Obsolete?

[1dn5up]

At Last lawn trim , I noticed the choke cable being un usually stiff. As being from Mtgomery Wards , there parts dept closed up . So I tried the local auto parts place. Here’s how it went;

counter guy; YO - what ya need ?

me; Your every day 6’ choke cable , non locking type.

Got the make , model, year and vin #

Mtgomery Ward ,42” , 1997, mw42a

Sorry but our info don’t go back that far as it’s over 10 yrs old !

Then another guy (senior) was waving the cable to me over his head. I told the senior he is not aloud to retire or we are all in trouble !

 

[bikerbillone]

OH my, ain't that the gospel truth, what are we gonna do without the old timers that spot the substitute part hanging on the wall. Newbies, if it's not in the computer it doesn't exist, even if it's an arm length away.

 

[rhino 2]

At Last lawn trim , I noticed the choke cable being un usually stiff. As being from Mtgomery Wards , there parts dept closed up . So I tried the local auto parts place. Here’s how it went;

counter guy; YO - what ya need ?

me; Your every day 6’ choke cable , non locking type.

Got the make , model, year and vin #

Mtgomery Ward ,42” , 1997, mw42a

Sorry but our info don’t go back that far as it’s over 10 yrs old !

Then another guy (senior) was waving the cable to me over his head. I told the senior he is not aloud to retire or we are all in trouble !

Badda-Book -Badda-Boom.......The youths of today only go by the Book...Or in this case by the Computer......

 

[Lee H. Mann]

OH my, ain't that the gospel truth, what are we gonna do without the old timers that spot the substitute part hanging on the wall. Newbies, if it's not in the computer it doesn't exist, even if it's an arm length away.

We are the old timers and when we are gone there will never be a need for us !:gah:

I have a guy that I had been working with for the past 10 years or so at NAPA.

He now works for Autozone.

I went to match up some brake parts for a trike and he told me that he doesn't know what is in these boxes anymore and without a year and model he wouldn't know where to start. I cross referenced part numbers and got him to order some brake drums to send off to a customer. Needless to say, they were wrong.:Shrug:

 

[Sidecarbill]

You know you're screwed when they want to know what year and model it is. Of course people today don't know what a hand choke is. Even lawnmowers have that little primer bulb.

 

[rhino 2]

You know you're screwed when they want to know what year and model it is. Of course people today don't know what a hand choke is. Even lawnmowers have that little primer bulb.

Hand Choke........Isn't that a technique that is now illegal for the NYC PD to use..

 

[hogcowboy]

Y'all forgot what they used to say about all the hippies? Seems the whole world should be gone by now when the old farts back then talked about the young hippies. Well here we are those same old farts. We can only hope the youth of today somehow wise up. I also doubt they will but will they have to? If no one works parts won't break. They maybe on to something after all.:Shrug::Shrug::Shrug:

 

[Burnerboy]

Y'all forgot what they used to say about all the hippies? Seems the whole world should be gone by now when the old farts back then talked about the young hippies. Well here we are those same old farts. We can only hope the youth of today somehow wise up. I also doubt they will but will they have to? If no one works parts won't break. They maybe on to something after all.:Shrug::Shrug::Shrug:

Hey, I was 19 years old, when I went to Woodstock in Bethel New york, My hair was way past my shoulders, yep! I was that hippy that your mother warned you about! :gah::gah:

Now I'm almost bald...............lol

Ronnie

 

[hogcowboy]

Hey, I was 19 years old, when I went to Woodstock in Bethel New york, My hair was way past my shoulders, yep! I was that hippy that your mother warned you about! :gah::gah:

Now I'm almost bald...............lol

Ronnie

Yeah, if I had known all that hair would fall out I would have saved it for a wig/toupee/rug instead of watching it hit the ground.

 

[Jack Klarich]

When we are gone there will be no more mechanics, only technicians

 

[PosseRider]

When we are gone there will be no more mechanics, only technicians

No technicians now !!!! Just "parts" changers.

 

[ol' school]

All true facts... it doesn't exist with the youth of today if it isn't in the computer in front of them. And they didn't learn to work on any vehicle without the computer telling what part to change. Truly a sad state of affairs...

Us "old farts" learned to do the job "hands on" and listening to the motor to know what was wrong with it. They don't teach that anymore.

 

[Philip R]

I learned a lot from one of my Uncles. He was a genius with engines. He also worked at a magneto shop. Most techs don't know what a magneto is except the character on X-Men.

 

[Jack Klarich]

I learned a lot from one of my Uncles. He was a genius with engines. He also worked at a magneto shop. Most techs don't know what a magneto is except the character on X-Men.

If they ever played with one they surely got stung at least once

True mechanics repair, and rebuild what they have in front of them

Now a days it is a replacement world, the internet is full of information and a lot of dis information

 

[ol' school]

I learned a lot from one of my Uncles. He was a genius with engines. He also worked at a magneto shop. Most techs don't know what a magneto is except the character on X-Men.

I learned what I know from my Dad from a young age! He had a awesome mechanical mind! He could fix or make whatever we needed working on old cars!

 

[Jack Klarich]

I learned what I know from my Dad from a young age! He had a awesome mechanical mind! He could fix or make whatever we needed working on old cars!

Me too, Dad was a self taught mechanic

He finally got a chance in 1976 to go to Mack School

He also made a few special tools to work on Detroit Diesels and Cummins diesels

 

[rhino 2]

I did it the Yogi Berra way......You can observe [Learn] a lot just by watching...:laugh:

 

[2006gold]

Once in the OPE repair and servicing - a thankless business if there ever was one. Most Monkey Wards equipment was manufactured by MTD, so look there in the future, and at your local dealer (if you can find one), not a chain store. There are also aftermarket sources for most of the repair parts which are no longer manufactured, ten years is the limit for most equipment, which the local independent dealer is more likely to utilize.

Most of the manufacturers once held yearly update meetings with dealers where we not only learned from the manufacturers, but from each other, the quirks of various equipment. Sadly, that went by the wayside years ago. Briggs and Stratton used to survey attendees yearly to glean information on us. One of the things was age. When I started the average age of repair personnel was 55, the next year it was 58, the next 61..... What that indicated was that no young people were coming into the business to keep the average age down, and that experienced folk were getting out due to retirement or independent shop closures.

The advent of Home Depot, Lowe's, Wal-Mart, etc. destroyed the business for the most part. Domestically manufactured equipment was cheapened to the point it was no longer economic to repair, and more cost effective to replace. Then the Chinese imports started hitting the market, most of which was just far too cheap in price and quality to repair. Too, a lot of people opted for simply paying a service to take care of their lawns, or opted to not own a home at all.