Technical Little tips and tricks for garage hobbyists.

Okay, I was told last night that the system has changed a bit here now. Seems that they still do walk ins, but you can make an appointment. If you don't show up on time, you lose your place and the clerk does walk ins until time for the next appointment. So, if you're late you make another appointment or wait with the rest of the walk ins.
Also, they've had webcams on the waiting room for years, so you can see how many are waiting at any time.
That doesn't seem so bad to me.

 

You have to realize that many of our bureaucratic positions are filled with people that could not get jobs in California. But I will say that all 3 people I talked to that day were very nice.

 

I rent a little one car storage unit were I store my 1954 Chevy ,Its not much but it gets her out of the WX and I can do some work there as well, I had a engine stand kicking around that I tried to sell on Facebook market and got no bites .I did not need it and I am not planing to build any engines so it was just in the way, I also had a bench vise I was constantly kicking around,One day I was doing some project and was wishing I had a work bench for the garage,Something portable, I got some s**** lumber at Home depot and I killed 3 birds with one stone,and built a bench ,Found a use for the engine stand ,A place for the vise, and got a small work bench that can be broken down or rolled out of the way. I am no carpenter but is pretty sturdy for what i use it for

 

Very clever Frank!

 

I like!

Ben

 

And you still have an engine stand if you need one.

 

Man, I have one of those on my desk at work for Scotch tape and that thought never occurred to me. Genius....maybe there's not one on my desk at work

 

Yep! Me , too! I seen them all over and never thoght anything about them….now I’m thinking about gluing it to a piece of steel to make it heaveier!



Bones

 

Or glue some rare earth magnets on it to stick to anything steel.

 

Totally stealing this one. One for the shiny black tape, one for the friction tape. Genius!

 

Probably a lot of you guys know this one. I use 0000 steel wool and some Flitz polish to clean and restore chrome gl*** and aluminum. It works amazing.

 

Man I have some vintage heavy metal tape dispensers out in a box in the garage. That's a great idea !

 

Maybe one of those strapping tape guns?

 

Never load or unload a car trailer up or down hill. Last night a friend needed someone to help their son who had lost a caliper mount bolt on a OT vehicle. I went to recover the vehicle while dad went to get new bolts and drive this way. Parked the dually up the driveway from the shop and we installed the new bolt still on the trailer. Checked the other bolts and went to drive it off. When he reached the ramps the truck started sliding backwards down the hill. I ran up, grabbed the door and dove in. As it was gaining speed I hit the brakes and fired it up. With me on the brakes it slid almost 30 feet. When the car hit the ramps the trailer CG shifted taking the weight off the rear tires. I didn’t expect that. No damage was done other than ruts in the gravel from tires and ramps.

 

I never thought of that, however I usually chock the trailer wheel when loading and unloading.
Dan

 

I had both the trailer and truck chocked with 4x4s. My driveway is apparently a little too steep. The trailer chock slid with the trailer.

 

Your mention of friction tape brought to mind what I use instead of friction tape. The black tape used on hockey sticks works better than basic friction tape, I use it when splicing woven wiring loom material.

https://howieshockeytape.com/collections/hockey-tape

 

Nothing like a rapid forced sweat.
Glad you out danced it.
Once pulling a Wagoneer 4x4, using a side road as I approach a stop sign the cross road is a good 6 feet lower than my road.
The difference is made up in about two and a half car lengths.
Wagoneer 4x4 is resting on the sling straps the bottom bar is under the bumper.
As I hit the brakes, full pressure, the weight of the Wagoneer is pushing down hard enough to make my steer tires lose traction and slide. ( apparently the rear drums aren't adjusted tight enough )
I had to ease up the brake enough to allow the front tires, and discs to grip the asphalt and do their job.
Meanwhile the whole mess rolled onto the crossroad. Thankfully the road just led to 2 farms and a deadend. YEESH

 

Scary I wonder if there is easy way to set the trailer brakes?
Dan

 

IF I’m ever crazy enough to do it again, I’ll lock it in 4X4 and the between the parking brake and the trans locking both ends, it should hold. But it would take something pretty serious to get me to try doing anything on the hill again.

 

How steep is the hill?
Dan

 

I’ll have to put the angle finder on it. If I had to guess I’d say between 10 and 15 degrees. It takes 4wd in the winter if we’re lucky but it’s only 300 ft. from the road to the garage Otherwise I clear a spot near the bottom and we can walk the fence up to the house where it levels off. The shop is about 1/3 of the way up if we can get there to park

 

Locking in 4x4 is your friend . The tongue weight changes and raises the rear axle of towing truck off the ground . I have seen it happen many times , loading and unloading equipment on the pipeline rigs . Scary stuff , the operator on the equipment on the trailer can do nothing but ride the **** storm out . Always tried to get to most level spot as possible . Most of the drags we used had feet to support the ramps which made it some what better . Air brake trucks helped .

 

When we bought this D-9 dozer the owner loaded it on the back of a four axle trailer….on an incline! As he climbed onto the trailer , the trailer and truck started heading down hill at a rapid pace, starting to Jack knife! I was observing this at a distance, thinking this is not end well for the guy we hired to haul this monster! The owner , cool as a cu***ber, just shifted the D-9 into reverse and backed it off the moving trailer , when the cleats reached the ground, everything stopped, short of any damage! Coolest thing I have seen in years!




Bones

 

When we loaded him there was a slight slope and his tires could barely get him up on the trailer. The truck didn’t show any signs of moving at all. But had he backed up on the trailer when it was slipping, it probably would’ve stopped everything as the weight returned to the rear axle of the truck.

 

Sometimes logic is a bit slow to show up during a crisis. Much easier to get it right the next time.

 

i'm not sure that is a 9.....

 

That's OK. I bet 99% of us don't know the difference between a D-9 Caterpillar and a rocking chair.

 

Here's one I discovered this afternoon when I was replacing some disk brake pads. I've always pulled both bolts out and removed the caliper completely (except for the rubber brake line) when replacing pads. I was having a hard time with the 2nd bolt on the first side that I did and accidently found that I could just pivot the caliper up and out of the way on the other bolt. Well, that saved some time and aggravation. By leaving one bolt in there was no need to fiddle around lining up the bolts again.

First pic shows one bolt removed and the piston/housing moved slightly. Second pic shows piston/housing swung completely out of the way allowing the pads to just about fall out.

Replace the pads; push the piston back in; swing the housing back down; reinstall one bolt; and boom; you're done.

NOTE: this may or may not work on other vehicles, but it worked this time on this one.