I've got a son that will be 13 in March. He likes to help out in the garage working on trucks, quads, mowers anything. He is going to be a gearhead no doubt . He has been changing the oil in the wifes Tundra the last few times. It was due for a change again and he wanted to help. I gave him the wrench set, drain pan and light he crawled under to pull the drail plug. He then removed and replaced the filter, put the drain plug back in and proceded to refill the oil. He got the 5 qts in it and checked it, said it was over full. I of course rechecked it and it was over full. We counted the epty bottles and there were 5. I then looked under the truck and seen fresh oil on the tranny pan. He had drained the tranny oil, not the engine oil. What could I do? I had allways got under the truck with him before but decided to not do it this time. He knew he had made a mistake, and nothing I could have said would have made him remember more. Oh well the truck has allmost 30,000 anyway, it was time for a change. So off to town we go 15 miles to get more oil both engine and ATF as well as 2 filters engine and tranny. Just glad it wasn't the CTD. A lesson learned and no damage. I remember doing about the same thing once when I was a kid too, forgot to put the drain plug back in. It is one of those mistakes a person only makes once in their life.
This past weekend he was wanting to try welding with the wire welder again. He does a pretty good job but not very consistant and needs practice. I said sure. Gave him my helmet and since my other one got broke actually run over. I got a shaded lens and held in front of my eyes giving him instructions. He actually did a great job and kept going for allmost an hour with me checking and giving pointers along the way occasionally. The next morning I had a heck of a sunburn on my forehead which is getting bigger because of a receding hairline and my whole face was red except where the shaded lens was. He got me again.
But it is all worth it, I wouldn't trade times like these for anything. These are the things we will laugh about later in life.

 

Theres no better way to learn than by making mistakes.....so my boss tells me....lol. ;D

 

Just wait till he grows up some. Thats when the fun really starts. My dad and I are in a tool war. We have a total of 3 large rolling toll boxes in the garage along with a ton of hand boxes and top boxes on the work benches and about 9 sets of everything craftsman makes. The trick is to keep him from stealing my tools. I would never take his oh, I also do my best to tell him how much better my car truck and motercycle are then his.. there all exactly the same. We have problems I know
Chris

 

Mudcat,

That's exactly how they learn. Sounds like you guys are on the right track.


Tom

 

That boy learned more in one oil change than an entire semester of auto shop !!! I bet that sticks with him for the rest of his life.

Good on ya, Mudcat !!!

PISTOL

 

I hope you both got a good laugh out of it.

 

Mud,

You and your son's episode brought back a fond memory of when my dad let me change the oil in the family's 69 Monte Carlo... I crawled under, pulled the plug and filter. Replaced filter with fresh, complete with oiled gasket and fresh oil inside, replaced plug and filled crankcase to proper level. Pops checked it out and gave me a pat on the back.

Well, I fired her up and in less than 20 seconds I had 4 quarts of 10W40 all over the driveway and halfway over me after I crawled underneath to find problem.

Pops said I learned an important lesson that Sunday afternoon... MAKE SURE OLD GASKET FILTER COMES OUT WITH OLD FILTER...

He got a good chuckle out of that story for years (especially since he sold auto parts to parts stores from a major parts warehouse)....

I have NEVER left the old gasket attached to the block again...

I miss ya dad...

 

Many years ago when my two boys were 16 and 18 I bought an old beater just for work and back. It was a a dual fuel, propane and gas Lada. The Russian version of the old Fiat 1100. Cost me the great sum of $350. Drove it to work one day and that night one of the boys borrowed it. Much to my surprise they both liked it and I never drove it again. It became the 'kids' car. I gave it to them on condition that they pay for insurance and do all the maintenance. Later I bought another one like it for $35. Used that one for parts.
They drove that car for years and learned a lot. They cooked the clutch and I showed them how to change it. Next time they burned it up I made them change it by themselves. They tore the oil pump out of it jumping ditches and hitting a rock which almost ripped the oil pan right off. They used the parts from the other car to fix that. Later they stripped the rear end. So they learned how to change the gears in the rear end. They sanded and repainted the entire car. Did some minor bombing and a lot more.
The point is, they learned a lot by practical experiance. If they broke it and could not afford to fix it the car sat until they found a way to pay for the parts. I never did any work on the car but just told them what to do and made sure they did it right. Hard dirty work never hurt them. They still talk about that car today and they are both married now.

 

That's just too awsome... Brings back memories for me as well! When my dad and I used to go out on the lake in his 19' Spectra just to tune it - stop and float while he changed spark plugs around... Then when I had an exahust leak on the 92 Cutlass - Dad and I acutally had a moment of bonding (after 19 years) when he couldn't get the header back on - and nifty fingered me jumped in and took care of putting it back on. From Valve covers to replacing the turbo on his 86 Buick Grand National...

Man it's a good thing that I have those times to hang onto!

 

Gotta love them kids! He allready has plans of getting my truck when he turns 16. He drives it some now out here on the country roads. But he takes it down the hill to get a load of firewood (we sell firewood) on it I hear him getting on it a little. He comes back up the drive with a big old grinn on thinking I didn't hear it. I haven't said anything yet. I figure he could be doing a lot worse. I know I did.

 

That pretty cool that you let him drive it already....hes got a pretty good old man.... ;D