Underground Lair of the Squankum

Squankum · Dec 25, 2013

Picayune Project

This is my Sven saw. There are many like it, but thank goodness, this one is mine. They're awesome for backpacking, and pack nicely for other kinds of camping, too.

http://www.svensaw.com/
Model 15UL-3
http://www.rei.com/product/404040/sven-folding-saw-15

There is a bigger one, 21" blade.

Buddy of mine has a 15", lost his wingnut. I measured mine to send him one for Christmas.

For those of you who get here via the google, the wing nut for the fifteen inch is:

5/16" diameter, 18 tpi (threads per inch)

I got two at my local Ace Hardware for $1.29/ea, stainless.

Squankum · Dec 25, 2013

Want to see my nuts?

Stamped steel nut at left is the OE nut that came with the saw.

Ace Hardware stainless nut is to the right.

Attention ultralight freaks: the two combined barely crack half an ounce. I'd say the stamped nut is 0.3 oz, the real nut 0.4 oz. I'm going with the upgrade, thank you. Then again, my postal scale is analog, so you ultralight folks do what you gotta do. Lighter is lighter.

Squankum · Dec 25, 2013

A quick tale. I bought these for the hefty Dodge SUV I work on.

Bosch 16010139 QuietCast Premium Disc Brake Rotor
Link: http://amzn.com/B004AG6WHK

Go read the link and see them pontificate about their very high quality metallurgy.

Squankum · Dec 25, 2013

Now, all I could think of Graham Chapman introducing the Monty Python Holy Grail soundtrack album, "Introduction to the Executive Album Edition", in which he spends much time congratulating the listener for buying the executive quality version, and then, after all that he farts. "You can edit that out, right?"

You might hear it here, if you're on the right device.

After all that metallurgical bragging (did you read the link?) here's what happened to one of two rotors within one day of light duty. Small crack, big noise. CHUFF... CHUFF... CHUFF....

I ordered a 3rd, they've been fine. But for the price... oh, and did I mention they're made in China? The zinc coating is nice, and purdy, not that I care, no fancy wheels that display brakes here. If I had to do it all over again, I'd ponder Raybestos and/or NAPA's finest.

gooned · Dec 26, 2013

Hanging out on the Lazeee boy, an entertaining & informativational read!
:thumbup:

Squankum · Jan 20, 2014

Do not drop Mitutoyo plastic caliper onto concrete floor. :sad:

Bought this about two years ago from Enco for $32ish; Mitutoyo doesn't seem to be selling things like this in the budget end of the market anymore.

Squankum · Jan 29, 2014

Recent garage fun:
Reman power steering pump install -- Saginaw type pump, leaking from bolt holes.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3699787#post3699787

Also, this past weekend, my first live axle maintenance. Dodge 9.25" rear end. Very easy job, very easy to get at. Even squeezing gear oil into the fill hole, bottle has all the room in the world.

Tricks I learned, for other 1st gen Durango folks out there:

Remove spare tire, gives you more room, and it's easy. Also gives you a lot more runway to get your skull up to speed before hitting something steel on the way out. (I want you ... to wire the Governor... and tell him I said... OW.)

Get sway bar out of the way. Remove bolts on bushing blocks on top of the axle tubes -- 15mm socket, qty 4, very easy. (Well, I'm south of the Rust Belt.) Attach bungee cord to swaybar and rear bumper area, it pivots out of the way nicely.

Then use string to tie parking brake cable sleeve to the bungee. Clear sailing!

Lesson learned: Pella type oil extractor is no match for room temperature gear oil!

Also had good luck with this special tool. (I love special tools.)

Lisle 50190 Gasket Separator
Link: http://amzn.com/B00396DMUM

Worth $20? I have no idea, I’ve never done this before. Putty knife would have worked fine, I bet. One of those things that’s probably great when you really need it.

It also makes a nice paddle to pull out thick puddles of gear oil and encourage them to leave the housing. Stupid thick gear oil!

Next time I warm the car up. (I knew better. D'oh!)

Squankum · Jan 29, 2014

Time for a filter change on the box fan! (Box fan air filter, as first seen in post #19.)

It's not that dirty. More of a gray than a brown.

How long did this take? I dunno... a year? Year and a half?

Squankum · Jan 29, 2014

A pleasant surprise. Ordered a replacement for the broken Mitutoyo calipers.

Fowler 54-101-150-2 Stainless Steel Frame Xtra-Value Cal Electronic Caliper, 6" Maximum Measurement
Link: http://amzn.com/B0015S6GMM

$31.96 -- about the same as the Mitu

I'm impressed! (OK, I know it's cheap, but I'm not a machinist, either.)

Metal ... won't break when dropped on concrete... still probably would become unusable, so that's a wash...

Thumbwheel, set screw, depth gauge stick.

Came with one battery installed and a spare battery. Also came with a plastic storage case.

Made in China, but not too shabby. I've heard some bad things about the cheapie HF digital calipers, so I'm trying this one.

Squankum · Jan 29, 2014

Another pleasant surprise was this feature:

Handy chart on the back of the calipers converting digital inch measurements into those infernal fractions.

Squankum · Jan 31, 2014

Now, sometimes I worry things to death and chase perfection, and sometimes I just want quick, fast, dirty, simple, brutal results, to save time and get on to more important projects.

I'd been keeping all my handwashing soaps on top of the electric water heater near the basement sink. I was getting sick of that.

Nail. Nylon clothesline, a few feet.

Squankum · Jan 31, 2014

Over-the-showerhead-pipe shower shampoo organizer.
$5.50ish (Wal-Mart), less than five minutes.

I pondered building a little shelf unit out of scrapwood, but... yeah. Done! Also, the place is a rental, and I'll have to bug out someday. The nail gets left behind. This stuff knocks down instantly. :bounce:

Squankum · Jan 31, 2014

Transmission oil change tonight. It has been... too long, perhaps. January 2001 was a while back. 66,681 miles on Redline MT90.

What got me worrying about the gear oil level was that the shifter was become light and easy to use. Which, if you know the VW 020 transaxle and Rube Goldberg plastic shift linkage, is not something people usually say about it. So, I thought, is it the leaking head gasket, getting oil on things? Or is the gear oil getting low? I mean, it's been COLD here lately and it's still been easy to get into gear.

So I figured I'd drain the oil and measure what comes out. (There's no good way to check "how full?" on this one. You fill it to the fill plug that used to be the high water mark for this design, then put plug in, add half a quart through the speedo cable hole.) More on the measuring of oil removal quantity later.

Until then, here's my drain plug and fill plug. Inspired by Greg Raven*, I'm guessing, back in the 80's, I did the two-part epoxy and Radio Shack magnets, now they attract ferrous bits. For 66K miles, not too shabby!

Of course, my 020 transaxle guru mocks these plug magnets, because there's a bigger magnet inside the transmission. Yeah, well, this is one I can see, monitor, and clean, and it's cheap.

bazzateer · Feb 1, 2014

Squankum said:
Oh, and another customization I do for my box fans: ................................
Someday I'm going to build better plywood feet for my box fans.

Wow! Your 'box' has fans? You a ***** star? :rocker:

Squankum · Feb 1, 2014

bazzateer said:
Wow! Your 'box' has fans? You a ***** star?

That's just how hot it gets down there. :thumbup:

Squankum · Feb 1, 2014

Gear oil change, Saturday morning, overnight drip:

Another thing I like about my fluid extractor is that it's a crude graduated cylinder. Each ridge on the outside is one liter. Standard quantity on a drain & fill on this gearbox is 2 quarts, and that's 1.89 liters, and I'd say I didn't lose much to leakage. I did find a drive flange seal leak however, so I guess I caught it early. That's a minor miracle, considering how little time I spend under this car in recent years. I didn't see any motor oil or gear oil leak making shift linkage bits wet, so I have no explanation for this inexplicable bout of... easy shifting.

Now, in the name of neatnikism, I used the extractor to **** about 1.5 quarts out the speedo cable hole last night. Then I opened the bottom plug and got the last half quart. Less splash, less mess, caught it all in the drain pan, let it drip overnight, poured drain pan into cylinder this morning to get a measure of the total removed. You could just use a pan to catch it all then pour it all, but that increases risks of splash, missing the funnel, clumsy moments, etc etc.

In related news, I was pleased to find this on the tubes last night. I bring you the late, great Phil Hartman, as The **** Retentive Carpenter:

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7256672212885802282

Squankum · Mar 2, 2014

Junkyard Follies!

A plumber's solution to a... plumbing problem. Late A2 Golf with Digifant, for you R/G/J/S nerds out there, but the water pipe being replaced is just the basic ol' VW pipe.

I thought this fix was a pretty brazen move. :lol_hitti

I only give it a B+, though, as it clanked around (no anchoring tab, like the stock one) and was bumping into some things below the oil filter because of that. But for nothing but 90 degree bends, really, it got the job done.

Squankum · Mar 2, 2014

Used battery for sale at the junkyard checkout. In a world full of "brand management" and Madison Avenue mumbo jumbo... somebody's selling car batteries in Baltimore under the name "The Usable." Maybe that's the mid-range battery in their lineup, above the "The Marginal" but below their finest, "The Not Bad, Considering."

Squankum · Mar 2, 2014

Hack move! I won't go into why I was hanging out in front of a Mitsubishi Eclipse long enough to risk getting some Jesse Pinkman on me, but I spotted this hose clamp situation. Somebody hated the spring hose clamp so much he didn't even take it off the hose! Just moved it up the hose then used a screw-type clamp. Other hoses still had OEM spring clamps, as did the other end of this hose.

I don't think it was a double-clamping situation. Just a guy flying along to beat the book rate, or a shadetree with no class. (Say, where's the smiley icon for me being a snob?)

Squankum · Mar 2, 2014

Now, being a caveman who likes his older cars, I'm always shocked to see what I consider to be new, luxurious, solid, very modern cars at this junkyard. This junkyard is part of a national chain, owned by a steel company, they're not really looking to make money, it's self-serve, they're just in it for the metal. All cars are brought in and paid for based on weight.

2002 Saab somethingorother. 175K mi. No crash damage. None. Clean.

Squankum · Mar 2, 2014

Front end. Again, no crash. I can only assume it was...

a) something to do with a mod-ren, newfangled, automatic transmission...
b) something to do with a high-tech turbo (this one's engine cover read eco-somethingorother)
c) lack of proper maintenance of a or b
d) or any other major repair price that made people throw up their hands, say "Screw it!", combined with:
e) current resale value of said car

As someone who never gives up on an old car (apply more cash, parts, sweat equity!) it all baffles me. I'm sure it was a nice car. OTOH, it's entirely possible this car was a royal PITA for years. And now it has been sold for scrap weight. Wow.

mannix · Mar 2, 2014

Transmission. Has to be.

Chilliwack Murray · Mar 3, 2014

Squankum said:
Used battery for sale at the junkyard checkout. In a world full of "brand management" and Madison Avenue mumbo jumbo... somebody's selling car batteries in Baltimore under the name "The Usable." Maybe that's the mid-range battery in their lineup, above the "The Marginal" but below their finest, "The Not Bad, Considering."

I once saw a gas station with a few service bays that was on "Marginal Blvd" and was called Marginal Service. They might carry this line.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Squankum · Mar 3, 2014

Chilliwack Murray said:
I once saw a gas station with a few service bays that was on "Marginal Blvd" and was called Marginal Service. They might carry this line.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh, that made me laugh! Thank you! :bounce:

920kip · Mar 3, 2014

Squankum said:
Car Customization I've Never Quite Grasped Dept.

Luggage racks. I remember English sports cars as a yute in the 70's, 80's, no shortage of them. Then came the Miata. I swear, I've only seen a piece of luggage on one twice in my life. This one is particularly clumsy looking.

Then again, I always thought the Z3 was kind of clumsy, too; they were trying to do too much retro on too short a car. Not enough room for the swoop they needed. See Z8 for proper proportions, oh my. But this, as Royal Tenenbaum said, is just one man's opinion.

I think that rack is from a 95' Honda Goldwing: headscrat
Love the projects.

Squankum · Mar 4, 2014

My Bullwinkle brain just realized that SAAB is a dead brand.

I'm not dead!

Bankrupt.

I feel better!

I checked, they're building cars again as of last fall, dunno about US importation.

That can't help for normal people whose transmission fails! Plus, age, mileage, and, of course, resale value, something normal people (unlike me) ponder before repairing something. That resale value, already probably not great because of (I'm guessing) problems with quality, probably really tanked when the brand did.

(Cranky old man hat on)

Never woulda happened if they'd just bought a manual transmission!

(Shake cane at passing children in 2,800 lb. Civics they consider "lightweight.")

Squankum · Mar 4, 2014

920kip said:
I think that rack is from a 95' Honda Goldwing: headscrat
Love the projects.

Yeah, how many options does a luggage rack consumer have anymore? If so, I appreciate the ingenuity. It's just hard to applaud ingenuity that leads to something ugly.

Thanks!

Squankum · Mar 21, 2014

Fun I had a few weeks ago. Inner CV joint maintenance, outer joint replacement.

As I took the ooky gooky apart for complete cleanup, new boot, reassembly, I thought... dang, am I the last guy in America who does this with CV joints? Only amateurs do this at home, right? The pros, I know they're under a whole different set of rewards/benefits/risks.

More later re. drive flange seals and diabolical German circlips.

Chilliwack Murray · Mar 21, 2014

They just "pop out"... Nothing to it... Chuckle.

Squankum · Mar 21, 2014

Chilliwack Murray said:
They just "pop out"... Nothing to it... Chuckle.

Pop out with a pickle fork? I wish!

In my world, it's six bolts with cap screw type heads with 12-point (triple square) internals. Not really a problem, since I was the last one to tighten them, and used a torque wrench.

My only real irk on this last driveshaft was that I used to be able to get shafts out of this car with the front tires on ramps, no ball joint monkey business, nothing like that. Just telescoped the inner CV in some and used a lot of careful geometry/visualization. Well, either I've forgotten my secrets or the drivetrain shifted. When I go after that long side shaft, if it's easy, that'll be a vote for "drivetrain shifted."

Chilliwack Murray · Mar 22, 2014

Back in the 70s and 80s they were rebuildable but now everyone throws in a reman. I remember many a late night wondering how to get those Allen head bolts out. Made me good at removing bolts with a hammer and chisel though.

Those circlips (apart from the fact that spellcheck is dead set against letting me type CIRCLIPS) are special, I've nearly pulled a car off the stands trying to get the cv shaft out, only to literally pop it out when pulling the pry bar out to give up and put it away. It's all in how fast you apply the force.

As for no longer having room to take them out, geometry is a harsh mistress sometimes. Not unlike the couch in the stairwell in that Douglas Adams book.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

n8n · Mar 22, 2014

I rebuilt two CV joints in my life... Would have been four except some idiot had put a Golf halfshaft with a GTI inner CV in my car so the new boot I bought wouldn't work. A reman halfshaft from the parts store was barely more than two of the boot kits, and while it may not have had pretty red synthetic grease in it, I also didn't spend all day soaking whirly bits in kerosene and gooshing grease through my fingers.

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Squankum · Mar 22, 2014

Heh heh... what scared me off reman axles? Seeing one!

I was at a friend's house/shop, years ago, he had been having problems with his autox Rabbit GTI, and on his workbench he had a (another?) reman driveshaft, and I saw things that were... wrong. I can't really remember right now. All I can say with perfect memory was zat is not ze proper German molybednum CV grease!

But there were other things. Bad things. Chunks of metal? Things that needed gentle filing with a small file to undo the damage? Other things that just made it look like it was assembled by savages in a big damned hurry. Some parts didn't even look VW-y at all. OK, not a great story I'm telling, I just remember a lot of hackery and swearing to not get involved in that. Also nothing about it gave me the impression that they'd done anything to remachine/reharden/use larger balls or any sophisticated remanufacturing process at all. Just clean, new boot, grease.

Which I can do, all with ze proper Lobro-ness.

As for kerosene and grease on the hands, this was the first job I learned about the wonderfulness of having loads of surgical gloves on hand! And paper towels. I'm a greenie weenie most of the time, but I'm sorry trees, a buncha you gotta die today. :lol:

Paper towels and a spray bottle of Castrol Super Clean works fine for me.

n8n · Mar 22, 2014

I had good luck with an outfit in Florida for budget-priced reman CVs for my 944 when one blew out on me at 0-dark-hundred December 24th one year. Fortunately on that car the axles are symmetric so I turned that one around until the new one arrived. It got replaced later with Genuine Porsche(tm) axles at substantial cost later on troubleshooting a vibration that turned out to be a bad wheel/tire... but that's another story... at least five (!!!!) supposedly good shops (including several Porsche specialty shops and Goss' Garage - yes, that one) either misdiagnosed or couldn't feel it until in desperation I bought a known good used set of wheels/tires and started swapping them out one by one... oh I wish I had my own tire machine and balancer...

I think I used Redline CV-2 or Mobil 1 synthetic grease in my stuff... I'm a big Redline fanboy but I changed my grease gun to Mobil 1 as Redline is a little hesitant about stating compatibility with any other grease on the market, and I can also buy Mobil 1 at any FLAPS.

Also, I don't think I've seen my Oetiker clamp pliers in 10 years or more... haven't really needed them either.

Squankum · Mar 22, 2014

n8n said:
I rebuilt two CV joints in my life... Would have been four except some idiot had put a Golf halfshaft with a GTI inner CV in my car so the new boot I bought wouldn't work.

Which also means they changed the output flange... at least on that side. Or changed transmissions.

You find things... you find things... buddy of mine bought a used A2 GTI back in the day and he wound up with a situation...

Gack, I forget, we fwdVW guys really are the MG guys of the new century...

... where either he bought a reman, or he found a driveshaft on his car, that just was not the right length shaft. It just wasn't from an A1 or A2. Too long is too long, and there comes a point where the inner CV just can't compensate. Or you can't get it installed.

Hmm, okay, logically speakin', that wouldn't be a shaft he found on his car, then. Must have been a reman. Another strike in my mental column against remans.

Not all remans. Just average remans.

and while it may not have had pretty red synthetic grease in it,

I've heard of racers using Redline, and I've been tempted but... the German moly stuff works fine for me. I think we all know what causes most CV failures, and I'm guilty of it with two outers right now. (Torn boots, years of putting it off.)

Squankum · Mar 22, 2014

n8n said:
Also, I don't think I've seen my Oetiker clamp pliers in 10 years or more... haven't really needed them either.

I may have questions for you about these pliers later on!

Squankum · Mar 23, 2014

020 transmission - while taking out the driveshaft for CV fun, I noticed the drive flange seal was leaking.

My tool for going after the drive flange seal. You've got to compress the big helical spring behind the flange, then you can remove the circlip.

Two inner CV bolts
A crossbar
10mm x 1.5 threaded rod
A nut for same

I made the crossbar back in the 90's when I knew less, and had fewer options for buying metal and working with it. It's really just a bunch of thin strips, stacked. When I dug into my box of special tools and found this kit in its Ziploc baggie, I swore I would redo the crossbar with some square steel bar/tubing, and then I ... used it on the car and it worked fine, so no need to improve this tool! Once the spring is fully bottomed out, the flange just can't go any further.

At first (faded memories) I forgot to space out the crossbar and just put it on the flange, but that leaves very little room for pliers, fat fingers, light, eyesight. Spacing it out two inches/50mm with the CV bolts makes acess perfect.

This is all a setup to the next post, about my circlip pliers.

Squankum · Mar 23, 2014

Years ago, I went crazy trying to do circlips on VW stuff using the pliers with the little tips. Those are meant for circlips with little holes in them!

What you need is snap ring pliers. Sears Cman 9 46948. I'm not sure if they still make them; I just took a quick peek at their website... but you know how their websites are... if I needed another pair of these nowdays, I'd go Wilde:

http://store.harryepstein.com/cp/MiscPliers/G704P.B.html

That'll get done what you need done on inner CV's and transmission stuff. The drive flange circlips, however...

Squankum · Mar 23, 2014

Grind or file the tips down to half their normal width, and then they can reach into the bottom of the drive flange a lot better, and they're still perfectly cromulent snap ring pliers for other applications.

Squankum · Mar 23, 2014

n8n said:
I had good luck with an outfit in Florida for budget-priced reman CVs for my 944 when one blew out on me at 0-dark-hundred December 24th one year. Fortunately on that car the axles are symmetric so I turned that one around until the new one arrived.

I'm not understanding this. What broke? How broken? Did you swap CV's side to side? Driveshafts side to side?

It got replaced later with Genuine Porsche(tm) axles at substantial cost later on troubleshooting a vibration that turned out to be a bad wheel/tire... but that's another story... at least five (!!!!) supposedly good shops (including several Porsche specialty shops and Goss' Garage - yes, that one)

Porter Goss, retired CIA director, has a garage? :lol_hitti

OK, I googled, and my memory was refreshed. Oh yeah, that guy.

either misdiagnosed or couldn't feel it until in desperation I bought a known good used set of wheels/tires and started swapping them out one by one... oh I wish I had my own tire machine and balancer...

Sounds like a lot of no-fun! It's good to have more sets of wheels and tires for weird situations like this. Snow tire and racing fiends just live this way, of course.

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