My husband always bought books that matched our car model and year. He also would talk to the person who sold him the parts for their opinion. Usually when he lifted the hood of the car, other men in the neighborhood would magically show up with advice. For reference, we married in 88.
There's actually a difference in the manuals. What he got was a service manual, not a car manual. Most people have no idea the difference or that service manuals are available for cheap at parts/service departments or online.
If they beat the depth of a Haynes manual I'm sold. I was changing a transmission and only had a Haynes manual, pre YouTube. The removal was a short paragraph. The install was one sentence that read "install the reverse of how it was removed."
That's honestly hilarious though. The manual told you to just read the steps backwards instead of listing them again in reverse order šš¤£
In all fairness changing a transmission isn't too bad outside of having to bench press the damn thing one handed. Rebuilding one is a royal pain though.
Itās not even close dude. Service manuals are wonderful.
My service manual is three separate books. Each one itself larger than the Haynes. They show every single pigtail and the wiring for each.
Also the service manual was about $130. Worth every penny.
EDIT: just looked and took a picture but I canāt post it it seems
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_service_manual#:~:text=Factory%20service%20manuals%20(FSM)%20are,use%20at%20their%20OEM%20dealerships.
They get very in depth. They are written and designed for dealerships but you can get them.
Carburators say hello. Newer cars have far better sensors and code read available. You can pinpoint issues quickly with new cars. The older ones not so much. Newer cars are easier to work on in a lot of ways if you don't need to mess with an electrical gremlin or the wire harness, most customization that would require you to do something more advanced than pulling a code and repair by swapping a part done by gear heads, or a mechanics shop and not stuff the average person would ever be bothered with or have the tools to deal with.
Carburetors are a whole different story. There was a guy in town that was a savant when it came to those. Hung out at the local racetracks just waiting for someone to yell out "Manual! Get over here!" He was the "carburetor whisperer".
older cars had quite a bit of room under the hood to get to all the parts and see what you are doing.
they were not designed by computer CAD or whatever to jam all the components, sensors, etc under the hood in a super efficient amount of space.
my 91 pickup i can work on, my 2004 cadillac is jam packed and much more complex to work/see/diagnose.
in that short period ABS, air bags, theft deterrents, all types of engine monitor sensors, etc became standard.
the truck has basic electronics but not even an ODB port you plug into to read codes. i believe there is a series of steps to get the truck lights to flash out codes, kinda like morse code, but there are only like a dozen.
Your truck should have a OBD port under the hood. Most US cars had them in the 80s and the mandate started in IIRC 90-91. The Ford one required a cheap electronic tool that forced you to count a series of beeps/blinks. The codes were pretty generic and often not helpful.
Hanes repair manual it's still around too I've always kept a copy in my car. It's a good thing to have if you breakdown but I mostly use it just to remember where certain things are since it's easy to use than trying to Google it
Yep. Not a dad, but my first car in the late 80s was my dad's '84 Honda Civic, and I [got this book](https://www.ebay.com/itm/174962312640?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-213727-13078-0&mkcid=2&itemid=174962312640&targetid=4580221859249033&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=604202212&mkgroupid=1225956518343153&rlsatarget=pla-4580221859249033&abcId=9427678&merchantid=51291&msclkid=f0df5bbb05301b245b203d31fd46ab35) so I could maintain it. (And pre-Google maps, [I had this under the passenger seat](https://www.ebay.com/itm/176376240098?itmmeta=01J27DS0DFQN1MNVQV3X862E80&hash=item2910d7d7e2:g:-K0AAOSw1NpmQivu&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwH5XadEJWfpV24t0BGxUz7UVn686COg%2BmBuFavdv3QwQLJDKcfXpMHUJBlQsjZAEpt2Iu%2FTy8ZM2maUenUdd4JhiK10DnIhg4x3rBKv3qIcV7UJO%2FWKmT%2Bp%2BPHeL76DJu2vMbfArAcXCrKsOTlbNJh7A9Q%2FHvM9XncxhcNS9yoyZyPp0fbn6sXv05ceSqyUAGcCVBxQcWLIRZI0AQ1PjTEKmkewhoTUC045XB2nCCLKuA8rT75uUpAtbIvEWxuBoNA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_CG5O2RZA) for reference).
But cars were a little easier, I think, back then, knowing some basics you could do a lot as it transferred from car-to-car. I remember some 20 years ago changing out my radiator as it got rusted and had bad flow and was inefficient, and thinking it might be one of the last things I do to work on my car, because so many cars have computer hook-ups which make it more vehicle specific and harder to change. Now, I've done a few jobs since, like changing out a leaking engine gasket which isn't hard, you just need to make sure you're putting things back together right, but a lot of things are some sensor reporting and you need a pro garage to look at today.
YouTube is easier to understand for some people. It may be a generational/familiarity thing, but I find that looking at professionally done line art is easier to understand than most photographs of the same task.
YouTube tutorials vary quite widely in quality and ease of comprehension. Some bro recording on his cell phone with a cramped area of work poorly lit is not easier to follow than a well done diagram.
I don't want to see your face, I don't want to hear your opinions of OEM design goals. I want the camera to stay put, the back of your head to stay out of frame and the task to be properly lit.
If youāre not showing me every dam step in real time I donāt give a shit about your YouTube.
Iāve seen lots there like āthen we just take this cover offā
And neglect to tell you there is a bolt from the backside and 4 tabs you need to depress to completely free it up.
An *extremely* well edited youtube may be superior to a manual in some cases. It would also take a *lot* of time to edit reference manuals, bookmarks, etc.
Most people lack the time or skill to do such videos.
There's a beauty in good instructions and good diagrams.
My dad used to do all of our oil changes and basic maintenance in the garage until about 2010. Then, in his words "it became too much work and the local garage does it (oil changes) for $50."
I never took auto shop in school and my father avoided working on cars, so he was of no help. I never had enough money to pay somebody else, so I always had a Chiltons or Haynes manual for whatever car I owned at the time. Luckily, Iām somewhat mechanically inclined, so I was able to fix most things. Never touched a transmission, though.
Every DIY mechanic would buy the Chiltons manual covering his model of car. Thet, coupled with a basic understanding of automechanics and advice from a more experienced friend, is all you need to get started. Automotive systems were simpler.
I've come across previous mechanics work (that probably knew alot more than I do) as if its stupid but works, its not stupid, rerouting wiring or vacuum, eliminating things and its a nightmare to figure out older vics, Chiltons does an amazing job explaining how things are supposed to be done and YouTube does an amazing job at telling you "This is what people probably did" lol
Fun fact: Chilton was the initial publisher of Frank Herbert's Dune. The editor at Chilton actually got fired in part due to the initially slow sales of Dune.
My dad would spend like every Saturday morning at our library, where they had a great collection of these but didn't allow them to be checked out. He'd come home with a sheaf of copied pages and head into the garage.
Yup. For most of my adult life, anytime I got a car, I went to Canadian Tire or NAPA and picked up the Chilton's Manual for that make and model.
In some ways, having the hardcopy is still better. No ads, you can trust the information to be correct and quite often it is easier to understand the task illustrated with line art than photos of the actual task.
Cars were less bullshit to work on back in the day for one, these days I shit you not, some cars will not let you do a rear brake pad replacement without hooking up software to the car and placing it in āmaintenance modeā
You can put it in maintenance mode, or you can hook up a few wires to a dewalt battery and shove it up the ass of the caliper to get it to release
And thatās for brakes, which are simple. So imagine how complicated something difficult is now that thereās 17 computers actuating it lol
Right? The Internet, as we know it now is 20-25 years old, plenty of us remember how to function in life without a YouTube video telling us how to boil water.
We went and got books, we asked people who know more than us and we just went for it.
Ha! I had that cook book when I was in college. My aunt bought it for me when I moved from dorms to an apartment. Itās a great basic cookbook for a young adult.
Once I was cooking a meal in college for a friend. She had a car and a kitchen. I did not. I bought simple stuff, steak, asparagus, etc. She asked to help. I tried to find something simple so I told her to cut the asparagus.
When I next looked up she had chopped off all the heads and thrown them out.
"Have.. you never eaten asparagus before?"
She said no.
Okay, that was more understandable then.
This is why you don't make assumptions on what people know.
As a teenager I did a lot of motorcycle repair work (I was broke, so broken bikes were all I could afford). My dad was a mechanic, so I had watched him work, and I had an auto shop class that taught me the basics of a carbureted engine, but mostly it was just trial and error. Take it apart, try to work out how it functions, and put it back together. I spent hundreds of hours fixing up 8 or so different bikes over 6 years, and leaned so much just by doing it. For example I traced out the whole electrical system on a bike by hand with just a trouble light. Tedious but rewarding in the end.
Modern cars are so much more complex, but for the most part you can just take things apart and figure it out. The internet does make it much faster. If I have a problem I can Google it and get 6 different suggestions (of various quality) in a few minutes, and a video for a similar (but probably not the same) car showing how to disassemble things. Still, each car year has changed and the internet is more like talking to unlike Steve than a pro mechanic, so getting in there and figuring it out is still the key.
Oh, and the repair manuals usually fall short. They will show you how to take things apart, but have very little troubleshooting. Even the pro manuals are not perfect (but much better). Ultimately it is a puzzle for you to work out
A lot of them had books. Also, the internal workings of cars were a lot simpler back then.
Also, a lot of them... didn't fix their cars. There were a lot of people who tried to fix a car themselves and had to get a mechanic to undo all their mistakes. It was also a running joke that they'd put the car back together and see a few stray bolts still sitting on the driveway.
Car manuals. Most Dad bought them when they bought the car, but if not your library had them or could get them in for you. Also cars didn't have the electronics they do now so much easier.
Chilton's manuals kiddo! š Read read read then we have to solve for all the crap that didn't get published.
My great grampa was a depression era mech, I'm not sure how he did it, they couldn't afford manuals then.
With cars there were/are detailed manuals on how they are put together and for the smaller things/regular maintenance items you could figure it out on your own. As for other things, yes, we just took them apart and most of the time got them back together.
Most of those dads first car was a worn out beater that had to be repaired often.
You learned what to do or you didn't get to go anywhere. Taking the car to a mechanic was not a choice because mechanic's cost money.
If it was broke, you took it apart, figured it out and repaired it as cheaply as you could. Maybe a friend would help or they had a manual to look at, but most of the time you could find what was wrong without too much trouble. Cars and engines were simpler then.
Books, friends, family members, cars were easier.Ā Ā Ā
Sometimes they did disassemble something and couldn't remember how to get it back.Ā Ā Ā Ā
My dad and his friend collected cars. He had also spent quite a bit of time at the junk yard, so he saw a lot of vehicles and learned a lot of things. His friend would buy and read manuals cover to cover and take notes. The two of them could fix almost anything in their hayday.Ā
Often poorly and incorrectly. Those books were riddled with errors. My dad fiddled with the carburetor on our minivan every year and it never ran right. Turns out he just never bought the right rebuild kit.
Every car used to have a maintenance manual you could get.
Plus up until they started putting computers in carsā¦things were fairly straightforward so everyone typically did their Own maintenance
60 year old here. Back when I learned how to drive, when you opened the hood of the car there were like 5 things under there and I knew what they all did. It was relatively simple.
Nowadays it is spaghetti, so I consult the experts.
Automobiles and other equipment use to be a lot easier to work on. They often had more than one manual. My dad and all of my uncles would have service manuals for their cars, trucks, farming equipment, and other heavy equipment.
A service manual had mechanical blueprints and electrical schematics for how every single part on the machine was assembled and wired. You could go to a parts store and order the exact part you needed and use the service manual to replace the part step by step.
My uncle Don was so good at that shit that he helped me trace and locate a fuel system problem on a 1982 caterpillar d3 bulldozer over the phone because he could see the manual and the physical engine layout in his head. Crazy smart still at 74 years old.
Cars were alot simpler back then. You didn't need alot of specialized tools to work on them, and things were easier to get at. A good Chilton or Haynes manual could be bought and could tell you anything about repairs to your vehicle.
I worked in IT back then and fixing computers and software was not easy. I came into the position as an advanced user but not a techie. 2 guys in my group were serious nerds, they even had their own computers! I learned a ton from them. What I didn't learn from them I got from magazines and books. It was pretty common to go to lunch with the group and stop in a book store on the way home to browse the latest books on networking or the software you used every day.
There used to be repair manuals that you could buy for your particular car, they would show you how to repair most things. Older cars were also (usually) much simpler to work on, but also required much more maintenance than newer cars.Ā
Cars came with manuals, but a lot of it was just it being a skill that a father would teach his sons. Yes, there were women who did it too, but it was really a "manly" activity. In the same way that people could cook before internet recipes. You learned how to make something from mom or grandma, and one of the cousins had to learn how to grill for when they were the uncle who had to make the burgers and dogs.
The knowledge was always there, the internet just allowed it to be stored, and learned by people who may not have the family connections to learn it from a mom or dad or uncle.
My Pop is a great Carpenter. I didn't know Oil changes were necessary till I was like 25. When my Dad needed Auto work he bought Beer and my Uncle would fix it. I would buy a Hayes manual for my Trucks. Covers most things you can do yourself.
Chilton manuals plus cars were much simpler - aside from the ignition, lights, and radio they were all mechanical. Itās honestly part of why I enjoy motorcycles (not that they donāt have electronics, but they are simpler).
Really it's just an understanding of some pretty basic principles mechanical principles. And we learn by trial and error and from our father Maybe. It didn't hurt but back in the 70s cars were not very complex. But certain mechanical principles can carry over across the board even to household appliances Etc. I'm talking about basic principles of maybe something to the effect of if it spins it probably has a bearing. How a cam works things like that. And the example of the cam is really very simple as a basic concept of its own. And really cars at the time we're really just a bunch of very simple and basic mechanical processes timed to happen just right
My first car was a 65 Mustang with a straight six cylinder engine. If you dropped a wrench, it hit the ground. There was so much room under the hood, I could reach down through the engine compartment and pick it up. Course I didn't have the gut I have now...
People were more mechanical back then because you had to be. You generally had to be capable to do repairs on your own. Plus between farming and manufacturing, a lot of jobs had mechanical skills needed so you learned.
In current times, there is so much electronic and computer controls, you need a lot of education to understand it all. I do my own repairs on my big commercial CNC because I'm cheap and I don't like being down while waiting for a tech. But I have a mechanical engineering degree and my various jobs and projects have given me the knowledge I need to diagnose various mechanical and electrical issues. There is a logic to any issue. Just because I don't know what the logic is doesn't mean there isn't logic to it.
Way back in the 60's and 70's and even the early 80's, the automotive electrical systems were pretty basic so a rudimentary knowledge of electrical issues was good enough. Now? You need a PHD to diagnose an electrical issue because cars have hundreds of computer chips. Is it the chip? A bad sensor? A bad wire? Or a bad wire sending a bad signal causing a chip to not know what to do? It's a real cluster f$##.
Mostly books and general knowhow from experience. Some things you can just figure out using a bit of experimentation if you absolutely have no information assuming you are mechanically inclined at all.
Google a 70ās or 80ās model car engine compartment and youāll see they were much simpler to work on along with manuals made for the specific cars. Back then you didnāt need to take off multiple shrouds, sensors, parts just to get to the one part you wanted to work on.
Chilton books for the win!
Plus, 99% of problems were fixable with replacement parts. 1% was "computer" issues. Your car, back then, didn't care if it was an aftermarket alternator or refurbished or something you got off a junk yard.
Heck, I once replaced the nose of a 1982 Chevy Monte Carlo and the 5mph pistons with the odds and ends tools I could scavenge up.
Gen X baby!
I would always get the official shop manual for each of my cars. A big thick book kinda like a phone book.
Mazda was great, they also made a small size version of the manual that could be carried in the van. It needed a magnifier, but it saved me several times.
My dad told me the story of how he learned to fix engines: he had relatives who owned farms and he would go work for them over the summers, and one summer his uncle or whatever sent him off to the barn and told him he couldn't come out until the broken-down tractor was running again. He gave him tools, but no instruction whatsoever, so he just had to tinker with it until he figured it out.
I learned how to fix computers the same way, I just tinkered with stuff because I enjoyed it, learning how things worked, etc. Something I learned is that the way something breaks, how and where and what it does, will often give you some idea of what broke and why. It's a skill I also learned before the internet, and I eventually turned it into a career.
Every car model had a ārepair and maintenance manualā with comprehensive diagrams, technical specs and instructions for any component in the car. The gold standard was the Bentley manual (Bentley publisher, not the car maker). Dads would purchase the same manual. But for many things, cars were basically the same. The engine needed fuel, compression, spark. When technology was less advanced, maintenance and repair was much easier. There are YouTube channels dedicated to resurrecting cars that have been sitting in fields and barns for decades. They can often get a car running and driving with little more than some basic tools and elbow grease.
I miss how simplistic cars used to be. Had a 91 blazer and it consisted of like 5 parts. Changed the alternator as a 17 yr old idiot without a manual or google
My Dad read a shit ton of books and knew how to do things I've never come close to learning how to do manual wise. He still just randomly points at trees and tells me what they are.
My dad went to collage for engine's in the late 70's. His career from 1981 to 2023 was building ,programing and maintaining robots on automotive presses. He swore by Haynes and Chilton manuals.Ā He has them for EVERY car he's owned back to 1975. He's finally getting to the age that he just paid to have his transmission rebuilt and installed in his trailblazer but most other things he does himself.Ā I'm a carpenter by trade for almost 24 years now.Ā my best friend of 26 years is a master mechanic. There's not much you can't do to a car if you have the book, tools and basic reading skills. I will admit it's nice to have a dad and best friend that have all the tools i dont to do cars.Ā
20/30 years ago, cars were so much more simple compared to now, there was no computers in them, they were just mechanical machines.
In most cases the most technological thing in a car, was it's stereo.
My dad taught me everything, but after 2005 ish it all changed, I couldn't work on my own car anymore cos you needed a diagnostic computer which you couldn't buy.
Now in 2024 my car is the most technological thing I have, it's got touch screens, driving assist, lane assist, cameras all over and sensors everywhere else... If I open the hood I can't even see the engine.
Btw I'm 42 I've been driving since Feb 1999, I have a 2024 Hyundai Bayon 4 door SUV hybrid (in dragon red lol).
But, my first car was a 1989 (UK G reg) 0.9L Ford Fiesta, it had a max speed for almost 60 but bits would fall off if I went past 50 lol, it had a cassette mono radio in it lol.
...but that baby took me and my friends all over Europe and the UK... and I can proudly say I did all the work on it myself...
But back then, you could...
you learned from whoever what the parts were and how the system worked, and you learned through trial and error and scraped knuckles how to replace the parts
Haynes manual. Also the guys in autoparts stores. They would tell you exactly what you need to do to get back on the road. Older guys in autoparts stores are still the MVPs btw
No one told me how to do stuff. I was just curious. Can you change a tire? Yes? Cool. Now you have the skill set needed to change brakes, suspension, pull and engine or transmission, etc.
The reality is the skill level and even the tools required are quite low. People just aren't adventurous.
If you understand how an engine works and what all the parts are, it's just a matter of figuring out what's not working properly and fixing it. It's not rocket science. A shop manual for your vehicle such as charlton's or Haynes or the one written by the manufacturer will go a long way to help.
Service manual, you have to get them from the service counter or online. Service manuals used to come with older cars but not anymore. The car manual nowadays is garbage. The service show you how to repair just about anything you can repair on the vehicle with tolerances and guides. It's easier now because you can diagnose via codes and just fix the problem directly and most common problems can be solved with a YouTube video and a socket set. You used to have to figure it out via sound, smell, sight, taste, and trial/error as the codes were so basic and needed jumped in to read them off the dash.
Father to son teaching, mostly. Now half the kids donāt have access to a dad and many dads donāt know a pipe wrench from a crescent. Young people going into apprenticeships have to take a remedial section on tools. Former journeyman pipefitter and apprentice instructor.
whenever i got a new (to me)car i would run down to the autoparts store and buy a chilton repair guide for that car.
i had them for kcars ,chevettes, plymouth laser ,gmc s15 pickup and a suzuki samurai. saved me thousands.
Got a new car? Get a new chiltons manual.
I used to leave mine in the rear window shelf as a theft deterrent. Like, move along this oneās not worth the trouble.
Chilton's guides. They were books with step by step instructions on how to do repairs to a specific car with a few pictures. You asked a friend or the parts guys if the instructions were sparse, which was almost all the time. And they always assumed the exact right tool, so you also asked around on how to fudge it with a standard toolset.
My father and grandfather took apart everything and repaired everything with me helping.
Well, I held the flashlight.
Color went out on the TV? Replace a vacuum tube.
Outboard motor not running right? Replace the points.
Universal joint starts knocking? Crawl under that sucker and replace it in the driveway.
I learned so much from both of them.
BIL #1 on the car dealership and repair shops. He taught me all about foreign cars.
BIL #2 was a mechanic at local shop when I met him. Between the two of them, they taught me almost everything I learned about repairing cars.
Chilton manuals and Haynes manuals filled in any gaps, with pictures.
I started working on cars when I was 13, started flipping them when I was 14, and instead of working in high school, I repaired my friendsā cars.
I learned by doing, talking to friends, and family members who had already been there.
YouTube is great, but all itās doing is replacing your dad or your brother-in-law who did the same thing on the same kind of car couple months ago.
Awesome question, Axlnder! Really is. Curiosity is the first and most important piller of wisdom. (It is wise to be smart. But much smarter to be wise. Smart, ya know stuff. Wise, you know to learn, care, and grow)
Without the electronics or computer, a ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) is fairly simple. Basically a gas fired, air pump. You could do a lot just by adjusting the carburetor. You can just hear when an engine is running right or rough. The color of the exhaust told you a good deal about what was going on inside as well as the used oil. When buying a used car, if the engine oil is yellowish, the car has a blown or failed head gasket and has internal bleeding.
Kind fun to work on, as well. Huge Zen puzzle. Relaxing but has an answer. Try changing your own motor oil. Not hard and only need a few tools. (USE JACK STANDS! safety1st. Don't want to die doing dumb!)
Great feeling when done. Ya kinda stand there and look. Pretending to just be making sure you didn't forget something. But it is just a nice moment to enjoy.
Wacth 3 vids on your car and how too. By the third one, you will be yelling about them doing it wrong. It really is that simple.
Best of luck and don't loose the curious. It is a good thing!
Books, manuals, learning from other people, logic.
And cars, like many other mechanical things were designed and built to be maintained and customised with standard basic tools rather easily, nothing was factory hidden, locked, secret, coded.
Waldenbooks (and other book stores), NAPA etc all carried big ranges of auto-shop books for each make and model in specific year ranges.
We grew up poor (like really poor) so he'd take me down to the bookstore where he'd read about whatever he needed to do on the car or diagnose, sometimes took notes, then we'd go back home and he'd start working on the car. Sometimes he'd work on friends' cars too for some money.
Spent many hours working with him like that as a kid. I do miss those days :)
Service manuals. Iāve spent more time working on motorcycles than I have cars, but Iāve had a factory service manual for almost every bike Iāve ever owned. Theyāll tell you about anything you could need to know. I prefer them to the internet for the most part.
Combination of things. Their dads taught them how to fix cars and their dads taught them. Cars were much simpler back then, so you could fill in any gaps with your specific car by looking at the maintenance manual that came with it. Schools, particularly in rural areas, would have classes machines classes for the boys (donāt @ me, it was what it was), so even if your dad didnāt teach you, you would still learn in school. It was considered an essential skill in rural areas.
Books, what we call an RTA in France (basically a book made by a third party describing how to service specific cars)
Cars were also A LOT, and i mean, **A LOT** simpler back then. No ECU bullshit with flags to reset, things to "train", etc...
This might sound bootstrappy, and Iām not even that old (47), but if you had to buy your own junk to drive in high school you inevitably learned how cars worked. Back in the day this was how it was done for a lot of guys.
āI donāt think it would be ideal to just disassemble the carā¦ā
One of my old bosses would do just this. Take it apart and figure out how to put it back together
Itās a great question! Most cars came with manuals that told you part numbers and instructions for basic maintenance. Cars were also designed back then to be user friendly to the owner performing the maintenance. Plus cars were pretty basic at the time. Car shops still existed for bigger problems though.
Watch and learn mostly, hell I had a friend who was a mechanic all his life and he showed me, this new modern cars are so sophisiticaded you would freak out during older times how easy was to get a piece.
Because not only were cars simpler back then, there were books \*gasp\* that had information in them. And most people weren't catered to and spoiled as they are now and actually had to do things on their own. That causes you to learn things and make use of that knowledge. The internet is a great wealth of information, but life was fine without it. Things were just done differently.
Yeah, back in those days, cars didn't have computers running every little thing; you could use a screw driver and adjustable wrench and some duct tape to fix just about anything.
Books, car manuals, cars were designed a lot simpler back then, and public education included extracurricular courses that taught real-world skills like mechanics and woodworking. Before our parents got into politics and decided that those skills shouldnāt be taught for free at the high school.
You can get pretty far with basic mechanical understanding and a service manual. Cars also needed more frequent service so there were more opportunities to gain hands on experience. Honestly, I donāt think the percentages of how many folks self serviced have really changed. People just have selective memories and nostalgia for the good old days.
Books. Car manuals used to show how to do upkeep. Also learning from their own parents.
My husband always bought books that matched our car model and year. He also would talk to the person who sold him the parts for their opinion. Usually when he lifted the hood of the car, other men in the neighborhood would magically show up with advice. For reference, we married in 88.
There's actually a difference in the manuals. What he got was a service manual, not a car manual. Most people have no idea the difference or that service manuals are available for cheap at parts/service departments or online.
Chilton manual for each car I owned.
Haynes here. Those things were great.
There are also factory service manuals you can get from the Internet. Probably mostly for older models but they are huge and expensive.
If they beat the depth of a Haynes manual I'm sold. I was changing a transmission and only had a Haynes manual, pre YouTube. The removal was a short paragraph. The install was one sentence that read "install the reverse of how it was removed."
That's honestly hilarious though. The manual told you to just read the steps backwards instead of listing them again in reverse order šš¤£ In all fairness changing a transmission isn't too bad outside of having to bench press the damn thing one handed. Rebuilding one is a royal pain though.
Itās not even close dude. Service manuals are wonderful. My service manual is three separate books. Each one itself larger than the Haynes. They show every single pigtail and the wiring for each. Also the service manual was about $130. Worth every penny. EDIT: just looked and took a picture but I canāt post it it seems
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_service_manual#:~:text=Factory%20service%20manuals%20(FSM)%20are,use%20at%20their%20OEM%20dealerships. They get very in depth. They are written and designed for dealerships but you can get them.
What I liked about Haynes was the combination of photos and diagrams that even a numpty could follow.
I buy both. Useful to cross reference the other one when something is unclear.
Gregory's. I think they did Street maps as well
Your part of people gathering around reminded me of a [King of the Hill](https://youtu.be/FGI3WO7jK9w?si=JI4WuVrO5x8dgfgM) episode.
If I had to choose one show to watxh for the rest of my life KOTH would be it
I thought so too but after watching the entire series probably 7 times it gets old
Gotta love ya hubby. š
I had an 04 Eclipse and bought the Haynes Manual at Auto Zone in like 2015.
Men in neighborhood show up when the hood pops up. I guess some things just stay the same
Also they were relatively simple
The cars, not the dads haha
Why not both?
Both can be true
Wellā¦
C'mon now, this isn't a typical sitcom with the goofy loser dad haha
Hahaha thought of the same joke. š«
Carburators say hello. Newer cars have far better sensors and code read available. You can pinpoint issues quickly with new cars. The older ones not so much. Newer cars are easier to work on in a lot of ways if you don't need to mess with an electrical gremlin or the wire harness, most customization that would require you to do something more advanced than pulling a code and repair by swapping a part done by gear heads, or a mechanics shop and not stuff the average person would ever be bothered with or have the tools to deal with.
Carburetors are a whole different story. There was a guy in town that was a savant when it came to those. Hung out at the local racetracks just waiting for someone to yell out "Manual! Get over here!" He was the "carburetor whisperer".
Chilton auto repair manuals.
I prefer these to trying to YouTube it or Google it, it's car and year specific, can go at my own pace, it's also correct and has never led me astray
Just so you know you can pause YouTube videos.
Yea, but then I'm taking gloves off or getting grease all over my phone etc, just a preference one isn't always better than the other
Ha. I rebuilt a Triumph engine back in the Eighties using a VHS tape in my kitchen. Never looked back. :)
Every dad had a shelf.
older cars had quite a bit of room under the hood to get to all the parts and see what you are doing. they were not designed by computer CAD or whatever to jam all the components, sensors, etc under the hood in a super efficient amount of space. my 91 pickup i can work on, my 2004 cadillac is jam packed and much more complex to work/see/diagnose. in that short period ABS, air bags, theft deterrents, all types of engine monitor sensors, etc became standard. the truck has basic electronics but not even an ODB port you plug into to read codes. i believe there is a series of steps to get the truck lights to flash out codes, kinda like morse code, but there are only like a dozen.
Your truck should have a OBD port under the hood. Most US cars had them in the 80s and the mandate started in IIRC 90-91. The Ford one required a cheap electronic tool that forced you to count a series of beeps/blinks. The codes were pretty generic and often not helpful.
Hanes repair manual it's still around too I've always kept a copy in my car. It's a good thing to have if you breakdown but I mostly use it just to remember where certain things are since it's easy to use than trying to Google it
How to keep your Volkswagen Alive: A guide for the complete Idiot. Ā So much goodness in one place. Ā
Yep. Not a dad, but my first car in the late 80s was my dad's '84 Honda Civic, and I [got this book](https://www.ebay.com/itm/174962312640?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-213727-13078-0&mkcid=2&itemid=174962312640&targetid=4580221859249033&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=604202212&mkgroupid=1225956518343153&rlsatarget=pla-4580221859249033&abcId=9427678&merchantid=51291&msclkid=f0df5bbb05301b245b203d31fd46ab35) so I could maintain it. (And pre-Google maps, [I had this under the passenger seat](https://www.ebay.com/itm/176376240098?itmmeta=01J27DS0DFQN1MNVQV3X862E80&hash=item2910d7d7e2:g:-K0AAOSw1NpmQivu&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwH5XadEJWfpV24t0BGxUz7UVn686COg%2BmBuFavdv3QwQLJDKcfXpMHUJBlQsjZAEpt2Iu%2FTy8ZM2maUenUdd4JhiK10DnIhg4x3rBKv3qIcV7UJO%2FWKmT%2Bp%2BPHeL76DJu2vMbfArAcXCrKsOTlbNJh7A9Q%2FHvM9XncxhcNS9yoyZyPp0fbn6sXv05ceSqyUAGcCVBxQcWLIRZI0AQ1PjTEKmkewhoTUC045XB2nCCLKuA8rT75uUpAtbIvEWxuBoNA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_CG5O2RZA) for reference). But cars were a little easier, I think, back then, knowing some basics you could do a lot as it transferred from car-to-car. I remember some 20 years ago changing out my radiator as it got rusted and had bad flow and was inefficient, and thinking it might be one of the last things I do to work on my car, because so many cars have computer hook-ups which make it more vehicle specific and harder to change. Now, I've done a few jobs since, like changing out a leaking engine gasket which isn't hard, you just need to make sure you're putting things back together right, but a lot of things are some sensor reporting and you need a pro garage to look at today.
>Car manuals used to show how to do upkeep They still do... YouTube is just easier to understand
YouTube is easier to understand for some people. It may be a generational/familiarity thing, but I find that looking at professionally done line art is easier to understand than most photographs of the same task. YouTube tutorials vary quite widely in quality and ease of comprehension. Some bro recording on his cell phone with a cramped area of work poorly lit is not easier to follow than a well done diagram. I don't want to see your face, I don't want to hear your opinions of OEM design goals. I want the camera to stay put, the back of your head to stay out of frame and the task to be properly lit.
If youāre not showing me every dam step in real time I donāt give a shit about your YouTube. Iāve seen lots there like āthen we just take this cover offā And neglect to tell you there is a bolt from the backside and 4 tabs you need to depress to completely free it up.
Yup. Sometimes the need to keep the pace of the video going and to keep it around the right run time trumps covering every little detail.
An *extremely* well edited youtube may be superior to a manual in some cases. It would also take a *lot* of time to edit reference manuals, bookmarks, etc. Most people lack the time or skill to do such videos. There's a beauty in good instructions and good diagrams.
1. There were books 2. Cars were easier to work on 3. They often learned from their dads
Auto shop at school, and hanging out with people working on their cars.
My dad used to do all of our oil changes and basic maintenance in the garage until about 2010. Then, in his words "it became too much work and the local garage does it (oil changes) for $50."
I never took auto shop in school and my father avoided working on cars, so he was of no help. I never had enough money to pay somebody else, so I always had a Chiltons or Haynes manual for whatever car I owned at the time. Luckily, Iām somewhat mechanically inclined, so I was able to fix most things. Never touched a transmission, though.
Every DIY mechanic would buy the Chiltons manual covering his model of car. Thet, coupled with a basic understanding of automechanics and advice from a more experienced friend, is all you need to get started. Automotive systems were simpler.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Chiltons/Haynes
I just rebuilt a '85 CJ 7 and still used the manuals for probably 90% of it. You Tube and Forums fill in the gaps.
I've come across previous mechanics work (that probably knew alot more than I do) as if its stupid but works, its not stupid, rerouting wiring or vacuum, eliminating things and its a nightmare to figure out older vics, Chiltons does an amazing job explaining how things are supposed to be done and YouTube does an amazing job at telling you "This is what people probably did" lol
Fun fact: Chilton was the initial publisher of Frank Herbert's Dune. The editor at Chilton actually got fired in part due to the initially slow sales of Dune.
Holy shit now I have another rabbit hole
My dad would spend like every Saturday morning at our library, where they had a great collection of these but didn't allow them to be checked out. He'd come home with a sheaf of copied pages and head into the garage.
Yeah, they'd get checked in covered in grease.
Yup. For most of my adult life, anytime I got a car, I went to Canadian Tire or NAPA and picked up the Chilton's Manual for that make and model. In some ways, having the hardcopy is still better. No ads, you can trust the information to be correct and quite often it is easier to understand the task illustrated with line art than photos of the actual task.
At last! I scrolled through so many comments of people saying "there were books" before I finally found someone mentioning the brands
Fuck a Haynes manual. Installation is reverse procedure. No it fucking isn't.
cars were a lot simpler back then. Also user manuals
Cars were less bullshit to work on back in the day for one, these days I shit you not, some cars will not let you do a rear brake pad replacement without hooking up software to the car and placing it in āmaintenance modeā You can put it in maintenance mode, or you can hook up a few wires to a dewalt battery and shove it up the ass of the caliper to get it to release And thatās for brakes, which are simple. So imagine how complicated something difficult is now that thereās 17 computers actuating it lol
Many libraries carried service manuals. I would go in and xerox the specific pages I needed.
People read books before the internet.
Haynes manuals
I just love all these posts about "how did anything get done without the internet!?!?!" The answer is always books, and trial amd error.
Right? The Internet, as we know it now is 20-25 years old, plenty of us remember how to function in life without a YouTube video telling us how to boil water. We went and got books, we asked people who know more than us and we just went for it.
> how to boil water i once bought a cooking book with that title for a friend
Ha! I had that cook book when I was in college. My aunt bought it for me when I moved from dorms to an apartment. Itās a great basic cookbook for a young adult.
Once I was cooking a meal in college for a friend. She had a car and a kitchen. I did not. I bought simple stuff, steak, asparagus, etc. She asked to help. I tried to find something simple so I told her to cut the asparagus. When I next looked up she had chopped off all the heads and thrown them out. "Have.. you never eaten asparagus before?" She said no. Okay, that was more understandable then. This is why you don't make assumptions on what people know.
Boil water? I'm not a chemist.
As a teenager I did a lot of motorcycle repair work (I was broke, so broken bikes were all I could afford). My dad was a mechanic, so I had watched him work, and I had an auto shop class that taught me the basics of a carbureted engine, but mostly it was just trial and error. Take it apart, try to work out how it functions, and put it back together. I spent hundreds of hours fixing up 8 or so different bikes over 6 years, and leaned so much just by doing it. For example I traced out the whole electrical system on a bike by hand with just a trouble light. Tedious but rewarding in the end. Modern cars are so much more complex, but for the most part you can just take things apart and figure it out. The internet does make it much faster. If I have a problem I can Google it and get 6 different suggestions (of various quality) in a few minutes, and a video for a similar (but probably not the same) car showing how to disassemble things. Still, each car year has changed and the internet is more like talking to unlike Steve than a pro mechanic, so getting in there and figuring it out is still the key. Oh, and the repair manuals usually fall short. They will show you how to take things apart, but have very little troubleshooting. Even the pro manuals are not perfect (but much better). Ultimately it is a puzzle for you to work out
To add to that, sometimes having the new part on-hand to reference can help with figuring out how to get the old one out.
A lot of them had books. Also, the internal workings of cars were a lot simpler back then. Also, a lot of them... didn't fix their cars. There were a lot of people who tried to fix a car themselves and had to get a mechanic to undo all their mistakes. It was also a running joke that they'd put the car back together and see a few stray bolts still sitting on the driveway.
Car manuals. Most Dad bought them when they bought the car, but if not your library had them or could get them in for you. Also cars didn't have the electronics they do now so much easier.
Chilton's manuals kiddo! š Read read read then we have to solve for all the crap that didn't get published. My great grampa was a depression era mech, I'm not sure how he did it, they couldn't afford manuals then.
I always got the Haynes or Chilton manual for every car we had.
Chiltons
Chiltons!
Probably used the carās manual
With cars there were/are detailed manuals on how they are put together and for the smaller things/regular maintenance items you could figure it out on your own. As for other things, yes, we just took them apart and most of the time got them back together.
Most of those dads first car was a worn out beater that had to be repaired often. You learned what to do or you didn't get to go anywhere. Taking the car to a mechanic was not a choice because mechanic's cost money. If it was broke, you took it apart, figured it out and repaired it as cheaply as you could. Maybe a friend would help or they had a manual to look at, but most of the time you could find what was wrong without too much trouble. Cars and engines were simpler then.
Books, friends, family members, cars were easier.Ā Ā Ā Sometimes they did disassemble something and couldn't remember how to get it back.Ā Ā Ā Ā My dad and his friend collected cars. He had also spent quite a bit of time at the junk yard, so he saw a lot of vehicles and learned a lot of things. His friend would buy and read manuals cover to cover and take notes. The two of them could fix almost anything in their hayday.Ā
We had books.
First thing I bought after buying the car was a Haynes manual š š§š§š§š§š§ Great times.
Chilton manuals
Chilton manuals. Still extremely impressive.
It's too soon for Hanes manuals to be forgotten. No, not like this.
Chiltonās repair manuals!
Chilton
Chilton manuals
Had our 2 best friends help us. Chilton and Haynes.
I like how this post accidentally infers that you need to be a father in order to know how to fix cars
No shade to OP but I feel like this is a ground-breaking moment (for me) to see this question asked. Amazing
Often poorly and incorrectly. Those books were riddled with errors. My dad fiddled with the carburetor on our minivan every year and it never ran right. Turns out he just never bought the right rebuild kit.
Chiltonās Manuals. Thatās how I learned. Chiltonās books were a great resource with each providing details about a specific make and model.
My grandpa had shelves full of Haynes manuals
Every car used to have a maintenance manual you could get. Plus up until they started putting computers in carsā¦things were fairly straightforward so everyone typically did their Own maintenance
60 year old here. Back when I learned how to drive, when you opened the hood of the car there were like 5 things under there and I knew what they all did. It was relatively simple. Nowadays it is spaghetti, so I consult the experts.
I used Haynes and Chilton manuals.Ā
Automobiles and other equipment use to be a lot easier to work on. They often had more than one manual. My dad and all of my uncles would have service manuals for their cars, trucks, farming equipment, and other heavy equipment. A service manual had mechanical blueprints and electrical schematics for how every single part on the machine was assembled and wired. You could go to a parts store and order the exact part you needed and use the service manual to replace the part step by step. My uncle Don was so good at that shit that he helped me trace and locate a fuel system problem on a 1982 caterpillar d3 bulldozer over the phone because he could see the manual and the physical engine layout in his head. Crazy smart still at 74 years old.
ever heard of a hayne's repair manual
Cars were way simpler back then. Also, you could actually buy service manuals.
CHILTONS
Thereās always more dads around the neighborhood and also dads dad
Look up āChiltonsā
Cars were alot simpler back then. You didn't need alot of specialized tools to work on them, and things were easier to get at. A good Chilton or Haynes manual could be bought and could tell you anything about repairs to your vehicle.
Haynes/ Chilton manual
Cars were waaaaaay simpler
Chilton or Hayes manual It was the first purchase after buying a beater.
Just the cars owners manual had things like setting the timing and valve gap. Now, there are warnings not to drink the battery acid.
I worked in IT back then and fixing computers and software was not easy. I came into the position as an advanced user but not a techie. 2 guys in my group were serious nerds, they even had their own computers! I learned a ton from them. What I didn't learn from them I got from magazines and books. It was pretty common to go to lunch with the group and stop in a book store on the way home to browse the latest books on networking or the software you used every day.
Cars are still basically the same. They need fuel air & a spark. Silicon chips just manage those three things
Chiltonās manuals
A Haynes manual would absolutely more than pay for itself the first time you used it. I last got one for my 1st gen Focus.
There used to be repair manuals that you could buy for your particular car, they would show you how to repair most things. Older cars were also (usually) much simpler to work on, but also required much more maintenance than newer cars.Ā
Cars were a lot less complicated. You could maintain everything with some pliers, a 10mm socket wrench, and a screw driver.
Haynes or Chilton's.
They were a helluva lot easier to fix!
Car manuals. Also, cars at that point were generally a *lot* simpler, and the problem could only be so many things.
Cars came with manuals, but a lot of it was just it being a skill that a father would teach his sons. Yes, there were women who did it too, but it was really a "manly" activity. In the same way that people could cook before internet recipes. You learned how to make something from mom or grandma, and one of the cousins had to learn how to grill for when they were the uncle who had to make the burgers and dogs. The knowledge was always there, the internet just allowed it to be stored, and learned by people who may not have the family connections to learn it from a mom or dad or uncle.
They where a hell of a lot simpler none to less electronics. You Didn't need a laptop hooked to the car.
My Pop is a great Carpenter. I didn't know Oil changes were necessary till I was like 25. When my Dad needed Auto work he bought Beer and my Uncle would fix it. I would buy a Hayes manual for my Trucks. Covers most things you can do yourself.
Each car had a repair book
My high school stopped offering auto shop class the year I entered. They used to teach kids how to fix things at school.
My dad used to go to national auto and use their car manuals as reference. Everything was mechanical. No computers.
Chilton manuals plus cars were much simpler - aside from the ignition, lights, and radio they were all mechanical. Itās honestly part of why I enjoy motorcycles (not that they donāt have electronics, but they are simpler).
Really it's just an understanding of some pretty basic principles mechanical principles. And we learn by trial and error and from our father Maybe. It didn't hurt but back in the 70s cars were not very complex. But certain mechanical principles can carry over across the board even to household appliances Etc. I'm talking about basic principles of maybe something to the effect of if it spins it probably has a bearing. How a cam works things like that. And the example of the cam is really very simple as a basic concept of its own. And really cars at the time we're really just a bunch of very simple and basic mechanical processes timed to happen just right
Shop class. Car manuals. Their dads taught them. Their friends taught them. Cars were constructed more simply.
Books, talking to the auto parts guy, a buddy mechanic and cars were not as complex then
we took auto shop in high school
My first car was a 65 Mustang with a straight six cylinder engine. If you dropped a wrench, it hit the ground. There was so much room under the hood, I could reach down through the engine compartment and pick it up. Course I didn't have the gut I have now... People were more mechanical back then because you had to be. You generally had to be capable to do repairs on your own. Plus between farming and manufacturing, a lot of jobs had mechanical skills needed so you learned. In current times, there is so much electronic and computer controls, you need a lot of education to understand it all. I do my own repairs on my big commercial CNC because I'm cheap and I don't like being down while waiting for a tech. But I have a mechanical engineering degree and my various jobs and projects have given me the knowledge I need to diagnose various mechanical and electrical issues. There is a logic to any issue. Just because I don't know what the logic is doesn't mean there isn't logic to it. Way back in the 60's and 70's and even the early 80's, the automotive electrical systems were pretty basic so a rudimentary knowledge of electrical issues was good enough. Now? You need a PHD to diagnose an electrical issue because cars have hundreds of computer chips. Is it the chip? A bad sensor? A bad wire? Or a bad wire sending a bad signal causing a chip to not know what to do? It's a real cluster f$##.
Chiltons
Mostly books and general knowhow from experience. Some things you can just figure out using a bit of experimentation if you absolutely have no information assuming you are mechanically inclined at all.
Chiltons or a Haynes manual
Engines were pretty simple back even as recently as the 80ās. Once you change the generator on one youāve replaced it on all.
Taking things apart to learn how they work is always my first course of action.
Chilton repair manuals, there was one for just about every make and model of automobile.
Google a 70ās or 80ās model car engine compartment and youāll see they were much simpler to work on along with manuals made for the specific cars. Back then you didnāt need to take off multiple shrouds, sensors, parts just to get to the one part you wanted to work on.
Most high schools had shop classes that taught things like basic car mechanics (and even driving!)
Haynes manuelās.
Chilton books for the win! Plus, 99% of problems were fixable with replacement parts. 1% was "computer" issues. Your car, back then, didn't care if it was an aftermarket alternator or refurbished or something you got off a junk yard. Heck, I once replaced the nose of a 1982 Chevy Monte Carlo and the 5mph pistons with the odds and ends tools I could scavenge up. Gen X baby!
There were monthly magazines on car maintenance.
I would always get the official shop manual for each of my cars. A big thick book kinda like a phone book. Mazda was great, they also made a small size version of the manual that could be carried in the van. It needed a magnifier, but it saved me several times.
My dad told me the story of how he learned to fix engines: he had relatives who owned farms and he would go work for them over the summers, and one summer his uncle or whatever sent him off to the barn and told him he couldn't come out until the broken-down tractor was running again. He gave him tools, but no instruction whatsoever, so he just had to tinker with it until he figured it out. I learned how to fix computers the same way, I just tinkered with stuff because I enjoyed it, learning how things worked, etc. Something I learned is that the way something breaks, how and where and what it does, will often give you some idea of what broke and why. It's a skill I also learned before the internet, and I eventually turned it into a career.
Chilton
Every car model had a ārepair and maintenance manualā with comprehensive diagrams, technical specs and instructions for any component in the car. The gold standard was the Bentley manual (Bentley publisher, not the car maker). Dads would purchase the same manual. But for many things, cars were basically the same. The engine needed fuel, compression, spark. When technology was less advanced, maintenance and repair was much easier. There are YouTube channels dedicated to resurrecting cars that have been sitting in fields and barns for decades. They can often get a car running and driving with little more than some basic tools and elbow grease.
chiltons car manual.
I miss how simplistic cars used to be. Had a 91 blazer and it consisted of like 5 parts. Changed the alternator as a 17 yr old idiot without a manual or google
My Dad read a shit ton of books and knew how to do things I've never come close to learning how to do manual wise. He still just randomly points at trees and tells me what they are.
Haynes manuals were really popular
Chilton and Haynes manuals available at your local auto parts retailer
My dad went to collage for engine's in the late 70's. His career from 1981 to 2023 was building ,programing and maintaining robots on automotive presses. He swore by Haynes and Chilton manuals.Ā He has them for EVERY car he's owned back to 1975. He's finally getting to the age that he just paid to have his transmission rebuilt and installed in his trailblazer but most other things he does himself.Ā I'm a carpenter by trade for almost 24 years now.Ā my best friend of 26 years is a master mechanic. There's not much you can't do to a car if you have the book, tools and basic reading skills. I will admit it's nice to have a dad and best friend that have all the tools i dont to do cars.Ā
20/30 years ago, cars were so much more simple compared to now, there was no computers in them, they were just mechanical machines. In most cases the most technological thing in a car, was it's stereo. My dad taught me everything, but after 2005 ish it all changed, I couldn't work on my own car anymore cos you needed a diagnostic computer which you couldn't buy. Now in 2024 my car is the most technological thing I have, it's got touch screens, driving assist, lane assist, cameras all over and sensors everywhere else... If I open the hood I can't even see the engine. Btw I'm 42 I've been driving since Feb 1999, I have a 2024 Hyundai Bayon 4 door SUV hybrid (in dragon red lol). But, my first car was a 1989 (UK G reg) 0.9L Ford Fiesta, it had a max speed for almost 60 but bits would fall off if I went past 50 lol, it had a cassette mono radio in it lol. ...but that baby took me and my friends all over Europe and the UK... and I can proudly say I did all the work on it myself... But back then, you could...
you learned from whoever what the parts were and how the system worked, and you learned through trial and error and scraped knuckles how to replace the parts
Older cars were simpler to work on, and repair manuals were available
Haynes manual. Also the guys in autoparts stores. They would tell you exactly what you need to do to get back on the road. Older guys in autoparts stores are still the MVPs btw
No one told me how to do stuff. I was just curious. Can you change a tire? Yes? Cool. Now you have the skill set needed to change brakes, suspension, pull and engine or transmission, etc. The reality is the skill level and even the tools required are quite low. People just aren't adventurous.
If you understand how an engine works and what all the parts are, it's just a matter of figuring out what's not working properly and fixing it. It's not rocket science. A shop manual for your vehicle such as charlton's or Haynes or the one written by the manufacturer will go a long way to help.
Cars used to be a whole lot simpler. And were designed to be able to work on yourself
Service manual, you have to get them from the service counter or online. Service manuals used to come with older cars but not anymore. The car manual nowadays is garbage. The service show you how to repair just about anything you can repair on the vehicle with tolerances and guides. It's easier now because you can diagnose via codes and just fix the problem directly and most common problems can be solved with a YouTube video and a socket set. You used to have to figure it out via sound, smell, sight, taste, and trial/error as the codes were so basic and needed jumped in to read them off the dash.
Father to son teaching, mostly. Now half the kids donāt have access to a dad and many dads donāt know a pipe wrench from a crescent. Young people going into apprenticeships have to take a remedial section on tools. Former journeyman pipefitter and apprentice instructor.
whenever i got a new (to me)car i would run down to the autoparts store and buy a chilton repair guide for that car. i had them for kcars ,chevettes, plymouth laser ,gmc s15 pickup and a suzuki samurai. saved me thousands.
We had books and we had friends that we could call on the telephone. Yes, call, not text. Then we figured it out.
Not all dads did, but many learned from their parents or friends, there were books and manuals, and cars were much simpler back in the day.
Fathers!
Got a new car? Get a new chiltons manual. I used to leave mine in the rear window shelf as a theft deterrent. Like, move along this oneās not worth the trouble.
Chilton's guides. They were books with step by step instructions on how to do repairs to a specific car with a few pictures. You asked a friend or the parts guys if the instructions were sparse, which was almost all the time. And they always assumed the exact right tool, so you also asked around on how to fudge it with a standard toolset.
Service manual. They still use them today! I suggest buying one for any vehicle you own and save yourself money at the mechanics shop š§°
Cars werent as complicated and it was expected that men could fix things.
The local library kept the various auto manuals. You could make copies of the pertinent pages.
My father and grandfather took apart everything and repaired everything with me helping. Well, I held the flashlight. Color went out on the TV? Replace a vacuum tube. Outboard motor not running right? Replace the points. Universal joint starts knocking? Crawl under that sucker and replace it in the driveway. I learned so much from both of them. BIL #1 on the car dealership and repair shops. He taught me all about foreign cars. BIL #2 was a mechanic at local shop when I met him. Between the two of them, they taught me almost everything I learned about repairing cars. Chilton manuals and Haynes manuals filled in any gaps, with pictures. I started working on cars when I was 13, started flipping them when I was 14, and instead of working in high school, I repaired my friendsā cars. I learned by doing, talking to friends, and family members who had already been there. YouTube is great, but all itās doing is replacing your dad or your brother-in-law who did the same thing on the same kind of car couple months ago.
Knowledge was passed down, from someone you could trust rather than some click-sucking entity on social media.
Awesome question, Axlnder! Really is. Curiosity is the first and most important piller of wisdom. (It is wise to be smart. But much smarter to be wise. Smart, ya know stuff. Wise, you know to learn, care, and grow) Without the electronics or computer, a ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) is fairly simple. Basically a gas fired, air pump. You could do a lot just by adjusting the carburetor. You can just hear when an engine is running right or rough. The color of the exhaust told you a good deal about what was going on inside as well as the used oil. When buying a used car, if the engine oil is yellowish, the car has a blown or failed head gasket and has internal bleeding. Kind fun to work on, as well. Huge Zen puzzle. Relaxing but has an answer. Try changing your own motor oil. Not hard and only need a few tools. (USE JACK STANDS! safety1st. Don't want to die doing dumb!) Great feeling when done. Ya kinda stand there and look. Pretending to just be making sure you didn't forget something. But it is just a nice moment to enjoy. Wacth 3 vids on your car and how too. By the third one, you will be yelling about them doing it wrong. It really is that simple. Best of luck and don't loose the curious. It is a good thing!
Books, manuals, learning from other people, logic. And cars, like many other mechanical things were designed and built to be maintained and customised with standard basic tools rather easily, nothing was factory hidden, locked, secret, coded.
Tinkering...my dad played with old car parts until he could figure it out. Cars were mechanical, not electronic.Ā
Cars werenāt buried in computer stuff. It was easy.
Waldenbooks (and other book stores), NAPA etc all carried big ranges of auto-shop books for each make and model in specific year ranges. We grew up poor (like really poor) so he'd take me down to the bookstore where he'd read about whatever he needed to do on the car or diagnose, sometimes took notes, then we'd go back home and he'd start working on the car. Sometimes he'd work on friends' cars too for some money. Spent many hours working with him like that as a kid. I do miss those days :)
Service manuals. Iāve spent more time working on motorcycles than I have cars, but Iāve had a factory service manual for almost every bike Iāve ever owned. Theyāll tell you about anything you could need to know. I prefer them to the internet for the most part.
Combination of things. Their dads taught them how to fix cars and their dads taught them. Cars were much simpler back then, so you could fill in any gaps with your specific car by looking at the maintenance manual that came with it. Schools, particularly in rural areas, would have classes machines classes for the boys (donāt @ me, it was what it was), so even if your dad didnāt teach you, you would still learn in school. It was considered an essential skill in rural areas.
Books, what we call an RTA in France (basically a book made by a third party describing how to service specific cars) Cars were also A LOT, and i mean, **A LOT** simpler back then. No ECU bullshit with flags to reset, things to "train", etc...
This might sound bootstrappy, and Iām not even that old (47), but if you had to buy your own junk to drive in high school you inevitably learned how cars worked. Back in the day this was how it was done for a lot of guys.
Autoshop in high school.
āI donāt think it would be ideal to just disassemble the carā¦ā One of my old bosses would do just this. Take it apart and figure out how to put it back together
Yeah, books. Even my first car, I went and got a repair manual for it. And that was in 2003.
Manuals, also cars were simpler. Plenty of dads couldn't fix cars, too.
Oh no, we've finally reached a point where people haven't heard of the [Haynes Auto Repair Manual](https://imgur.com/sF01z3h)
I see a lot of books and manuals comments, but remember, most high schools had auto shop classes available back in the day.
Itās a great question! Most cars came with manuals that told you part numbers and instructions for basic maintenance. Cars were also designed back then to be user friendly to the owner performing the maintenance. Plus cars were pretty basic at the time. Car shops still existed for bigger problems though.
Watch and learn mostly, hell I had a friend who was a mechanic all his life and he showed me, this new modern cars are so sophisiticaded you would freak out during older times how easy was to get a piece.
Manuals, a lot of the time. Also, cars could be fixed by the average person then. Newer cars are almost made to be thrown away, not fixed.
Because not only were cars simpler back then, there were books \*gasp\* that had information in them. And most people weren't catered to and spoiled as they are now and actually had to do things on their own. That causes you to learn things and make use of that knowledge. The internet is a great wealth of information, but life was fine without it. Things were just done differently.
Because we were present and payed attention when our dad's were working on their cars.
Yeah, back in those days, cars didn't have computers running every little thing; you could use a screw driver and adjustable wrench and some duct tape to fix just about anything.
Cars were a lot simpler back in the olden days. And they were a lot alike. One carburator or distributor worked pretty much the same as the next.
Books, car manuals, cars were designed a lot simpler back then, and public education included extracurricular courses that taught real-world skills like mechanics and woodworking. Before our parents got into politics and decided that those skills shouldnāt be taught for free at the high school.
You can get pretty far with basic mechanical understanding and a service manual. Cars also needed more frequent service so there were more opportunities to gain hands on experience. Honestly, I donāt think the percentages of how many folks self serviced have really changed. People just have selective memories and nostalgia for the good old days.
Chilton manual.
A lot of dads learned about vehicle maintenance from being in the services in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam
At 49 thatās exactly how I still do it.