Topics

http://www.sema.org/main/semaorghome.aspx?ID=58446

found this on a mb forum...  190E to chevy ls6 swap... nice picts

http://forums.mbworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=207515

http://www.nuparts.com/index.cfm


i ran across this places catalog a bunch of years ago..

they are one of the few places i have ever found that sells steering column parts like column upper housings and other small parts that dealers don't have any more... their products  are available through some junkyards also...


just thought everybody should know....

yea i know.. epoxy does not work... but there is a way to do it ...

after cleaning the exterior of the area to be patched.  sand paper, scotch bright. what ever it takes to get it clean. no power tools ok...


aluminum foil tape is available at most home centers and hardware stores...

this tape is real aluminum... not duct tape. although that might also work.


lay two strips side by side stickey side up and overlap one onto the other to make a wide piece of tape.

mix the epoxy and spread it onto the middle of the stickey side of the tape and install it...  the tape keeps the epoxy from dripping down and out of place... be sure to press the bottom of the patch to force some of the epoxy though any holes. smoothing as you go. then press the tape onto the cleaned area surrounding the epoxy... and it done...

no leaks , no drips, no errors.... oh yea.. i usually use 5 minute titianium filled epoxy. or at least it says that on the lable.


and for the humor.. decades ago. i had to finish a 69 el camino customers project late one night.  the last part of the job was to fix the leaking fuel near the tank...    oops.. shulda looked first..  where the filler neck goes into the side of the tank there are two metal fatigue cracks. this is do to the spring loaded bellows on califorinia gas nozzles.  so i pull the tank.. wash it out with soap and water.. several times..  run an air hose into it for while with the sending unit removed. i then place it out in the middle of the hand car wash parking area.. ( i've seen tanks blow up from welding)  i took my welding torch , layed down on the pavement and moved the tip of the flame into the filler neck.. nothing... then into the sending unit opening....WWWWOOOOOOOIIISSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH..

it was really loud.. sounded like a huge elephant trumpeting... as soon as it happend ( the tank was huge , but in one piece) i was laughing so hard my ribs were cramping.. i was rolling around on the parking lot holding my chest.. the gas station crew ran over to see how much damage i had caused to myself...they started kicking me trying to get me to stop laughing...

   the next day a friend who lived 5 blocks away came by to ask if i had hurd anything last night..  he said it was the strangest sound he had ever hurd. he thought it was funny once i told him i was only me...


if i had left the air hose or a vacuum cleaner blowing IN. the concentration of fumes would have stayed below the explosive level.

yes another tip for the flush area.

gm made a really nice 90 degree bend that can be installed on most gm transmissions to clear headers, crossmembers or other items...

it come on 79 to 85 eldorados, toronados, rivierias and 80 to 85 sevilles(yep the big ugly slant back ones).   these cars were front wheel drive with longatudinal motors not transverse motors.

i really dont know if they were installed on earlier models.
they do come in handy as they can be installed in mulitiples... so you can bend it up and then forward.

ok guys... heres a tip to make installing mechanical fuel pumps quick and easy...  yea.. i know about the bolt in the front hole thing... this is even faster....  
 
first a bit of theory...  
 
the fuel pump eccentric is on the cam.. it is on the non push side at #1 tdc compression. so pull the sparkplug and bump it till you get compression on #1.  or pull the #6 and then go one more turn on the crank...  
 
one the pump is off..  and you have glue the gasket to the new pump face with super weather strip adhesive.. and when it is set... disconnect the battery... pull the dip stick. run it down from the to behind the alternator and flat into the opening.. work it in front of the pushrod.  you can then push the fuel pump in the hole using the fuel pump lever to push the dipstick back agenst the pushrod and drop it in..  pull the dipstick and bolt it in...

once you try the idea you'll love it...  

share it.. amaze friends...

i have spent many grimy hours trying to get that pushrod back until i figured this out...

http://www.asashop.org/autoinc/may2003/techtotech.htm

there are some more great articals there also...

Hi  again... a while back i ask on another thread if anyone has used this  
 
http://www.bondo-online.com/catalog_item.asp?itemNbr=661  
 
i don't know how many people have tried it or even thought about using it...  
 
at the shop i worked at a while back the body guy used it for everything...  
 
i found several great non listed uses for it...  
 
gluing rearview mirrors back on.   reattaching loose body trim.  and one of the best uses was filling the hollows in motor mounts and tranny mounts. it makes then solid.  with still a little damping.. on taurus / sable 3.0 tranny mounts i started filling them new to avoid comebacks on repeat customers.. the tech across the street filled his drag honda mounts with it...and loves it...  
 
this stuff was originally  designed to repair enduro bumpers.. black rubber on  a steel backing without needing to be black coated.  
 
i just thought i would share more of the trick stuff that falls out of my toolbox..

http://www.amazon.com/s/103-4946063-4533435?ie=UTF8&search-alias=automotive&field-brandtextbin=Mitchell1


Mitchell1 eAutoRepair Do-It-Yourself Automotive Repair Information (4-Year Activation Card) Price: $13.93


there are one week cards, one month cards, one year cards, and 4 year cards..



and alldata through autozone

http://www.alldatadiy.com/    

is also a great source of info also..

much of it the same just sorted totally differntly



this is the same stuff professional mechanics have


oh yea it limited but autozone.com has a repair instructions area with wiring diagrams and tons of other info on some popular models...

including great diagrams and  blow apart diagrams...

all for free..

http://www.autozone.com/shopping/repairLanding.htm

i saw the post in the tech archives and thought of this part i had changed one time on my brothers 75 volvo 164E.

it uses a conventional cable to operate . (an underdash mounted choke type cable is what i am thinking)  the end of the coiled tube needs to be placed in the airflow after the heater core.  it will maintain the temp within a few degrees.  other models of volvos use different shaped units at least one with long temp tube...

hope this helps someone stay comfy warm this winter...

what what am i thinking these are hot rods, nobody drives them in the winter... nobody drives them in water,  nobody drives them through salt water,

being bored i have bookmarked a yahoo random link generator and this popped up

http://www.delcoremy.com/Form_download.htm

it has a ton of infomation abour starters and alternators..delco units mostly.. but the core guide has all brands listed...

for those people who just love to fill their hard drives....

an empty hard drive is like an empty desk/toolbox, nothing there to work with.

at the back of the tech manual there is a huge section on how to wire alt/starter systems properly.

and while i am on the subject...

i saw the pic of 974 with the heads off and the starter shown..

does anybody else use a ford starter relay to power their starters with a jumper wire between the starter bat post and the solenoid directly. with the remote solenoid the main cable to the saterter does not have any power on it except when the remote solenoid is engauged..

starter solenoids can take as much as 50 Amps to pull the plunger in, that shoves the pinion gear into the flywheel teeth before the disc contact can close spinning the armature.

think of how it is wired..     battery to the ign switch through a N safety switch then all the way back to the starter...   50 amps...

mopar uses a relay that only energises the solenoid on the starter.  this works well also   but still there is power running down the battery cable to the starter. just waiting to get shorted out on the headers...

think of the lincoln 460s that used a gm type of solenoid on top of the starter. with that little strap between the  bat post and the s term.

planetary gear reduction starters (lightweights) also have a huge solenoid  that can draw close to 50 amps.. i've measured it with an amp clamp.


oh well that enough rant for now....   enjoy...


and guys .... rosin core solder to solder wires  not acid core... the acid will eat the copper wires and they wil get brittle and fall off...

ok more things out of my fertile mind.. must be all the fertilizer

rear ends...
one of the help your self junk yards on alameda st just north of manchester ave has got 5 or 6, 80' up jags just sitting there.  just a few parts removed... but i am thinking fords irs like out of a irs mustang cobra.  

a few thoughts on that though.   89 up Tbirds, mark VIII lincolns also use a simular setup.  i was reading about the later model conventional axle 8.8" rear ends with the 31 spline axles instead of the 28 spline units,  if one could swap the 31 spline diff into the 28 spline housing. the mustang unit bolts onto the factory leaf spring mounts which makes it interesting to me. and it has outboard brakes.  my family ended up with a bunch of rovers 2000 tc,sc, 3500s, ser 2a 109, ser 3 88 santana, so i am familiar with inboard brakes..........

the last thing i was wondering about was the corvette rear tranaxle.  looks like the new style TH- 6 bolt tailhousing is the same bolt pattern as the front of the transaxle. so by removing the extension one could have a transaxle set up for mid engine cars or rear engine streamliners.. if you used a manual tranaxle and bolted it to the back of 4L60 4L80 hmm...  that just does not sound right. but....


wayne  thinker of fertilizer

i have been thinking about how to measure downforce / loading of the rear tires on the back of race cars for a while.(without a windtunnel). i read and saw the videos of the spins up on the salt and remember seeing all the nextel cup cars loosing the rear and swapping ends.

my ideas. optional and open for debate or whatever.

using bimbo double acting cylinders in a master / slave set up piggybacked to the rear shock mounts. left and right slave cylinders in cockpit agenst a scaled backplate. so when the car goes down under load the master is compressed at the rear end and the slave is extended or retracted depending on which way it is plumbed. video cameras record both the run and the movement of the slave cylinder motions.    

i have followed a trench plate shoring co. flatbed trailer out here in los angeles and they have a gauge mounted in a tail lamp hole.  yes i was that close. the gauge bumps around but shows how much weight is on the trailer.  i guess it was cheeper to install that then getting nailed for being overweight.  it looked like it was attached to the air suspension on the airbag side of the control valve.

idea #2  uses the gauge on the dash. and a custom short stroke hydraulic cylinder to mount the rear springs to. or the coil overs.
this would not be hard to build.  one could almost use a disc brake caliper cut in half.  cut in half means removing the stationary side of the caliper. or maybe even leaving it whole and inserting a block ( i am thinking of a gm style front brake caliper) to stop the piston from coming totally out if the car goes airborne.

idea #3 uses electronics and sensors from lincoln mark 7 air suspension. i have not researched what voltage in and out these level sensors use.   someone will know...  and i thought i knew everything.

these could be hooked to a data logging system that may be installed on the cars.

i just think a bit more down force might be better. i've never been to the salt. el mirage a few times decades ago.  both my autoshop teachers 78/79 were members of the 200 mph club. roger gates and monte wolfe so i kind of got lead that way.  i used to run a renault daulphene powered sand rail up there as a kid. OCIR was a favorite haunt and i worked for big willie robinson at terminal island raceway back in 83 84.

at ocir in the late 70's i ask a wheel manufacturers  rep if they could cast directional blades in the wheels. he said it was impossible.  i guess he was wrong. hmm  and i ask my brother in law a professional plumber back in the early 80's if lead is so poisioness whey are we using it to soldier pipes?

wayne

also got me thinking some of you remember my last boat trip.  i navigated with a handheld gps.  has anyone installed a gps unit on the dashboard  with a rooftop antenna to accurately  measure groundspeed. and map it out after the run.