Hose clamp a cow magnet or two onto your oil filter. It'll catch any magnetic particles to small for the filter. They also work well inside oil pans, but then you can only clean'em when you take the pan off. -Jeff
Tin-foil work's great when needing to mask part's not to be painted or touched up. Motorcycle's included.
when using a chop saw or horizontal band saw to cut angle iron put the angle up. sort of like the roof of a house. cuts MUCH better that way than if one leg is horizontal and one vertical.
Wasps? Spiders? Carb claener and a lighter! One puff of flame and even the biggest of black widows are goners... Same apparatus also works well to seat a tire bead on the rim! Sparay some carb cleaner inside the tire, then launch some fire down in there, and POP! it'll make a funny whine as it burns a little inside and consumes all the oxygen... and the tire is partially pressurized, too! I learned that by watching some discovery channell thing where they were changing some snow tire in the arctic... but they used ronsenol... The MAGNAbroom(tm)... harvest the strong as hell magnet from a harddrive... or a microwave oven magnatron.... put it on the end of some sort of stick or broom handle... put a heavy ziplock freezer bag (or similar thisk plastic) over the magnet, and magnetically "sweep" up metal shavings. Then, hold it over the trash can, remove the heavy plastic, and all the metal shavings will fall off. Good luck tho, of EVER getting the shavings off the magnet if you omit or puncture the plastic....
Learned this from an old 70 yr old hotrodder this past weekend on the RPU. Was having trouble getting it to idle and had detonation terribly upon acceleration. Tried everything...timing, carburation.. etc. The coil didn't seem to be giving off enough spark. He advised to check each cylinder fire by taking a drip of water on the headers of each cylinder on a hot engine. By watching the water boil or just dry up. On the road you can easily pinpoint where the problem is. Found the two front cylinders only steaming off and the rest boiling. We new we couldn't drive the car with this condition.
Use the cheap see thru plastic containers with snap on lids when you're working on carbs, alternators, starters or whatever. When you pull things apart all the little jeezus clips, springs and balls stay in the container instead of rolling off the benchtop. When you leave to do something else, snap the lid on to keep it all together. I also use them when I'm working on the car to stick all the bolts in while I pull the ****** or whatever. When you put it back in, all the bolts are in 1 container instead of ****tered or kicked around the shop. Throw the tools you're useing right in with the bolts till you're done. I HATE having to climb out from under the car to find that socket that got kicked to the far corner under the bench while I was manhandling the ******. I also keep lots of cans of brake cleaner around to wash off all those greasy dirty slimey parts you take off an old engine so you can work on them. It gets off the gunk and evaporates.
Just a few additions or add ons to others ideas: For lock mechanisms, dont put any type of liquid oil in them. Itll gather dust and youll have to clean them latter after the oil or liquid lubricant dries out and dust gathers on them. Use graphite lube! If you dont want the spend the $2 whole dollars for a tube of Graphite lube, just use a number two pencil and color the key black, the "lead" in pencils is actually just a stick of graphite. Now, if you have already gummed up the lock, or it is rusty, youll have to clean it 1st as this will NOT help to un-gum it after you have spent the past few years gumming it all up! Another: Use lysol for a torch when indoors spraying bugs/roaches/wasps, whatever. I recommend the Spring Fresh Sent. Its not as explosive as some of the other mentioned spray products, and after you use it, all you need to do is take a paper towel and wipe away the offending critter and the spray. It wont leave any residue, its dissinfects, and it will make the place smell nice also! It makes a great ant killer for under the kitchen sink.
The tinfoil ( aluminum foil ) as a masker works great. I use it on door handles;headers;exhaust pipes;mirrors. It molds to any shape and seal tightly. Here's one. Use empty wire spools nailed to your garage walls about 3 feet apart to wrap your extension cords around to keep them off the floor. You guys that put carpeting or cardboard under your cars: Keep a fire extinguisher handy in case you get flammable liquid on them and it gets ignited. I almost lost a car last year because this happened to me.Luckily I had an extiguisher close by. On extinguishers,the Halon kind don't leave a mess to clean up but only use them in a well ventilated area.
Alright , never posted a tech tip here , so I hope this helps .I know alot of us deal with old bolts some rusted , others just stuck so when I was trying to loosen a bolt on an old chrysler strut bar and broke a 3/4 inch breaker bar and two snap-on sockets ( one of them an impact ) I was getting a little discouraged .Some are saying "just torch the damn thing off or heat it up" but torching it off was not an option since it is near impossible to find the part for it and just heating it up didn't help. So this older gent lets call him my neighbor says bring it over , I can get it loose. He gets his torches out and this wad of dirty stuff wrapped in burlap from his tool box and says watch this . He proceeded to heat up the bolt and nut just as if he was sweating copper and unwraps this STUFF and lays the edge of it against the joint where the two meet and it smokes , bubbles and coats everything including the inside threads. At this point my curiosity like yours is driving me mad , but He has to have a smoke and talk shop for a few minutes . Now I'm going nuts in anticipation of the next step.You see , I worked on this damn thing for 4 hours and not a budge. Next he goes to his tool box again and pulls out a crescent wrench and comes back to the car . There ya go , he says.He hands me the wrech, I put it on the nut and the damn thing comes right off. JESUS! what the. . . . here. he hands me the stuff. What is it I say. That's incredible .! Tom just smiles at me and says .. bees wax . This was some years ago when I hadn't yet realized that I didn't know ****.Hope it helps fellas. swaZZie
A cow magnet is a magnet (duh) that is approx. 2" long (50mm) and rounded on both ends. It is simply fed to the cow. Purpose is to catch metal particles that the cows ingest with their food. It stays in the cow until death; won't hurt the cow (unlike when the metal exits the natural way - OW !!); and is powerful. Buy them at any farmer's supply store (Farm and Fleet 'round here). Cosmo
Wrap your torn driveshaft dust boot in plastic wrap and hose clamp in it place, holds up better than leather. Soak your rusty parts in vinegar for a few days to a week. When you pull them out very little scrubbing is needed and they'll be down to bare metal. This will even take off old paint without much effort.
* Use a coffee stirrer to blow your graphite into where you want it... MacGuyver did it... * Watch MacGuyver religiously.... He welds with jumper cables and quarters, unlike Frank Morris (Alcatraz), who welds with matched and Mercury dime shavings...
Be real careful when using carb cleaner as a torch, I'd used Right Guard in the past and got 3-4 feet of flame, I switched to a can of B-12 and it shot a good 10-12 feet and scorched the wall. That would have been a hard to one to explain to the old lady... "Well you see honey, there was this wasp..."
Keep a roll of Glad "Press n Seal" plastic wrap in the shop. It works great for temporarily sealing off ports or carbs so junk won't fall in. Its also works very well to prevent rust or oxidation on bare metals if it might be a few days before painting. If you can't find a magnet to magnetize that scredriver in a pinch simply strike the shaft near the tip a few times with a hammer...instant magnet. The rounded end of a wrench clamped in a vise works well as a dolly when shaping small metal parts. A couple of tables****s of gasoline tossed from a cup will kill any insect it comes in contact with instantly. Keep in mind the fire hazard. Use mothballs to keep snakes out of the shed. Just ****ter a few around any openings.
Home made tools; In a pinch once I built up the end of a piece of 1 inch cold roll round stock with br*** welding rod and shaped it on a grinder, for nearly 30 years this is still my favorite br*** drift. The cold roll is just soft enough not to chip off but much tougher than br*** so you can really lay into it if needed. When the br*** gets beat up I just redress it and when it gets wore down I build it back up again. I also have scavenged the br*** shaft from old plumbing valves to use as small br*** drifts. The best large prybar I have ever used is one I made from a Ford pickup tierod. It requiired some black smithing to hammer it into the shape I wanted but it has a much better fulcrum on the flat end than any offerings from Snappy or Mac. I have a 1 inch section of heater hose over the rachet end of several 3/8 extensions. This makes them alot easier to turn, like when installing spark plugs. I wrap some of my looser wobbly sockets with electrical tape. It makes them stay in the position you want if you are trying to spot bolts with a long extension, like in a bell housing. They still flex and after a while when the tape wears out just put on some more. Also a piece of tape over the bolt head will keep it in the socket when you are trying to spot one into a tight place.
A cow magnet is a cylindrical magnet about 1/2 inch in diameter and 2 inches long woth smooth rounded off ends. They are made to shove down a cows throat as a treatment for "hardware disease" which occurs when cows ingest metaliic objects. The magnet will gather all the metal and keep it from killing the cow. I have a couple of these and find them to work well as a retrieval magnet when placed in a section of hose. The hose keeps the magnet from sticking to the sides of the area you are fishing in. Back in the 70s and 80s people were taping these magnets to the fuel line because they thought it increased fuel mileage. Pesonally I prefer the newer rare earth magnets for contamination entrapment. One of them will stick to the pan or filter quite well. One the size of a nickel will lift a 4 pound hammer.
This may sound like an unnecessary luxury, but have two of every socket and ratchet, and four of every sized wrench. Friend's dad told me about this when I was a youngster. When you're working on a car, there are two of just about everything, so your buddy can be thrashing on one side of the vehicle, while you're going on the other. You'll really appreciate this when you're installing a hood. I've taken it a little further and have two full sets of wrenches also hanging on the pegboard, with the 7/16, 1/2 and 9/16 wrenches about 8 deep. You're always laying down a wrench and then can't find it. When the last 1/2-inch wrench is gone, it's time to stop and clean the shop. It's not much of an investment when you limit the buying to garage sales and swap meets. Put a short length of rubber heater hose or fuel line on the handle of your 3/8-inch ratchet--that's the ratchet you use most during final ***embly, and the rubber handle will protect your fresh paint if you whack it while tightening a fastener. -Brad
{Home made tools; The best large prybar I have ever used is one I made from a Ford pickup tierod.} Reminded me of using leaf springs. I have a piece cut from a leaf spring about one foot long. Sharpened up one end. Comes in handy when prying in a small space. Also works good separating spot-welded sheet metal. The leaf I cut up was thinner than the average and made the "pry chisel" nicer to work with. Neal
The brake adjusters on my car have a small 1/4 inch post to turn.I dont have the proper tool for this.I use the drive end of a 1/4 drive socket and turn it with an allen key
Hose clamp 'round a piece of tubing helps keep the cut square. A digital camera can help a lot when doing electrical work. Lets you see how it was before you tore into it. And you might not even need to process the pics, if the preview window shows enough. Ordinary wheel bearing grease works fine for weather-proofing electrical connections. When faced with a broken plastic lever (turn signal and wiper controls on lat-er models), first drill a hole as deep into the stub as you can, sizing it to fit a cut-off allen key (which need not be over-large), then the same with the broken-off piece. This has worked for over 5,000 kms on my 2CV6, the signal lever of which retails for $54.00 American !! Cosmo
Thanks for all of the tech tips. I figured it would make the 101 mark but this just keeps on going. Right now I'm using one of them. I've got some parts soaking in vinegar to get the rust off. It works!! Here's a couple more. You want to fill the bed rails on your pick up? I used to cut little circles add a crown to it and weld it in. Well here's an easier way. Freeze plugs. Get the size that fits into your rail and weld away. It has a little bit of a crown to it already and it will hold itself in place before you start welding. Clark
Need a little organization? Find a grocery store that's going out of business and get the shelving. Some stores have extra in the back. Ask friends that work at theses stores, sometimes they have extra shelving that is just in the way. The upstairs of my shop is a mess as it is. With out the shelving I'd be lost. Clark
SoWhat, maybe you should re-name this topic 201 Quick Tech Tips! Trouble is I keep printing it out; then someone ADDS some MORE GOOD STUFF!
dave, that's why i'm gonna wait 'til it's on page 6 before i print it out. hope that's a long time...
Back in 60s I had a 46 Ford cpe with a J-2 olds engine mated to a Ford stick ****** & original closed driveline. I became quite good at replacing driveshafts. Threw a bunch away but still have one around here somewhere makes a good prybar, fencepost tamper, trailer tongue mover- over etc.
One more for good measure. I'm not sure if I knew this already and forgot it or just figured it out. Anyway, I built a frame table this morning and needed to make an adjustment- needed to spread the pieces a little. I love pipe clamps, they're so handy, but it occured to me that by taking the clamping end and the dead ends off and turning them around I got a manual porta-power. Worked great. I may be the last one around to learn this one but maybe not. Dan
If you have to haul a drive shaft with the U joints in it take and slide a old sock over the Ujoint It will hole the caps in place and keep grease from getting smeared all over. Have to have a sock that doesnt have the toe worn out.
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