BurntOutOldMechanic
New member
Because I'm basically lazy, I cut and pasted my HAMB intro:
Until February of 2011, I was a mechanic.
I’m far too old to have ever been a technician.
Prior to that, I spent nearly 40 years working on everybody's stuff but my own.
Until my wife revolted about ten years ago, I drove a series of miserable $100.00 disposable rust buckets that I absolutely refused to do anything more than the bare minimum to keep on the road.
True story: My wife once bought her 740 Turbo to my dealership's service lane and got a ticket made for me to replace the timing belt, water pump, and front engine seals. She knew this was the only way "I'd get-around-to-it".
In my career I have worked on cars, trucks, exotics, farm equipment, school buses, forklifts, tractors, tracked vehicles, and road graders.
I have worked for VW, Fiat, Opel, Porsche-Audi, Mercedes-Benz, the Virginia State Farm garage, BMW, SAAB, Volvo, an independent Jaguar shop, an independent Harley shop, my County garage, and a Gulf station where I started as a pump jockey in 1971.
One day the station owner let me change the oil on a Fiat 124 and I've been standing under or beside one brand or another since then.
The last 17 years I spent working on Harley-Davidsons, 7 of that servicing and repairing a fleet of 44 H-D Police Motor Cycles for my local Police Department.
Because of my job and it's wear and tear on my body, I had lumbar fusion surgery in and was retired on disability.
Four vertrbrae, no joke. This is where the dope part comes in.
My tools came home to live in one bay of my two car garage.
I couldn't ride or work anymore.
I sold all of my motorcycles, my vast collection of cycle parts and all my motorcycle equipment.
This became the budget for my old Ford.
I have re-discovered the fun I once had many years ago when I first began to understand what I was doing as a mechanic.
I found this feeling again by working on my own car and not somebody else's junk.
I consider myself to be a good journeyman mechanic and trouble-shooter.
I’m no fabricator. I can weld but don’t consider myself a welder.
I have always excelled at electrical and fuel injection diagnostics and repair, and this is where I think my talent is.
The idea that I’d join a car, motorcycle or garage forum would have been laughable a couple of years ago.
Why would I when I dealt with that **** all day?
“Oh”, I’d say with disdain, “You read it on the internet.”
But now I’m here.
Burned out? Uh, huh.
Cynical? Yes.
Jaded? Abso-frikkin-lutely.
I'm here because I'm kinda' queer for tools...
Until February of 2011, I was a mechanic.
I’m far too old to have ever been a technician.
Prior to that, I spent nearly 40 years working on everybody's stuff but my own.
Until my wife revolted about ten years ago, I drove a series of miserable $100.00 disposable rust buckets that I absolutely refused to do anything more than the bare minimum to keep on the road.
True story: My wife once bought her 740 Turbo to my dealership's service lane and got a ticket made for me to replace the timing belt, water pump, and front engine seals. She knew this was the only way "I'd get-around-to-it".
In my career I have worked on cars, trucks, exotics, farm equipment, school buses, forklifts, tractors, tracked vehicles, and road graders.
I have worked for VW, Fiat, Opel, Porsche-Audi, Mercedes-Benz, the Virginia State Farm garage, BMW, SAAB, Volvo, an independent Jaguar shop, an independent Harley shop, my County garage, and a Gulf station where I started as a pump jockey in 1971.
One day the station owner let me change the oil on a Fiat 124 and I've been standing under or beside one brand or another since then.
The last 17 years I spent working on Harley-Davidsons, 7 of that servicing and repairing a fleet of 44 H-D Police Motor Cycles for my local Police Department.
Because of my job and it's wear and tear on my body, I had lumbar fusion surgery in and was retired on disability.
Four vertrbrae, no joke. This is where the dope part comes in.
My tools came home to live in one bay of my two car garage.
I couldn't ride or work anymore.
I sold all of my motorcycles, my vast collection of cycle parts and all my motorcycle equipment.
This became the budget for my old Ford.
I have re-discovered the fun I once had many years ago when I first began to understand what I was doing as a mechanic.
I found this feeling again by working on my own car and not somebody else's junk.
I consider myself to be a good journeyman mechanic and trouble-shooter.
I’m no fabricator. I can weld but don’t consider myself a welder.
I have always excelled at electrical and fuel injection diagnostics and repair, and this is where I think my talent is.
The idea that I’d join a car, motorcycle or garage forum would have been laughable a couple of years ago.
Why would I when I dealt with that **** all day?
“Oh”, I’d say with disdain, “You read it on the internet.”
But now I’m here.
Burned out? Uh, huh.
Cynical? Yes.
Jaded? Abso-frikkin-lutely.
I'm here because I'm kinda' queer for tools...
. I'm sure you'll be a wealth of knowledge for many of us. Hope we can offer something for you in return.