisms, leaf springs, brakes, and a variety of linkages including the horse harnesses themselves (which had to account for the animal's gait).
megalomanu · · focus · HN ↗
It's mostly a personal story. You can see it as a kind of tribute to a great-great-grandfather I never met, partly because I'd never heard a story like it before. It's banal but still a big adventure in the family. I find it fascinating that he grew up in a completely different world from mine and still felt some of the same doubts and anxieties I do today. And I'm really proud of him, because his "pivot" let my family stay in the village instead of maybe leaving to work in factories in the city. My father loved his job, and in a way that's thanks to him.
4ndrewl · · focus · HN ↗
doug_durham · · focus · HN ↗
Loughla · · focus · HN ↗
We're fixing up a 1987 Jeep Wrangler for our son. I could strip it down to the frame with 3 or 4 tools. It's kind of amazing how simple cars were, and that was in the late 80's.
ZeWaka · · focus · HN ↗
throw0101c · · focus · HN ↗
Alec of Technology Connections just posted a video on this:
* <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KoeY54M5VA" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KoeY54M5VA
coderenegade · · focus · HN ↗
This and the video on hybrids, are, imo important works, because they break things down in a way that disarms tribalism, and explain how it is that we got to where we are. There are very real stakes in ownership, right to repair, and freedom of movement that rest on people having a good baseline understanding of this stuff.
e_l · · focus · HN ↗
coderenegade · · focus · HN ↗
The complexity of modern vehicles comes down to software coupling between the systems, which (to my knowledge) started with automatic transmissions, and then spread to everything else. In very modern vehicles, even the sensors register with the ECU and communicate on encrypted channels.
The reason for these measures is ostensibly security and quality, but automakers don't seem to mind the fact that it also makes many repairs more difficult or impossible.
eloisius · · focus · HN ↗
But it was easy to work on. My dad (not a mechanic) usually had a strong hunch about what the problem was. Lights went dim while you were driving and five minutes later it sputtered out? Alternator is dead. Flip through the manual to find a diagram of where all the bolts are, take it off, run to Auto Zone, get another one, bolt it on. By the end it was usually dark and I was finishing the job with a shop light hung under the hood.
I drove a series of beaters from the 80s and 90s and did all my own repairs until my mid 20s. Alternators, water pumps, break pads, break lines, ignition solenoids. All of it is just parts that you unbolt and bolt a new one on. When I got my first modern car (a 2008!) one look under the hood made me realize I had joined the yuppie class and would not be changing my own spark plugs anymore.
Loughla · · focus · HN ↗
My solution was to use like 11 wobble extensions and pray that I didn't drop anything. 8 hours later I changed 4 plugs and understood why it cost $250 at the dealer to have them to it. Then I gladly started paying that money.
skew-aberration · · focus · HN ↗