WTF - Car repairs - I'm on the same roads as these people

[FatalException0E]

That first brake picture looks like what my brother's '81 Malibu looked like when he finally realized there was probably something wrong with the brakes.

[slgrieb]

Sad to say, it isn't just civilian drivers that do this stuff. When I was a route supervisor for a Fortune 500 linen service, I spent a lot of time on the road. Once I had to fill in for a driver on a hospital route, and it turned out that one of our mechanics had installed the auto adjusters for the brakes backward. So, every time I backed up, the brakes got looser. That made stopping an unpredictable and exciting event.

On another occasion, I had to take a route for a driver who reported for duty totally drunk. His parting words to me as he left the plant were, "Hey, the clutch slips a little." Understatement of the decade. It was an old International Cargo Star with a multiplate clutch, and the clutch was so burnt it wouldn't disengage. I ran a 330 mile route shifting without a clutch, and shutting down the engine every time I had to stop. Getting moving again meant hitting the switch, and letting the starter drag the truck forward a bit until the engine caught. No stress there.

I got the route done, got back to the plant in Austin, and when the Fleet Supervisor dropped the tranny, the pressure plate came out in two pieces.