From my son....new vs old technology

[TheYellaBrick]

Technology... Sometimes it's great.... Sometimes not so much...
Case in point #1-
I yanked a C-4 tranny out of a Ford Maverick in my gravel covered driveway with a 9/16" end wrench, a 1/2" end wrench, a pair of needle nose pliers, a bottle jack, and a block of wood in about 20 minutes. I was 14 years old.
A couple weeks ago my friend Sterling and I attempted to yank the tranny on my 2001 Suburban with I don't know how many freaking tools, all metric of course, 3 feet of socket extensions, a lift, and a transmission jack. About 4 hours later I called it quits. "screw this, it's going to take us two days to do this".
Case in point #2-
I could swap a cam shaft in my 1977 Ford truck, which entailed pulling the radiator, setting the engine at top dead center, pulling the distributor, pulling the intake off, timing chain, etc.. in just a couple of hours.
I had to pull JUST the intake off my Suburban to replace a knock sensor. Took about 4 hours when it was all said and done. The dealership charges for 6 hrs at $65/hr.
Remember the days when you could literally sit on the fender of your car/truck with your legs INSIDE the engine bay and adjust the distributor?
How about if your car started to sputter? All you had to do was twist the distributor a little, replace the plugs, cap and rotor, and you were on your merry way.
Now?....
Unless you have double jointed miniature hands, a degree in electrical engineering, $2000 worth of "application specific" tools, and a $50,000 diagnostic computer, you're pretty much relying on Google to be able fix your car.
But.... You sure can't beat the ride quality, fuel economy, and going 200,000 miles or more before having to replace your engine.
Technology.....

[outlaw256]

sorry brother but the only thing i like about all the crap nowdays is this here computer. and i want it on my desk not in my car!!! my wife drives a chrsler 300 with the hemi and she owns a dodge daytona pickup with the hemi. i drive a 62 galaxie with a 352 get about 10 mpg and i love it. that is also the newest car i own. ive got a 53 2dr ranchwagon with a 383 stroker but it get about 5 mpg so i dont go far from home in it. oh i forgot we also have a 74 nova with a tunnelramed sbc.but that gives me a lot of problems so i dont drive it much. but i can go out a work on itt with just a few tools.i have a few more cars but they are all old and i love them. i hate about any car built after 75.so im kinda stuck with what i have. i also still use a 8track!!! and a cassette player! see being where im at is pretty nice. man its still the 70s here!!!!

[oldandtired]

SBC 1955 thru 1970 - the most popular engine ever used in production.

I could change spark plugs with my eyes closed reaching under ram horn exhaust. About 15 minutes

I could change a water pump with a srewdriver, a 9/16 wrench and a 1/2 wrench. Less than 20 minutes

I could change an alternator with a 1/2 wrench, 9/16 wrench and 7/16 wrench (hot wire). Less than 15 minutes

I could set the points with an allen wrench and a match book cover.
2 minutes.

I can change the oil with a 7/8 (or 9/16 depending on year) and a filter wrench. Less than 15 minutes and no oil spill.


Enough said? :mrgreen:

[zipper06]

I'm not a fan of the new fangeled cars either, maybe because i don't understand them.
Up until recently the newest streetable vehicle i had was my 1993 Chevy Duelly crewcab, which now has 204,000 miles on it, i have a 1990 corvette that i haven't driven in a yr. due to electrical problems, i now cannot even get it to start. There's no question about it if you live in hill country, the fuel injected computer cars/trucks will perform better. Living in Az a number of yrs. and going up to some mountain lakes with spill ways at 9300 ft. my carberatated duelly would run so bad/rich it would hardly pull itself with a small camper.
I too have old cars 1980 or older. But recently my Neice donated to me a 1998 Lexus ES300, (rather than junk it) very clean inside and out that had wore out the front suspension so bad it would wear out tires in 5,000 mile. I rebuilt that beat me to death, now i still have to change the timing belt and put new seals in the front cover. i did put valve cover gaskets on it the engine inside is really clean,as far as i know the spark plugs have only been changed once, no other maintance on the car. Every elecrical thing on the car works which there are plenty of, power everything and it's like like the day it was born, uses no oil and drives like new.
NOW !! why am i bringing this up, because the odometer has over 365,000 miles on it ( if doubters, i'll take a pic. and show it) and it gets over 30 MPG, and i hate to work on it.
So like said i don't like them but i sure got to respect them :oops:
I was born when the 1939 Ford was new, so i've seen and lived when cars were growing to what they are today, but in my heart i still love old cars which i have owned many of in my time.

Zip.