Narrowing down common TBI problems...

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someotherguy

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Nobody pays for diagnosis. Parts changers make the profit. You just have to have good excuses when the fix doesn't work and you want the customer to pay again.
Depends on who you work for. My little bro's previous job for Jaguar/Land Rover was to figure out the problems the store techs couldn't, and review their process, if they didn't follow the correct troubleshooting process and just threw parts at it then they would not be reimbursed under warranty provisions. That's gotta sting.

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Schurkey

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By the way, who around here still has a dwell meter? Hell, I've got a really sharp Snap-On tach/dwell with cylinder shorting function.. all but totally useless for anything modern.
Not just the tach/dwell/shorting meter, how 'bout the "magnetic timing light"?
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Better yet...Counselor II automotive oscilloscope.
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someotherguy

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Nice! Now that we've gone completely off the rails.. that's the era tach/dwell I've got. Buddy of mine has the much older design with the analog gauge and dial for the cylinder choice. He also had an ancient Sun engine analyzer scope, the really big one with a large screen.. found a pic of the same exact unit on the web. Sun made a lot of scopes but this one was the grandaddy monster of them all, IMO:

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dave s

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LOL, now that's a blast from the past for sure. We had one that looked something like that in our automotive class in high school.
I never did figure out how it all worked.
 

PlayingWithTBI

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Sun engine analyzer scope, the really big one with a large screen.. found a pic of the same exact unit on the web
We had that one, or similar, when I worked at a Mobil service station back in the 70s, it was brand new and the owner was really proud of it, ha ha. My wife bought me a Sears meter that had dwell and other stuff sometime around 1981 and, I just threw away my old 80s magnetic timing light last year after the bulb burned out, LOL.
 

someotherguy

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Stock internet photo, but there's one like it in the shop. Needs fresh capacitors, the strobe light is pretty weak.
My buddy has/had that exact same distributor machine. He had a well-equipped shop, but is mostly retired now. Some other miscellaneous items I recall were a chassis dyno (can't remember the brand; IIRC it was supposed to be good for about 400 WHP), a Sun VAT-38 charging/starting analyzer, and a ton of the Sun service spec cards. If there was a specialty hand tool for a certain job he almost surely had it... plus the knowledge and experience to make use of it all.

Best feature of the whole place though was above the shop building there was a really large apartment with an "in ground" swimming pool (concrete pool that extended down into the 1st floor shop area back corner) and he would throw parties that started at 2am and go until sunrise. We'd float minimum 3-6 kegs depending on attendance, tequila shots on top of that, grill countless pounds of burgers, chicken, sausage,... lots of fun, a few fights, and plenty of memories. Well, at least the memories I remember. :D

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PlayingWithTBI

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We'd float minimum 3-6 kegs depending on attendance, tequila shots on top of that, grill countless pounds of burgers, chicken, sausage,... lots of fun, a few fights, and plenty of memories. Well, at least the memories I remember.
Sounds like a great place for after hours socializing!
The 70s are a little blurry for me too :anitoof: :cheers:
 

GoToGuy

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When i worked in United Airlines ground equipt repair shop. One of the younger guys had the work order went to draw the parts for reg' maint' on flightline service truck, 2 ton ford gas engine. He's one bay over from me. He starts laying out all the parts, oil filter, air filter, wires, cap, plugs, get this. I see him pause.... He holds up the condenser. Then opens last small box. " whats these?" He is a graduate of Junior Colledge Automotive course. And certificated. He looks at me " Ron what are these for?" Time stands still, I feel conflicted. Is this a teaching moment? Or am i being setup? Didn't they teach any types of ignition in his school? So the forman had me giving a small class on point type ignition. It still blows my mind 22 years later. Oh well.
 
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