Positive ground battery again.

I saw this about two months ago at Auto Zone. A guy was trying to fix the cable on his car. Not tooooo bright. The parts girl had about as much wrench time as my cat. The end she gave him would JUST NOT fit onto the battery post. I watch as they went between two other types of terminls. FINALLY I had to chime in. To the girl "You need a positive terminal not a negative terminal end". HOO Boy. Jeffcat

Where are the "basic maintenance" classes in schools today?? Replaced by computers! If you do not teach the basics to a younger person how will they ever know what to do with vehicles, faucets at home, "my lawn mower won't start", and hundred's of other things that us "more experienced" (read lots of grey hair) folks can fix!
Tradesmen around here (Minnesota) are crying for people to learn plumbing, sheet metal, & electrical trades. Jobs are there for a person willing to learn & show up on time.

Will Rogers once said "Every one is ignorant, only in different subjects." I met a Doctor years ago on top of a high hill overlooking Acadia National Park. He had pulled off the side of the road as one of his front wheels had come loose ruining three of the five studs holding the wheel on his station wagon. He, his wife and three young children were vacationing. He was near a panic as he didn't know what he was going to do as it was getting near dark and he was several miles from his motel and other civilization where he could get any help. I calmly borrowed his lug wrench and walked around his car and took out one stud from each of the other three wheels and put them in the loose front tire, tightened it up and told him to stop at a parts store or a dealership the next morning and he would be fine. A week or so later we received the most beautiful thank you letter I think I have ever received from the Cardiac Dept of Massachusetts General Hospital. This Doctor was a extremely intelligent gentleman but this day he was faced with a totally different problem than he had ever encountered before.

Reminds me of the time I had my family on Martha's Vineyard for vacation.

Last day - our ferry off the island was at 10:00.

8:00 - starter on the jeep died - dead.

Actually found the one parts store and they had one - needed a taxi to get to it.

Taxi driver was a real nice guy. I told him what was going on, he started telling me there's no way I'd find anybody on the island to fix it, etc etc.

I explained I was going to do it myself.

It was like he didn't believe me at first. He was amazed that I'd even try.

He owned the taxi company. And he was an ex-special forces guy. He said he could tell me 12 ways to disable a vehicle, but wouldn't even know where to look for a starter. He had mechanics that worked for his vehicles, but didn't think they'd be able to help on such short notice.

He asked about tools - I said I just need to buy a couple wrenches. Wife's worried, kids are scared, I'll get it done.

He shut the meter off - told me he's not charging for the ride. Drove me to the parts store, then stuck around and watched me change the starter.

It all took about an hour from picking me up to a new starter that fired the jeep right up.

He couldn't believe it.

He was so impressed in my ability to get it done that he's got $10,000 worth of tools he doesn't even know how to use back at his house sitting in a closet, and he wants me to have them.

Told me he was dead serious, and we could go get them and be back in under 30 minutes - plenty of time left for the ferry.

I thanked him - and almost took him up on it - but I told him I've got all the tools I'll ever need back home - next time you see a kid working on a car, give them to him. It's the younger generation that needs a boost like that.

In all fairness... I have been in the trades as an auto mechanic for many years. Getting in, I was treated like a red-headed stepchild from New Jersey. Nobody was willing to teach me a hole lot of anything. Many of the other trades were worse. The macho BS, the hazing, bullying, and outright harassment were enough to keep a lot of younger people out of the trades. I learned my trade by working for FREE at a local transmission shop - just to get a foothold into learning how to be a competent mechanic.
Has a lot changed today??? Are the young people welcomed into the trades? Are they taught how to do things the right way???
Just today, I was called into a shop run and owned by a young friend of mine. He had a Jeep with a miss on #6. He couldn't figure it out. I went to his shop and walked him through a diagnostic, and found the problem to be a bad camshaft - one flat lobe. This was after he had put injectors, coils, and a valve job into it, and the problem was still there.

The bottom line is that if we want new people to learn the trades, we have to WELCOME them in! We also need to see to it that the trades are not a dying art. These people will still need to make a living 20 or 30 years from now. Otherwise, it will all pass into oblivion.