You guys always come thorugh

[Tom Harais <tjhemh@domain.elided>]

Digesters:

I hadn't been "on the net" for a week when I checked my mail tonight.
Over 500 messages!

I came across Rod's rant against the net, the Digest and misinformation
spreading at the speed of light. It hit me like a ton of bricks.

Maybe it was because I was one of the people that participated in that
thread he was referring to and I know he didn't read my post very
carefully because I shared my views on the positives and negatives of
the Pep Boys product in comparison to what was originally on my Terra
and Traveler tops and knew I made it very clear that what I got at Pep
Boys, wasn't an exact duplicate and had it's limitations. Maybe I just
had trouble believing that a supposed "professional" businessman was
"putting his foot in his mouth" the way Rod was by lambasting his own
customer base, although I have seen this very type of behavior
throughout my life. And, where I have seen it I've also soon seen a
business failure that followed.

In any case, I was upset and very unsure of what to say or do.

But once again, you folks all came through for me. I read all the
dialogue on that thread and the one or two related ones and you folks
had me laughing and feeling much better. I can now go to bed knowing
that all is well and there are truly intelligent and analytical souls
out there in this broad country of ours that aren't totally hoodwinked
by every strong statement that comes out.

The only area I never saw mentioned, although almost everything else was
well hashed over, was that you don't need the internet to spread
misinformation or difference of opinion, especially in things
automotive. That's been going on since the invention of the internal
combustion engine.

To this day, one of the local hot rod shops insists on knurling your
valve guides when you have your heads done saying that knurling is
sufficient for your needs, while another shop insists on replacing your
valve guides with bronze wall ones or they won't do your headwork. I
can't say that one is right, but I can say that both shops consider
their opinions "the final say" on the matter and they are very up front
about it. I've read lots of articles about this and have my own opinion
as well, but that really doesn't matter.

Or, I can tell you that I've taken my motorhome to five shops to get it
adjusted to smog legal without satisfactory results. All these shops are
run by licensed "pros" who insist they know everything, and yet I'm very
sure that I am the one who knows the most about why my motorhome (more
later) is coming up "gross polluter" and I'm going to end up proving it
since not one of these shops will back up their diagnosis by
guaranteeing me smog legal status if I let them do what they say needs
to be done. One says I have to rebuild the engine, even though I have
checked the compression and all eight tested high and the highest and
lowest readings were within 5 lb. of each other! One says I have to,
"Throw out that stupid Thermoquad" before he'll even test it for me
because he only works on Holleys. (Doesn't matter that Holley does not
make a "smog legal" carb for my motorhome). Three other shops have no
idea why it is a "gross polluter" when they test it, but they refuse to
do any work on it because they don't want to deal with the referee
station.

The point is, there are phony "experts" everywhere and "caveat emptor"
is not limited to the internet. And, in my opinion, most of the folks on
this digest are well aware of that and proceed accordingly.

I can only hope that Rod gets to read all the posts in response to his
little tirade and rethink his position. Otherwise, again, in my opinion,
he is going to get left on the "junk heap" by some other firms who
exploit this money making opportunity by working with us instead of
against us. After all, we're pretty much a captive constituency, aren't
we?

Tom H.