When I had to tune a distributor by hand at a car show

Back when I started, we did everything by feel. At a local show, a guy's vintage ride was running rough. I showed him how to set the points with a feeler gauge. A bunch of young mechanics gathered around, amazed. Now, they just plug in a laptop and call it a day.

3 comments

3 Comments

schmidt.brooke3mo ago

You say kids with laptops have it easy, but that's not how I see it. Plugging in a scanner is just step one. Knowing what those codes actually mean and tracing down a wiring gremlin or a software bug takes a different kind of skill. It's not easier, it's just different. A bad sensor can make you chase problems for days, and you can't fix that with a feeler gauge.

emery_cooper3mo ago

That feeler gauge technique is pure skill. I remember fumbling with one and getting the gap all wrong. The engine ran so rough it shook the whole car. Kids these days with their laptops have it easy, but I'd probably fry the computer too. Just my luck with anything mechanical.

emmam982mo ago

Ever try to explain points to someone who's only known fuel injection? My uncle's old truck had points that would close up when hot, and half the time the fix was just a tap with a screwdriver handle. That's what @schmidt.brooke is getting at, right? The problem solving is still there, it just looks like staring at a graph instead of listening for a miss.