New book

[freebullet]

Left over parts is always better than not enough to finish the job.

I'm thinking a week each at a couple lakes...

I've seen a lot of America. Don't much care about the rest.

 

[Brad]

Which reservoirs?
Big Mac and Sherman County?

 

[freebullet]

In this order for now-

Red rock over by des Moines
Merritt
Minatare
Mac
oahe

 

[Brad]

Wow, making a big loop thru Iowa, Nebraska, SD!
You two have earned a vacation. Just leave a few fish for someone else.

 

[waco]

I must admit YouTube is an invaluable resource. You can find most anything there. Very helpful.

 

[462]

I prefer the printed pages of Gun Digest and NRA firearms disassemble/assembly books. Some are dated (as are my firearms taste), so I had to watch a Glock full disassembly video.

 

[Brad]

YouTube has taught me a bunch.
If a picture is worth 1000 words then a video must be worth 1000 pictures.

 

[fiver]

so I had to watch a Glock full disassembly video.

chuckle.
was it the one I made where you use an 8lb. hammer, and a piece of rail road track.

 

[Brad]

chuckle.
was it the one I made where you use an 8lb. hammer, and a piece of rail road track.

Reassembly must be a bitch

 

[Rick]

Reassembly must be a bitch

Not with Fiver's tools.

 

[462]

Brad,
No doubt You Tube has its advantages, I just can't get too excited about it. But, then, I don't watch television nor do any form of electronic socializing, other than the occasional e-mail and this forum.

Fiver, send me the link. I take it you're not a Glock fan. I'm not particularly enamored with them, but I needed something on the very wee side, to put on my concealed carry application, and Glock's Blue Label program brought the 27's price down to $407 shipped, which was $40 or $50 less than a Springfield, and I didn't like the S&W M&P Shield.

 

[Ian]

I'll never forget my first day as an apprentice mechanic. The dealership service manager who hired me put me with one of the heavy-line mechanics for the summer until my suspension/steering classes began in the fall, when I'd be moved over to work with that person. So I show up early and meet Wade at his toolbox, we introduce ourselves, drink coffee and chat for a bit. Then he steps over to a Neon with the hood up and says "ok, we drew a head gasket job this morning and there's eight more of them after that, all due to external oil leaks. You watch me do this one and I'll watch you do the next one and be right here to help when you need it". Seemed fine, I'd been wrenching on all sorts of stuff since I was five, at times for money, but still that was a LOT of parts and I was nervous. So he starts ripping off plastic covers and hoses and thirty gillion wiring connectors and then starts zipping out bolts and throwing them in a metal tray, next thing I know he's got this huge pile of parts on the floor and stuff peeled and tucked back out of the way in all directions and is pulling the cylinder head off. He shows me the high pressure oil passage that leaks at the head gasket and the new part that fixes it. I pointed to the pile of parts and chided him "You gonna be able to remember where all that goes?" He grinned and said "Yep, and so will you."

So I watched him do it and then it was my turn. I started in, struggled a bit at first with unfamiliar things like constant tension hose clamps, but he helped just a bit here and there with the special tools he had for these things. Next thing I know I'm starting back together with it and things just started making sense....this goes here, then that, torque this, put that on top, clean the oil of that other thing and grab all those little bolts of different lengths and put each one where it goes, and so on until I was finished. Going back together Wade didn't say a word, he just watched and handed me tools. After filling the cooling system back up and starting the car he said "you're gonna be good at this". I told him I was scared to death until it sorta like started putting itself back together and suddenly I realized I could see the whole thing like an exploded diagram in my head with each fastener and part connected with lines, after that it was no problem at all, just find the next piece in the pile and put it where it goes. Something clicked that morning and I never lost it, not even when pulling dashes to do evaporators and such on cars that would yield a pound coffee can half full of ten different kinds of trim screws by the time it was out. I can't explain it exactly what it is, but you either have it or you don't and the only way to find out if you do is dive in and try, preferably with supervision. Conquering that initial fear of never being able to get something back together is key to actually being able to just think and focus on one piece at a time. You don't have to remember where every piece goes all at once, you just have to go from one to the next and if you get something out of order you may have to back up, no big deal, but stressing over it will make thing a lot harder.

 

[Brad]

And that is why I pay people like Ian to work on my car.

 

[462]

The first manual gearbox rebuild I saw was from an ALFA-Romeo GTV. Yeah, right, you're going to get all those parts back in that small case . . .

I'm far from being an automobile mechanic, though I did almost all my own work, from '68 till '01. For a while, I worked for a good friend whose one-man shop specialized in ALFAs and the odd Maserati and Ferrari. It didn't take long for me to realize that I was a long way from ever being a true mechanic -- one who can diagnose problems rather than being just a parts replacer.

 

[fiver]

hey,,,,, he just wanted the disassembly portion.

 

[Ian]

He did the whole job and I did the next one on the next car, but I was punching a card and he was getting paid for the jobs we both did. The Chrysler apprenticeship program was a win/win situation, pro tech teaches helper to do quality work while being fast, teaches all his shortcuts and tricks, introduces new tools and techniques, gets paid double by the end of the semester if he taught his helper well, helper gets to be on the knowledge express-lane that can't be bought anywhere else, gets to use tens of thousands of dollar's worth of tools he doesn't have to buy for himself yet, and still earns a wage that gets him an AAS in automotive service technology through the associated junior college at night. Wade and all the other guys I worked with as a helper were all grads of the same program and some of the best people I ever met. Coming from an engineering background and having worked myself to frustration in the aerospace industry, it was fantastic to finally be immersed in a profession filled with intelligent, PRACTICAL, colorful people who had a sense of humor and a down-to-earth approach to all things life.

 

[Pistolero]

I started on my 1959 English Ford Anglia because it crapped out and I had spent ALL my money on buying the
damned thing. The first engine bigger than a Briggs or Clinton one lunger that I overhauled. I had to learn
to pour and scrape babbitted rod and main bearings. And when took the crank, beat .030 out of round by
the rod when it ran out the bearing, to the auto machine shop to get an estimate to regrind the crank.....
$100. I had paid $75 for the car, and that was all I had. So, I poured a rod bearing and embedded coarse valve
grinding compound into it and started rocking it back and forth. After it quit cutting, I reloaded the abrasive,
and snugged up the con rod and started rocking it back and forth again. In the winter, in an old washing shed
that was my workshop. Heated with a small fire in a #10 can. Plenty of leaks so it was CO safe. Once I got
the journal within .003" of round, I switched to fine grit and took it to 0,0015" out of round, which met the specs
on the engine. Then I polished it with strips of 600 grit wet or dry until it looked as smooth as the other journals.
Then melted out the abrasive packed babbit, poured a new bearing and scraped it.
It ran fine after that. The motor was a mirror image, about 1/2 scale copy of the Model A motor, I have been told.
Both were Fords, so may have been true.

All my engine work after that was easy-peasy. They invented prefitted thinwall bearing inserts.....and if you can
read plastigage you can install them.

I was 16 when I did that first engine, turned 17 before it was done. Learned about Prussian blue, scraping to fit,
running a mic and a whole lot more. It helped to have a neighbor who had been a machinist in the US Army and
had recently gotten out to advise me.
Ultimately, they are all pretty much the same, really. Different details and the tech keeps changing, but not too bad.

Bill

 

[Ian]

Screw that. We just went through a 1937 Chevrolet 216 that had babbit rods and insert mains. Rods got sent off to be fitted for insert bearings because the tools required to re-pour them don't exist anymore. My first vehicle was a 1946 Chevrolet pickup and it got a 350 stuffed into it before I even learned to drive because I like oil pressure, compression, and more than 1600 rpm, thank you very much.

 

[Pistolero]

Heck, I made the tools to pour the bearings. Turned a mandrel, undersized steel with a ledge for the rod to lay on,
sitting in a wooden base with a dowel to hold the wrist pin end. Clamp a tiny piece of beer can between the rod
halves to keep the top and bottom separate and heat the mandrel with a torch, after sooting it good with
acetylene, and then pour the babbit into the narrow slot....after you tinned the rod with babbit of course.
Took a while to get the technique down, but by the end I could get a good pour about every other try.

Poor folks have poor ways. If you cold afford a 350 Chevy you wouldn't have even looked at a junker English Ford Anglia.
A thoroughly miserable little car. Three speed, and top speed was about 55 mph, but better drive it a bit slower to save
the motor.



And here is the little mini flathead


mine was red painted.

But....if the budget is there, machining the rods for inserts is WAY better. No question.

Sorta like learning to chip flint. Interesting to understand the technology, but not a great way to make arrowhead,
really.

Bill

 

[KHornet]

Everything in life depends on your priorities!

Paul