Its the same as BMW putting plastic covers over the engines on their cars that require a special tool that only the dealer has to remove it so you can work on the car. Or Car companies producing parts, bolts, etc that require new "specialty tools". That way you either have to take it to them to fix it or you have to buy the tool (which if its a new tool they patented, you know they're making money on it.)

 

Yep! I was working as an apprentice at Lew Williams Cadillac on 21st and W. Burnside back then. Of course there was no student deferment from the draft for training schools, so Uncle Sam told me I had to quit and work fo him!

 

I was helping a friend try to find the power steering reservoir for his daughter's Buick SUV the other day. We looked everywhere, and found every reservoir, but not the PS one. We finally tore the cover off the top of the engine, and there it was hidden underneath! What kind of genius hides the filler for something that needs regular checks under the engine cover? No wonder GM is in trouble, if that's the best they could engineer!

 

True! sad thing is, its not just GM, it's all the car companies. They do things like that to make money; to make it hard or impossible for the regular person to perform regular maintenance on a vehicle, and I might even go as far as to say to prevent them from doing the regular maintenance or checks so that things go wrong and they can make money when things do go wrong. Ever notice how they offer different warranties for different vehicles? Clearly they've had access and enough vehicles to test them well before the public even sees them. Isn't it funny how some vehicles just happen to start to have major issues just after the warranty expires? Sometimes you have to wonder if things are engineered to have a certain (limited) lifespan.

 

The car manufacturers can and do do that. If there is a component that lasts an unusually long time, they know that part can be cheapened up to save money. Even a penny or two saved on each car, over millions of cars built, amounts to a lot of money in the end.

 

Only if people keep buying their cars.

 

Bummer,knowing you were about that age I wondered if you weren't maybe a vet.
I was just young enough to miss that mess and just old enough to get a draft card,one of the last to get one in the '70's.

 

Yea, I was sitting in the barracks at basic training when they had the first lottery. My number would have been 325 if I could have stayed hidden for another month! I was afraid it was coming, so I had already gone to my Air Force recruiter and taken all the tests and was accepted. I told him I wanted to "think about it awhile" and left. When I called him to say I'd decided to take him up on his generous offer, he laughed. He knew right away that I'd gotten my draft notice, and made me sweat a couple days before calling me back and telling me he had an opening!
Who says those guys don't have a sense of humor; or was that just an ornery streak?

 

Heh,maybe a little of both.
A friend of mine from Corvallis that I met on a motorcycle forum is about your age and was also Air force,maybe you guys crossed paths.
Mike was a Senior Master Sergeant, U.S. Air Force
210th Rescue Squadron.
Great guy with a long service resume,sure wouldn't know it just to meet him.
U.S. Coast Guard 1968
U.S. Army 1969-1971
U.S. Army Reserves 1971
U.S. Air Force 1972-1976
U.S.A.F. Reserves 1976
Alaska Air National Guard 1977-1995
U.S. Civil Service 1995-Present

 

I was a Loadmaster on C141 cargo jets, so not much interaction with guys outside the air cargo wing. Started out as MATS (military air transport service) when I enlisted, and changed to MAC (military airlift command) later. Since I spent most of my days in the air headed somewhere, or coming back, I barely knew many of the guys I worked around outside the flight crew.