Flare brake lines?

Yeah, the outfitters made more than the miners, the hookers, or anyone else!

What I need is a better brand of feet.

These suffered from many long miles running in the thin-soled shoes of the 60's plus a few motorcycle mishaps. They like the thick soft (weak) foam soles of Walmart's cheap sneakers better than my considerable collection of more expensive shoes and boots.

-jsw

the word I hear from the guys at the local store is that the mall stores are all going away, stand-alone stores are being looked at one by one.

Stuart Wheaton on Sun, 15 Mar 2015 21:56:57

-0400 typed >> Larry Jaques on Sun, 15 Mar 2015

Good option.

One problem remains - and it is not specific to Radio Shack - but where do I go for the "I'm looking to do some thing like this, and what do I need?" kind of knowledge base. Sigh. Not like when I was a boy. Of course, back then , we only had rocks. Hard rocks or soft rocks, that was the choice.

"Ah but we were happy then ..."

tschus pyotr

-- pyotr filipivich We didn't have these sorts of problems when I was a boy, back when snakes wore shoes and dirt was $2 a pound, if you could find it. We had to make our own from rocks!

Nah, it's not a used car until you have to do major repairs on it.

You, sir, got lucky.

Not bad, but you are/were a mechanic. It's a little easier for us to spot lemons and avoid them. My first job as a mechanic was parttime while I went to UTI at a used car dealer. I learned early on that I'd never be able to trust most used car salesmen or mechanics who worked for them. That info has been priceless to me over the years.

Was it a GM vehicle? If so, you didn't do your homework. Check the Consumer Reports for the vehicles to stay away from. I wouldn't own a new or used GM and wouldn't own a used Honda, ever. Hondas and Toyotas run forever, but when they start to break, they break hard and fast. That's when you sell them; when you "feel it coming".

So pull the cover and put in a new spring, whydontcha?

Ouch!

I have to buy thick soled shoes for the arch support. The Reebok Classics are 1" thick with excellent arch support, and I can stand on concrete all day without too much trouble. The Denalis just work better for handyman work, with their lugged soles, but I can't shovel too hard in them due to their thinner sole. Luckily, I don't do much shoveling. And with the HF power auger, I now do even less.

Speaking of which, do you guys know what to do to keep that little darling from leaking all its 80/90W gear oil out its shaft? Is there anything available, like motor honey (STP), which can be used to thicken it? I doubt I can redesign a lower transmission cover to hold the shaft better.

The one here in GP is in a mini-strip-mall.

That's easy, Pete. You come here. USENET ROCKS!

It's only in the small town hardware stores that you'll find a knowledge level that is higher than the masses, and those are going by the wayside quickly.

If you want REAL arch support by a pair of Walkfit insoles. They are molded from a hard plastic material and have different arch support inserts. They really help with arch support and issues with plantar fasciitis. The wife and I both use them.

Better prices through Amazon and some target stores have them on the shelf.

I use corn head grease in the powerhead of my ice fishing auger. It isn't HF but a similar unit. Leaked pretty bad at first. The grease slowed the leak to a minor weep while running. I guess you could add a better seal but I had the grease on hand.

Then my 96 Ranger and 02 Taurus are still new cars!!!!!

Nope it was a 1976 Mopar (Ramcharger SE)

Might be true of Hondas. Definitely is of GMs - I won't own another one unless it is given to me - and I've had real good luck with Toyotas too - but find they are overpriced on the used market.

I bought a pair of brand new handles for $7 from China - shipping included. I think the plastic the spring connects to broke and for $7 I won't waste any time trying to fix it.

If you bought them new, then they are.

I'll spend time trying to fix crappy parts if it's a comfort or safety thing. Hot-air-weld on another tab and reattach the spring, wot? Drill a new hole next to it and reattach, etc. That's half the fun of being a mechanic: knowing exactly what you can get away with.

The guy who I bought them from bought them new, but by that criteria, since he had no major repairs before he sold them to me, they were still "new" cars!!! So I bought 2 new vehicles for $1500 and $6500. BEAT THAT!!!

Yea, but when I get it apart and find the part is NOT repairable, I then have to go and buy a new part, and then I'll want to fix it SOON, so I won't be able to afford to buy offshore for about ten cents on the dollar compared to local dealer parts or twenty cents on the dollar compared to Dorman replacements mail order or from local jobber.

For something like this, which I only want to take apart and fix ONCE, I'll buy the new part ahead of time when the price is right. Half an hour out at the hangar and it will be fixed - and STAY fixed.

Your 96 Ranger is newer than my Ranger, though mine has been getting newer piece by piece.

Next question: How do you seal the air leak along the bleeder threads when vacuum bleeding? I didn't want to squirt on something incompatible that might get back into the cylinder.

A neighbor was home and helped by pushing the pedal, which finally blew out the air that was keeping it soft. My usual one-man method of depressing the pedal with a broomstick bungee'd to the steering wheel wasn't forceful enough to clear out bubbles.

-jsw

Newp. Iffen you didn't buy them from the dealer, you bought a used car. Like gravity, it's the LAW!

Well, if you're not smarter than the cheap Chiwanese part, then... ;)

I had a fun half hour this morning. Y'know that new battery I bought a couple weeks ago? The old one decided it would die on me this morning on the way to a job. I lucked out, listening to my intuition those weeks ago, so I was back on the road in 20-some odd minutes.

You don't. Vacuum bleeders are trash. Harrumph!

Yeah, manually depressing the brake pedal is the cleanest, fastest, most thorough method of properly bleeding brakes. But the pressure cap for the master cylinder is nice, too. Have you seen them? Here's a DIY hack job.

Just remember to refill the master after doing each wheel. Running it dry and introducing air into the entire line again is a real bummer. DAMHIKT when I was in a hurry and the customer was waiting once. (just once!) We had an old but professional universal pressure bleeder kit, but I more often grabbed another mechanic or bodyman and had them do the pedal honors.

I don't vacuum bleed mine. I get someone to help me. When working in the trade, that's what apprentices were for - I'd pump the pedal and HE would get sprayed!!!. I've actually found that single handedly I can usually bleed most brakes pretty well by JUST cracking the bleader and forcing the last air out past the threads.Releasing the pedal slowly doesn'r draw in enough air to cause a problem. Disk brakes bleed themselves.

I bought the Taurus from the dealer that sold it new to the first owner - does that count????

What? You didn't pop the battery open and repair it??? (BG)

I can ask the retired neighbors who call on me when their stuff breaks, IF they aren't asleep or away at the VA.

In the past a pipe or broomstick resting on the brake pedal and pulling against the steering wheel with bungee cords has been enough to pump the old discolored fluid out of the wheel cylinders. Vacuum bleeding does that pretty well too, when I know that the pedal is solid and the bubbles I see in the tube are only from the air leak at the threads.

In this case the long line to the rear had mostly drained so I used vacuum to refill it quickly.

-jsw

Ever reverse bleed a brake system? You pump the fluid into the bleeder screw untill fluid starts to fill the master cyl - one wheel at a time from longest line to shortest.

On my car's ABS and proportioning valves the inlets are on the bottom and the outlets on the top. Maybe it would push air out on an older, simpler system. I followed the shop manual sequence exactly.

-jsw