Thread: Assumptions....

Now we've all heard the sayings when you assume something all you do is make an ass out of you and me and dont make assumptions cause all you do is make an ass out of u and mption.

In a private conversation about head bolt retorquing techniques between tank and myself its become apparant to me that occasionally I make some assumptions the worst one being that the person who asks me a question has the same backround experience that Ive had

the example that was the kicker for this thread was in a post of mine to a thread about retorquing head bolts.. Tank stated and quite rightly that on all the trucks hes done hes done the bolts one at a time which is contry to my back them all off about 1/2 a turn then retighten them. Now we're both right But to work that out you have to expand into a lot of details that I know I didnt state in the posts and Im fairly certain that he didnt state either

For starters He was talking about steel or cast iron heads and I was talking about alloy. As part of our discussion he pointed out that if you did my method you would wind up with your bores full of coolant my immediate reply was to the effect of "muppet, you drain and blowdry the cooling system" (assuming that removing all the hoses using 80 degree air and removing the thermostat (if refitted) as part of that process is what everyone does as par for the course)

But back to the crux of this thing....

Dont make assumptions bad things happen when people make assumptions, usually the kind of bad things that make your wallet feel violated.

the top 5 list of assumtions you should not make (yes Im guilty of them every now and then)


5. that the short set of instructions you got is complete and will allow you to do the job without further research (addendum;- even if youve done the job a thousand times before on a similar vehicle)

4. is that the question you want to ask or the point you want to have clarified is trivial and not worth asking about.

3. The person you are discussing a fault with via an electronic medium is on exactly the wavelength as you are with regards to the problem you have.


2. I dont need to explain that bit, thats common sense.

1. That the parts in the box will be what you were quoted on or what you ordered first time everytime

0. Surely no-one is stupid enough to have done that, it must be something else.

(side note assumption 0 is occasionally useful as a fault finding tool so while it should be #1 on the list because I will resort to it deliberatly it gets a special place all its own.)

Yes Im aware that some of those overlap a little but in my mind they make enough sense as they are...

at the end of the day I dont care how many "stupid" questions I get asked, occasionally the person who asks them will follow the advice given and occasionally that saves me a lot of work.

While Im on that note If your asking me a question about something (or following an instruction set Ive done) and the info I have given you doesnt gell with you

• bacuase you dont understand,
• have read something different somewhere else,
• been told something different by someone else,
• It just doesnt fit with whats mechanically in front of you,
• you think I might have misunderstood you,
• you might have miss understood me,
• think I might have made a typo (or worse a spelling error hey Ron),
• your aunts goldfish died yesterday and your a little distracted and cant comprehand what Im trying to explain
• any other reason you can dream up that makes you think you might need clarification on something

Ask about it.

IF you dont want to ask me because you think Im a big nasty electronics, automatic gearbox, unhoseable interior vehicle, bureocrat hating, smart assed, egotistical, psycotic, axe murdering, leacherous Gimboid who cant spell that makes you wish youd never been born when i talk to you (or if your a clearer minded thinker that I had never been born) then ask someone else I promise I wont be offended. (or If I am I promise that you wont care about it if thats what you think of me )

A good case of that is the thread on repairing hydraulic jacks I omitted what oil to use, someone wanted to do it so they asked about it and now the threads been ammended.

Remember if you dont ask it because your assuming its a stupid question chances are theres at least one other person doing exactly the same thing and if no-one asks then no-one knows...

I barely know enough to ask even a stupid question although sometimes I succeed. So I assume you are not talking about me.