Scott Fisher writes in reply to Rick:
> Rick Hoffman has some generally good suggestions on safety. It
> seems I read every couple of years about some enthusiast or other
> who got killed while working under a car; it's a serious place. I
> must, however, take Rick to task on at least one comment:
>
> 3. Don't let kids/dogs/cats/etc hand around.
>
> But then how will the little ones ever learn to adjust a set of SU
> carburettors? :-)
It's that same curiosity of perennially wanting to "help" that you have to
watch out for. My son, Ryan, proved that to me about 2 years ago...
I had the back of the TR4 up in the air on jackstands to work on the rear
bumper. To keep the floor jack out of the way I had just rolled it under
the car. While I was in cleaning up for the day, Ryan went out into the
garage and saw "that neat jacking thing that goes up and down" under there.
He found the handle, put it in the jack, and started pumping. He was about
5 at the time.
I came back out after cleaning up, after Ryan had gone back inside, and
noticed that the car was sitting at an odd angle. So I bent down, looked
under the car, and just about had a heart attack as I slowly realized what
Ryan had done alone out in the garage!! The jack had come up to contact
a random location of the underbody (wouldn't ya know - right smack on the
fuel line!) and Ryan had raised it up about 3". Thank God I had solidly
blocked the front wheels and had the jackstands solidly set!!
At that point, Ryan and I had a long talk on the dangers of jacking heavy
objects up into the air and the precautions you need to take first!!
> I figure this will pay off real soon, because with a little luck she
> will develop sufficient skill to be a real help to me while her hands
> are still small enough to fit into the space behind the dashboard and
> inside all those little nooks and crannies where my big mitts won't fit.
It's already paid off for me - Ryan (now 7) is a great help for things like
bleeding brakes, holding wrenches, etc.
> Besides, that way she'll always have an option if her boyfriend ever
> claims "car trouble" on a date...
My 2 girls (Emily age 3 & Mandy age 5) are showing interest, and you can be
sure that they will learn the basics of car maintenance & repair before they
start driving!! (stopping oil leaks, fixing intermittent fool pumps,
wire wheel tuning - ya know, the basics :-)
Pat Vilbrandt John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. Everett, Washington USA
UUCP: pwv@tc.fluke.COM or: { uunet, uw-beaver, sun, microsoft }!fluke!pwv
ARPA: fluke!pwv@uw-beaver.ARPA
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