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Good Advice is hard to come by...

Opinions are like...well you know, we all have them.  But some opinions are more valuable than others.  When it comes to car repair you can't afford to take advice from someone who talks out of the orifice that shall remain nameless.

Eric the Car Guy is a mechanic with a YouTube channel.  There's a lot of them out there offering varying degrees of useful information but Eric is a little different.

He's not somebody "playing" mechanic, he actually is one and even better he's willing to tell you what really goes on in the minds of those we trust with our pride and joy.

Check out a few of the videos below and see if you don't learn something.

High Energy Ignition (HEI) Vacuum Advance replacement

Old cars break stuff, it's a fact of life. Sometimes, however, it's not obvious that something's broke.  It's more subtle.

Hard starting, a loss of power or just that feeling like you're dragging an anchor behind you.  You'll get where you're going but it won't be as much fun getting there.

When everything else has been checked and you've got symptoms like the ones above it might be worth a look at your vacuum advance unit on your distributor.

Most points and early HEI ( non computer controlled) units will have them and when they go bad you usually don't get any notice.

There's two easy tests that don't involve anything but pulling the vacuum hose off the carburetor (because chances are you don't have fuel injection) and see what happens.

Get the engine to operating temperature and then pop the hose off the vacuum advance unit.  If the idle speed drops you know the unit is probably good.  If nothing happens it's probably bad.

Time for the next test.

Get a vacuum pump like a mighty vac hooked up to the vacuum advance unit and give a few squeezes.  Whether the engine is running or not, you should see some vacuum reading on the pump's vacuum gauge.  If the engine is running you may hear the engine speed up as well.

If you don't get either of those things and you know the pump is hooked up and working right then you've got a bad vacuum advance.

Trolling the automotive forums most people will tell you it's an easy fix.  You pop the distributor cap, remove a couple of bolts and wiggle the old one free.  Of course it gets more complicated if your distributor is hard to access and it's even worse when the engine is hot.  Yeah, you can probably change it in 5 minutes if you yanked the distributor out but that's usually an even bigger pain than dealing with it in the car if your setup is anything like mine.

I made the video below because nobody was ever going to read the 1000 words it would take to describe a 15 minute job.

So have at it and check off another little project on your classic car "to-do" list.

Avoiding a blowout: What that tablet in your dash won't tell you.

It's a fact of life, bad things are going to happen and most of the time you don't get much, if any, warning.  We are an imperfect form of life that produces imperfect things most of which will not persist after us.

Knowing this I find it maddening that so many people have so little clue about a 2 ton hunk of metal they trust their lives to every day.

To most people they give no more consideration to it than just jumping in the car and driving off.   Oblivious and ignorant to the condition of anything but the gas gauge.  

You don't have to be a ASE Master Technician to have a car but you owe it to yourself and those along for the ride to be aware of more than the difference in gas prices on either side of town.

In my case, I drive older cars meaning I have to be a lot more vigilant about a lot more things than just waiting for the "Fix Me" light to come on in the dash or some flashing icon in the "Information Center."  

I kind of blame companies like BMW, Mercedes and other so-called "luxury" brands for that mindset by the way.  They've constructed a fantasy where nothing ever goes wrong and never needs to be checked.  

If anything does, however, the car will just beam itself up to the starship Enterprise and Scotty will get right on that warp core problem straight away!  

It sounds stupid but it's literally the fantasy the luxury brands sell and it's dangerous.

Most newer cars have some basic level of diagnostics for such things as tire pressure, oil life and MPG and that's fine.   Thing is, a tire pressure monitor won't tell you of an impending blowout at 75MPH due to a bad tire.

Learning what to look for AND ACTUALLY LOOKING once in awhile will.

Which is the basis for the video below.   In it you'll see the early signs of impending disaster that can be averted if you're just the tiniest bit alert to the problem.

So watch the video, learn a little more than your "Driver Information Center" will tell you and be safe out there.

Kinda Quiet around here... Here's why.

So I know I haven't posted much of anything lately. That has a lot to do with not having anything to really share.  Reason being things are not going well in the old wallet these days and my Formula is still unregistered because I haven't been able to come up with the approximately $500 it's going to take to replace the catalytic converter and get the registration renewed.  

FYI, the good state of Arizona charges $8 for the first past due month then an additional $4  for each subsequent month the registration is is late.  So if I can't get it registered for a year it could cost me the original $30 plus an additional $52.

The El Camino needed attention too and I ended up manually doing a 4 tire rotation (5 with the spare) and some brake work.  Brake work that came about because of the brakes getting noisier and a slight pull to the right on applying them.  Nothing worth a video and still not quite right but passable.

So now I have two half-assed cars...

So when money's tight bad things tend to happen and one of them is in the video below.  My water main broke leaving me on the hook for $575 to get it fixed.  

Needless to say I'm on the payment plan.  A BALLOON payment plan that's seriously cutting into the whole food and shelter thing.

But this too shall pass and someday soon I'll be back wrenching on the Formula again in hopes of getting that bad bird back on the boulevard....(see what I did there...lol) 

For now here's a little slice of a day in the life of elcaminoguy....

YouTube Automotive Treasure Trove

For a lot of you the weather is still very much "Winter" so you're probably not out and about or turning wrenches on your baby too often.  So what to do?

Well, if you're like me you find some favorite automotive videos on YouTube and maybe even subscribe.  Oh and don't forget the companion channel to this blog...Gearhead Garden Channel

One thing to remember about HOWTO videos on YouTube though.  Use the information at your own risk.  Don't take anyone's word as gospel and research from more than one source.  Anybody can post a video on YouTube even if they're a complete idiot!

This first example of a channel I follow comes from Scotty Kilmer.  I like Scotty, he reminds me of my step-dad and his information is usually pretty good.  He's a mechanic with almost 5 decades of experience under his belt that he's more than willing to share on his YouTube channel.  Along with videos like this, he also does a weekly Q&A show on his channel where he answers questions about car repair.  In this video he talks about the different grades of gasoline and when to use them.

This next example comes from a specialty automotive supply company called Eastwood.  I've known about Eastwood for 20 years and purchased specialty tools and products that I couldn't find anywhere else.   Their videos usually cover some procedure using their products.  The devil's in the details and Eastwood is a good place to go to deal with them.  There's a lot of good information that's helpful when you're trying to restore a classic.  This video features a project  79 Camaro Z28 and a primer on paint and finish techniques by TV's Keven Tetz.

The last Video is from a channel called Ramblin' Around.  It's basically a talented DIY Car guy named Jordan who details among other things the trials, tribulations and triumphs of putting an '87 Trans Am back together.  Lots of interesting stuff here.  This guy bleeds 50 weight but isn't full of himself.  It's the quiet guys who do the real work which is why I like his channel.  

So that's it.  I figure if I don't have any new content for you at least I can turn you on to someone who does.  Stay tuned though.  I still have the 95 Formula and will eventually get enough money and time to get it to pass emissions.  Expect a few videos and some writeups when that happens.  

You can be sure I'll detail those adventures here.

This Blog's got a YouTube Channel now!

Hey guys!

Just like the title says, this blog's got it's own YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/user/GearheadGarden

Below is a video playlist of my most recent uploads.  You'll find videos about cars, auto repair and car themed games just to mention a few.  

If you want to really know what this blog is about watch a few of the videos.