Where is the OP here? another case of input but no output.
My '81 Accord had no O2 sensor.
Here is a question for the OP: Do you wear an electronic (i.e. battery powered) watch? I inherited two watches 1) a Swiss Chronograph from an Aunt whose late husband wore the watch and 2) a Longines watch from a favorite Uncle. I had been wearing the Longines watch but it would occasionally stop for no reason. A watchmaker just told me that it will be about $250 in repairs since some of the bearings need to be replaced. I am having it fixed since it is a keepsake for me. The Chronograph required similar expensive repairs some time back.
I am presently wearing a a battery powered watch that cost me $5 at Big Lots. It is in a metal case, has an expansion band and keeps perfect time–certainly more accurate than either of the spring driven watches I own. Just like my watches, as well made as the automobiles may have been with the mechanical parts, they just don’t run as reliably as present day cars with the electronics.
You still wear a watch? Don’t you have a cell phone? Get with it, man! 
Hey, Whitey–one step at a time for an old geezer. Old habits die hard. I have a cell phone clipped to a holder on my belt, but I keep forgetting that I can look at it for the correct time. Besides that, I don’t like Daylight Savings Time and the cell phone displays DST. I run my spring driven watches on regular time–fast time wears out the bearings more quickly.
Old habits die quickly. I still try to find the starter pedal on my new car–it should be on the floor just as it was on my 1947 Pontiac. The wiper switch should be on top the dashboard, not hidden on some stalk on the steering column.
I am ahead of the world on energy savings on one item. My crystal radio doesn’t require any electrical source and I can adjust a catswhisker faster than anyone else in my town.
“am presently wearing a a battery powered watch that cost me $5 at Big Lots. It is in a metal case, has an expansion band and keeps perfect time–certainly more accurate than either of the spring driven watches I own. Just like my watches, as well made as the automobiles may have been with the mechanical parts, they just don’t run as reliably as present day cars with the electronics.”
If automotive ECM’s Oxygen sensors and MAF’s, cost $5, this thread would never have been started…Lets keep the playing field level…
If automotive ECM’s Oxygen sensors and MAF’s, cost $5, this thread would never have been started.
Do we even know why this thread was started? You are assuming the OP has an unstated agenda. I don’t think we know why the OP asked this question. Southwestgaelic might just be curious.
I wear a watch too, but only when I can’t ride the motorcycle to work. It gets in the way of my riding gloves.
Fuel injection has been around for about 100 years. Don’t need a computer to have fuel injection.
I’m NOT convinced that the emergence of pollution control systems was what caused the Big-Three to start making unreliable cars. What the problem was…with the mandated emission controls they couldn’t make the profit they wanted…So instead of investing in the technology right away…they started cutting corners. They only invested in the technology AFTER they started loosing market share to the Asian invasion. They were cutting costs on items that had NOTHING to do with emissions.
I for one am a HUGE fan of 60’s and early 70’s GM cars. Loved their styling and reliability. When I retire in a couple of years I plan on restoring some older 60’s GM muscle cars…that is IF I’ll be able to retire by then.
True enough. I suppose I should have said digital computer controlled gasoline fuel injection. Didn’t Cadillac have some fuel injected cars in the 70’s to 80’s that used analog computers?
Nope. I worked on every square inch of that engine including replacing the head gasket twice. No O2 sensor, and the only solenoid on the carb was a fuel cut-out solenoid wired to the ignition switch. The 22R never had a computer feed-back carb.
There was the 22RE option with fuel injection, tho. It became standard in 1991. But the 1990 22R was simple 2-bbl goodness.
. Didn’t Cadillac have some fuel injected cars in the 70’s to 80’s that used analog computers?
You have to be real careful with the phrase “Analog Computer”. Today it usually means a DSP (Digital Signal Processor). Back in the 70’s the timer on your washing machine was considered an Analog Computer.
If automotive ECM’s Oxygen sensors and MAF’s, cost $5, this thread would never have been started.
The ratio of the cost of the ECM"s oxygen sensors and MAF’s to the cost of the car is much lower than the ratio of the cost of a #377 watch battery to the cost of the $5 watch.
Have you priced a carburetor for an older car recently? I haven’t seen a replacement rebuilt 2 barrel carburetor for under $150 in ten years.
I’ve modernized several engines of that era.
Including adding electronic ignition AND fuel injection. Holly use to make a fuel injection for many of the GM/Ford/Chryco and AMC V8’s from that era.
Being an electrical engineer, I guess my definitions of digital computer and analog computer and mechanical computer are different than yours.
Digital Computer: Uses digital logic, this most definitely includes DSPs.
Mechanical Computer: Uses gears and switches and cams, this would be the washing machine timer.
Analog Computer: Processes everything in the analog domain using OP amps and comparators and such.
DSPs are about as far from analog computers as you can get.
Being an electrical engineer, I guess my definitions of digital computer and analog computer and mechanical computer are different than yours.
Digital Computer: Uses digital logic, this most definitely includes DSPs.
Mechanical Computer: Uses gears and switches and cams, this would be the washing machine timer.
Analog Computer: Processes everything in the analog domain using OP amps and comparators and such.
DSPs are about as far from analog computers as you can get.
That is a valid CURRENT definition. But NOT so back in the 70’s which you’re referring to.
I disagree. It was valid in the 70’s. They had both digital and analog computers back then, and they were correctly referred to at the time (at least where I was).
Analog has never meant DSP.
Of course, there were mechanical analog computers too, but none for car engine control.
I’m not completely in agreement on this one, Mike. I think three factors, the Clean Air Act, the invasion of the riceburners, and the oil embargo in the early '70s all converged to cause the “big three” to divert their focus away from the cars themselves and toward emissions, mileage, and cost cutting. Much of the top tier management emerged from that period focused solely on the accounting and not the cars. GMAC became the profit making arm of the company.
Car companies need “car guys” running them, guys who understand, love, and focus on the product. The “big three” lost that in the '70s.
The combination of the Clean Air Act and the CAFE standards, as well as the Safety requirements all hit Detroit like a sledge hammer. The unreliability and poor driveability were the results of trying to cope and meet the deadlines. Cars bcame “bad” in 1969 and it was not till the late 70s that good driveability and reasonable fuel economy could be realized in a US car. By the mid 80s, Japanese quality and reliability had surpassed that of US cars and the rest is history.
The Japanese were much faster on their feet and some produced cars that met the emission regs without catalytic converters.
There was a subsequent cost cutting effort(called “value engineering”) to cope with the cost of all these changes. A full size car went from $4000 or so to $8000 very quickly.