Had a long chat with a retired mechanic named Jerry at a parts counter in Denver

He was picking up some old school relay switches nobody uses anymore. I asked him why he bothered and he just laughed and said because the newer stuff fails too fast. He walked me through how he used to troubleshoot a whole car elevator with just a multimeter and a screwdriver. Made me think about how much I lean on fancy diagnostic tools now instead of really knowing the system.

2 comments

2 Comments

betht321mo ago

Miss the days when you could really dig into a problem and figure it out with your hands instead of a computer screen. Jerry sounds like he's got stories that could teach a lot of us a thing or two.

the_jake1mo ago

Shoot, I gotta push back on this a little. @betht32 I know it feels romantic to go old school, but those fancy diagnostic tools save a ton of guesswork and keep people from chasing ghosts in a system for two days. If Jerry's old relay switches fail so much, maybe he'd be better off with a modern part that actually lasts longer.