unarmed traffic stop

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SMMAssociates
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Re: unarmed traffic stop

Post by SMMAssociates »

Mike:

Some of those newer headlights are barely user-findable, let along serviceable....

We somehow lost the lens cover on the '98 DeVille about six months ago. Guess I could have run with a junkyard, but since both bulbs were dead, J.C. Whitney's $99-ish price seemed to be pretty close. I ended up paying my mechanic to install it. I think that you can find just the bulbs, and they're not all that difficult to swap, but, for some reason that lens cover is normally bonded to the rest of the assembly....

Meantime, a while back, Jaguar was selling cars with electrical systems so totally integrated into the vehicle that you couldn't do anything - hang a radio, change a light bulb or fuse, and a few other things like a power supply for your iPad, without having them provide an "approved" part. One of our Guard Service guys wanted a radio, and we ended up having a portable sitting on the seat. Powered by charging the batteries at home.... I'm not sure if they've since changed that....

(There's a transverse-mounted V8 in that Caddy. Or so they tell me.... )

Regards,
Stu.

(Why write a quick note when you can write a novel?)

(Why do those who claim to wish to protect me feel that the best way to do that is to disarm me?)

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schmieg
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Re: unarmed traffic stop

Post by schmieg »

SMMAssociates wrote:Mike:

Some of those newer headlights are barely user-findable, let along serviceable....

We somehow lost the lens cover on the '98 DeVille about six months ago. Guess I could have run with a junkyard, but since both bulbs were dead, J.C. Whitney's $99-ish price seemed to be pretty close. I ended up paying my mechanic to install it. I think that you can find just the bulbs, and they're not all that difficult to swap, but, for some reason that lens cover is normally bonded to the rest of the assembly....

Meantime, a while back, Jaguar was selling cars with electrical systems so totally integrated into the vehicle that you couldn't do anything - hang a radio, change a light bulb or fuse, and a few other things like a power supply for your iPad, without having them provide an "approved" part. One of our Guard Service guys wanted a radio, and we ended up having a portable sitting on the seat. Powered by charging the batteries at home.... I'm not sure if they've since changed that....

(There's a transverse-mounted V8 in that Caddy. Or so they tell me.... )

Regards,
It's the potential for serious electrical shock in removing the lights that is the problem with bi-xenon, not to mention that you have to remove the air cleaner and some other stuff to get to the driver's side and that requires tools that you may not have on the road, that has Jeep saying that.
-- Mike

"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." - Ayn Rand
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Re: unarmed traffic stop

Post by SMMAssociates »

schmieg wrote: It's the potential for serious electrical shock in removing the lights that is the problem with bi-xenon, not to mention that you have to remove the air cleaner and some other stuff to get to the driver's side and that requires tools that you may not have on the road, that has Jeep saying that.
Mike:

If you think about that, it makes you wonder about the manufacturer. While headlights are becoming extremely reliable (v.s. irregularly functioning :)), you need to wonder what they were thinking....

(I've met dealer service people at a Lincoln dealership who obviously not been to school yet, back when Lincolns were basically the same car in '89 as they were in '69. I like to do a "walk under" early on in owning a car, and noticed a piece of tubing just hanging down out of a front wheel well on my then-new '89 Town Boat. Had to call over a second Supervisor to find out that it was supposed to be plugged into some kind of cannister related to anti-pollution services.)

My favorite, though, is that a lot of cars have their heater cores so totally buried in the "system" that you have to take the dash out and otherwise spelunk for a couple hours to swap one. Back in the 70's, I clogged one up, and had it changed out in fifteen minutes. That '89's clogged up, and it was more like eight hours....

Or, the water pump on my '73 Ambassador.... Conventional "bolted on the front of the engine" construction that'd been used for years, and water pumps were "consumables" in those days. Eight hours.... Everything "under the hood" (alternator, smog pump, power brakes, power steering, and a couple more things) was installed by being bolted through the water pump. You had to take off the hood and pull the radiator! AMC (still independent then) was a little clueless at times, but that was a serious turn-off.

Regards,
Stu.

(Why write a quick note when you can write a novel?)

(Why do those who claim to wish to protect me feel that the best way to do that is to disarm me?)

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schmieg
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Re: unarmed traffic stop

Post by schmieg »

SMMAssociates wrote: Or, the water pump on my '73 Ambassador.... Conventional "bolted on the front of the engine" construction that'd been used for years, and water pumps were "consumables" in those days. Eight hours.... Everything "under the hood" (alternator, smog pump, power brakes, power steering, and a couple more things) was installed by being bolted through the water pump. You had to take off the hood and pull the radiator! AMC (still independent then) was a little clueless at times, but that was a serious turn-off.

Regards,
I think much of that is to fit all the doo-dads into the engine compartment without making the cars bigger than they have to be. The doo-dads are customer demand and the size is EPA and fuel economy demand.
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bearkitty
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Re: unarmed traffic stop

Post by bearkitty »

I love all of this car nostalgia!!

I'll never forget the company-provided Dodge Stratus I drove for a while. I diligently went and bought a new bulb when one went out, only to discover that the bumper (or the battery!) had to come out to access the back side of the headlamp! Thankfully I was able to borrow a bay at my brother's repair shop for a while.

The big problem I have with those bi-adaptive zenon's is that a single bulb will set you back $200 in some cases. Not exactly an on-the-fly fix for this poor broke girl....batteries, bumpers, and airboxes notwithstanding.

I did get stopped 3 times on my way to renew an expired tag a few years ago. And there was the year my DL expired and I got stopped the next day and cited for No Operator License - as if I'd never had one at all. That one was a mandatory court appearance. The judge laughed and dismissed the case.
"Awesome" is code word for CC in my house. Cuts down on the kids asking, loudly, in public, if I am in possession of anything that goes bang.
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Re: unarmed traffic stop

Post by SMMAssociates »

bearkitty:

I think I posted this before, but I'll keep it short....

The wife was driving the Caddy one evening, and out with some girlfriends for supper, and when she headed home, a Township PD car ended up on her tail. He "stopped" her as she parked in our driveway, and she ran in to get me to come out and talk to the Officer.

At the time (very long story goes with this that I'll skip), the car was still registered to my mother (who'd passed about a year prior). The Officer first said that he had to check this out, as the plate came back to a 96 year old woman with an expired driver's license....

We both got a laugh out of it.... Couple months later, I tried to get it transferred, and it took six months!

My wife is definitely not 96....

Many many years ago, a Township Officer "stopped" my middle sister in our driveway. She asked him if he was looking for me. Turned out that they were "interested" in a similar Mustang to the one she had.... I've been some kind of rent-a-cop (more or less retired at this point) since the late 60's, so having the PD show up at my house isn't a totally odd thing.

(Then there was the time that a guy in a business suit and black Oldsmobile turned up in my driveway one afternoon. FBI.... He wanted to talk to my wife about an insurance fraud thing that the kid's Pediatrician appeared to be up to. Oh well, I knew some of his co-workers :D.)

Becka was the Charge Nurse at an El Paso TX Pediatric ER for a while. That got her assigned to watching the radio, too, for ambulance traffic. After a "session", one of the other nurses walked up to her with "I couldn't make any sense out of that. How did you?" Becka told her that "my dad's some kind of cop. I've been listening to those things since I was a baby."

Regards,
Stu.

(Why write a quick note when you can write a novel?)

(Why do those who claim to wish to protect me feel that the best way to do that is to disarm me?)

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