Interesting Trail Fix...?

[gwaii]

actually i tune in to comedy central to get my comedy......

the powerblock is propaganda, bought and paid for

Propaganda
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position.

As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda, in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus possibly lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda. Propaganda can be used as a form of political warfare.

While the term propaganda has acquired a strongly negative connotation by association with its most manipulative and jingoistic examples, propaganda in its original sense is neutral, and may also be construed to refer to uses which are generally held to be relatively benign or innocuous, such as public health recommendations, signs encouraging citizens to participate in a census or election, or messages encouraging persons to report crimes to the police, among others.










not sure i see the connection.

 

[cammeddrz]

not sure i see the connection.

i am a part of (and therefore privvy to) the productions of another seriously expensive tv show. nitro circus so i think i have some insight

all info on the powerblock is paid for by sponsors (as a show would need 10x the viewership powerblock has to justify the network paying $10,000 here, $5,000 there every episode) and those sponsors want to see their products shown being used how they want, the prices talked about as if they are worth it, their products talked about as if they are the best suited for most people, and for the most part they want their products (not anyone else's) shown in the light that they want it shown.

yes that is benign and innoccuous but propaganda nonetheless

and wyotech is one of their largest sponsors, powerblock has since required that all new hosts be wyotech educated, and those that are still around (all 2 of them) they sent to wyotech

and wyotech is a massive waste of time and $$. many of my closest friends went in recent years, not one of them said "yeah that was worth the $120,000", but 3 of them admit that powerblock was a large inspiration on their choice of "college" (if you can call it that).

my friend dustin who got back last summer from specializing in "performance engine building" recently called me up to ask me "when you are plasti-gauging, do you do it with? or without the bearing in?". i honestly thought he was messing with me. and he is one who ended up paying more than $100k at wyotech (before buying tools) he has his diplomas ("certificates" more like) hanging in his garage because no real shop wants to hire a wyotech guy so he has been working outside the industry.

i told him that he shouldn't hang them up, he should hide them

if providing info that is biassed by money, while making it sound better than it is doesn't classify as "propaganda" i don't know what does

oh and btw i'm not even going to go into detail about the irony of using wikipedia to refute a claim of propaganda

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

the powerblock is propaganda, bought and paid for

I would term it an infomercial. Maximum 5 minute of information out of a 22 minute show.

Richard

 

[cammeddrz]

I would term it an infomercial. Maximum 5 minute of information out of a 22 minute show.

Richard

yep 5 biassed minutes in to 4 22 minute shows. i honestly remember about 15 years ago when hptv was on TNN and it didn't feel like there was a sponsor's d-ck up joe's a-s as he talked about a product.

and it aired with another show called shadetree mechanics that was even better

 

[gwaii]

cammeddrz,well stated arguement

alwaysfloored,probably an even better assesment.


to me it's just entertainment.





and they really charge that much for wyotech schooling?wow.

 

[cammeddrz]

and they really charge that much for wyotech schooling?wow.

the base package with only general ase certs is like $25k+ lodging, but even if you enroll in the basic class they have "counselors" that are always trying to up-sell you into specialty classes. my friend went for perf engine building specialty and they ended up selling him a second specialty of "chassis fabrication" neither of which he retained much from

 

[bobbywalter]

anything that stops the wheel eventually pisses off the t case, though i did not look at the context of this conversation....i may be past the point there


i preferred brake bias with the d35 as it is cost effective, and way easier on shafts in the long run. unfortunately its a spider gear killer.. verse everything else killer with the spool or locker. the reason its hard on the spiders is because of the way they operate, listed here.





the reason i am even posting is the shock that a guy that spent that sort of loot at wyotech would even use a plastigauge over his mic set.


let alone have to ask how to use a plastigauge?


did you mention to him to read the directions?

dont get me wrong i use them as a secondary check often, and always to quick check suspect bearing/bearings when an oil pressure condition is present and looking to bearing with engine in place or find out if it needs pulled.., but thats pretty bad for a high dollar student to not have something like that burned into his bean with performance engine as the course of study.. i am going to assume he failed and has no paperwork and is banned from the enginebuilding world.



as to the propaganda tv, it dont bug me very much. pretty easy to see through, and buying without researching cause you seen it on tv gets one what one deserves..usually a good product that is overpriced...though the advertisers in general on those shows really are legit and worth consideration for most. kind of hard to bag on edelbrock etc.


wyotech on the other hand....tough call.

 

[swamprat]

Not that bad a fix. All it will do is keep the axle in place while driving. That way it wont wiggle out and maybe get into the hub or wheel. You wont be able to put it in 4WD.

Now for how a diff works. I think some of you might be confused so check out the tech library http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/Feb%2006/tech.htm

 

[cammeddrz]

i am going to assume he failed and has no paperwork and is banned from the enginebuilding world.

he passed and has a diploma on his garage wall to prove it.

but the worst part is the reason he was plastgauging, he spun a bearing in a truck so he dropped the oil pan, "hand-polished" the crank journal, put a new bearing in (without having the rod repaired!!!) starts it, runs it a minute and what do you know? it spins the same bearing, so he drops the pan polishes the crank by hand....again, and then decides to use this material he learned about at wyotech: plastigauge. he then can't remember how to use it and calls me.

i told him "doesn't matter that rod's gotta come out to be fixed or you'll spin it again"

he said "no the reason that it spun again was that i used a stock-sized bearing without taking into account for the material i took off when i polished it"

so he plastigauges it with an o/s bearing and it is in spec so he tries again....spun the bearing.

so this time he calls me and tells me the crank is screwed, i say "yep that motor (4-cyl in a 1985 toyota 4wd p/u) has to come out"

he decides that was too much work so he drops the tranny/t-case, pulls the clutch/flywheel, the timing chain and front accessories and takes the crank out the bottom. then against my advice of "that's not going to work" he tries to pull the rod in question out the bottom, there was a small portion of the main journal that over-hung in line with the cylinder. so i get a phone call "uh, i broke my piston trying to take it out the bottom".

i am not exagerrating or making any part of this story up

i went over there and had the engine the rest of the way out in 35 minutes, we are now in the process of putting a 350 in its place

and i repeat he passed engine class at wyotech.
if you go there an idiot....you leave there an idiot

and to the op sorry for the thread jack, but this story just needed to be told and it explains that wyotech is really not what it's cracked up to be, just because chip foose was paid to go there and paid to endorse it, that doesn't mean that you'll leave wyotech chip foose

 

[harriw]

and to the op sorry for the thread jack, but this story just needed to be told and it explains that wyotech is really not what it's cracked up to be, just because chip foose was paid to go there and paid to endorse it, that doesn't mean that you'll leave wyotech chip foose

No worries - I started this thread 'cause I thought people might find it interesting. Turns out it did start an interesting conversation - just on a different topic

-Bill

 

[bobbywalter]

i went and looked at the link.

and have to say thats common, and why i set up brake bias...many times i jammed a bar/screwdriver in a perfectly good shaft to get the other side to turn....or used vise grips on the brake line to lock a wheel...


i have to say i see steering interference potentials with it though.




lots of genius in that thread

January 22, 2010 at 2:10 pm
I agree with Radry. The wrench is not attached to the inner axle and, therefore, not connected to the differential so all those comments about it locking the one side to get it to transfer power to the other are pure crap. Even if the U-joint did break, you’d still have to put a wrench through BOTH yolks to keep it connected. You can’t even see yolk of the inner axle so I don’t know where the hell you people are coming up with your ideas.

 

[harriw]

LOL, yeah, he got some "yolk" on his face with that little nugget.

 

[gwaii]

oh and btw i'm not even going to go into detail about the irony of using wikipedia to refute a claim of propaganda

i'm sure i'm going to regret this,but you've got my curiosity up.

please explain.....with as much detail as you see fit.

 

[cammeddrz]

i'm sure i'm going to regret this,but you've got my curiosity up.

please explain.....with as much detail as you see fit.

not too terribly much detail needed on this one, but since wikipedia has no filter on who can contribute. more often than not the only individuals that ever contribute are those that have some interest in the subject... the definition of bias, but since the innacuracies are mixed in with the truths so seamlessly only those who already know otherwise can sniff out the b.s., but those aren't the individuals that are looking to wikipedia for info.

so long story short wikipedia is the one place online that has the most biassed information, purveyed only by those who have a serious interest, all published under the guise of "facts" and "information".......well that fits the definition of "propaganda" too

 

[88_Eddie]

interesting thread, i wanna chime in:

-instead of afro-engineering a wrench, you know what a really super easy fix would be? carrying an extra $8 u-joint and basic hand tools with you

-yes, breaking the craftsman wrench would be covered under the warranty, it's a lifetime warranty, they have to

-i dont know enough to have any input on the gears and the double speed wheel and all that crap, i'm just gonna make sure everything is hooked up like it should be and carry extra stuff for just in case's

-if anyone on TRS were gonna answer this question, i think gwaii would be the person that would have the most trustworthy advice......if you've seen his build thread (or the underside of his ranger) you'd agree....he had to do harder math under his truck than i did in all 5.5 years of college (yeah 5.5, big whoop, wanna fight about it? lol)

-what the hell is nitro circus? sounds like a show that would come on cartoon network

-as for powerblock, yeah it's biased as hell, but what isn't these days? as gwaii said, it's entertainment

-i only watch xtreme 4x4 b/c i like the shit they build and it's nice to see something built when you have an unlimited budget and access to every tool that's ever been invented....the host's voice drives me crazy tho, usually have to mute it

-if i remember correctly they did a "budget build" with a wrangler and dropped $5K into it, f**k that, if have $5k laying around i'm paying off my credit card....a budget build is when i take the leftover $63.18 from my paycheck and decided whether or not to buy extended brake lines or used lift brackets

-trucks is stupid now, seems like all they do is build street trucks and i hate that crap....plus the guy's are sort of d-bags

-shadytree mechanics might have been the best car show ever conceived by man, i used to watch that show on tnn every sunday before church....they need to bring that back

-as far as wyotech goes, i would never spend over a $100K on a school unless it was harvard law school or duke or something along those lines

-wikipedia is stupid, i go there when i know something, but cant remember it, but i'd know it if i heard it

-it's not propaganda, it's advertising, just like the burger king ad at the ballpark or football stadium....and hey, it goes to a good cause, who doesnt wanna see a 1974 buick apollo get it's engine rebuilt to produce 1 million horsepower


i think i hit everything there