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I'll add a story about my favorite mechanic of all time. In the early 80s I owned a 1981 Mazda GLC Sport. I bought the car during my senior year of high school, with less than 11,000 miles on it. It developed an oil leak inside the distributor, a typical problem with those cars. Mazda knew there was a problem with them, but refused to fix them under program. Instead, they offered an "improved" distributor housing. You still had to pay to have the old distributor dismantled, then reassembled around the new housing. The part cost about $150.
My stepfather drove a Triumph TR-7, and had a great mechanic who kept it running flawlessly. He was a big guy who everybody called "Bear", and my stepdad called and asked him if he'd look at the GLC. I dropped it off, and told him not to get in a hurry, just see what he could do. 2 days later he called and told me to come pick it up. The cost of the repair was $25.
He'd dismantled the distributor, measured the o-ring on the shaft with a micrometer, driven to the dealership, and told the guy behind the parts counter that he knew the o-ring had to be in the catalogs somewhere, and he wasn't leaving till he found it. The guy gave him full access to the books, and sure enough, he found the o-ring, hiding in a section that had nothing to do with the distributor. He was happy as he could be at his discovery, because it gave him a piece of knowledge that even the dealership didn't have. He'd then be able to use it to fix more GLCs in the future.
Unfortunately, Bear got married and moved to West Texas, and I never saw him again. That was 20 years ago, and I haven't found a mechanic I trust since.
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1991 245, 61k miles, looking for a 5 speed 92-93 245 cheap.
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