no need to bring your car to the dealership to change a multi function switch. remove the plastic collar and the switch unbolts from the steering column. i like where the engineers put it. good money jobs.
I'm not arguing with you by any means and the drums can be very sufficient, but some of "our" cars have antiquated single reservoir systems. Like mine. Brake upgrades can be life and death and certainly to err to the side of safe is better than the other way. If we narrow down "our cars" to say the Gran Sport years in prime muscle car era of 65 to 72 to keep things simple and eliminate the mechanical systems and some of the other possibilities, there were great changes made during this period. Single reservoir systems like mine to dual reservoir, manual to power, power drum to front disc brakes. These changes were made at probably a great expense to GM because they were better and safer. Not only for stopping but for higher speed driving where better brakes lets you head towards the corner faster! You are right though, if you had a good dual reservoir power drum system and your car remains pretty much stock in all the ways that it is important for effecting the stopping, the drums will work pretty well most of the time. Factor in hot or wet brakes and it's a whole new game and the new slotted and drilled disc upgrade feels pretty good. Like I said before though, a big reason for the upgrades weather it's ignition, brakes, new posi in back or a new engine is because car guys have been tweaking their cars since the model T. It's just part of the hobby to try and improve what you have. Is it a waste of money? Depends on how you look at it most of the time. There are times when even the guy who did the upgrade says it was a waste of money because he didn't get the bang for the buck that he wanted but it's fun and keeps us out of trouble. Now if I had a 65 Gran Sport and it was all original, I wouldn't change a thing from stock. Well, maybe a couple of things, but nothing that wasn't easy to change back!
I'll go X3 on that one. I hate the one on the column. In a corner and need to dim the lights and your foot will be in the right spot when you need it.
I really like that on my wife's '04 Impala, the ignition switch is on the dash where God intended it! But my friend's '08 is back on the column!
Me too. It just seems that now that I am nearing 50, the fan blade is closer to my knuckles than it was at age 20.
Let me agitate the brake issue some:Brow: :Brow: I have been is a bunch of police chases/emergency runs where the power disc brakes faded completely out and were virturally useless.... had to use the trans to slow the car down or the terrain.... in one we were running to a ''assist the officer'' call in a brand new Pontiac police unit when a freight train pulled across the road ahead of us.... my partner stood on the brakes untill they faded completely out and then he asked me what to do,,,at this point we were still making 35 mph,,, I said ''swap ends with it'',,, he did, and then stomped the accelerator pedal and we got stopped about 3 ft. from the side of the engine.... after we finally caught our breath... we went on ,,, but it took a while for the brakes to fully come back....
A lot of the technology on our automobiles is very obsolete now and only hold back the vehicle's potential.
[QUOTE BTW: Do you know that there is no reason that cars of the 1920s could not have been air conditioned? Everything necessary to air condition a car had been invented by 1920. I guess that it took nearly another 30 years for the idea to occur to manufacturers.[/QUOTE] Packard had factory air in 1940 I like my cars the way the factory built them. That is the joy of an old car to me. I don't want my '63 or ,69 Olds to act like a Z06 Corvette. As for a single master cylinder .. Yes the factories did upgrade to duel because it was better -safer.Will I change to a duel master on my Olds NO! I also believe that because of the way cars are built today people are more likely to drive like idiots with the mindset that " I have anti-lock brakes so I can go faster" I know this is true in NY the land of the Motorized Moron
And Firemen would still be driving Seagrave trucks with Pierce V12 instead of a boring diesel. Pierce's idea of prevent being stuck with bad points was to put two separate ignition systems complete with two coils, two distributors, two sets of points, and two plugs and wires for each of the twelve cylinders
Wow, this thread is back from the dead. :TU: Still feel the same way. Just last week, my friend drops off his A body because the GEN light came on. I quickly diagnosed it as a bad alternator. He said he wanted to "upgrade" to a 61 amp from a place called "Powermaster" Why?? the factory 35 amp alternator is just fine for the car. Its a non A/C car with a replacement aftermarket stereo. Thats it, nothing crazy. When I asked him, the only thing he came up with is thats "its better". Better for what? I asked him if he mows his lawn with a small block Chevy. Sometimes a quality replacement part is just fine for the application. Im sure there was an engineer at some point that spent alot of time designing that charging system. I really dont understand this upgrading mentality sometimes. Sometimes you wind up reinventing a square wheel
I disagree with your opinion on alternators in one particular circumstance. My skylark came with a externally regulated alternator with the original regulator. When the regulator went I got a new one. It didn't charge right, tried to repair old one, still didn't charge right. Threw the alternator and regulators in the dumpster and got a rebuilt 10SI alternator. Worked alot better. One upgrade that was completely necessary IMO.
Its a very rudimentary charging system. Not too terribly difficult to diagnose. The point is that, that Delcotron alternator and external voltage regulator powered that car for 40+ years flawlessly. Again, why reinvent the wheel unless you have a big electrical demand?
Hey James, I didn't say the old stuff was better, only that it wasn't necessarily unreliable. I have done essentially no maintenance on any electronic ignition system that I have had. Breaker point systems required service at least every 10,000 miles. If my Nailhead was still in the '66 Electra, it would get about 2,000 miles per year. It wouldn't kill me to put a set of points into it every five years. Of course the modern Diesels are more reliable - so are the modern jet aircraft, but there are still a lot of 75 year-old DC-3s still flying. I would not change something just for the sake of changing it, but in an appropriate instance, I see nothing wrong with an upgrade. I would want to have a reason for the upgrade though. If Marty at Eelco had ever produced the promised aluminum 4 bbl intake manifold for the Nailhead, I would have purchased two - one for my truck, and one for stock. The reason? To save weight. See? I actually have a reason. :grin:
