Jay has told this tale several times before and I can't find it, but part of the tale is around here around the 3:30 mark with his 1920's Bugatti race car and its leather hood straps. When he needs new ones he goes to the tack shop that makes harnesses for horsies. (Not mentioned this time around is that in Bugatti restoration circles, this part costs much, much, much more.)
Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Bob Heine's Auto Emporium
- Thread starter Bob Heine
- Start date
Workspaces between 485 and 705 squarefeet.
gilr
Well-known member
Thank goodness! And that d@#$ autocorrect got me again, I typed dipstick and it immediately changes it to lipstick. That explains a lot about the younger generation who wouldn't know a dipstick from a lipstick!
PugetDude
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I dated a girl in college who wore lipstick that worked like a dipstick..
Was she full of Texas crude?
gilr
Well-known member
Maybe Texas Tea!
madison069
Well-known member
Dipsticks went in the wind because the newer generation of consumers don’t want to be bothered with checking anything on their car. They barely want to fill their cars with gas, hence the market of mobile gas fill up in the big city.
gilr
Well-known member
I guess the same people would expect their EV to plug itself in to recharge too...
madison069
Well-known member
Close, there is already the ability to charge EV just by parking over the pad. Like cell phone docking station that charges the phone via the back of the phone.
Dipsticks went in the wind because the newer generation of consumers don’t want to be bothered with checking anything on their car. They barely want to fill their cars with gas, hence the market of mobile gas fill up in the big city.
ew dirty ew fumes.
I grew up in a state that was holding out when the you-pump-your-own-gas trend started. My mother and one sister were moaning that now they'd have to be involved in the ew dirty gross smelly process of pumping gas, so they were against it. I argued that maybe it's not right to force the entire state to pay more for pump jockeys for some small minority of people who couldn't cope.
Close, there is already the ability to charge EV just by parking over the pad. Like cell phone docking station that charges the phone via the back of the phone.
Oh! So many steps! (A great many of them are also on the list for "get to your friend's house and park the car and go in for a nice dinner with old friends.")
Here's yer fainting couch!
Oh wait, I have just been informed that the "fainting couch" concept is all B.S..
Fainting couch - Wikipedia
Wikipedia also refers me to their entry for chaise longue, which I must confess, until four years ago, I thought was "lounge." But then two young women from the Isle of Wight gave us a catchy reminder about the pronunciation.
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Our first clue was the Ford Explorer hoo ha. There was blame to go around -- Ford, Firestone, and the consumer. Everybody seemed to forget #3 in that list,
So much of the general public thinks checking tire pressure (or, get this -- adding more when loading up a full complement of passengers and luggage for a long highway trip for a summer vacation) -- is somebody else's job. Checking the dipstick and maybe pouring oil through a funnel, or kneeling down and checking a tire pressure are just so very hard for so many people. Or so they imagine it must be, if they were to ever try it. It's for that guy to look at every 6 or 12 months when you take it in for something.
I'd be less grumpy about it if these things were hard, but they're not.
gilr
Well-known member
I guess the issue is no one wants to accept responsibility for anything including simple car maintenance! "Someone else" is always responsible now, and is what makes lawyers rich.
Stepping down off my pedestal now.....
Stepping down off my pedestal now.....
Lou's Garage
Well-known member
I refer to it as the "Transportation Appliance" mentality. I watched it start in the 70's when I had my shop (1976-1986) and it continuously worsened in the following 3 decades I spent working in the auto industry. Today, maintenance is unheard of and any failure has to be due to a "defect" or "poor design." The "charging pad" concept must represent Nirvana for today's transportation appliance owners as all they will be responsible for is driving (sort of). They are unlikely to keep the car long enough to need brake pads so the only maintenance they will probably ever encounter is tire replacement (and they will complain about that). Building "maintenance free" equipment has assisted the companies that persue planned obsolescence.
Lou Manglass
gman007
Well-known member
Well as we know the self driving cars are already here and pretty soon, not only there is no need to do any maintenance, one does not even have to drive the car. The car will take care of the maintenance and driving and time permitting it will also make coffee, grill steak , and take care of any of your other needs (Now! Now! Get your mind out of gutter
!).Well as we know the self driving cars are already here and pretty soon, not only there is no need to do any maintenance, one does not even have to drive the car. The car will take care of the maintenance and driving and time permitting it will also make coffee, grill steak , and take care of any of your other needs (Now! Now! Get your mind out of gutter
A car that drives itself to the repair shop would actually make a lot of people happy and for some good reasons!
gilr
Well-known member
Yeah especially if it knew the problem and negotiated the right cost of the repair!
Bob, the book recommended by Squankum looks pretty good. "How to Make Your Car Handle". I'm going to have Cheryl order me a copy, I'll read through it myself, then "borrow" it to my son. I think I could learn a ton from that book. Oversteer, understeer, tires, pretty much everything. It didn't take a lot to keep my ten year old Chevy pickups aligned but can really see where alignments and everything can seriously affect a high performance car or even getting into race cars. I don't think my son is much of a book reader, let alone spend the money to buy a book. But if I buy it, he can read through a few pages at a time, let's say something on caster, camber, toe-in.
I've been reading through a few threads, where they have built new garages, have Corvettes, Land Rovers, BMW cars and motorcycles. Most of them talk about going to the Tail of the Dragon.... I just got rid of my Trans Am... Probably the only car I've ever owned even capable of doing the "Tail". At that point, I'd have to be the slowpoke at the back of the line so I didn't hold up the rest of the group. Cheryl and I did the "Road to Hana" in Maui in a rental car. Does that count??? Probably not. Hahaha.
I've been reading through a few threads, where they have built new garages, have Corvettes, Land Rovers, BMW cars and motorcycles. Most of them talk about going to the Tail of the Dragon.... I just got rid of my Trans Am... Probably the only car I've ever owned even capable of doing the "Tail". At that point, I'd have to be the slowpoke at the back of the line so I didn't hold up the rest of the group. Cheryl and I did the "Road to Hana" in Maui in a rental car. Does that count??? Probably not. Hahaha.
Well as we know the self driving cars are already here and pretty soon, not only there is no need to do any maintenance, one does not even have to drive the car. The car will take care of the maintenance and driving and time permitting it will also make coffee, grill steak , and take care of any of your other needs (Now! Now! Get your mind out of gutter
Since we were talking here about cars as appliances, since then, I've seen this video about a recent Mercedes-Benz electric car. The hood release lever is in a normal area -- to the left of the driver's shin -- and it's red. And they hide it under a cover.
The hood has no gas spring lifts. Or springs. Or prop rod. There are latches, once you get it up by hand. Really only intended for mechancics, supposedly. I'm a grump, I see two coolant reservoirs and I assume there's a brake fluid reservoir and I consider those to be things a conscious/conscientious owner keeps an eye on.
The seats can also stimulate your other needs.
@Squankum, our daughter has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and her husband has a PhD in the same subject. I am certain they both do well at their jobs but I sometimes question their common sense. They moved to Cincinnati for jobs at the GE jet engine plant and bought a lovely brick home on corner property. The house had a narrow sidewalk that led to the front door from the driveway, which was around the corner. I don't believe anyone ever entered the house through the front door, using the door next to the driveway that led through the laundry room. Part of the basement was finished with a nice bedroom, walk-in closet and full bath that wasn't included in the square footage of the house. Rather than cutting a doorway or egress window into a basement wall, they concentrated on the living, dining and kitchen renovations. They converted the living room at the front door into an office with 80-inch tall bookcases in multiple rows in the middle of the room. They left the dining room, opposite the living room at the front door almost intact. The kitchen, which was quite large, was at one end of the family room with the fireplace at the other. They removed the center island in the kitchen but re-used the cabinets on a new section of wall. The wall replaced the doorway to the dining room. Using the dining table involved a walk from the kitchen at the back of the house down a hallway to the front door and turning left into the room with the table. A Thanksgiving meal replicated the traffic on a Los Angeles freeway in rush hour (it was a narrow hallway).
When they left Ohio and returned to Florida for lower paying jobs, their Ohio home was hard to sell but by dropping the price to significantly less than they paid for it, someone snatched it up a year later. They learned their lesson and made modifications to the Florida home that will make it harder to sell as well but apparently they believe anything they own is expected go down in value
We have come full circle. Electric vehicles were popular at the start of the 20th century, especially in cities because you didn't need to be a mechanic to drive one. Expecting a woman to crank an engine over and then adjust the choke and timing or light the boiler and wait for steam to build made little sense. In 1900, motorists typically bought gasoline from hardware stores, general stores, pharmacies and blacksmiths. There were no dedicated gasoline stations.Bob, after typing my thing yesterday about 80's Mercedes dispstick and your 80's Vette dipstick and our '00 Durango dipstick, I realize, when most people nowadays bellyache about "these newfangled disposable cars", we're even on the periphery of them, saying "And the dipstick handles only last 37 years!"
Now, my '85 VW, the dipstick is slightly more than a wire coathanger. The part you put a finger in and pull is just a shepherd's crook made of wire. However, the modern part of it was their wanting to make the top of the dipstick tube visible, with a plastic red socket. That eventually dies and cracks and now you have to do something about plastic shards not moving to the sump. Then ya goes to the dealer and they sell you a replacement but now it's orange! Now they'll never let me get into Pebble Beach! (OK, the list of reasons for that is pretty long.)
I'm always amazed at the efforts they made to try to encourage the ignorant to please check their fluids... and please put the right fluids in the right holes!* My YouTube dance ticket is full, and alas, one channel I don't watch regularly is "Just Rolled In", and it's just an ongoing nightmare there, one theme being "you poured vegetable oil in what?"
_________
* Yes, full disclosure, I did a boo boo earlier this year. I was tired, okay?
As a child I noticed quite a few cars with creases in their hood (bonnet). The latching mechanisms were rarely lubricated or checked for wear so it wasn't every day that a hood flew open unexpectedly and bent itself over that steel pillar in the middle of the two-piece windshield. At some point auto manufacturers got smart and put a second latch that made fluid checking a 'mechanics only' process. Every car my father bought had a different hood opening mechanism and I am pretty sure he didn't master any of them.
Gil, I have a Lokar kit to add a transmission dipstick to the Cadillac. It's on my to-do list but it's beyond the 'maybe this year' part of the list.
@Squankum, it all started with idiot lights replacing gauges. When the oil, coolant or alternator light came on the vast majority just ignored it or put a piece of tape over the light like a couple of my friends did.
The buggy whip guys who survived just switched careers to belting. The antique Bugatti crowd is willing to have a valve job done on their engine so a $1,000 hood belt is a bargain. Remember, Bugatti engines had no cylinder head gasket so you had to remove the bottom of the engine to even see the valves.
Oh my, I really do deserve a dipstick whipping.
Gil, the new 40" Vizio TV I installed in the garage is so smart it turns itself on when I'm nowhere near it. It seems to turn on some kind of music streaming service that displays still images. I'm no longer able to cope with the things trying to take over my life.
Scott, I'm old so when I see a woman using a sharpie on their lips I try not to freak out.
@Squankum and Gil, I repeat, I'm old....
Cody, I have put gas in the Cadillac and PT Cruiser a total of six times this year. Still haven't put gas in the Corvette this year so those guys would starve with customers like me.Dipsticks went in the wind because the newer generation of consumers don’t want to be bothered with checking anything on their car. They barely want to fill their cars with gas, hence the market of mobile gas fill up in the big city.
Gil, if your Tesla has Enhanced Autopilot or Full Self-Driving Capability, the Autopark feature puts the car in position to charge without you even being in the car.
Cody, I was expecting that but wasn't aware it was already here. Did I mention that I'm old and don't do smartass phones or much social media (not to say the GJ is antisocial).Close, there is already the ability to charge EV just by parking over the pad. Like cell phone docking station that charges the phone via the back of the phone.
@Squankum, Liane is now a full-fledged Luddite. Back when we owned a 1978 Lincoln Town Car she noticed the fuel gauge was below the half-full mark and pulled into a gas station to have it filled up. She failed to notice she had pulled up to a self serve pump and got tired of waiting. She got out, grabbed the green nozzle and tried to force it into the filler hole. By this time the attendant inside the air conditioned office took pity on her, came out and explained the Diesel nozzle is too large to put into a modern car with the little hole in the gas filler doohickey. She completely lost it when he asked her if she wanted 87, 89 or 93 octane. The day ended with a Valium.
I just acquired an electric fainting couch with ******** and heat. It's a really narrow couch but wide enough for me.Oh! So many steps! (A great many of them are also on the list for "get to your friend's house and park the car and go in for a nice dinner with old friends.")
Here's yer fainting couch!
Oh wait, I have just been informed that the "fainting couch" concept is all B.S..
Fainting couch - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia also refers me to their entry for chaise longue, which I just confess, until four years ago, I thought was "lounge." But then two young women from the Isle of Wight gave us a catchy reminder about the pronunciation.
The big surprise for me is double-checking the work you paid someone else to do. One tire installation that made funny clicking sounds turned out to be loose lugnuts. Already whined about backward tires and loose valve stems.
Gil, I am yelling at kids who aren't anywhere near my lawn. There's a generation that grew up entitled -- participation awards, useless education majors and a belief their parents were right about how special they are. No need to work, just become famous. No need to take care of stuff, someone will gift you a new one. When all else fails they'll sue for failure to praise them highly enough when they do the bare minimum. "Are you telling me you expect me to work the whole summer as well?"
Lou, for some reason buyers believe their car is a lemon when it's the lemming who drives it to death.
@gman007, not to worry there's an app for whatever is wrong with your life.Well as we know the self driving cars are already here and pretty soon, not only there is no need to do any maintenance, one does not even have to drive the car. The car will take care of the maintenance and driving and time permitting it will also make coffee, grill steak , and take care of any of your other needs (Now! Now! Get your mind out of gutter
But it's all covered under the warranty. That's why I lease my car.
Rick, I had my fun and the idea of doing anything on a road filled with drivers who believe a blind curve is someone else's problem so long as they beat their best time scares the **** out of me. And that's a long drive home to clean up the seat.
Back in the day, I used to rent a trailer from the local U-Haul place in Baldwin. That guy (Big John). Was a real wheeler-dealer. We got along great. He once tasked me to take one of his car-haulers home and sandblast it with a fresh repaint. It was a former U-Haul trailer that he bought. I agreed.... What a task it was!!. I bought 4200 lbs of sand for the sandblaster, but swept up every bit of sand that ended up on the trailer floor. Put the gathered sand through a fine screen and re-used every bit I could. So I don't know how much sand I actually ended up using. My compressors weren't all that big so I mounted (4) compressors on a 2x12 and ran them all with a (10) HP motor. Quite the task. That paint was really stuck on the trailer. My payment for doing that was that he gave me a set of wheel alignment ramps. Mostly a set of I-beams that were car length, a lowered spot toward one end for pans, but no turntables... I never did set up the ramps or buy turntables, but my idea was good... Ha. Once I had the ramps and the pans, I started thinking I didn't want to set up the ramps for an alignment, then move them outside to get the tractor back in. It just wasn't going to work with both. So I never did set them up. My floor was flat enough I think I could've bought turntables and put blocks of wood under the back tires to match height. Turntables aren't exactly cheap for a once in a while alignment, so I didn't buy any. But that's all smoke in the downwind nowadays, so it's probably good that I didn't buy turntables.
Look on the bright side! No head gasket problems! Also, I bet the crankcase stays in the car while you lift the engine block part up off of it, so that's not so bad, either. What's probably hard is finding the machinist with tools to do the job at that depth.
Similarly, I learned this week that if you have a Citroen 2CV, your local tire shop won't be able to spin balance your wheel/tire. See pic of wheel below!
That's the thumbnail for a video I watched the other day, and yep, balance beads cured his 2CV's vibrations. The horrible noise of the engine straining and wind remained, of course.
Modern day DIY turntables: contractor garbage bags with a bunch of talcum powder in them.
Turntables allow you to turn the wheels about 30° or so in each direction to check caster? I think? (I've never done that) You can also pull a pin and they are somewhat free-floating. The turntables have degree marks on them. I didn't know you could use talcum powder for alignments. I would guess that you would have a starting thickness to the powder, then as you adjust things, the tires sink downwards, every time the tires move. Not saying that's wrong, just trying to understand the process as a whole.
bugnut
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Bob, there's a whole lot of AMEN in this....
Gil, I am yelling at kids who aren't anywhere near my lawn. There's a generation that grew up entitled -- participation awards, useless education majors and a belief their parents were right about how special they are. No need to work, just become famous. No need to take care of stuff, someone will gift you a new one. When all else fails they'll sue for failure to praise them highly enough when they do the bare minimum. "Are you telling me you expect me to work the whole summer as well?"
Gil, I am yelling at kids who aren't anywhere near my lawn. There's a generation that grew up entitled -- participation awards, useless education majors and a belief their parents were right about how special they are. No need to work, just become famous. No need to take care of stuff, someone will gift you a new one. When all else fails they'll sue for failure to praise them highly enough when they do the bare minimum. "Are you telling me you expect me to work the whole summer as well?"
gilr
Well-known member
Yeah and the entitled idiots expect taxpayers to forgive their college tuition loans on stupid useless degrees they think they need to be productive in today's society!
Rick, according to Liane doing "The Road to Hana" counts. She and two friends met up in Hawaii (one came with her and the other arrived from Australia). I reserved a mid-size car from Hertz but when Liane arrived, all they had was a Lincoln Town Car. Having owned two and never putting a scratch in either (even parking at Publix) she had no problem driving it. Her passengers weren't quite that thrilled to be in a tank on that road, especially when Liane had to turn it around to make the return trip. I never had the pleasure of that drive on any of our layovers in Honolulu (Florida to Australia and back requires a couple of stops and Hawaii was the logical place to spend a night or two).
scooterbum46
Well-known member
Bob:
I quit doing oil changes on my truck when the "free" oil changes that came with the new ones verified that I was getting lazy. The problem I have now is the flying monkeys won't leave my tires alone. I pay attention to the TPMS and spend time making sure they are all the same (gotta save the spider gears in those diffs, ya know). I've pointed out that 2 or 3 pounds different side to side and/or front to back is an offense (whipping with a dipstick?). Every time I take it in for a LOF, I tell 'em to leave the tires alone. One of the orangutans (service writer) admitted to knowing that more than one tire gauge was in use and one of them was "about 4 pounds off". The insanity on my part is going back to the same (Chevy dealer) and expecting different results.
I quit doing oil changes on my truck when the "free" oil changes that came with the new ones verified that I was getting lazy. The problem I have now is the flying monkeys won't leave my tires alone. I pay attention to the TPMS and spend time making sure they are all the same (gotta save the spider gears in those diffs, ya know). I've pointed out that 2 or 3 pounds different side to side and/or front to back is an offense (whipping with a dipstick?). Every time I take it in for a LOF, I tell 'em to leave the tires alone. One of the orangutans (service writer) admitted to knowing that more than one tire gauge was in use and one of them was "about 4 pounds off". The insanity on my part is going back to the same (Chevy dealer) and expecting different results.
Craptain
Well-known member
My car is old and does not go to the dealer for service. But I have found that almost without fail mechanics want to put at least 35 psi into tires. My latest regular shop has finally learned that my tires are 32 all round. And their gauges appear to match mine.
Lou's Garage
Well-known member
After the last tire change, I checked it over as I always do. The left side tires were at 36 psi while the right side were at 32 psi. The lug nut torque varied side-to-side as well. Makes me want to go back to doing my own.
Lou Manglass
Lou Manglass
Finallygotit
ALLIANCE MEMBER
If you have to recheck the work that you paid "supposed" professionals to do, you might as well do it yourself. That's my motto!
Lou's Garage
Well-known member
...and I do, except for tires. I have changed hundreds, maybe thousands, of tires during the time I actively turned wrenches for a living (60's - 80's). I gave up changing my own a few years ago when my equipment became obsolete and unable to be adapted to modern tire sizes and rim configurations. It has also become a problem to get rid of the used tires. Now I just re-check the work before I go rolling off. Often, I just bring in the wheels and tires for mount and balance. I recently purchased a brand-new car and the tire pressures were all 5 psi high. I assume shops do this so when drivers go 5000+ miles without checking their tires, the tires will not lose enough air to go dangerously low.If you have to recheck the work that you paid "supposed" professionals to do, you might as well do it yourself. That's my motto!
Lou
Chores have taken over my life. That's my excuse for not updating my own thread for a week. My calendar is on the computers but I live by one or both of Liane's paper ones (one in the kitchen and the other in the mistress bath). My other calendar is the pill box. I have two 7-day pill boxes that I fill every other Tuesday (some time back I forgot to take my pills on two very separate occasions). Having to refill those containers reminds me to check the chlorine tablets in the pool's dispenser (and check the pressure on the filter).
We wear battery powered watches so every once in a while I have to replace them. A decade or so back I bought a Seiko Solar watch and thought half my battery changing days were behind me. I bought the first one in Costco for about $99. When the crystal and band got really scratched up I bought a used one in much better condition for $42.79 on eBay and two years later bought a third for $47.50. Original on the left, third in the middle and second on the right.
Turns out those solar watches charge a capacitor, which lasts 10 or 20 years (first one lasted 15) and all the two I bought needed was a new capacitor. The capacitor is way more expensive than a regular watch battery at $21. In addition, the capacitor has a tab held in place by a screw, which has to be removed to get the capacitor out. It's a tiny tiny screw and it's slotted so a challenge to remove and replace. At least it's a challenge to replace.
I have done it successfully twice in the past so I hoped this time would be a repeat performance. I mean it's a slotted screw.
Turns out the screw isn't stainless steel so it came out and stuck to the lightly magnetized S2 1:0 bit from my ORIA bit set. I have smaller size screwdrivers in the watch repair kit but they aren't magnetized.
That ORIA set of bits has gotten me through a whole bunch of electronics repairs and for $15 has earned its price many times over.
You would think I could do this job again with no problem. Well, keeping that big flat head slotted screw lined up was a giant pain. The screw kept walking around the point of the bit. I got it real close but it would flip every time.
Eventually I managed to flick the screw off the end of the screwdriver and I heard that horrible sound of something tiny bouncing around on the rubber mat under my feet. Spent way too much time looking for it with magnets and lying on the floor with an LED light shining across the rubber surface and placed an order for two new screws.
Battery powered watches are looking a lot more attractive right now. The Timex on my wrist is still ticking along just fine.
The Citroën 2CV (Deux Chaveaux or Two Horscpower) was so revolutionary they probably never considered balancing the tires. It was shod with Michelin's first radial tires and its body had swappable doors -- you could replace a right front door with a left rear one so all four doors were mirror identical with the opposite corner. I did a quick Google and it turns out even the DS had such a small hole in the center of the wheel that I doubt any of the '55 to '75 wheels could be balanced on a standard US tire balancing machine.
When we returned from Australia in 1991 I bought a 1989 Chrysler LeBaron convertible for Liane and it still had a transferrable warranty so I paid the reasonable amount to extend it. Less than a year later the dashboard died and it was a $700 repair I didn't have to do or pay for. It wasn't enough to make me long for another new vehicle. My car buying program involves making payments first (hopefully with some growth) and then taking a check for the amount I want to pay filled out. It only lacks the payee name and my signature. Amazing how a used car dealership can adjust their asking price to match my check (I leave the checkbook at home).
I suspect shops put higher pressures in tires so the customer will return with complaints about the rough ride, concluding with some thorough cleaning of the suspension components and replacement of the near new shock absorbers. "While I have your wheels off, would you like me to replace your calipers, rotors and pads?" "You can never be too careful."
We wear battery powered watches so every once in a while I have to replace them. A decade or so back I bought a Seiko Solar watch and thought half my battery changing days were behind me. I bought the first one in Costco for about $99. When the crystal and band got really scratched up I bought a used one in much better condition for $42.79 on eBay and two years later bought a third for $47.50. Original on the left, third in the middle and second on the right.
Turns out those solar watches charge a capacitor, which lasts 10 or 20 years (first one lasted 15) and all the two I bought needed was a new capacitor. The capacitor is way more expensive than a regular watch battery at $21. In addition, the capacitor has a tab held in place by a screw, which has to be removed to get the capacitor out. It's a tiny tiny screw and it's slotted so a challenge to remove and replace. At least it's a challenge to replace.
I have done it successfully twice in the past so I hoped this time would be a repeat performance. I mean it's a slotted screw.
Turns out the screw isn't stainless steel so it came out and stuck to the lightly magnetized S2 1:0 bit from my ORIA bit set. I have smaller size screwdrivers in the watch repair kit but they aren't magnetized.
That ORIA set of bits has gotten me through a whole bunch of electronics repairs and for $15 has earned its price many times over.
You would think I could do this job again with no problem. Well, keeping that big flat head slotted screw lined up was a giant pain. The screw kept walking around the point of the bit. I got it real close but it would flip every time.
Eventually I managed to flick the screw off the end of the screwdriver and I heard that horrible sound of something tiny bouncing around on the rubber mat under my feet. Spent way too much time looking for it with magnets and lying on the floor with an LED light shining across the rubber surface and placed an order for two new screws.
Battery powered watches are looking a lot more attractive right now. The Timex on my wrist is still ticking along just fine.
Rick, I think the wheel alignment ramps, especially without any turntables, was a really good deal for a blast and paint job on that trailer. My total annual driving spread across three vehicles is less than 1,000 miles in a year. Even if the alignment machine took up no valuable garage space, I would have to spend hours re-learning it for an alignment each and every time. My crystal clear memories of things I did 70 years ago is matched by my complete inability to remember what I did yesterday.
@Squankum, I used some bad language removing the cast iron cylinder head from the Vega's aluminum block to replace the head gasket on a 4-year old car. Removing the engine from the car, removing everything from the bottom end and then using the wonky spring compressor that worked like a weird Vicegrip plier would have turned me into a mumbling idiot. My first spring compressor, to replace a couple of bent valves, still visits me in my nightmares.Look on the bright side! No head gasket problems! Also, I bet the crankcase stays in the car while you lift the engine block part up off of it, so that's not so bad, either. What's probably hard is finding the machinist with tools to do the job at that depth.
Similarly, I learned this week that if you have a Citroen 2CV, your local tire shop won't be able to spin balance your wheel/tire. See pic of wheel below!
That's the thumbnail for a video I watched the other day, and yep, balance beads cured his 2CV's vibrations. The horrible noise of the engine straining and wind remained, of course.
The Citroën 2CV (Deux Chaveaux or Two Horscpower) was so revolutionary they probably never considered balancing the tires. It was shod with Michelin's first radial tires and its body had swappable doors -- you could replace a right front door with a left rear one so all four doors were mirror identical with the opposite corner. I did a quick Google and it turns out even the DS had such a small hole in the center of the wheel that I doubt any of the '55 to '75 wheels could be balanced on a standard US tire balancing machine.
You had me with stings but garbage bags filled with anything has sent me into a feverish dream.
Rick, I get the idea of the talcum powder inside a really durable bag but without the degree markings I wouldn't have any frame of reference to make adjustments from.
Joel, our son is a TV junkie just like his mother but he has raised seven children who all do actual work. The smartest girl went and got a masters in early childhood development and became a teacher. It was her dream job until an 'active shooter' event put her in a tiny closet with her whole class of 6 year olds. The insanity of trying to keep those kids calm and quiet forced her to submit her resignation. She continues in the education field but preparing tailored teaching programs for school systems. Some of the rest are in the family construction business while others are in the military: our 6 foot 6 inch grandson works in a US Navy psychiatric ward and his wife is in the Air Force. They know me well enough to put their phones down so I can see their faces rather than just the top of their heads.
Gerry, I quit buying new vehicles in the US in 1971 and only bought a new car in Australia because I lacked the tools to repair our only enclosed form of transportation (Liane chose bicycle bus and train travel rather than learning to drive on the other side of the road). Only one of our current vehicles has TPMS sensors so tire pressure checking is one of my simple checks, especially when the temperature changes (from 70° to 90°) or we're taking a trip involving more than three miles on the local roads. I tend to run my tires a little higher with the rubber bands on the Cadillac running 36psi and the Corvette and PT Cruiser at 34 psi. It might cause some increased wear on the center of the tire but a panic avoidance maneuver feels more secure with a little higher pressure.
When we returned from Australia in 1991 I bought a 1989 Chrysler LeBaron convertible for Liane and it still had a transferrable warranty so I paid the reasonable amount to extend it. Less than a year later the dashboard died and it was a $700 repair I didn't have to do or pay for. It wasn't enough to make me long for another new vehicle. My car buying program involves making payments first (hopefully with some growth) and then taking a check for the amount I want to pay filled out. It only lacks the payee name and my signature. Amazing how a used car dealership can adjust their asking price to match my check (I leave the checkbook at home).
Andrew, I am not familiar with these "mechanics" you speak of. The places I've been to only have Kay's "flying monkees" holding tools. Aside from their screeching, the only sound they make is from a giant air impact. For heaven's sake it's a valve cap!
Lou, you fail to recognize the skills of these 'flying monkees.' They can tell from the sound of the air going into a tire exactly how much pressure is in it. The gauge is just a guess. Same with the torque -- that giant impact makes a special sound when the lugnut is tightented to the proper number. Why would you trust a manual wrench that clicks or beeps?
Dan, I'm with you. Why pay someone else to screw things up when I can do it myself for free.If you have to recheck the work that you paid "supposed" professionals to do, you might as well do it yourself. That's my motto!
Lou, I also brought the wheels and tires to the shop so I wouldn't have to listen to the lectures on how many of those nearly new parts on my car were dangerously worn out and needed immediate replacement. Not agreeing to the repairs was like rejecting the offer from a life insurance salesman to save my family from misery and death.
I suspect shops put higher pressures in tires so the customer will return with complaints about the rough ride, concluding with some thorough cleaning of the suspension components and replacement of the near new shock absorbers. "While I have your wheels off, would you like me to replace your calipers, rotors and pads?" "You can never be too careful."
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gman007
Well-known member
Bob
Thanks for the ORIA Amazon link. I just ordered a set.
Thanks for the ORIA Amazon link. I just ordered a set.
Geoff289
Well-known member
it's always been my theory that the tyre/tire pressure stickers on the door jamb or wherever are written by auto company marketing people rather than engineers for a softer ride. I'd always put a couple more psi in than the sticker advises.
OutlawDrifter
Well-known member
Bob, appreciate the link to the Oria tool kit. Added to my list.
I've got a similar Citizen Eco-Drive that I used to wear daily until I went back to a Timex Expedition Atlantis. I've always had good luck with Timex watches and generally end up back with one on my wrist.
I've got a similar Citizen Eco-Drive that I used to wear daily until I went back to a Timex Expedition Atlantis. I've always had good luck with Timex watches and generally end up back with one on my wrist.
Just a little powder to encourage the already slippery plastic to wiggle about some more.
I didn't really mean caster plates for measurement so much as just slip plates to let the suspension pieces relax, not be bound, so measurements of things like caster and toe can be more accurate. Another old method was two squares of linoleum flooring with some oil between them.
And as for measuring caster, I hadn't thought of that. I've spent my life in a "that can't be adjusted" world -- or, my motorsports experience for caster and sometimes camber was "YES! As much as it will allow us!" and then, toe. I was living in Stock class world, or another class whose rules were overlaid on top of that foundation of Stock class rules. In the case of caster in the latter class, once we realized Caster Is Good, our limiting factor was the size of the hole in top of the strut tower. So basically at the rearmost spot on that circle, and caster could be created with much leniency in the rules with parts/struts down at the knuckle.
So that's how my weird little brain reacts to these topics.
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gman007
Well-known member
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Grizz1963
Well-known member
And thanks to the Amazon prime it arrived the next day
One of the most valuable aspects of this forum and guys like Bobs thread……
Knowledge.
Tempted, but I will ***** about not buying a set to add to my impressive collection of unused or once used tools.
.
gman007
Well-known member
A man can never have enough tools (used or unused)
If diamonds are a girls best friends, tools are a man’s best friends!
