How much maintenance to give?
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2023 3:12 am
Facebook has held a post of mine for 3 days now because I mention that a primer for aluminum (and only real alum. primer contains this for non-ferrous metals) containing zinc chromate is so bad that is causes cancer in “other states beyond California.” It’s true. It’s bad stuff for real and because of this, is very hard to get. Disgruntled at that, I came here because this forum is more important and needs massaging more than we visit and I’ve got a topic that contributes beyond a day, unlike Facebook. This notion has been going for 80 years.
HOW MUCH MAINTENANCE TO GIVE?
A large premise that we’ve all heard before is “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”. Let’s roll with that.
My cars (and beyond) undergo this type of maintenance schedule combined with the service manual preventative schedule. My 1988 car has original plug wires and spark plugs are 23 years old. My 1989gt has 25 year old plugs and wires. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve had to recrimp ends after pulling a boot clean off before. Oops! It burns me to see parts replacers post to Facebook looking for help that don’t search for an answer first. Forget the fact that they don’t have even a Haynes manual, which is a great starter book that is the minimum in my mind. I won’t fault them for that! However they have potentially caused multiple failures by replacing good parts. “I’ve replaced all the plugs and wires” they say. Then all the sensors for no reason. Were they proven bad to begin with? The answer is no, and I recently read an article that supports how I’ve dealt with maintenance since I learned how. This is worth sharing.
World war 2, England. B-24 bombers were approaching a very low 50% ready status. It wasn’t battle damage, it was preventative maintenance that kept the planes on the ground. It took an unlikely occupation of a biologist named Conrad Waddington to fix this mechanical debacle. He found that inspections are good, but not inasmuch to break something down to inspect it. This causes time and is unnecessary because the act itself can cause a maintenance-induced failure. We have all forgotten a bolt, (freeze plug behind the trans bell housing for me one time) and screwed something up at some point. It was proven in the long run, that waiting until a component squawks consumes less time than turning wrenches on a witch hunt. Now this ideology is called the WADDINGTON EFFECT.
This helps decide for example, fuel pump replacement. This single-point-of-failure can leave us stranded at any time. However my last pump needed 3 replacements due to bad new pumps. I’m not alone.
Sometimes the pump can fire a warning shot of losing pressure and lack of acceleration to nominal pressure. The pressure spec is for example and can provide insight… don’t replace a pump just because it’s old. It’s good to inspect at proper intervals, respecting what is working doesn’t need fixing when service guidance leaves us a gray area.
Thank you Mike Busch for keeping this up and let’s hope that it remains up for a long time. I am a big fan of Mike Busch and there are dozens of videos regarding maintenance on the savvyaviation site that extend to cars as well. They are worth every minute.
Here is the article:
https://resources.savvyaviation.com/wp- ... effect.pdf
Stay savvy and thanks for the bandwidth.
Andy
Yellow3800
HOW MUCH MAINTENANCE TO GIVE?
A large premise that we’ve all heard before is “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”. Let’s roll with that.
My cars (and beyond) undergo this type of maintenance schedule combined with the service manual preventative schedule. My 1988 car has original plug wires and spark plugs are 23 years old. My 1989gt has 25 year old plugs and wires. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve had to recrimp ends after pulling a boot clean off before. Oops! It burns me to see parts replacers post to Facebook looking for help that don’t search for an answer first. Forget the fact that they don’t have even a Haynes manual, which is a great starter book that is the minimum in my mind. I won’t fault them for that! However they have potentially caused multiple failures by replacing good parts. “I’ve replaced all the plugs and wires” they say. Then all the sensors for no reason. Were they proven bad to begin with? The answer is no, and I recently read an article that supports how I’ve dealt with maintenance since I learned how. This is worth sharing.
World war 2, England. B-24 bombers were approaching a very low 50% ready status. It wasn’t battle damage, it was preventative maintenance that kept the planes on the ground. It took an unlikely occupation of a biologist named Conrad Waddington to fix this mechanical debacle. He found that inspections are good, but not inasmuch to break something down to inspect it. This causes time and is unnecessary because the act itself can cause a maintenance-induced failure. We have all forgotten a bolt, (freeze plug behind the trans bell housing for me one time) and screwed something up at some point. It was proven in the long run, that waiting until a component squawks consumes less time than turning wrenches on a witch hunt. Now this ideology is called the WADDINGTON EFFECT.
This helps decide for example, fuel pump replacement. This single-point-of-failure can leave us stranded at any time. However my last pump needed 3 replacements due to bad new pumps. I’m not alone.
Sometimes the pump can fire a warning shot of losing pressure and lack of acceleration to nominal pressure. The pressure spec is for example and can provide insight… don’t replace a pump just because it’s old. It’s good to inspect at proper intervals, respecting what is working doesn’t need fixing when service guidance leaves us a gray area.
Thank you Mike Busch for keeping this up and let’s hope that it remains up for a long time. I am a big fan of Mike Busch and there are dozens of videos regarding maintenance on the savvyaviation site that extend to cars as well. They are worth every minute.
Here is the article:
https://resources.savvyaviation.com/wp- ... effect.pdf
Stay savvy and thanks for the bandwidth.
Andy
Yellow3800