Julie P. > wrote:
>"Scott Dorsey" > wrote in message
...
>>
>> I remember riding the bus in the Phillipines.... each round trip from
>> Manila
>> to Baguio, they'd drop the engine, take it apart, and check it. Labour
>> was
>> very cheap and parts were very expensive.
>>
>
>I assume you mean "air bus" and not a regular bus?

No, it was a Mercedes diesel bus. Somewhat swankier than a schoolbus
but not as fancy as the Grumman Flxible city busses in Honolulu. Cheap
labor changes and weak currency changes the way you look at maintenance.

Here, folks have a tendency to replace things if they could potentially
cause a problem, because the parts are cheap and the labor is expensive.
When you have the thing apart, you might as well replace anything else
related.

In third-world countries, mechanics carefully razor-blade gaskets so
they can reuse them. I've seen folks resurfacing distributor rotors
with a small torch, just adding a little more metal onto the contact
and grinding it down. A couple hours work in order to save a two
dollar part, because those couple hours cost less than the part.

>Thanks, I agree. It's just with me, I do my own maintenance, and sometimes
>this can take a while, as there is a learning curve. So I am trying to be
>more cautious, especially as my car ages. I have not seen a mechanic in
>almost 6 years now, except to balance my tires and have them mounted. I even
>pull my own wheels before I hand them to them.

Some of the most interesting people I have met, and surely the most
exciting ones, were people I met while broken down by the side of the
road. I almost miss owning the 1954 Moto-Guzzi. It didn't run worth
a damn, but it made any trip into an exciting adventure.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."