Morning wrenching

Went out this morning to drive to work. Start the Coupe and something is wrong. Sounds / feels like I'm running on 5 instead of 6 cylinders. I grab my OBD2 reader and iPhone. Misfire cyl 6. 2 bolts, 2 nuts and off with the engine covers. Unplug, check coilpack connector and replace on cyl 6. Clear code and restart. Still misfire on cyl 6. 4 bolts and swap cyl 6 and 5 coilpacks. Clear code and restart. Misfire on cyl 5. Coilpack must be bad. Check local Advance Auto Parts online. In stock with 15% off and $25.00 gift card. Place order for pickup. Jump in wife's car, spend $70.00 and back home in 18 min. Put back coilpack to cyl 5 and put new in cyl 6. Clear code and restart. Nice and smooth. No codes.

No big deal. I didn't even change from my work clothes. For most of us, this is a been there done that kind of thing. For people at work - this is insane. I don't know how those people survive.

not sure how some people survive. i did an 8am steering linkage install and home alignment before jumping in the truck and heading 75 miles one way to a job a few weeks ago.

Driving the cars I do, I honestly don't know how people can possibly afford a mechanic. Just yesterday's clutch slave cylinder puke incident would have cost me a couple hundred dollars (after the tow).

Instead I cranked the truck in gear and rev matched home where I tossed a new one in for $20.

Easy money

Been there many times. Just another average day.

We are dinosaurs gentlemen. As in, "we are great, interesting, and a dying breed"

Yup. Been there. Repeatedly.

Yes, I seriously don't know how people pay for repairs either, I am selling an Austin Healey 3000 for a 91 year old gentleman right now and almost died when I added up the receipts for his work over the years, would you believe over $75,000 in 10 years of restoration?

I have "limped" cars home with out a clutch or barely running too many time to count, so I could fix it properly at home for minimum cost. Towing was always the last option and now that I have a trailer, never an option!

Sorry, I thought you wrote "Wenching". I was seriously disappointed in this thread.

In reply to NOHOME:

+1, cannot fap to this.

Trackmouse wrote: We are dinosaurs gentlemen. As in, "we are great, interesting, and a dying breed"

Codes? OBD2 readers? Coil packs?

Unless you are talking carbs and distributors with points you don't know from dinosaur.

Basil Exposition wrote:

Trackmouse wrote: We are dinosaurs gentlemen. As in, "we are great, interesting, and a dying breed"

Codes? OBD2 readers? Coil packs? Unless you are talking carbs and distributors with points you don't know from dinosaur.

My next door neighbor's son just did a "modification" which increased his truck's horsepower. He had his chip re-flashed.

Trackmouse wrote: We are dinosaurs gentlemen. As in, "we are great, interesting, and a dying breed"

And my arms are short.

Funny thing is that whole job might have cost you upwards of $400 if you had just dumped it off at a shop and said "fix it".

Ehh. When you own an always-broken hooptie, you sort of get used to fixing the big issues, and ignoring the little ones.

I some may have misunderstood my "dinosaurs" reference. Not saying that we are archaic. We are dinosaurs in that we are great (really cool in the eyes of morons), interesting (I've never met a guy that wrenches in cars, that I didn't like), and a dying breed (kids are growing up saying "I wanna work on cars!)

ive limped cars home or too the nearest parking lot fairly often. i dont even pay for tows and still hate calling my buddys. the best one was standing in 8 inches of water pulling the distributor apart on my sundance to dry it out so i could get too work. that splashgaurd was sorely missed that morning.

Towing a Jeep Scrambler to North Adams, tow vehicle blows a radiator. Had the driveshaft reistalled and rewired the tail lights to work in a half hour and kept on going. All in the breakdown lane of Rt 495 in the rain.

1976 Blazer with 40" Super Swampers 9" of lift, rear u-joint blows at 50mph. Pull to the side, pull rear driveshaft, put t-case in 4-Hi and drive home.

Swap in new u-joint in the front yard in 15 min.

Of course I'd NEVER make a comment about how the youngest generation of adult men can't do "manly" things lest I get chastised!

Thanks to the Internet, guys like you are making new dinosaurs. In 2010 I barely knew how to change my oil. By 2014, I was swapping motors.

Before then, I never had much trouble with my cars, because I bought them new and sold them young. I had a fear/hate relationship with older cars, that was left over from the days when that was the only thing I could afford, and mechanical trouble was a random lightning strike from the gods. I hated that.

Now I have 6 cars (not counting those of other family members) and my attitude is, drive it 'till it breaks, and then fix it when I feel like it.

Hungary Bill wrote: Driving the cars I do, I honestly don't know how people can possibly afford a mechanic. Just yesterday's clutch slave cylinder puke incident would have cost me a couple hundred dollars (after the tow). Instead I cranked the truck in gear and rev matched home where I tossed a new one in for $20. Easy money

I had a customer who did that except for the part where he was an accomplished clutchless driver. Ended up with a box of neutrals, and from the feel of it the shift forks themselves got mangled.

I did pads and rotors in my driveway last night. I've gone effete, I felt weird working on the car without a full shop to work in.

In reply to Knurled:

You haven't lived until you have a locking-hub snap ring fly off with a tinnnnnggggg sound into the grass... In the rain. At dusk.

In reply to ebonyandivory:

I've repaired a broken Nissan trans modulator on the side of the road with a rock, a chunk of nail found in the dirt, and a piece of metal and a 12mm wrench to take a 10mm-head bolt out.

And then there was last weekend, driving home (towing a trailer) with one axle working and the other one flapping around in the rearend housing making all sorts of racket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzt1KMTFfiw

It seems my motorsports life tends to involve a lot of "How the HECK did I make it home with that mess?"

I should have done some morning wrenching before I left today, when I noticed that the clutch in the Miata felt a little funny. Now instead of swapping in the slave in the (relative) comfort of my driveway, I get to do it in the parking garage at work!