I just don,t understand the attitude!

Grumpy

The Grumpy Grease Monkey mechanical engineer.
Staff member
honestly, I just don,t understand the attitude! of some people,
I'm amazed that there are many people who some how actually expect , any and every part you could ever want to be available over the counter and easily available for working on a custom car project to be accomplished, completely with off the shelf and over the counter parts!
One of the neighbors kids who,s in his late 20s stops by to watch me working on my corvette, yesterday.
I was fabricating a bracket to move the alternator a bit further out away from the engine about 3/4" so I had milled and drilled a couple pieces of 3/8" aluminum plate and was measuring the two parts for a spacer so I could weld up a custom bracket.
the kids name is JACK, and he watches me then after awhile asked me why I was making the custom alternator bracket....I explained that I was re-locating the alternator so it would be a whole lot easier to remove the valve cover on the drivers side as the current stock O.E.M. accessory bracket makes the process a P.I.T.A. and its generally much easier to do if you don,t have to temporarily remove the alternator to remove the valve cover.
He looks at me obviously confused and then, asked me if they sell the brackets, already made, that did that?
and then he pointed out the fact that the current accessory drive fan belt obviously would no longer fit, so what was I going to do with a bracket that effectively made the alternator useless without a belt?
obviously I had failed to think that through carefully......
I'm beginning to think the concept of custom fabricated parts and marrying parts from a totally different application to improve your car is a concept thats not only not that common, its almost un-thinkable to the flip through the latest catalog and "
order what you need.... mind-set -crowd
I explained that you could simply measure the fan belt length required, and as long as the bracket, or some pulley that was supporting the fan belt like the idler pulley had some adjustment to compensate it would not be an issue! you don,t necessarily need to have an O.E.M/. part to have your car function perfectly as it was designed too!.
In my mind thats why they invented milling machines, lathes, dial calipers and tig welders.....its the simple fact that if you see a need for some part that you don,t currently have , but you can accurately draw it out and accurately meassure exactly what you need and have at least some mechanical, fabrication and basic engineering skills , and the tools and materials, damn near anything you can envision, is merely a couple hours, time, a lot of careful measuring and test fitting time, and a pile of machining chips , and some welding time away!
perhaps its just old school thinking here! but I feel building your own components if you have the skills to do so, makes the car far more "YOURS" and custom, than simply having deep pockets and ordering everything you want.
and it damn sure beats NOT having exactly what you want, simply because you can,t find what you need or want listed in some catalog!



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depends on the crown there are still ones that embrace the concept youth will still have it's issues that youth has always had mainly lack of real life experience.
 
Totally agree with you... I just ran into the same type of mentality on two other different forums. I want to put a front mounted R&P on my '55 Chev. I also want to retain a good portion of the current front frame with the a-arms but am quite capable of whacking the hell out it as needed and putting the R&P where I want it. From most of the responses I got on it, you would have thought I was committing some unbelievable, horrible act. They swore up and down that I would fail and that the only kits available put the R&P behind the crossmember - and that's what I would have to use. I have never hesitated to use a different manufacturer's better idea if it fits my scheme, I thought that was part of hot rodding? And on these forums, I thought I was in the company of hot rodders - but I was wrong.
 
yeah creativity and ingenuity, and the ability to think outside the box even marginally, that goes along with those two skills,
both seem to be on the way too becoming lost arts.
that and the ability to logically break down into individual steps how and why various sub systems in the car work.
one of the guys I occasionally do some repair work for on his 1995 corvette, came over with a pair of left and right door power window motors ,
he stated both window motors had failed simultaneously, while that might happen I decided to use a multi meter and do a bit of research,
and as I expected, the problem was related to fuses and relays
image_493.jpg


you really need to purchase a multi meter and a SHOP MANUAL and look thru the schematics
without testing theres almost no way to locate the source of your problem,, testing will tell you

http://www.helminc.com/helm

1996_Corvette.jpg


http://www.harborfreight.com/5-in-1-dig ... 98674.html
heres a cheap yet effective multi meter
image_6238.jpg


panel-1995.jpg

Fusebox1.jpg


Fusebox2.jpg

http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...sing-a-crazy-electrical-glitch.986/#post-1738


http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...a-1996-vette-but-the-window-won-t-close.7662/

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/c-4-side-window-alignment-adjustment.2072/

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/window-motor-replacement-info.103/
 
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Totally agree with you... I just ran into the same type of mentality on two other different forums. I want to put a front mounted R&P on my '55 Chev. I also want to retain a good portion of the current front frame with the a-arms but am quite capable of whacking the hell out it as needed and putting the R&P where I want it. From most of the responses I got on it, you would have thought I was committing some unbelievable, horrible act. They swore up and down that I would fail and that the only kits available put the R&P behind the crossmember - and that's what I would have to use. I have never hesitated to use a different manufacturer's better idea if it fits my scheme, I thought that was part of hot rodding? And on these forums, I thought I was in the company of hot rodders - but I was wrong.

Why reinvent the wheel? There is a good reason most things are done a certain way. But if the changes you want on your car call for a front mounted R/P the YOU will have to figure a way to do it and still keep the car driveable and safely.

And you are wrong--we are just OLDER and WISER HotRodders that figure out how without spending more money than you young guns on something that isn't necessary..
 
Why reinvent the wheel? There is a good reason most things are done a certain way. But if the changes you want on your car call for a front mounted R/P the YOU will have to figure a way to do it and still keep the car driveable and safely.

And you are wrong--we are just OLDER and WISER HotRodders that figure out how without spending more money than you young guns on something that isn't necessary..

No - I'm not wrong at all and its damned funny how everyone jumps to conclusions. Got my first hot rod at 12, that means I'm been doing this stuff for 53 years now.
 
Re-Read post #1 and you'll have your answer.

quote
"I explained that you could simply measure the fan belt length required, and as long as the bracket, or some pulley that was supporting the fan belt like the idler pulley had some adjustment to compensate it would not be an issue! you don,t necessarily need to have an O.E.M/. part to have your car function perfectly as it was designed too!."
"In my mind thats why they invented milling machines, lathes, dial calipers and tig welders.....its the simple fact that if you see a need for some part that you don,t currently have , but you can accurately draw it out and accurately meassure exactly what you need and have at least some mechanical, fabrication and basic engineering skills , and the tools and materials, damn near anything you can envision, is merely a couple hours, time, a lot of careful measuring and test fitting time, and a pile of machining chips , and some welding time away!
perhaps its just old school thinking here! but I feel building your own components if you have the skills to do so, makes the car far more "YOURS" and custom, than simply having deep pockets and ordering everything you want.
and it damn sure beats NOT having exactly what you want, simply because you can,t find what you need or want listed in some catalog!"
 
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I am circling back to this thread for a minute. Re-reading what I wrote and the responses to it, I think something got out of whack here. On Grumpy's original statement, I was AGREEING with what he said - totally. My short story response was talking about how I was treated and the mindset on a couple of other forums - not this one. Again - on the other forums - there seems to be some idea (as an example) that if you don't drop a Chevy points style distributor in the hole with the points window facing the front of the engine - you're a goofball and have no idea of what you are doing. That location might be the best one for adjusting points but you could have that points window sitting 180 degrees in the opposite direction and as long as you have the # 1 wire where you need it and have the firing order lined up - you're good to go. A lot of people on those other forums simply cannot think outside of the box - and my opinion is that they are missing the hot rodder gene - so to speak. If it ain't hanging on the wall or in the catalog, then you just can't have it or make it work. I can tell from a lot of reading here that Grumpy and quite a number of others here sort of understand how Smoky Yunick drove that Chevelle back to the garage back in 1967 and also why it didn't need a gas pit stop during the qualifying race. That was Smoky thinking outside the box (and the rulebook).

Happy to be here. Grumpy, I will be making a donation to help you out tomorrow - waiting on that retirement check!
 
yeah! there are several different ways to do a great many things that need to be installed, adjusted or modified,
I'm always on the look-out to find new and better ways other people do things to compare too how Ive previously done similar work!
 
I understood your first post correctly, as intended. You are in the right place, so stay and continue to share.
But your example of the Chevy distributor above, while being correct about it being able to fire the plugs while installed in any position is correct - you must remember that some distributor shafts (usually early) do not have the lower groove that passes through the passenger side lifter gallery completely grooved all the way around, so installing it in the "wrong" clocked position would cut off the oil to the lifters on that side of the engine.

ti-1-1111263-ballbearingdistributor-jpg.3257674


That is also the same reason why preluber shafts that are only the center shaft to spin the oil pump do not work. That same grooved portion completes the oil circuit.

IMG_3222-OilPumpTool.jpg
 
You're correct. But how many of those early blocks/distributors for small blocks are still out there? I am sure the number is dropping. I had one of those cast iron distributors that I purchased brand new for my '66 Vette - a long time ago. I ended up selling the car, sans motor/trans and then later on sold that cast iron piece for $300.00. That was more than my weekly paycheck back then!
 
thank you, its very much appreciated too offset the incurred costs
 
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