Stopped by an old shop outside of Cleveland yesterday

I was picking up parts at Johnson's Diesel down in Elyria and noticed they still had a box of the old mechanical injection pumps sitting on the shelf, the ones nobody touches anymore. The younger guys there didn't even know how to set the timing on one without a computer. Has anyone else seen shops holding onto old parts that are basically museum pieces now?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_drew2d ago

Elyria is a decent drive from Cleveland, but @jackson.max is this really that big of a deal?

jackson.max2d ago

Yeah, the "nobody touches anymore" part really got me. I've seen that exact thing at a couple shops near Akron, just old parts collecting dust because the kids coming up only know how to plug in a laptop. It's wild how fast that knowledge disappeared, those old pumps were bulletproof if you knew what you were doing. Reminds me of how my uncle had a whole shelf of NOS carburetors that just sat there for years. The guys who can rebuild them are getting harder to find every year.

garcia.wren1d ago

Those older guys at Johnson's probably watched a whole generation of mechanics retire without passing on the knowledge. Did the shop guys say anything about what happens to those pumps when the last person who knows how to work on them leaves? I'm curious if they just keep collecting dust forever or if they eventually get scrapped for the metal. There's got to be a breaking point where holding onto that old stock stops making any kind of business sense.