


July 28, 2009
Bourjaily: YouTube Advice
By Philip Bourjaily
I am not mechanically inclined when it comes to cars, but both my brothers-in-law are. When I need vehicle advice, I call Chuck or Roger. Last week, the battery on my wife’s PT Cruiser died. I opened the hood only to discover that on some modern cars, the battery is tucked away where you can’t see it. I called Roger and asked him what to do.
“What year is your Cruiser?” he asked.
“2002.”
“The battery is up front, under the air intake,” he said after a brief pause.
I looked, but couldn’t see anything.
“There are two clips on the side of the intake. Pop those and can move it out of the way.”
I found the clips and moved the intake. Lo and behold, there was the battery.
“Roger, how do you know this stuff?” I asked.
“Simple: I searched “2002 PT Cruiser Battery Removal” on Youtube,” he said. “I’m watching the video right now.”
I should have known. There is a video on Youtube for almost any human endeavor involving taking things apart, including guns. With very popular models like the 870 or the 10/22, you can find videos that will show you how to take almost any subassembly of the gun down to the molecular level , then put it back together again. It really is a valuable source of information, if, say, like me, you take your 10/22 magazine apart for the first time without paying close attention to where all the parts go. All you do is find the appropriate video on youtube, follow along, and put everything back in working order. There are untold thousands of these videos to choose among. I like this one, with the classical music in the background. It’s almost like an episode of Masterpiece Theater with a cast of gun parts.
Comments (20)
I lived most of my life without the internet and sometimes wonder how I knew anything. Anyone besides me remember encyclopedias and libraries? Phil I have looked at Youtube thousands of times for various subjects and never thought to search for any information concerning disassembly or reassembly of anything. This is a great piece of information to know, thanks for passing it along.
Time to get to work... I know I have 8 or 10 of those suckers that have never been cleaned. Never even thought about it.
thanks for the info Phil, not that I needed any more reason to be on the internet. I've had a 10/22 mag for over 20 years that has never been cleaned, still works great. Never really thought about trying to clean it. Guess it couldn't hurt..
My sons battery died last week too. Lucky for me, my daughters boyfriend Jason,was around and we both decided to go and change it.
After watching Jason wrestle with the wrench, which seemed like a half hour,I decided to help.A screw must have been stripped, because we had to resort to brute strength of two guys to get the dead battery from it's secured perch.
After purchasing a new battery it snapped perfectly back into place,into the arms that had held it so securly in the first place.
Then my battery went out in my F-150 ... Off to Wal-Mart I went.LOL
Thanks for the time saving info ...
I use this and many other internet resources for anything imaginable. When people ask me how to do something I am unfamiliar with I will pull a trick like you brothers and give descriptions from the web. I didn't really have a hunting mentor, the first time I went hunting at a friends family farm I googled "how to clean a deer". I did butcher that first deer but it was ugly. Luckily I have taken enough animals in the past 8 years to hone my meat cutting to an art. I built my AR-15 from parts with an online manual. Repaired the firing pin on my old savage 410 single shot with the same internet based instruction.
I'll leave mine to the pro's, last time I took mine apart I had to take it to them to put back together again. I had 3 extras pieces. LOL. But, precisionriflesales com fixed her right up.
A plug for a business I'm sure you're very familiar with, Phil...Brownell's has a long list of firearms "how-to's" that I've used on occasion.
I found dissassembly/assembly instructions for a Berreta 92 I bought without instuction manual on the internet. It's a pretty slick way to learn about different firearms. Good post Phil, hope it helps some other guys out. If you work at it you can find info on just about any gun ever made.
For the fly fisherman, YouTube is invaluable. As I am just learning to tie flies, a video is so much better than any book could ever be.
I have learned how to tie many of flies from Youtube.
I have used brownell's and youtube both for various gunsmithing and auto repair tasks.
Really good video. Like Dr. Ralph I have a few of those babies around I now feel comfortable in tackling. I think that more sophisticated parts I'd leave for my "Smith" though.
Watching that video I found myself admiring the guy for not bursting out laughing at times. Or waiting for the giant Monty Python foot to squash the magazine as a crescendo.
Thanks.
For the past few days, all I have been doing is watching hunting and shooting videos on YouTube. The thing is there are a lot of comments from anti-hunters on the videos and I let them hear it.
The internet will prove (has proven...) to be even more impacting on culture, intellectualism, communication, knowledge expansion, etc. than the printing press. The knowledge explosion that began in the mid-1800's continues at an exponential rate and the internet puts that knowledge at the fingertips of 5 year olds.
With that being true, why do videos by Britney Spears get 75 million and more hits? We are an "entertained" and self indulgent people who have more knowledge but less wisdom.
Nice to know you can find this information on the web and do it at the comfort of your own home, instead of having to take it to the gun store and embarassingly telling them that you forgot/can't figure out how to re-assemble your gun or magazine. I also like to look at reviews of guns on youtube.
The internet is useful once you manage the art of sifting through the crap to the really accurate information.
"It's on Microsoft's web site. How evil could it be?"
Youtube is great for info or laughs. Just FYI, the battery in my Mom's Buick LeSabre is under the back seat. WTF??!! My F-250 battery is right were it should be!
Hehe, battery placement in vehicles is nuts nowdays!
My daughter bought a used car, a Dodge Stratus, wanna guess where they hid it's battery?
Inside the left front wheel's fender! In front of the tire, you also have to remove the tire to get at the Battery! Wonderful planning.........
I am so greatful Al Gore discovered the Internet. It is a wonderful tool.
I find that youtube does have many good aspects. you can quite frequently find useful information and it helps having a visual guide also. Lately though it seems it's getting to full of advertisements and special channels like with the swine flu thing the CDC had there own channel and took up half the front page.
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I lived most of my life without the internet and sometimes wonder how I knew anything. Anyone besides me remember encyclopedias and libraries? Phil I have looked at Youtube thousands of times for various subjects and never thought to search for any information concerning disassembly or reassembly of anything. This is a great piece of information to know, thanks for passing it along.
I use this and many other internet resources for anything imaginable. When people ask me how to do something I am unfamiliar with I will pull a trick like you brothers and give descriptions from the web. I didn't really have a hunting mentor, the first time I went hunting at a friends family farm I googled "how to clean a deer". I did butcher that first deer but it was ugly. Luckily I have taken enough animals in the past 8 years to hone my meat cutting to an art. I built my AR-15 from parts with an online manual. Repaired the firing pin on my old savage 410 single shot with the same internet based instruction.
I have learned how to tie many of flies from Youtube.
For the past few days, all I have been doing is watching hunting and shooting videos on YouTube. The thing is there are a lot of comments from anti-hunters on the videos and I let them hear it.
The internet will prove (has proven...) to be even more impacting on culture, intellectualism, communication, knowledge expansion, etc. than the printing press. The knowledge explosion that began in the mid-1800's continues at an exponential rate and the internet puts that knowledge at the fingertips of 5 year olds.
With that being true, why do videos by Britney Spears get 75 million and more hits? We are an "entertained" and self indulgent people who have more knowledge but less wisdom.
Nice to know you can find this information on the web and do it at the comfort of your own home, instead of having to take it to the gun store and embarassingly telling them that you forgot/can't figure out how to re-assemble your gun or magazine. I also like to look at reviews of guns on youtube.
Time to get to work... I know I have 8 or 10 of those suckers that have never been cleaned. Never even thought about it.
thanks for the info Phil, not that I needed any more reason to be on the internet. I've had a 10/22 mag for over 20 years that has never been cleaned, still works great. Never really thought about trying to clean it. Guess it couldn't hurt..
My sons battery died last week too. Lucky for me, my daughters boyfriend Jason,was around and we both decided to go and change it.
After watching Jason wrestle with the wrench, which seemed like a half hour,I decided to help.A screw must have been stripped, because we had to resort to brute strength of two guys to get the dead battery from it's secured perch.
After purchasing a new battery it snapped perfectly back into place,into the arms that had held it so securly in the first place.
Then my battery went out in my F-150 ... Off to Wal-Mart I went.LOL
Thanks for the time saving info ...
I'll leave mine to the pro's, last time I took mine apart I had to take it to them to put back together again. I had 3 extras pieces. LOL. But, precisionriflesales com fixed her right up.
A plug for a business I'm sure you're very familiar with, Phil...Brownell's has a long list of firearms "how-to's" that I've used on occasion.
I found dissassembly/assembly instructions for a Berreta 92 I bought without instuction manual on the internet. It's a pretty slick way to learn about different firearms. Good post Phil, hope it helps some other guys out. If you work at it you can find info on just about any gun ever made.
For the fly fisherman, YouTube is invaluable. As I am just learning to tie flies, a video is so much better than any book could ever be.
I have used brownell's and youtube both for various gunsmithing and auto repair tasks.
Really good video. Like Dr. Ralph I have a few of those babies around I now feel comfortable in tackling. I think that more sophisticated parts I'd leave for my "Smith" though.
Watching that video I found myself admiring the guy for not bursting out laughing at times. Or waiting for the giant Monty Python foot to squash the magazine as a crescendo.
Thanks.
The internet is useful once you manage the art of sifting through the crap to the really accurate information.
"It's on Microsoft's web site. How evil could it be?"
Youtube is great for info or laughs. Just FYI, the battery in my Mom's Buick LeSabre is under the back seat. WTF??!! My F-250 battery is right were it should be!
Hehe, battery placement in vehicles is nuts nowdays!
My daughter bought a used car, a Dodge Stratus, wanna guess where they hid it's battery?
Inside the left front wheel's fender! In front of the tire, you also have to remove the tire to get at the Battery! Wonderful planning.........
I find that youtube does have many good aspects. you can quite frequently find useful information and it helps having a visual guide also. Lately though it seems it's getting to full of advertisements and special channels like with the swine flu thing the CDC had there own channel and took up half the front page.
I am so greatful Al Gore discovered the Internet. It is a wonderful tool.
Post a Comment