Vovchandr

Coming from the other end of things I feel there is quite a bit of "old men yelling at clouds" situation here. I know lots of mechanics who went to their specific college mill degree programs and are very successful at dealerships who have no problem finding and paying for their skilled labor. A lot of what is described in this thread is people finding it difficult to find other competent people to satisfy their niche needs of working on old stuff which often requires a lot of trouble shooting and research and even making their own parts. Of course they would struggle to find other people in that employment. I'm sure even in 1970s it was hard to find people wanting to working on Ford Model Ts. Some of the wealthiest hourly people I personally know are trades man. A friend of mine makes $125hr being a linesman and that's without overtime or being sent on emergencies where he will earn double time and 17hr days. With that said not everybody is cutout for these kind of jobs and they are hard to do with a family and a gender bias alone is real, not to mention the sacrifices one has to make to keep that kind of schedule. Troubleshooting things isn't rewarded by the capitalist market so nobody bothers to do it, so shops replace things. It only gets worse as the labor rate goes up. Makes no sense to spend two hours troubleshooting $100 alternator at $150hr, not to mention labor to put it back in. Are there useless degrees out there? Most certainly. But when almost every job requires you to have a degree on the application and AI robots will deny your resume before a person will ever see it if you don't match the credentials certainly makes one want to get a degree just to be a player in today's market, no matter what it is. As far as people branching out and staring their own things, this kind of mindset typically comes from a position of privilege where failure is an option that can be tolerated by either a safety net of already acquired funds or with help and support from family. Not to mention the capital investment to start almost anything. Are there exceptions to all these rules? Of course. But when we are talking macro scale we aren't counting ends of the bell curve.

Again, not getting into this discussion in this thread. Start another one if you want.

This is on a verge of being political and even if we want to go into that world, it should be a whole another thead

A few updates. Took the old Alternator to a local parts store to get tested. One store didn't have plugs for it, others didn't have operators that knew the tester, the 4th store was the charm. Alternator was dead. Ordered a new one and put it in, so that issue is closed. Had a mechanic friend come by to help with some testing. Revelations. All the relays on the fuse box are good ECU fuse is reading 12v, but ECU pin and software still reads 9v All 4 injector pins on ECU also read 12v when key is on for power. Strangely their voltage is a true 12 unlike the ECU 12v pin. At this point not sure if the "12v" pin is input or output in the ECU Both ECUs show same symptoms. After taking to quicksilver they are willing to test both ECUs next week so they are in the mail now. If they both pass as working means I have a likely somewhat simple wiring mixup somewhere. With that said the new harness was questioned by my mechanic friend. The same pin that should be 12v input? On the harness is showing continuity on a fuel pump relay on the new harness so we aren't sure if it's setup correctly to match my current setup So pending hearing back from Quicksilver

I got a second Pectel ECU and I don't think it's an issue as both have same symptoms now, (however second one hasn't been verified, for all I know both are bad) but it would really help troubleshoot and partition if I could compare and contrast with a "known good" .

With that said I do have a Duratec sitting by, just not quite willing to commit to that yet

There is a 10% chance my car will not be fixed in time for the event. With that said, we might still go and make vacation out of it and likely tow the broken car down to see if the collective think tank will find time and accept the challenge of troubleshooting. Out of curiosity starting a roll call, any Pectel T2 cars are planning to attend?

Legally or technically? I've been uninspected throughout my ownership and it's been a slight inconvenience. I have surrender my plates every 2 years as I can't keep registering car that never been inspected, so I just keep getting new plates. At the minimal amount of miles I drive it each year, being uninspected is hardly a problem in my world. I'm only a few more years away from being 25 years and it not being a problem anymore.

Depends how it's titled and if it's titled. Mine was titled a 2001 on NC title so NY registered as a 2001. Means I have to pass OBD2 emissions for inspections, which I can't. If it was titled as a 57 replica or like it would make things very easy. If you have no title and it's first registry you will have to go through A LOT of loops as per form above. Montana is one of easiest options otherwise

Forum pulls through! To surprise of no one, I wasn't of much help

Can you take a picture of your alternator? Do you know what car was the donor for the Zetec? Is it VCT or SVT or neither?

Just ordered this yesterday 105 amp Zetec from a 2000 contour or so. If your mounting bolts orient the same way it should work Other Zetec mounting is turned 90 degrees Carquest Premium Alternator 8250A: Remanufactured, 105 Amps Part No. 8250A

It is so unfortunate that it sitting outside caused it to get to that state. Between this one and yellow one in NYC it's crazy to see people give into entropy and let the cars become one with the earth. With that said, a restoration of this one would be one of the greatest come back stories for a 7 I've seen

Anti gravity. Size 12 seems to work fine Don't wire it backwards

I don't have a dog in the fight, but I wouldn't let market prices dictate quality or reliability of vehicles. A fool and his money are easily parted. People have been buying horrible and unreliable cars for a premium for quite some time. Even v10 m5s are going up in value.

If you attend the event, you'll have no shortage of cars to experience

Pick one or the other Lack of "deadly" comes with weight, size and complexity. Miata is the most reasonable safe alternative within a reasonable budget and then adjust the slider scale between generations. The older the generation the more raw it becomes but also the more deadly it becomes. Otherwise an S2000 can also be an alternative but without personal experience electric early design steering might feel dead to some people.

Looks like $24.5k. A bit higher than my guess but still in ballpark

While on the subject matter this appears to be a V6 S3

No discussion on this beast? https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1028966081794530/ 2008 Caterham rst 2.4 v8 supercharged Produced by Caterham in association with RS Performance in Hertfordshire. Sub 3 seconds to 60mph Unregistered Carbon Fibre Bucket Seats Sequential Gearbox 15" Image Alloy Wheels

On mobile you have to click the profile to get that info And we all know an extra click on the Internet is an impossible task to fathom

Welcome. What's your cat and what side of the country are you on?