Automobile inspection for the rest of us

[iNeon]

I was crawling under the car yesterday looking for provisions to adjust the transmission shifting(does a 240 even have a vacuum modulator?) and I decided to just look at everything.

When I grabbed the driveshaft, what I assumed was the center support had a bit of give in it, but I futzed around in there and it seems like there was a rubber bushing around the whole thing.

I guess what I am proposing is that those with more experience tell those of us with less what to look for whenever we are changing our oil. Whenever I am looking around and giving the car a once-over, I tend to just think "yep, that looks like a car part" and I know that isn't what I'm supposed to be doing!

Is it a dangerous thing for those of us with less of a clue how things are supposed to be underneath our cars to do our own inspections? I can tell when something is obviously broken, but I really want to learn enough to be able to have confidence in the car-- I feel like it is falling to bits and just can't be sure it's so roadworthy on my own.

My Father is semi-helpful, but he is of the "if it hasn't fallen off yet, it's still good" school of thought and that just isn't good enough for me-- Fall classes are about to begin again and I really need the car to be able to cope with city traffic!