OT car repair

I love hamfests. I'm only been to the Dayton hamfest once. Most of the ones that I attended have been in the New England area. I haven't gone to any around here in SE WI yet and I need to update my addy for my callsign.

73 de NY1J

I used to live about an hour from 'Hara Arena' that they rented for the Dayton Hamfest. I went to it for about 15 years to buy & sell. Now, I'm over 1000 miles away, and there are no decent hamfests in the area. Most are nothing but overpriced computer junk & Chinese radios these days. I used to drive an old Chevy stepvan and leave all the heavy stuff inside. When it would rain people would ask if they could wait it out in the truck. I didn't mind as it gave them plenty of time to look at the old iron, which increased my sales. ;-)

I've set up and sold things a few times at hamfests, but I've gone mostly to buy. A stepvan sounds like it would be a good idea, only my wife would probably make sure that I had a comfortable bed inside so that I could sleep there.

It was my company's service truck. I had three school systems under service contracts for all their electronics, and a few other oddball problems. One of the things I went for was to buy scrap from my very wasteful competitors. Like an entire school intercom console for $75. It was about 15 years old, and the latest version of a line that was used in over 50 of the schools I serviced. It was quite handy to have a rebuilt panel in the truck that I could exchange, to minimize their downtime. I would call the school board and offer two prices and an estimate of TTR (time to repair). The spare was completely serviced and came with a full 90 day warranty. A repair only covered that repair and any labor for the same period. Once in a while they got three prices. The third was for new equipment, when the failed unit was beyond repair. Like when a roof had leaked most of the summer, and rusted out the chassis of the main amplifier along with the power & output transformer.

be stocked for

plus but my mind

Imports?

stocked for

but my mind

Oh that 'rule' is either long gone, or just being ignored. I have a mechanic buddy that tells tales of people with cars only a couple years old that he cannot get new parts for. The cars aren't even paid for yet, and he's calling dismantlers trying to find replacement parts.

Granted, this is not all that common, but sure sucks if you have one of these vehicles. Just another reason to avoid cars loaded up with tons of whiz-bang features. Yeah, it's mostly the accessory stuff that seems to fail and not have replacements available.

Jon

Lexus, IIRC...

Jon

My mom has had two GM's that rusted away in no time flat including the braking system. Uncle owned a Vega, enough said.

I will give them points for my 2001 Saturn Sl. 213000 miles and still running but starting to show its age. If only they had put grease fittings in the steering parts but saving $1.24 per car is part of GM thinking. I'd have gladly paid for a zerk fitting option.

Saturn is gone now so my next car is going to be a Ford or an import. I hope Ford has something I like by then because I've never bought offshore before but I will before buying GM or Chrysler.

And while we are at, cash for clunkers jamned a big one up the arse of those that don't make a lot. In a good economy, there are a lot of used cars depressing prices on used cars. Obama got rid of those cars so used car prices are high in a market where new car sales are down. What a blithering idiot but he paid off his union backers which is all that matters.

Sorry for the ot rant but keeping cars going is metal working and I don't like having to do this kind of metalworking. I'd rather play in my shop turning and milling.

Wes

Bet it was a 307

It sounds like you have a lot more experience with electronics than me. I've dabbled with small projects. I have an unfinished one to make a hand controller for a TIG torch head to move a stepper motor connected to a pot. Another one that I plan is for some sort of growler to chase down wires inside walls of my house. The ones for electricians cost between $500 to $1000 and I've got a schematic to make a simple xmtr and use an AM radio as a reciever. I also have some plans to do more dabbling with data acquisition.

Bet it wasn't. The original engine was a 292. The guy I bought it from blew that engine and put the 283 in it. It was pulled from a wrecked taxi cab and didn't last 50,000 miles. I found out that it was definitely a 283 when i started looking for parts. I quickly discovered that it was a hack job that would need to be completely redone, including replacing the steering column because of sloppy repairs.

That was when i junked it and bought the '73 Chevy step van. It had a 292 and a five speed on the floor.

I started at eight years old. That was over 50 years ago. :)

There are tons of ready made tracers for under $50

This is the type that I use, different brand..but much the same

There are tons of those types out there for $40......

Such as this one....

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

Gunner Asch on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:40:44 -0700 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

It is all routine fun and games till something catches fire and explodes.

It is people like you (generic) which caused Roseberg Oregon to have some of the strictest laws about transporting explosives inside their city limits. After a truck loaded with 6 and a half tons blew up and took out much of downtown. Fortunately, it was in the middle of the night, but still, it killed a lot of people, and injured a bunch more. Took out eight city blocks, iirc.

Urban renewal, the old fashioned way ....

tschus

Naw..you can burn all the detcord you want and it only burns piss poorly and stinks.

However Id not suggest putting it on an anvil and bashing it repeatedly with a big hammer. You have a small but real chance of it popping off.

Its quite safe actually unless its attached to a blasting cap. Then its eversomuch fun to play with!

I made a fair amount of cash in side bets on cutting down trees and laying them exactly between markers, using det cord.

For those that dont know about the Roseberg incident in 1959....

As for those of you that dont know about det cord, "primacord"...etc

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

Ooh!

It doesn't cut nearly as neatly as a chainsaw, but it looks like a whole lot more fun. What about stump removal?

-- Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly. -- Plutarch

Yep. I bought a wire tracer like that from Harbor Freight Tools for $15 or $20 bucks and it seems to work OK, but the ones favored by electricians, you can clamp onto energized circuits and go around the house hunting for wires inside walls. Those cost a bit more. Like this:

house has a wires running through it that were still connected to the breakers, but otherwise seem to go nowhere. The previous owner remodelled and I'm not sure that they pulled a permit.

I'll probably just pull them off the breakers and use some kind of transmitter that couples with a receiver to find them in the walls or attic. I don't think that the telephone-type of cable tracers will do that.

If they are good ones, they work rather well for that. Ive not done phone work professionally for years, but use my tracers a couple times a month locating wiring. I use 2, one set for a single tone, the other for the warble tone.

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

It cuts, but it would be hard to remove a stump with it unless you were simply cutting the roots, which require at least one wrap around each root. Which you can do far far cheaper with a chain saw.

ANFO would be far cheaper and MUCH easier to locate sufficient quantities.

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)