Technical Little tips and tricks for garage hobbyists.

Or hook up your timing light.

 

@rpm56,

Are you saying to hook up your timing light one plug wire at a time 'til you see what cylinder isn't firing (making the timing light blink)?

Brilliant. I'd have never thought of that.

 

For the small air tools, etc., etc.: I scored a three-drawer top chest from a roll around toolbox for dirt cheap a while back. It's now dedicated to air tool paraphernalia. Everything small enough to fit in those fairly shallow drawers. Air nozzles, as-yet unused quick disconnects, tire gauges, etc. All of the pieces that Bandit Billy shows (except for the extra long blow nozzle; I don't have one of those) reside in this top box. This one sits on top of a row of file cabinets that are full of "stuff." Impact wrenches and other big stuff is in one of the deep drawers in one of the roll-arounds.

I'd love to make/have an angle iron rack like Billy shows but I really don't have any wall space to put one.

 

As for roll-around toolboxes, I have two nice ones that I bought new. One two-piece box-store unit and one Grizzley three-piece. I also have two cheap estate sale two-piece units (with top chests). One is dedicated to all things angle grinder related. Wire wheels, flap disks, grinder wrenches, misc. abrasives, etc. The other is crammed full of automotive electrical. Wires, crimp connectors, tools, extra points/condensers/coils/etc. All 16 drawers are absolutely full.

Unfortunately there's no room for extra distributors. They reside in some racks that hang on the end of my wheel storage racks:

 

Think I may have posted this before; but here is my take on air tool storage. 1/4" close ******s welded on a 1/4" rod frame. With a collection of worn out and spare couplers screwed on. Top one is newer; Chinese fittings welded like some kind of mystery metal compared to the American fittings on the old rack below.

 

It's easy to make a long one whatever length you want. A short pipe ****** and a piece of brake line brazed, JB Weld or whatever to bond the two pieces

 

Love the simplicity to functionality ratio of this rig - all too often, stuff like this gets overthinked

 

Thanks man, but my peabrain isn't capable of overthinking.

And here's the fixture if you want to work on one. Also not overthought. One hole for SBC and one hole for nailhead.



b-t-w; the vise is one of the many I've "restored." Most were cheap rusty garage sale vises that I dis***embled, sandblasted, painted, and re***embled. All but a couple have been given away. All were made in the USA though.

 

@atch -Okay I'm definitely stealing that distributor rack idea thank you very much..I'm always amazed at the stuff I don't think of!

 

@jet996,

I see that you've only been here for a couple of years. Do yourself a big favor: pour your favorite drink and read this entire thread. It's a deep rabbit hole that'll take you a LONG time, but I guarantee it'll be worth it. Of course, if you've already done it please disregard this.

 

Follow up on the chemical cabinet heater. So I was in the garage when the temperature was below freezing (which is every day now) and I compared my wall thermometer to the inside of the cabinet. The pipe thawing cable keeps the inside of the cabinet just above freezing so I’m calling it a success! A little warmer would be better but I’m satisfied for now.

 

Been welding up the holes in the hinges, this copper backed vice grip thing makes short work of the job.
It's designed to be used on drilled out spot welds.

 

Where did you acquire this device?

 

Any piece of copper will do. Has to be thick enough to not melt through. A piece of an old buss bar or just a piece of copper pipe hammered flat and laid on the bench will back up a small hole. Or bend it to fit in a corner weld that doesn't fit so good. Carbon will work too if you can find some, anything the weld won't stick to. Aluminum doesn't work too well, it melts at such a low temperature that the surface can melt into your weld a bit.

 

Here I used a piece of old buss bar to make a mold of sorts to build up worn sprocket teeth on a WWII track rig.

 

Weasel?
Marcus...

 

Got mine from Ebay
Available in other places also
Copper Plug Spot Welding Clamp Pliers MIG Welder and Panel Repairs Plugweld Weld | eBay Australia

 

Weasel, yes.

 

I use a 1/8-inch-thick piece of br***, about half the size of a playing card. Got it at Metal By The Foot for a couple of bucks from their s**** bin. It's been perfect for 18-gauge sheet metal mig welding.

 

Probably most guys don't know what a weasel is. I posted this video around 15 years ago, after a couple years YouTube decided to reduce the quality dramatically for no reason that I can see. For any greenies, the land we were on was scheduled to be cleared for farming. A weasel will go pretty much any place you can go in hip boots.
Track noise is not nearly as loud as the camera makes it sound.

 

Made by Studebaker I believe.

 

Yes, used the Champion inline 6 and 3 speed with a 2 speed rear end that was sort of based on the ton and a half trucks I'm told. Has an elaborate constant speed differential with a steering brake on each side.

 

Sadly, the "rubberbands" that hold the track together, weren't made for long life, or sitting...
'course, the whole life-expectancy of the Weasel was exceptionally short. Like days. It outlasted/outperformed every expectation, once the M29 & M29C versions were done & available. W/certain exceptions, was more useful than the Jeep. Tracks are the killer today, for any restoration or fun-time. Expense is a kind word for the cost of replacement tracks, although there are a couple of diy solutions, that are p***able. Yeh, done by Studebaker in a ridiculous amount of short-time, as a spl-project. The kind of effort & results comparable to the Mustang-development done in the States for England. Too bad that a *lot* of Weasels, US4's & US6's went to Lend-Lease. They also got used heavily in the initial Can-Am Hiway construction. & are virtually unknown today... ;( .
Marcus...

 

Small Ford I6 (200) fits in fairly easy.... Perks them up a little....

LynnW

 

True, but I prefer the Stude champ mill, could slick in a 185 for more grunt, but less rpm. I'd look at a turbo application, but that'd be somewhat similar to cramming a full sized fully clawed cat into a pack of cigarettes. Changing oil, starter,rearend, etc, is fun like you've never had... . 1st gotta get the pile-of-parts-resembling-a-weasel running(did run awhile back) & motivating(loads of work here) under its' own power system. When there's time, someday.
Marcus...

 

The big advantage to the modern engine is the automatic bolted to the back of it. When you're wallowing through a swamp and the poor little Studebaker runs out of steam you have to down shift... but, as soon as you step on the clutch you stop! All your momentum is instantly gone and you have to get moving again with all that friction from the mud, moss, muskeg holding you back. Usually it's easier for the tracks to spin than to start it moving again. You are then well and truly screwed. A winch is a handy feature, but often it's a long way to something solid enough to pull against.
However, with an automatic, the down shift happens instantly and hopefully you can keep on pushing through the muck till you get to more solid footing.

 

I wish I had one of those last night. We got stuck in snow on our way home. I had to walk the last 1/8 mile home in the dark and jump start the Kubota to haul my 77 year old wife home in the bucket. She laughed the whole way. We could have been on the national news today. Still snowing, maybe I'll get the Jeep home tomorrow. Our dinner leftovers are still in the car. I don't think they will spoil. It is hell carving an empire out of the wilderness!

 

Hey, FB;
I do understand n get-it.
Autos make for a much better n fun experience, esp in todays' enviroments/needs(read: mostly Hobby)(& probably iffen they'd've been available back then would've been used too).
In the FWIW catagory: Fortunately, the various Stude-fiends have developed various motor-plates to adapt other sticks n autos behind some of the Stude mills, v8(allee-samee) & the Champ6(flattie169/185 & the OHV169, again, same block bolt pattern). Lots of possibilities for Stude mills - I like 'em. But understand not all do(& then there's the ever-so-slight possibility that different power curves from a Stude mill are wanted )... The block-plate(s) needed for trans-swapping, aren't all that hard to do. But available space(RealEstate) in the Weasel isn't exactly Palatial Taj Mahal sized, so Ingenuity & Imagineering gets a workout. The OEM 3sp was very short, there was virtually *no* "wasted" space in the Weasel. I feel sorry for the guys that had to service/repair these things in war-conditions. All I can say is: "Dah-Hiam" & "Bless them all - including the designers"...
Marcus...
There was a very good site awhile back that got taken down by some virus-attack, & never put up, guess they didn't save much as things went along, ;( . There are a couple of other small sites that still have some real good info, incl Portrayal Press. Guy does fabulous books, not just crummy no-info-picture-types.& it seems, that in the Weasels' case, a correctly restored Weasel brings Stupid $$$, compared to a modified one. <shrug>.
Not sure much of this is on-topic, but maybe, sorta...
I still like 'em, would love to have mine do the crawl-the-Btt50s someday. Ahh, well...

 

I saved a pair of seats out of an old snow plane that wound up being from a Weasel. They're almost comically small, about 13" across

 

Demolished a carport to build a shop. Realised I had demolished the only lifting point I had for pulling engines. I had a nice beam across the caport, using a block and tackle. New shop has poor geometry on the roof trusses for a lifting point... but does have a 2-post hoist . Googled and Youtube'd a bit, and realised there are some redneck ways to use a 2-post hoist to pull an engine. Figured I would build something a little more refined, and use it repeatedly. Aim was to keep the load close to the centre of the hoist, to minimise the fact that only two arms are used.

Used a 4" hoist pad spacer, some 1/4" square section tube (offcut from making a towbar) and some Grade 8 bolts in crush tubes to glue it together. Even painted it Safety Yellow. Works well.



For the curious, that's a '62 GM Holden utility, and 138ci inline 6.

Cheers,
Harv