Testing Spark Plugs Using An Ohmmeter

seattlepioneer

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Worked all 4 years of high school as a pinspotter mechanic at a small bowling alley. Went to the AMF school for 2 weeks when i was 14 and got certified. During the summers i worked other jobs. One summer it was at an airport in the maint hanger. Even though i wasn't an A&P mechanic they let me touch tools. Charlie Wells ran the maint hanger and he liked me. Used to take me to lunch in his 33 Duesenberg. The other high school guys swept floors and washed planes and painted stuff. After HS spent 3 years gathering intelligence for the NSA on on East Germans and Soviets in Berlin while I was a teenager. After than came home and worked 40 years fixing copiers and printers. Been running a mower shop on the side since the early 90's. I enjoy working on engines and equipment. I am retired so now the mower shop is pretty much full time.

So----
You've worked in a number of different repair specialties.

How much do you find being a repairman involves skills that readily translate to different specialties, and how much do you find that each specialty involves distinctly different skills?

A good comparison might be contrasting doing engine repairs vs doing bowling equipment repair or printer and copier repair?
 

seattlepioneer

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<< After HS spent 3 years gathering intelligence for the NSA on on East Germans and Soviets in Berlin while I was a teenager >>

I had a friend who had immigrated from Germany as a youth and was a native German speaker. He was drafted into the army in the early 1960s and was trained in Chinese and did work probably similar to your.

He wound up with a PhD in Microbiology ---- very smart. I expect the army was on the lookout for very smart people to do that kind of work.

I presume you, too have high intelligence. Has that been a marked advantage in mastering various repair specialties such as those you describe?
 

bertsmobile1

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Howcum you aircraft mechanics are working on lawnmowers these days?
For the same reason that B & S is filing a chapter 11 and the dud management from McDonald Douglas has sent Boeing to the wall.
Cheaper to outsource all of the engine work and shift responsibility for safety from you to the contractors, despite the fact that you know how much it should cost and only pay them 1/2 of that.
Any airline who flys to a 3rd world country gets the maintenance done there for the same reason if they own the planes or engines
Engine makers now lease engines , usually by the flying hours and all of them have their major overhauling facility in a 3rd world country.
The number of fanatics who have hangers full of old aircraft that are in flying condition is dropping like a stone.
This only leaves private owners with very small planes to directly employ mechanics if they don't do it themselves.
The last time I checked the USA had the worst air safety record of any country on the planet in both absolute & per flying hours terms .
Last year we burried a member who was involved in a mid air collision over Alaska.
It was a news item down here for over a month but barely got a mention in the USA press .
A Korean, Chinese or Russian air crash seems to get a lot more USA press than any local ones, political interfearence ?

If the management of an Australian company had followed the same path as Briggs they would all be suspended without pay pending criminal charges
The entire board of directors would be declaired unfit to hold an office of public trust and be forced to resign all paid directorships
And the company would now be run by a government appointed administrator .
And I always thought the Australian company laws were as weak as tap water.
If the company goes bust, the first creditor that has to be paid in full is the tax man.
After taxes it is employees benefits & pensions followed by salaried staff then suppliers & finally shareholders.
 

cpurvis

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Howcum you aircraft mechanics are working on lawnmowers these days?
I'm not. I never got the A&P or IA (inspector) license a real aircraft mechanic is required to have. I did a lot of work on airplanes, both other people's and my own, but all my work had to be inspected and signed off by an A&P or IA.

That was during college and once I graduated, I moved away.

In high school, I worked as a mechanic on farm equipment. I probably learned more doing that than I did working on planes because I had no mechanic experience at all going into that job. Changing from farm equipment to aircraft is not that big of a jump. You just have to add some safety wire pliers and Cleco's to the tool box.
 

Hammermechanicman

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So----
You've worked in a number of different repair specialties.

How much do you find being a repairman involves skills that readily translate to different specialties, and how much do you find that each specialty involves distinctly different skills?

A good comparison might be contrasting doing engine repairs vs doing bowling equipment repair or printer and copier repair?
Well......spending 5 nights a week during all 4 years of HS and spending all your free time working on cars sort of makes you a dick socially in HS. If you can fix machines then you can fix machines. If you can't you can't. Other than the 2 weeks at the AMF school everthing else is self learned. Biggest difference in the service industry is do you interact with customers and what level. Do you have the mechanical skills and the customer skills? Nothing like standing in front of a vice president and telling him the printer will be down another 24 hours because FedEx lost the part you ordered and the machine has already been down for a day and he is telling you they lose $50,000 in production every 8 hr shift the printer is down. You better be able sing and dance at the same time. Machines are easy, people not so much.
 

Fish

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If I had an employee that wasted any time testing a spark plug, I would fire him.
 

Fish

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This forum is about working on lawn mowers,
not the space shuttle.
 

Fish

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Who is Taryl?
 
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