Blind mechanic fixes cars!
Discussion
Couldn't find a blind mechanic in a search, so here goes....
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3206061.html?...
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3206061.html?...
Ananova said:
Blind mechanic can work in the dark
A blind mechanic has told how he fixes cars using just hearing and touch to find out what's wrong with them.
Col Collewijn has worked for a garage in Nuis, Holland, for 30 years despite losing his eyesight at the age of eight.
He said: "As long as my tools are in the right place and no screws drop to the ground I get along alone very well.
I do everything by trusting my sense of touch and my hearing. I can feel if anything is vibrating strangely or there's an odd sound from the engine or another part of the car.
Some mechanics have to take a whole car apart trying to find out what's wrong with it. But sometimes I can hear or feel exactly where the problem is and get to work on it straight away.
And I have one big advantage over other mechanics - I can repair cars in the dark," he laughed.
I can see a problem with a vehicle which needed a respray - I trust he restricts himself to mechanics and leaves the paint jobs to others! It WOULD explain however why you sometimes see a blue car with a red door or bonnet!A blind mechanic has told how he fixes cars using just hearing and touch to find out what's wrong with them.
Col Collewijn has worked for a garage in Nuis, Holland, for 30 years despite losing his eyesight at the age of eight.
He said: "As long as my tools are in the right place and no screws drop to the ground I get along alone very well.
I do everything by trusting my sense of touch and my hearing. I can feel if anything is vibrating strangely or there's an odd sound from the engine or another part of the car.
Some mechanics have to take a whole car apart trying to find out what's wrong with it. But sometimes I can hear or feel exactly where the problem is and get to work on it straight away.
And I have one big advantage over other mechanics - I can repair cars in the dark," he laughed.
When you are deprived of one sense your others strengthen. We had a blind piano tuner called, and I kid you not, Mr. Gotobed. He was exceptional, and always pointed out that having a piano in a conservaotory would severely damage the instrument. How the hell did he know that it was a conservatory? He can't see it, it's quiet around there and he didn't touch his way around, he just knew 
My mechanic tests for noises using a long screwdriver against the engine and listening at the handle end - I've never seen that done before but he managed to diagnose the bearings on the alternator
My mechanic tests for noises using a long screwdriver against the engine and listening at the handle end - I've never seen that done before but he managed to diagnose the bearings on the alternator
SS HSV said:
When you are deprived of one sense your others strengthen. We had a blind piano tuner called, and I kid you not, Mr. Gotobed. He was exceptional, and always pointed out that having a piano in a conservaotory would severely damage the instrument. How the hell did he know that it was a conservatory? He can't see it, it's quiet around there and he didn't touch his way around, he just knew
My mechanic tests for noises using a long screwdriver against the engine and listening at the handle end - I've never seen that done before but he managed to diagnose the bearings on the alternator
I know two mechanics who can do that - although one has a piece of brass tube instead of the screwdriver.My mechanic tests for noises using a long screwdriver against the engine and listening at the handle end - I've never seen that done before but he managed to diagnose the bearings on the alternator
He's right about the conservatory though - a definite no no if you want it to last!! Too sudden changes of temperature won't do a piano any good wherever you keep it.
SS HSV said:
My mechanic tests for noises using a long screwdriver against the engine and listening at the handle end - I've never seen that done before but he managed to diagnose the bearings on the alternator
It's actually a pretty common method - if you have a strange noise, it help to identify the component which is producing it.http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/... or a broomhandle is pretty effective too.
SS HSV said:
When you are deprived of one sense your others strengthen. We had a blind piano tuner called, and I kid you not, Mr. Gotobed. He was exceptional, and always pointed out that having a piano in a conservaotory would severely damage the instrument. How the hell did he know that it was a conservatory? He can't see it, it's quiet around there and he didn't touch his way around, he just knew
My mechanic tests for noises using a long screwdriver against the engine and listening at the handle end - I've never seen that done before but he managed to diagnose the bearings on the alternator
I would imagine the piano tuner would have noticed the change in acoustics when entering your conservatory.My mechanic tests for noises using a long screwdriver against the engine and listening at the handle end - I've never seen that done before but he managed to diagnose the bearings on the alternator
I have seen chap from water board, lifting stopcock covers and using a long pole type listening thingy to test for water leaks in the early hours of the morning.
GTIR said:
I used to be able to tune up SU carbs on Mini's and the like with a tube stuck down the carb while the engine is running. You just know what the "right" noise is. 
Have not done it for a while, wonder if I still can?
Your welcome to come and have a listen to the SUs on my mgb, I would like a second opinion as the only SUs I have ever tried it with have been my own.Have not done it for a while, wonder if I still can?
SS HSV said:
When you are deprived of one sense your others strengthen. We had a blind piano tuner called, and I kid you not, Mr. Gotobed. He was exceptional, and always pointed out that having a piano in a conservaotory would severely damage the instrument. How the hell did he know that it was a conservatory? He can't see it, it's quiet around there and he didn't touch his way around, he just knew
My mechanic tests for noises using a long screwdriver against the engine and listening at the handle end - I've never seen that done before but he managed to diagnose the bearings on the alternator
Try it, it's amazing what you can hearMy mechanic tests for noises using a long screwdriver against the engine and listening at the handle end - I've never seen that done before but he managed to diagnose the bearings on the alternator
GTIR said:
I used to be able to tune up SU carbs on Mini's and the like with a tube stuck down the carb while the engine is running. You just know what the "right" noise is.
Have not done it for a while, wonder if I still can?
I thought that was the only way to tune SUs, I also balance them by ear. I use a stethoscope or a bit of hose pipe. I also use a stethoscope for listening to the engine as I don't have along enough screw driver.Have not done it for a while, wonder if I still can?
Elsewhere the internet said:
Blind Auto Mechanic Hires Deaf Assistant
COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. - Cars have been Larry Woody's life for more than 30 years. He fixed them, he raced them, he restored them. But five years ago on Interstate 5 a truck blew across the median and drove over his tiny Toyota Celica. He almost died, and he was blinded.
But Woody, 46, still works on his 1968 El Camino, dabbles in racing and recently bought his own shop, D & D Foreign Automotive, in Cottage Grove. And he has hired a deaf assistant.
His red-tipped cane stands idle. He walks without hesitation through his shop. He handles the paperwork and billing with the help of a talking computer. He still changes fuel lines, hoists cars and changes filters.
"So much of it is done by feel anyway," he told the Eugene Register-Guard. "I use my hands to see what I'm doing now."
He has hired Otto Shima, 17, an apprentice from Cottage Grove High School, but they have never spoken directly. Shima was born deaf.
Interpreter J.J. Johansson accompanies Shima on his twice-weekly visits to the shop. Her hands fly as she first translates what Woody says to Shima and then turns and voices his reply.
Recently the two stood under the open hood of a truck in need of clutch parts.
Woody felt among boxes until he grasped the right one. Removing a hose, he ran his fingers along it, telling Shima what role it played in the engine.
"He's just another student and I'm just another guy trying to help him," Woody said. "I kinda put the disabilities aside."
Shima said that Woody inspires him because "he never gives up."
About a year after his accident, he was behind the wheel of a race car. Taking direction from a friend through an earbud, he drove a buddy's car about 30 mph around the Cottage Grove Speedway track at least 25 times. The next summer he did a couple of demolition derbies in an Oldsmobile modified to allow a passenger to sit with him and be his eyes.
This month he got a spot on CBS Evening News. Since then he has received grateful calls from people, some blind, some not.
He said a caller from Florida said he had recently dropped out of flight school, too intimidated to take his final exam.
"He told me, `If you can do what you're doing in your condition, I have no excuse. I'm going back,' " Woody said. "That's what it's all about right there, helping someone I don't know."
Kathleen O'Gieblyn, a vocational rehabilitation counselor at the Eugene Oregon Commission for the Blind, worked with Woody following his accident. She called his story "extremely empowering."
Woody left high school to work in 1978 and married his sweetheart, Della. With help from Della and the Oregon Commission for the Blind he vowed to return to work less than a year after his accident. He learned Braille, to walk with a cane, and to operate in total darkness.
"Some people wake up and say, `Oh, man, I've gotta go to work.' I get up and say, `Oh man, I get to go to work,'" Woody said.
COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. - Cars have been Larry Woody's life for more than 30 years. He fixed them, he raced them, he restored them. But five years ago on Interstate 5 a truck blew across the median and drove over his tiny Toyota Celica. He almost died, and he was blinded.
But Woody, 46, still works on his 1968 El Camino, dabbles in racing and recently bought his own shop, D & D Foreign Automotive, in Cottage Grove. And he has hired a deaf assistant.
His red-tipped cane stands idle. He walks without hesitation through his shop. He handles the paperwork and billing with the help of a talking computer. He still changes fuel lines, hoists cars and changes filters.
"So much of it is done by feel anyway," he told the Eugene Register-Guard. "I use my hands to see what I'm doing now."
He has hired Otto Shima, 17, an apprentice from Cottage Grove High School, but they have never spoken directly. Shima was born deaf.
Interpreter J.J. Johansson accompanies Shima on his twice-weekly visits to the shop. Her hands fly as she first translates what Woody says to Shima and then turns and voices his reply.
Recently the two stood under the open hood of a truck in need of clutch parts.
Woody felt among boxes until he grasped the right one. Removing a hose, he ran his fingers along it, telling Shima what role it played in the engine.
"He's just another student and I'm just another guy trying to help him," Woody said. "I kinda put the disabilities aside."
Shima said that Woody inspires him because "he never gives up."
About a year after his accident, he was behind the wheel of a race car. Taking direction from a friend through an earbud, he drove a buddy's car about 30 mph around the Cottage Grove Speedway track at least 25 times. The next summer he did a couple of demolition derbies in an Oldsmobile modified to allow a passenger to sit with him and be his eyes.
This month he got a spot on CBS Evening News. Since then he has received grateful calls from people, some blind, some not.
He said a caller from Florida said he had recently dropped out of flight school, too intimidated to take his final exam.
"He told me, `If you can do what you're doing in your condition, I have no excuse. I'm going back,' " Woody said. "That's what it's all about right there, helping someone I don't know."
Kathleen O'Gieblyn, a vocational rehabilitation counselor at the Eugene Oregon Commission for the Blind, worked with Woody following his accident. She called his story "extremely empowering."
Woody left high school to work in 1978 and married his sweetheart, Della. With help from Della and the Oregon Commission for the Blind he vowed to return to work less than a year after his accident. He learned Braille, to walk with a cane, and to operate in total darkness.
"Some people wake up and say, `Oh, man, I've gotta go to work.' I get up and say, `Oh man, I get to go to work,'" Woody said.
That was the name of my piano tuner when I was 4 or 5, in the late '60s. You don't live near Wembley do you?
SS HSV said:
When you are deprived of one sense your others strengthen. We had a blind piano tuner called, and I kid you not, Mr. Gotobed. He was exceptional, and always pointed out that having a piano in a conservaotory would severely damage the instrument. How the hell did he know that it was a conservatory? He can't see it, it's quiet around there and he didn't touch his way around, he just knew
My mechanic tests for noises using a long screwdriver against the engine and listening at the handle end - I've never seen that done before but he managed to diagnose the bearings on the alternator
My mechanic tests for noises using a long screwdriver against the engine and listening at the handle end - I've never seen that done before but he managed to diagnose the bearings on the alternator
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