Cusser
+1y
Ha !!! I'm not always right. Most times I know "enough" to stay out of a topic without commenting. I would say my stronger areas automotivewise are air-conditioning, brakes, logical troubleshooting, and persistence. I'm mostly self-taught, book-taught, and Internet taught on other mechanical stuff, but I'm typicaly not afraid to try stuff. I copy into a Word file the hints Earl, SinCity, and others have posted, even saving some of the photos you guys post.
I like stuff to work; recently got a factory fuel sender unit for mine (fixing my original one lasted maybe 4 years) just because I was "tired" of using the trip odometer. But 2 weeks later I went in again to add a fuel "sock" as mine had fallen off likely decades ago.
I have one daughter who is very brain-blessed, and I constantly have to remind her (now 21) that most people don't fit in her category.
I have experience (from the 1970s) as an air-cooled VW mechanic, B.S. in Chemistry, which is what I work at. I'm basically an inventor in the consumer products industry, as I "invent" new test procedures to assay (and validate such assays as per FDA regulations) for active ingredients in over the counter pharmaceuticals. So I use my mechanical background to help me logically do my job, which includes instrument troubleshooting. Within the last week I troubleshot an instrument called HPLC which had a slightly-malfunctioning mixing valve, only evident when running at highest sensitivity. This was diagnosed by mixing from separate channels (bad) but when pre-mixing and using the same mixing percent was good. That pointed to the mix valve, which costs about $1500. Just for the record here, and not bragging, I graduated with Magna cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, years ago. Mrs, Cusser laughs and says I'm the only Phi Beta Kappa on the planet who drives an old B-truck, and she's most likely right. She actually wonders why I'm such a Neaderthal most of the time, says I'm a redneck and low-life. She can't understand how I can view "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" like 50 times, and why I waste my time on stuff like that. Do you know who wrote the lyrics to the song the prisoners sing in GBU while eli Wallach is getting beat up by Lee Van Cleef and Mario Berga, and what that lyrist is best known for? Answer at end of post. Or who did the English voices of Volente in the "Dollars" films, the drunk captain in GBU, and Mr. Morton in Once Upon a Time in the West? Answer also at end of post.
Mrs. Cusser is no slouch either, has M.S. degree in food science. My oldest daughter is no dummy either, now graduated from college and working full time in another city. My youngest is a junior in Engineering, but she still plays fastpitch baseball league in the summer, and does well (third base), of course the only gal.
My liabilities are not knowing how to type, and I'm pretty mediocre at computer. At work, people think because I know chromatography software and have made safety videos on the computer that I'm like a "computer guy", very far from the truth. I don't joke when I tell that I still use cassettes, just installed that combination CD-cassette unit last week. But yesterday I re-did the speaker wires, resoldered them, as now it appears that my 1994 adapter or the JVC unit had the colors switched, not the B2200, and I forgot to check that out last week when I installed it. Anyway, that only took 45 minutes, and I also lengthened the ground wire in the process. I could've lived with left sound coming from right, and right sound coming from left, but wanted it right, and it was easy as I had just done (and written down) the order of removing/replacing screws for the hump console and stereo console. Now it's fine, may do its 3000 mile oil change since the engine rebuild today.
OK, answers.
1. Tommie Conner wrote the lyrics. He is best known for "I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus", what a contrast.
2. Paul Frees supplied those voices (the original films were made without any live sound, all voices and sound effects added in studio). Frees was a prolific voice actor in the US, how he made his living. Among others, he voiced Disney characters, narration, even Boris Badenoff !!!