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Bad Rules of Thumb from Early Days

Midlife

Midlife

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In another thread, I mentioned my father instilled in me a couple of rules of thumb for cars. These turned out to be "Booooo-guuuus!" as they say. They were:
"Only let a professional work on brakes."
"Cars are too complicated to work on (mid-60's statement)."
"Engines won't last longer that 60,000 miles".

Just curious...what other bad rules of thumb were provided to you when you were young and you thought were true?
 
"If you don't stop that, you'll go blind"




Smoke from all the burnouts I used to do......pervs.
 
When I was thinking about an apprenticeship as an electrician, my Dad told me to think twice about it, "cause you don't want to work on anything you can't see!"
 
Color blind, blind......I never stopped doing burnouts :doh Dad was right :nice
 
Women need to be told what to do.
They enjoy serving men it defines them as a woman.

At the time I was told that my grandmother spent most of her life in the kitchen cooking 3 sometimes 4 meals a day the other spare time she was cleaning the house.
 
Never set an automotive battery on concrete, because the concrete will drain it. Even though I know now that this is complete BS, I still cannot bring myself to set a battery on concrete ... I still set it on a wood board.

Advince the timing until it pings, then back off until it stops. Of course, many still believe that, including Pony Carbs. :roulette
 
"johnpro" said:
Never set an automotive battery on concrete, because the concrete will drain it. Even though I know now that this is complete BS, I still cannot bring myself to set a battery on concrete ... I still set it on a wood board.
Click to expand...

Uggh, same here. I will sometimes set a battery on concrete, but only when I have to, and I wince, even though I know it's stupid.

Steve
 
The whole "battery on concrete" thing might not be total BS. Plastics technology was pretty bad 40 years ago and it could be that the plastic battery case was porous enough to allow a charge to flow to the concrete. :crazy

"Fram filters are great", now that died a slow death. So did "slick 50 works". Hell, my dad used to make Firestone put it in his company truck at every oil change. :rofl
 
im still young so i figure most things i learn on here will eventually fall into this category :bow
 
To test your alt. or VR just pull the positive battery cable off and see if it dies....not an electrician but found that most times this fried something in the electrical system as most everyone that did this was in our parts store buying more parts or having their alt. tested to see if they fried it. Maybe someone can explain what this sudden load fries most often. I always reminded customers to just bring their batt. and alt. and we'd test em' for free, why fry it first?
Jon
 
Running hi-test/premium gas is better for any engine as it gives you more power..................(thanks to my grandfather).
 
Another one that is still widely believed today:

Never use Teflon tape on fuel fittings.

Of course, failure to do that on a Holley is a guaranteed leak.
 
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