Men and mechanical things

[ellie]

Originally Posted by robertpolyglot

Ya...ser gut (if you speak Deutsch). I've heard that mentioned in Psych 101 and on documentaries/talk shows, and that the testing of children of each gender bears this out. Hence, I think the spatial ability translates into mechanical ability. I think mechanical ability is more innate, but has to be further developed by reading, studying and just doing it.

I am usually able to diagnose car issues as to their cause about 2/3 of the time. I think knowing how things work is important for everybody; that way, the person who fixes these things will respect you more if you can hold a half-way intelligent conversation with him or her about the topic and that you will be less prone to be taken advantage of.

I definitely like to fix my car and have done remodeling work around 2 homes I've owned, but the car is priority one. This morning, I changed my oil and cleaned my engine, which reportedly keeps it running cooler. You definitely don't want to do the latter if you don't know what you're doing.

I tried working on my lawnmower yesterday. All I know to do is to take off the air filter, knock the dirt off it, and put it back where it came from. I can also remove the spark plug, look at it, and put it back. Usually works.

I've got to figure out how to make the throttle cable work. It doesn't respond when I want to shut the thing down. Fortunately it's fall and I'm going to send all of the equipment away for repairs, since I'm obviously not much of a mechanic.