Spark plugs are one of the few things that an amateur mechanic can repair without much trouble.

He had grown up in the Albany suburbs, a hunter and amateur mechanic with a gift for mathematics.

I felt like I had been taken apart by an expert surgeon and reassembled by an amateur mechanic.

Practical advice for the amateur mechanic; information on automotive and home repairs; features on new equipment.

It began early in the development of vehicles powered by internal combustion engines, with blacksmiths and amateur mechanics tinkering in their shops.

Men can't fix it, so they lose their status as amateur mechanics.

"Congress is an inexperienced and amateur mechanic trying to tinker with the supercharged, high-tech engine of our economy," he said.

Anyone who has been in an old car knows that this is to the detriment of the consumer and the amateur mechanic.

In private, Secretary Powell, an amateur automotive mechanic, complains that old friends spend too much time sympathetically taking his temperature - "dip-sticking me," as he puts it.

The amateur mechanic's dream car can readily become an uncontrollable nightmare.