What are some car-repair jobs you always wished you could do but have never done?

On Sat, 4 Nov 2017 22:37:59 +0000 (UTC), RS Wood >
wrote:

wrote:
>
>>>How can you do a proper alignment if you don't load the suspension?
>>
>> You can adjust it with the tie-rod on the bench if you want to and
>> are smart enough to figure out how many turns it takes. Only the
>> measurement requires the suspension to be loaded.
>
>Thanks for answering as I know that the measurement is what takes loading
>of the suspension.
>
>I guess, at home, time isn't the issue, but it is a pain to load, measure,
>unload, adjust, load, measure (repeat).
>
>Then again, it doesn't really matter if it takes a week to do the alignment
>as it's not a critical issue if it's close enough and not driven for long.
>
>Of course, it has to be checked again after doing the camber and caster.

That's why you set the camber and caster FIRST!!!!
>
>I forget the proper order from high school mechanics class.
>I think it's either caster, then camber, then toe?
>Or it might (offhand) be the other way around?
>
>If toe is last, then unloading, adjusting, reloading makes more sense.

On Sat, 4 Nov 2017 16:33:57 -0700, The Real Bev >
wrote:

SNIPP
>
>>> Alternators, generators, starters, water pumps, motor mounts, brake
>>> pads/drums, hoses, belts.
>>
>> I think almost everyone has done that, where we can throw in voltage
>> regulators and batteries to alternators, and we can add starters and
>> batteries to that list.
>>
>> With water pumps goes the entire assemblage of while-you're-there jobs such
>> as belts and fan clutches and radiators and harmonic balancers.
>
>I cut my hands to ribbons on the first water pump -- the fan (which had
>to be removed) was attached with at least 4 bolts which could only move
>1/4 turn without repositioning the 12-point box wrench, the only thing
>that would fit. I swore I'd never do that again no matter how much it
>cost -- until I found out how much it DID cost. Some of us are too
>cheap for our own good.

KD makes a special tool for that - at the value O put on skin and
suffering, cheap at twice the price
>
>> With motor mounts there isn't much ancillary work that people do,
>
>The old one wouldn't come out. I spent a lot of time with my fingers in
>an excellent position to be removed if the jack holding up the engine
>failed. I ended up just slapping the new one on top of the old one.
>
>> but with
>> brakes there's the whole shebang from pads and sensors to calipers and
>> rotors and bearings and speed sensors, and abs intricacies.
>
>The ones I did were simple. The hard part was remembering how the damn
>springs on the drums went. I couldn't believe how easy pads were; it
>took me longer to find the C-clamp than to do the work :-(
A cell phone camera makes all of that SO much simpler!!!
>

On 11/4/2017 12:17 PM, RS Wood wrote:
> Well, if replacing a timing belt is that easy, then maybe it's not so much
> a crime that they put a 60k-mile part inside an interference engine.

It'd the suspense that kills you. My Harley has a belt drive and the
belt failed at around 45000. No sign of damage or deterioration just a
clean break. I rode to work in the morning, came out, started the
engine, let the clutch out and didn't go anyplace.

Replacement is fairly easy on a Sportster but Harley is very proud of
their belts, around $150 iirc. All things considered that's cheaper than
chains if you put significant miles on a bike.

On 11/4/2017 12:17 PM, RS Wood wrote:
> So I don't see how you can ever do car tires right at home because you
> can't finish the job right. For some reason, motorcycle tires work just
> fine without dynamic balancing.

The bike I have that has tube tires is a DR650, dual spot, enduro,
whatever you want to call it. I'm not sure if you ever tell if the tire
was balanced with knobbies. Dunlop 606s are really rough but the Kendas
I have on now aren't a Cadillac smooth ride.

You get good at changing them because those style of tires are good for
about 6000 miles at the outside.

On 11/4/2017 3:13 PM, Tekkie® wrote:
> rbowman posted for all of us...
>
>
>>
>> On 11/03/2017 08:42 PM, RS Wood wrote:
>>> What are some car-repair jobs you always wished you could do but have never
>>> done?
>>
>> Painting is something I have done and wish I never had... The best
>> paint guy I ever knew was someone you had to catch in the zone between
>> sober but shaky and falling down drunk. The runner up was a complete
>> stoner.
>
> From the paint?
>

The paint fumes didn't help but the #1 guy's choice was Budweiser. #2's
choice was anything he could get his hands on but speed makes painting fun.

On 05/11/17 11:33, wrote:
> On Sat, 4 Nov 2017 21:19:50 +0000 (UTC), RS Wood >
>> I do agree that PCV valves and condensers and points and carbs required
>> maintenance basically yearly or every two years at the longest.
> Often TWICE a year - spring and fall tuneups were common.

My grandfather had a pair of Jowett Javelins in the 1950's.
With the Solex carbies, tuneup's were more of a morning *and* afternoon
thing.

wrote:

>>Of course, it has to be checked again after doing the camber and caster.
>
> That's why you set the camber and caster FIRST!!!!

Thanks for reminding me that it's caster, then camber, then toe!

I don't know if they teach auto mechanics anymore in high school, but that
class was a godsend, even for me, a college-prep kid.

I used that shop class more than I used calculus in my life.
I betcha they don't even have woodshop for the boys anymore.
Or homeec for the girls.

My grandkids are taking coed cooking classes in high school, but they don't
even offer the shop classes we had when I was a kid.

wrote:

>>For example, in the olden days, how many rotted out "mufflers" did you
>>replace compared to today?
> No lead and phosphorous in the gas makes a BIG difference - as does
> more complete combustion. Stainless steel doesn't hurt either.

Yet there is a lot more aluminum in engines nowadays.

I don't see how the lead matters although we all went through the phase
where we switched from leaded cars to lead-free cars and had to change
pumps in the process.

I still don't see how the *gas* has anything to do with engines lasting
longer. Maybe it does, but I don't see the connection.

wrote:

> My neighbor still has a "Step 2" picnic table and teeter totter we
> bought for our grand kids 15 years ago. His grand daughter is
> outgrowing it now but they are still holding up.

That reminds me. The white plastic topped and steel legged Costco picnic
tables are *all* cracked and sunburned with holes in the corner.

I've been meaning to return mine to Costco to give them a piece of my mind
since the tables have "lifetime warranty" molded into the cheap plastic.

They should make everything that is plastic intended for outdoors out of
whatever plastic it is that they use for those wheeled garbage bins from
the garbage company.

Clifford Heath wrote:

> I suspect that better computer simulation, especially thermal
> modeling, has the most to do with it. There are manufacturing
> breakthroughs also, like bearing seals that actually seal the
> bearings, and better materials. Better anti-corrosion chemistry.
> Stuff like that.

Oh. That's interesting. What you're saying is that the manufacturers are
using computers to make cars, which helps make better cars.

That may very well be the case, since computers can be used to easily hone
quality, bit by bit by bit, simply because of the inherent re-use that
computers easily allow.

You're right but I don't understand why we used to pack wheel bearings
periodically and now we don't. Who doesn't remember glopping grease on your
palm and then slapping a bearing through that grease?

A kid of 30 or 40 years old doesn't know what we're talking about.

Likewise, who hasn't squirted grease into a ball joint until it squirted
back out of the pregnant rubber cup making farting sounds? Or a driveshaft
u-joint where is just squirted out noiselessly.

What's with bearings nowadays. Why don't wheel bearings need to be packed
anymore and u-joints not need lubrication and ball joints not need it?

What did they do differently?