For the advice and the knowledge and the cost of my collage there is no charge

[Geoff Cooper]

I decided to take the boat out yesterday as conditions were really good and i had spent a few days fitting the new steering wheel and GPS speedo and doing the thread on it so i headed down to the Marina quite early just to get the boat fueled up etc, On my way i get a phone call from a friend who's friend has a boat about 20 miles away, He's just arrived from England on Holiday and has the family with him and wants to get his boat out however he tells me that the starter is no good and he has had an engineer out who has confirmed that that is the problem and cannot get a new one for about a month at some colossal price and they can't repair it, Ok i will come and have a look at it and see if there's anything i can do, Off i go and when i get there i find the starter has been removed so i get the whole story from him and meet his friend who is about to have his holiday ruined.
Don't panic if the worst comes to the worst i will take you and the family out for a few days in my Boat i tell him and at that i take his starter and head for a place i know can get him out of trouble without having to wait for a new starter to come from America as the agent has told him, These people are engineers who can fix thing's not just fit new parts all the time and charge a fortune for the service there's no skill involved in fitting new parts that's easy, The skill is identifying the problem and fixing it, I enclose a few Photos maybe not pretty but hey they do the job and I'm pleased there are still people around like this they saved his holiday.


If you don't have the brushes then use another set and sand them down to fit


They rebuild starters rewind armatures pretty well do the lot here


Production line



They fix pretty well any motor or Alternator



I found this old boy about 10 years ago and he's helped me out many times a very good man to know, He rebuilt the starter while i waited and tested it and charged me $16, Off i went and returned the starter to it's rightful owner who was very happy and after refitting it resumed his Holiday with a big smile on his face, So he asked me how much he owed me and i said just give me the $16 he said what about your time and i replied ....For the advice and the knowledge and the cost of my collage there is no charge....I may need his help one day you never know when you get stuck playing with Boats but it pleased me that he could have some precious time with his family and have a good Holiday, He insisted he took me out to dinner last night as a thank you so that was enough, I didn't get out in the Boat but i live here and there will be many more days when i can go, We had a pleasant evening at a Seafood restaurant talking Boats overlooking the Ocean.

 

[Julian]

Way to go....

 

[Bruce]

Amazing!

I really appreciate the ingenuity in your posts!

 

[sysinu]

There is an old mechanic's shop here in Utah that my dad knows some guys that work there - they do a lot of this sort of thing as well (they charge just a little more though). I had a fuel pump on my old boat go bad and they ripped it apart and rebuilt it for a fraction of the cost of getting a new one (marine augmented ford fuel pump for a 351 cleavland engine - OMC Volvo). It's too often that we replace instead of fix and this helps me to reflect on that!

Thanks for posting this

 

[4x15mph]

Great story. Thank you

 

[Geoff Cooper]

There is an old mechanic's shop here in Utah that my dad knows some guys that work there - they do a lot of this sort of thing as well (they charge just a little more though). I had a fuel pump on my old boat go bad and they ripped it apart and rebuilt it for a fraction of the cost of getting a new one (marine augmented ford fuel pump for a 351 cleavland engine - OMC Volvo). It's too often that we replace instead of fix and this helps me to reflect on that!

Thanks for posting this

Yes that's true many thing's are changed for new when they can be repaired very easily, Thailand is like England 50 years ago when i was serving my apprenticeship. You repaired items and only fitted new when it was absolutely necessary, there are many small repair shops here and if you throw something away someone will take it and fix it, I go to Bangkok about once a month to have a look around the back street engineering shops and next time i go i will take some photos and show the readers what is done here, I can spend days looking around them it brings back memories, I'm pleased you enjoyed the read.

 

[Geoff Cooper]

Great story. Thank you

I'm pleased you enjoyed the read, Thanks.

 

[Geoff Cooper]

Amazing!

I really appreciate the ingenuity in your posts![/QUOTE
Bruce i just reflect on my experiences and try to explain that we don't have to throw money away just because it says Marine on the box, I regard it as a challenge to repair what so called engineers say cannot be fixed, To many times now parts are changed rather than repaired by main agents just for the sake of profit or maybe they are not taught to repair thing's anymore, Here it's a thriving industry only at the death do they throw anything away.

 

[Geoff Cooper]

Way to go....

Pleased you enjoyed, It doesn't hurt to help someone it could have ruined his holiday, The easiest word in the world is no, I guarantee that young guy will remember that for ever and be talking about it in 20 years time.

 

[MikeyL]

Geoff: KILLER story ! Even better photos to help illustrate the situation.
Kinda a nice way to start off our Thanksgiving Holiday "over here" ...... Many Thanks - Mikey Lulejian - Lake Oconee, GA

 

[Geoff Cooper]

Geoff: KILLER story ! Even better photos to help illustrate the situation.
Kinda a nice way to start off our Thanksgiving Holiday "over here" ...... Many Thanks - Mikey Lulejian - Lake Oconee, GA

Thanks for that it's appreciated, He was a young guy and had a small family i remember being the same at that age and some of the old boys helped me out more than once, Have a good Thanksgiving and good luck.

 

[Gym]

Trouble shooting rather than just slapping in new parts is truly an art these days. I saw much of the latter over my 30 years as a technician. Starter motor repair = $16. Giving someone time with their family = priceless. Way to go Geoff.

 

[Geoff Cooper]

Trouble shooting rather than just slapping in new parts is truly an art these days. I saw much of the latter over my 30 years as a technician. Starter motor repair = $16. Giving someone time with their family = priceless. Way to go Geoff.

Yes thanks for that Gym it just brought back memories of when i was a lot younger with my young family, The old boys helped me with my Boating problems and as money was tight then the standard charge was a pint of beer in the local pub, The art of repairing thing's is alive and kicking over here Gym I'm pleased to say unlike England and most of Europe where the skill seems to have died a death.

 

[itsdgm]

Great post @Geoff Cooper. Reminds me of my younger years too. Especially the time I spent outside the States. Necessity is truly the mother of invention.

 

[Geoff Cooper]

Great post @Geoff Cooper. Reminds me of my younger years too. Especially the time I spent outside the States. Necessity is truly the mother of invention.

Yes that's right needs must, When i next go to Bangkok i will do a thread and show the many different small companies that are rebuilding bearings and making head gasket sets by hand and small trim shops that are full to the brim with all sorts of different styles of trim, I could spend days there just walking around and watching them work, I usually go early Saturday morning and get a Hotel there and spend the weekend just looking around the back streets in the shops and small markets there's always plenty to see, Pleased you enjoyed the read.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

This sounds like an awesome 'reality' show!

 

[Geoff Cooper]

This sounds like an awesome 'reality' show!

Yes maybe, I'm an old English engineer and a retired Radio Ham and i appreciate the skills that are still being used here in Thailand and passed on through the generations, I can recall building my first Amateur Radio Antenna and as many of you use the ship to shore frequency you will be familiar with the power output from your equipment you use to contact other stations and can relate to the distance you are working, I had spent a few days many years ago building my first antenna and was determined to restrict my power to 1/2 a watt output from my radio so my antenna had to do all the work, I had mixed success but having made a few adjustments i was able not just to contact other stations in England where i was living at the time but faintly heard a station responding to my low transmission from the flat lands of Georgia, I nearly fell off my chair and asked the other stations who were queuing up to respond to my low power transmission to standby while i made contact with this station who had received my transmission from America, It was a great achievement to work a station so far away with so little output power but shows it can be done and after that while i was still in contact with the same station i kept reducing my output power and got down to 1 watt and he could still just receive me but very very faint, The antenna was a great success and many other stations used the same design and built the same antenna, It's all to easy these days to rely on main agents and pay through the nose for new parts when original parts were made by man so can be repaired by man, That's my feelings anyway whether I'm right or wrong you choose.