What did YOU do today?

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I had looked at those and chose poorly by going with something else because I didn't want to buy new bolts since nothing I have in my stash would work with them. So now I need to get the ones you are talking about along with some bolts, plus taking a cut off wheel to the one anchor I already set when I realized it wouldn't work.

I screwed a steel plate to the underside of the "feet", then some 2x6, then I screw that to a 4 x 4 piece of plywood. Right now I have it screwed to a 4 x 10 pallet that's been filled in to make a table top. It's on the ground though...
Also, if you have time check out you tube for some vids on upgrading the system. I ordered a duckbill, and some wedge cones ( not sure of term, they fill the hole in the center of the wheel to keep it centered). This system makes an overhead arm similar to the newer style tire machines. And I use dish

soap for lube.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Also, in use I don't bother tightening the bolts down anymore. It works just fine floating.

 

[Blmpkn]

Oh yeah.. sent an email to Bo-Port about the status of my fancy head.. as it's been a couple weeks since I got the initial purchase email by this point.

I didn't know if the heads were something they kept some stock of on the shelf ready to ship or if each one was built-to-order... Seeming like it's the latter.

No big deal really.. I'm just super excited lol. They may be pretty busy right now too... Race season starts in just a few weeks.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

@Blmpkn
Too late now, and I've never actually tried this, but I've read of using a trailer ball and a bearing race for a cheap alternative to a simple die.

 

[Blmpkn]

@Blmpkn
Too late now, and I've never actually tried this, but I've read of using a trailer ball and a bearing race for a cheap alternative to a simple die.

Ahh yes.. I've heard of that too.

I'm relatively sure I have a 1 7/8 ball around here somewhere that would of probably worked perfect but.. nothing in the way of any races.

I didnt mind spending on the thing either. I'll definitely get my money's worth out of it.. and I do appreciate having the right tool for the job lol.

 

[sgtsandman]

I screwed a steel plate to the underside of the "feet", then some 2x6, then I screw that to a 4 x 4 piece of plywood. Right now I have it screwed to a 4 x 10 pallet that's been filled in to make a table top. It's on the ground though...
Also, if you have time check out you tube for some vids on upgrading the system. I ordered a duckbill, and some wedge cones ( not sure of term, they fill the hole in the center of the wheel to keep it centered). This system makes an overhead arm similar to the newer style tire machines. And I use dishView attachment 141911View attachment 141912View attachment 141913 soap for lube.

I got the duck bill. A cheaper one with a plastic bill. We'll see if that was a poor decision or not. There are better ones out there with metal duck bills.

As far as the pallet thing, I thought about it, but I don't have the storage space for a pallet. Thus why I was looking at concrete anchors and bolts.

EDIT: the duck bill kit came with a centering cone. I also picked up a better tire spoon than what came with the manual tire changer.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I got the duck bill. A cheaper one with a plastic bill. We'll see if that was a poor decision or not. There are better ones out there with metal duck bills.

As far as the pallet thing, I thought about it, but I don't have the storage space for a pallet. Thus why I was looking at concrete anchors and bolts.

EDIT: the duck bill kit came with a centering cone. I also picked up a better tire spoon than what came with the manual tire changer.

The pallet was just temporary to get me out of the mud. Normally I just use the 4x4 plywood.

 

[djfllmn]

saturday did some mulching and then responded to a working house fire

 

[19Walt93]

got the ‘11 escape back on the road again, has a starter button on the dash now. switch wasn’t bad but the housing for the lock cylinder must have enough wear that it needs replacing. Aint doing that. On the plug in for the ignition switch, the wires on either end are what need to come together for “crank” . 30 min vs 3 hours. Now on to the F150. if it ain’t one ford, it’s another!

View attachment 141830View attachment 141831

I'd trim those loose strands and replace the scotch locks with some good connectors to head off problems before they appear. Clever fix.

 

[19Walt93]

I parked my freshly washed and dried truck outside Saturday afternoon and got up yesterday to see this. Welcome to April in NH.

 

[superj]

i put new tubes in the riding mower tires yesterday. it sucked but wasn't hard work. the rubber tires were hard and that was the toughest part of the job, how old the tires are and how they didn't want to flex anymore.

anyways, i have a tire spoon or whatever those are called that i found while bike riding one day so i used that and a 24" inch pry bar and got the new tubes in place.

i did find that one box had the wrong size tube. its supposed to be for an 8" rim and 6 inch wide tire but the tube was huge. i stuffed it in to the tire and aired it up and its solid so i bet that tube never goes flat since the rubber is not really expanded

 

[Blmpkn]

Preface: I really hate the incompetentcy of (allegedly) factory trained & ASE techs, and dealerships willful refusal to listen to their customers.

Regarding my coworker with the dead cyl 6 on his f150.

We personally did the squish check ourselves before he left it with the dealer. Told the dealership... Hole 6 is DEAD... please find out why.. and left it there for the night.

Later on that night he gets a text from the service advisor saying they fixed his truck, it was a simple issue of reprogramming. He relayed this info to me.. to which I immideately got aggravated on his behalf and said "that ain't right"

Picks his truck up the next morning, service records indicate that the GENIUS tech found there to be an open TSB for his truck regarding LOW FUEL RAIL PRESSURE.. and did whatever he did with his laptop to fix it. There was NO note about them doing a compression check themselves. Told him he was good to go after he pays them 320$.

Now... IN NO UNIVERSE would there be a fuel pressure issue that's going to cause ONE cylinder to be dead. None. Space is infinite.. but that universe just doesn't exist.

He made another appointment with the same dealer for this morning to get it diagnosed... PROPERLY. I even set my alarm 30 minutes early so I could be there when he dropped it off for purposes of giving the service advisor as much shit as I possibly could... which ended up being a barge-full.

Whelp.. I got the job done. Just an hour ago he received a video message from the tech saying they did both compression AND leak down tests on that cylinder as well as stuffing an inspection camera it in (which would of been where I would of started personally...) but yeah... Massive gouge down the cylinder wall that for some reason stops below where the rings would be sitting at TDC.


If you're in Maine, stay as far away from the Rowe family of Ford dealerships as you can. I wrote off Rowe auburn years ago.. urged him to go to rowe Westbrook because of all my bad experiences in Auburn.. well.. sadly Westbrook sucks just as much and they're just as difficult with their customers as the mongoloids in their auburn location

 

[Roert42]

It's not just ford.

I had a Honda dealer tell me they couldn't tell what kind of battery was in a Honda civic without the VIN, absolutely 100% impossible to know.

"Can I just have the same battery as I have here, it's the original battery."

"We have no way to look up what the part number for this is"

"What about the part number on the battery?"

"we just don't have any way to check that, we need the VIN"


"Great, thanks anyway."


Off I went to the auto parts warehouse around the corner to buy a replacement battery without the VIN.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

It's not just ford.

I had a Honda dealer tell me they couldn't tell what kind of battery was in a Honda civic without the VIN, absolutely 100% impossible to know.

"Can I just have the same battery as I have here, it's the original battery."

"We have no way to look up what the part number for this is"

"What about the part number on the battery?"

"we just don't have any way to check that, we need the VIN"


"Great, thanks anyway."


Off I went to the auto parts warehouse around the corner to buy a replacement battery without the VIN.

Not to defend Honda, but I have seen where there’s a difference between weird things like the LX and DX use a different gas cap than the SX or whatever the other sub models are. It’s stupid. Whatever genius decided that there should be common part differences between sub models of the same car should be drawn and quartered. Especially because they usually don’t put badging on the car anymore and the average user has a lukewarm IQ it seems so nobody knows nothing.

 

[Blmpkn]

the average user has a lukewarm IQ

Your level of optimism is an inspiration to us all