What are some car-repair jobs you always wished you could do but have never done?

No, chains stretch - belts don't. Belt timing is more accurate and consistant. Belts are more efficient at transmitting power. Belts are much easier and cheaper to replace

It can be pretty much a wash

When a chain goes bad, it does more damage than a belt

A lot more hassle when a chain brakes.

Not necessarilly true

Correct - and the cain causes more damage and is more expensive to repair

Nope - an order of magnitude worse with a chain

Belts - 60- 100 thousand Km in the past - some last a lot longer but don't take the chance on an interference engine. an hour or 2 to change it, and mabee 50 bucks for the belt vs 6 hours plus the cost of tensioners and sprockets and chain (often over $200) for the chain

- which SHOULD last longer than 2 or 3 belts - but the average car will only have the belt changed 3 times in it's lifetime

Absoltely no biggy, on either count. I like FWD. I like RWD. in NORMAL driving, there is basically no difference - and the flat floor of a FWD is nice - and with the weight of the engine over the drive wheels traction is snow is MUCH superior to the traction of a rear wheel drive car with no extra weight in the rear - - -

I've had my say on belts

Pushrod can be gear or chain

Chevy pushrod engines often took out the plastic timing gears in under 100,000 km. Lots of timing chains on pushrod engines never made

100,00 miles.

The belt is just a maintenance item like plugs

Because in SO many ways they are better and they are not affected by lubrication issues.

You are wrong

Not necessarily

For many reasons which I have already given you.

Nope,

Not up here. and they make cars for world markets -

You can believe what you like - but my FWD cars get around in snow al LOT better than my old RWD cars. Try driving a new mustang or camaro in snow.

You are not drinking the coolade, but you are certainly falling for the bullshit.

Not for normal legal street driving

Notice amateur Woody is arguing with 2 former professional mechanics and trade school instructors???? I'm done with him. A waste of time, effort and breath. PLONK!!

2 mechanics/trade school instrctors who drove Morris Minis ----

That "pro" says to replace brake fluid once a year. I wonder how many people do that. I never replace brake fluid unless I've got the system open.

Teaching the trade, yes, bound to cause tears at times.

Done hundreds and hundreds of alignments.

Ditto. Been there, measured that. ;-)

Overtightening wheel nuts or uneven tightening of same will cause warpage of discs.

Exactly. The new pads will charcoal grill on the high spots and *never* properly bed in.

Brake pulling is most likely as the most grooved disc will have less surface contact.

First car was a Hillman Minx. Had a few before I bought the mini. 850cc of raw power, 70 mph with a tail wind and a downhill run.

Every two years at a minimum was what it used to be. The fluid is hygroscopic and will absorb moisture out of the air or anywhere it can.

About 12 hours ago when I parked the car.

Unless it's a gear driven camshaft the pushrod design will have a chain. Other than bikes I don't there are many gear drives because of the fitting problems. My Harley has gears but they are factory matched. Aftermarket cams tend to be noisier because of the wider tolerance.

Cheaper? No, you're wrong on that one.

As an alleged engineer you should be ashamed of yourself. Your thinking lacks logic too, if you think a 1955 Chevy rings is the same as used today.

Doubt you'll believe it anyway.

There are principally 2 common types of formulation for a brake pad friction material, organics and sintered metallics (there are also brake pads known as ?semi-metallics? but these are a ?hybrid blend? of the two aforementioned friction types and thus have properties that typically lie somewhere in the middle). For more information on the different brake pad constructions read our article ?How to make brakes?. Organic brake pads inherit their name from the organic phenolic resins used to bind together the different compounds used in the pads construction. There are countless different types of thermoset phenolic resin, but they can all be generally considered to have a maximum temperature up to which they are thermally stable. Above its intended maximum operating temperature, just like any organic matter, the phenolic resin used as the binding agent becomes altered by the heat and effectively ?boils?, expelling an appreciable volume of gas as it degrades. (The actual technical term for this process is sublimation, since once the phenolic material reaches the critical temperature it jumps from its original solid state and changes instantaneously to a gas, with no detectable liquid phase).

The dominant mechanism causing brake fade is this thermal degradation of the phenolic resins and other materials in the friction lining, which create a film of gas at the pad-rotor interface and effectively causes the brake pad to skid off the disc. As these gasses build up at the pad-rotor interface, they produce an appreciable backpressure which creates an opposing force to the brake caliper that is trying to hold the pads against the rotor. If there is no way for the gasses to escape, the opposing force as a result of the outgassing can become large enough to prize the pads away from the rotor, reducing the area of pad in contact with the rotor and thus reducing braking power (i.e. brake fade).

My Corvairs are geared-cam.

Since the caster adjustment can only be done some 16 or so inches from the ball joint (have not seen an adjustable lower control arm pivot in decades on a strut suspension) the difference in caster from camber or vice versa is by necessity less than half what it would be if the centers were 8 incges apaty like a typical double wishbone