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Learning mechanics


Old Turkish proverb... You will learn most from newest books and oldest teachers.. How true that is even today?

Me likey. I became friends with an incredible mechanic in college. He let me fix my sh!t in his garage and I re-built Datsun 240/260/280Z heads for him. Have any of y'all had the experience of working in a non-heated garage that is about 30 deg. F., wrenching on cars and don't even feel the cold? I'm with Mark_88 on wrenching taking you to different places.
 
Have any of y'all had the experience of working in a non-heated garage that is about 30 deg. F., wrenching on cars and don't even feel the cold?

Yes. More than once.

My first clutch job was done on a friend's 92 Geo Storm, mid January 2006, mostly between the hours at 12 and 4 AM. We couldn't get the heater going.

I spent the week of Christmas 2007 putting an engine in my dad's 90 F250. 20 hour days in a sheet metal pole barn with holes in every panel, a torpedo heater was running most of the time, but never did anything for me sitting up in the engine bay. I got more heat from the bulbs in the drop lights.

Thanksgiving 2008 I got frost bite on my lower back putting a clutch in the S-10 my wife had when we first met. We were even broken up at the time. Same garage as the first clutch, same crappy heater as the engine.

Thanksgiving 2009 I got frost bite on my lower back putting a clutch and trans in my truck. Same setup as the S-10.

Christmas 2009 I pulled the trans back out to replace the slave cylinder that I was too cheap to do at Thanksgiving.

The moral of the story, no matter how warm it FEELS in the garage, if it is 10 (or at times 10 below) outside, laying right on the concrete floor in a t-shirt (that tends to ride up exposing your skin right to the floor) is not a good idea.
 
I, like others, have definitely had my fair share of working on mechanics in, we'll say, "less-than-ideal" environments. The experience of being so engrossed that you become unaware of fatigue or time passage, actually has a term in academia called "flow learning experiences." For me, I can get so involved, I'll forget to eat. Gotta put something in the head hole every now and again or someone gets a little grouchy.

Keep it coming, please. This information may even be used in a larger study on free-choice learning.
 
Have any of y'all had the experience of working in a non-heated garage that is about 30 deg. F., wrenching on cars and don't even feel the cold? I'm with Mark_88 on wrenching taking you to different places.

Sure have!

Have any of you been dumb enough to cure this problem by using a kerosene heater, and then forget to crack the garage door open?

I, like others, have definitely had my fair share of working on mechanics in, we'll say, "less-than-ideal" environments. The experience of being so engrossed that you become unaware of fatigue or time passage, actually has a term in academia called "flow learning experiences." For me, I can get so involved, I'll forget to eat. Gotta put something in the head hole every now and again or someone gets a little grouchy.

Keep it coming, please. This information may even be used in a larger study on free-choice learning.

I have this problem too. Luckily my Wife pays attention to how long I've been without meal and usually brings me something or calls me in the house.
 
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This is a really interesting observation. A manual for assembling a jigsaw puzzle would not help anyone assemble a jigsaw puzzle. It sounds obvious, but little tidbits like this in academia can be super-useful for making your point clear. This may be one of the best examples I've heard to support that the physical context of learning is never to be ignored. (And yet, it is being ignored in classrooms everywhere.)

Everyone is giving me great and useful info. Thanks and keep it coming! :yahoo:

The sad thing is that kids are no longer being encouraged to do jigsaw puzzles. When they whine that they're bored, mommy or daddy hands them an Iphone and lets them play Angry Birds or surf the internet. And classrooms anymore seem to be idological breeding grounds.... they don't want kids to think, they don't want them to question things, they don't want them using their imagination, and they don't want anyone to "feel" bad. Kinda hard to learn anything useful like that.

Tells you how much good 2 years of history did for me, thanks my bad lol fixing that now.

I could SOOOO hijack this thread into a discourse on how badly the school system has absolutely butchered "teaching" history. I know it's gotten worse since I was in school (and it was getting pretty bad then - just a rote memorization of dates, places, and people). I learned FAR more about history on my own than I did in the classroom. When I was in elementary school, I discovered a series of books in the library, they were written in sort of an abridged format and they were made easy to read and understand. The series had biographies on many important historical figures (Daniel Boone, Thomas Jefferson, etc) as well as books on important events, battles and wars. I took to scouring the library for those books (and drove the school librarian up the wall since (oh the horror), I was "reading above my age level.") History is best learned rather than "taught." I'll leave it at that since I don't really want to hijack the thread anymore, lol.
 
As far as mechanic stuff....

Dad taught me a bit about doing oil changes and rotating tires and knew a little about doing brakes, but that was kind of the extent of his knowledge. My first truck was bought brand new so there wasn't really much to do on it besides basic maintenance. Then I found TRS and it's been downhill since. I bought my second vehicle kinda through TRS, a 1988 Bronco II. There's a whole story behind the purchase of it and the adventure bringing it back from where it was at, but I'll save that for a later time. I had a friend of the family teach me about doing brake lines and some other work on the truck to get it going. Drove it for a couple months then it swallowed a couple valves and I decided to do a 4.0 swap..... I learned a LOT there.... and never did get the 4.0 running in it (still have it, change of plans now).

I bought my choptop intending to use it for parts, but the body was so nice that I decided to do a 4x4 conversion and get 'er going (previous owner, also someone on here, cracked the head). I'll tell you, there was little to top the thrill I got when I finally got that engine to cough back to life. Only thing was, I was by myself so I had nobody to share it with.

More recently I worked with my dad and we dropped a 5.0 out of a Mercury Mountaineer into an extended cab Ranger.

I've learned a lot on my own, researched a lot of stuff (TRS has been a big help most of the time), I use Haynes manuals mostly just for torque specs anymore, they've proven to be relatively useless), and I've learned a lot through other people that I've come in contact with. I'd class myself as kind of a shadetree mechanic. I know enough to be dangerous, but I'm not someone who turns wrenches for a living.
 
didn't edison invent the light bulb?

Pretty much like how Henry Ford invented the car. :icon_thumby:

IMO a textbook is a very poor way to learn, they have to cram so many topics into a couple pages that you barely touch on anything. And then since it is only one source the author can put his/her own slant on anything they print... which has made them very historically inaccurate. My grandfather still has his (they had to buy them back then) and the "history" in them is laughable.
 
I`m proud of the fact I could help people.

Well said, Richlands. This rings so true. It's wonderfully satisfying to help our good friends in this more tangible way. It's perceived as a special personal gift. The warmth & goodwill lasts years. Compare fresh homemade cookies vs. $5 to buy some. Nobody remembers the $5 bill.

Handyman skill is a dying art. Kids don't wanna know. It's not sexy enough. They don't bother teaching it in schools. So, sadly, we learn by happenstance, if at all. Really, it's a set of skills. Wrenching, welding, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, intuition, deduction. They seldom stand alone. Some jobs overlap. Lucky is getting wider learning exposure. Nice thing about the internet is how we can fast-track with unknown tutors & mentors we've never met, from all fields, and online video/photo tutorial help is an excellent prep for the real thing. Still, no substitute for getting your own hands dirty. I like that Turkish proverb!
 
"....teaching" history. ... History is best learned rather than "taught."

You may be happy to know that, while school systems are all screwed up by "teaching" to test levels, there are little groups of people in academia who are turning the whole idea of education on its head (I'm one of them.)

One could argue that there is no such thing as "teaching," only learning. The study of teaching is almost irrelevant. The study of how people, both children and adults alike, learn, is more to the point of education.

Proven: People learn almost everything they know, outside of the classroom. We are studying how people build upon previous learning, as learning is a lifelong process - not something that just happens and gets embedded in your brain.

You are so right. Jigsaw puzzles massively stimulate the brain in all sorts of ways. Parents need to understand that children have an enormous desire and capacity to learn. Want to keep them busy? Find something they are interested in and give them a way to teach themselves about it. They will come up with questions on their own. Who would have thought that doing jigsaw puzzles as a kid would make all the difference in figuring out how to fit that damn exhaust back under your vehicle? But it does! Enormously. Decades later, we are using the skills we learned of fitting things together in jigsaw puzzles to the context at hand.

This automotive forum is particularly interesting because the subject matter is fairly complicated (no, they aren't space shuttles, but they aren't toasters either) and most of the members have probably not been taught formally as mechanics. Those that have, have said they still learned most by hands-on experience. (Which is why, in another thread, I ranted about engineers needing to be mechanics before they are allowed to design anything that we end up working on.):icon_twisted:

Thanks.
 
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Wrenching, welding, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, intuition, deduction. They seldom stand alone. Some jobs overlap. ... Nice thing about the internet is how we can fast-track with unknown tutors & mentors we've never met, from all fields, and online video/photo tutorial help is an excellent prep for the real thing. Still, no substitute for getting your own hands dirty. I like that Turkish proverb!

It is easily argued that they NEVER stand alone and that ALL jobs overlap. Life itself is the jigsaw puzzle.

You mentioned something extremely important that I had not put together. We know that mentors are a super-important part of learning, but we often assume mentors are in-person. The idea that the Internet is not just a place full of information, but instead, a virtual space with with living, breathing, caring mentors, is a noted point. Thanks.
 
I'll tell you, there was little to top the thrill I got when I finally got that engine to cough back to life. Only thing was, I was by myself so I had nobody to share it with.

This goes to show how much intrinsic value, personal reward, we get from learning on our own. I would hope that this forum can also be a place to share those rewards. Our peers understand more than most how to identify with that feeling. I share it with my wife and it falls flat. :stirthepot:
 
This goes to show how much intrinsic value, personal reward, we get from learning on our own. I would hope that this forum can also be a place to share those rewards. Our peers understand more than most how to identify with that feeling. I share it with my wife and it falls flat. :stirthepot:

Yeah, nobody was around when I fired the Stang up after being under the knife for a week when I put the new heads on it. I soaked it all up myself though.

[ramble]

I love it when someone asks for my help or advice. I probably give more info than needed when I help sometimes... oh well. My Brother doesn't know much about wrenching, but he knows a lot more about construction type things than I do (minus electrical - which I happen to know). So it's a great trade off. I try to learn from him, and he's taught me to be "average" at sheetrock, framing, etc. I wonder how much he remembers on vehicles sometimes because he doesn't ask many questions..... I'm spewing questions all the time when he helps me. LOL

[/ramble]
 
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You are so right. Jigsaw puzzles massively stimulate the brain in all sorts of ways. Parents need to understand that children have an enormous desire and capacity to learn. Want to keep them busy? Find something they are interested in and give them a way to teach themselves about it. They will come up with questions on their own. Who would have thought that doing jigsaw puzzles as a kid would make all the difference in figuring out how to fit that damn exhaust back under your vehicle? But it does! Enormously. Decades later, we are using the skills we learned of fitting things together in jigsaw puzzles to the context at hand.

I never really got much enjoyment out of puzzles, Legos though... :shok:

Ships, boats, submarines, trucks, cars, airplanes (complete with a coffee table aircraft carrier), helicoptors, space ships... I had it all at various points. Start with a kit and then either improve it or part it out for a better project. Had to be the best bang-for-buck toy I got. :icon_thumby:
 
My older brothers got Mechano sets for Christmas...I was envious...lol...I got a Frosty Snow Cone machine...and hockey sticks...:yahoo:
 

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