Fix It

I work on printers everyday for my work so I try and stay away from that as I have another life
besides work. I would like to get back into building projects in electronics. The ones that are still
near and dear to my heart, on the projects I built as a kid, but you will have to go to those pages to
see that sort of thing, while here I will post The things I encounter that need fixin'. I dread it, but
my wife thinks I was gifted with the talent and so does everybody else. The reason I never get to do
what I want to do. Some things I actually save money by doing, and I know I am getting the job
done better in most cases. I cant believe the people out there that charge people to work on their
carsand call themselves mechanincs. Not to point the finger at all, as I know there are a few
who actually know what they are doing. Some dont have a clue, but still they dont know how
to do anything else. I saw one place, charge My wifes aunt, for a new battery, which I had just replaced
only two weeks earlier by me, a sears diehard. They actually took it to Sears and claimed they said it was bad. I had my suspicion that the yahoos at sears were scamming as well. They would say the battery was bad and then go and put it in their car. They were kids working there and not very responsible. They put in a new starter too. charged her an arm and a leg. I didn't know about it until it was too late as I live 4 hours away.
The place was like JD auto or something like that in Hayward,CA. The problem was the car
would stall after driving it a while. I drove it and sure enough it stalled. But it was because it
was hung up in overdrive. So what would happen it never came out of gear and when you apply
the brakes to stop, the engine would die. I located the cause after about 30 minutes staring at the
wiring diagram. It was a solenoid hanging in the transmission. It was suppose to kick out when you
apply the brakes but didn't. It connected to the brake switch, I did check the switch for proper
operation and was ok. So I just disengaged the wire that goes to it and the car ran fine after that.
Served the purpose and didn't need the overdrive anyway. So how did the mechanics come to the conclusion that it needed a battery and a starter for that fault. What a bunch of idiots.