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I want to learn how to drive stick. I know no one who drives a stick. Is my best bet just throwing up an ad on Craigslist asking randos if I can test-drive some piece of poo poo they have, or should I make calls to driving schools to see if they know anyone who has one?
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Apr 29, 2015 17:21
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Power Player posted:I want to learn how to drive stick. I know no one who drives a stick. Try and buy a real shitkicker for like $300. Drive it for two months and take it to the junkyard when you're done.
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Apr 29, 2015 17:33
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Just buy a car and drive. That's what I did. I grasped it pretty quickly with some online advice.
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Apr 29, 2015 17:46
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I had a friend who leased a new Civic Si with a manual and drove it back home, in Manhattan, without having driven a stick before. Just get a car and drive it, it's the best way to learn.
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Apr 29, 2015 17:51
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StormDrain posted:Here's the video you probably need to find the timing marks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e74qmYkFMGc I printed a protractor I can cut up lol. Just wanted to point out, for anyone that didn't watch this video. Fuckin' Chevy, in their infinite wisdom, put TWO timing marks on the main crank pulley. WHY? Who the gently caress knows, but they did. THANKS YOU FUCKERS. This video tells me how to find the correct one. Yup.
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Apr 29, 2015 17:56
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Leperflesh posted:Just wanted to point out, for anyone that didn't watch this video. Fuckin' Chevy, in their infinite wisdom, put TWO timing marks on the main crank pulley. WHY? Who the gently caress knows, but they did. THANKS YOU FUCKERS. This video tells me how to find the correct one. Yup. If I recall, some of the sbcs had a timing mark on the cover around 2:00 and later ones had them at 12:00. It's probably got something to do with that since the balancers will fit on a pretty wide range of motors.
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Apr 29, 2015 18:14
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Parts bin engineering, gotcha. So, I rigged up my TOTALLY ACCURATE DIAL GAUGE OK and a printed protractor and I rotated the distributor cap exactly 11 degrees counterclockwise:   I did this with the engine running, and the little brown wire that connects the computer disconnected, per the manual. As I rotated the cap, the idle got rougher. After it was in position, the idle stumbled for maybe 20 seconds and then the engine died. With the wire still disconnected, the engine will start and run for a little bit, badly, before dying. E.g., adjusting the timing this way made it worse. Now what?
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Apr 29, 2015 18:54
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Leperflesh posted:Parts bin engineering, gotcha. To a degree, but when there are pretty few changes to a design over half a century, you might as well produce one part that fits almost all.
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Apr 29, 2015 18:56
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Power Player posted:I want to learn how to drive stick. I know no one who drives a stick. Just buy one and drive it. You'll figure it out. Some helpful hints, though:
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Apr 29, 2015 19:04
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Leperflesh posted:Parts bin engineering, gotcha. If the smog technician was correct (you're at 22°BTDC and it should be TDC), you needed to retard the ignition rather than advance it. You're now something like 44°BTDC. Turn it clockwise 22° then use (borrow, hire or buy) a strobe to get it spot on.
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Apr 29, 2015 19:08
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EightBit posted:[*]If you're panic braking, at least push in the clutch. Your brakes are more predictable and smooth than an engine winding down to idle. Especially if you have ABS.
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Apr 29, 2015 19:10
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Knobjockey posted:If the smog technician was correct (you're at 22°BTDC and it should be TDC), you needed to retard the ignition rather than advance it. You're now something like 44°BTDC. Turn it clockwise 22° then use (borrow, hire or buy) a strobe to get it spot on. OK, thanks. Makes sense, now I think about it... to retard, move the contacts further along the circle so the spark happens later in the spin. Yup. My dad has a strobe, but he's 50 miles away and I need to get this smogged in the next two days to avoid a late registration penalty. Because I left this to the last drat minute, of course. I figure if I get within a degree or two, it'll at least pass smog, and I can fine-adjust it next time my dad comes around. UPDATE: I had to unplug one of the two plugs on the distributor cap, and then pry a fuel line away a couple mm in order to cram the plug back in wedged against it, but that allowed me to position the cap exactly where it's supposed to be. And my god the idle is perfect, smooth as buttered silk. Thanks dudes. I'mma get it re-smogged this afternoon hopefully. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Apr 29, 2015 |
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Apr 29, 2015 19:31
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Excellent! Good luck with the smog check. 
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Apr 29, 2015 20:52
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Leperflesh posted:OK, thanks. Makes sense, now I think about it... to retard, move the contacts further along the circle so the spark happens later in the spin. Yup. Oh man I was following with baited breath. I was curious how you were sure which direction to spin it, despite being able to figure it out I've generally just given it a spin and (using a light) determined if that was right or wrong.
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Apr 29, 2015 22:10
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THE STORY CONTINUES Failed smog again  It's still 5 degrees BTDC. So, my eyeballing it with a paper protractor taped to the top of the cap, and going the wrong direction first, left me 2.5 degrees of cap rotation short of the target. The allowable spread is plus-or-minus 3 degrees of 0TDC, so I fail for that. But. Much more concerning; it's blowing too much smoke. "visible smoke from tailpipe" fails visible inspection. HC (PPM) is still way above allowed at 15mph, and pegs right at the max of allowed at 25mph. The NO is way back down to normal levels, though. The engine has 219k miles on it. The truck does not get driven much; in the last five years, probably less than 2k miles. It spends a lot of time sitting. I have to wonder if maybe the wear, plus the idle time, has left it with a bit of a gap around the piston rings and she's burning oil. Do you guys think that's the most likely culprit? Or, is it just that it's been driven with poor timing for a hundred or so miles, and maybe has a lot of soot build-up?
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Apr 29, 2015 23:15
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The distributor is probably off by one tooth. Fix that, run a can of seafoam through, and see what's what. Can you smell oil or does the smoke have a tinge of blue to it? If the timing is off, you might not be getting a complete burn. Sending a bunch of unburned gasoline out the exhaust is a quick way to fail. So it could be that simple a fix.* *It's never the simple fix.
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Apr 30, 2015 00:28
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If it were a tooth off, you'd be a lot further than 5 degrees off since the distributor gear does not have anywhere near 72 teeth on it.
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Apr 30, 2015 00:35
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What civic is best today?
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Apr 30, 2015 02:19
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I think the EG is still the go-to model generally speaking, you can play legos to get the drivetrain you want.
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Apr 30, 2015 02:26
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Leperflesh posted:THE STORY CONTINUES Do the basics - new plugs, new cap, new rotor, and change the oil (old/dirty oil will cause your HCs to go way up, especially if it's burning any oil). Adjust the distributor a little more to get it where it should be. New oxygen sensors probably won't hurt, they may be fouled by running with the timing all hosed up, but I'd probably do those last if it fails again. And for the love of god, get some fresh gas in it. If it's been driven under 2k miles in 2 years, the gas in it now is stale as poo poo and won't burn completely. Either drain the tank, or drive it until it's nearly empty and put a full tank of fresh gas in it (regular unleaded). If it's blue smoke, pour some engine honey (that super thick oil additive on the shelf at the parts store under many names - usually advertised to reduce oil consumption) in when you do the oil change, and maybe bump it up to 10w40 (or even 20w50 if it never gets below about 50F there). That should slow oil consumption enough to keep it from smoking much, if at all. And make drat sure it's good and hot before the test; take it up on the highway for a bit, beat on it a bit, make sure that temp gauge has been showing good and warm for at least 15-20 minutes. A hot engine will burn cleaner (aside from NOx possibly being a bit higher if the timing is too advanced, but you said those numbers are where they should be). Since HC was way high, I'm guessing it was black smoke, which just means it's running pig rich, which can happen just from being cold. I've only had cars fail twice. On one, driving the poo poo and adjusting the timing slightly out of it got it to pass (with a failed catalytic converter at that; it was OBD2 and giving a P0420 code, but it was before TX moved to OBD2 testing). The other had a cam one tooth off from its last timing belt job; pulled like a goddamn freight train for what it was, but backfired out of the exhaust a lot (HCs were in the thousands, the inspector said he'd never seen a Honda fail so bad). randomidiot fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Apr 30, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 05:37
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I'm having a hard time figuring out if this 1990 Suburban 2500 has a solid front axle or not. I know the 1990 4x4's have a 10-bolt front differential, and that it was phased out in 1992, but I'm not finding much on the RWD models. Anybody have an idea? Dude is going to send me a photo today but ain't nobody got time for that.
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Apr 30, 2015 17:24
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They are independent front ends. Very similar to (if not identical) to the 1987 3/4 pickups.
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Apr 30, 2015 17:35
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IOwnCalculus posted:If it were a tooth off, you'd be a lot further than 5 degrees off since the distributor gear does not have anywhere near 72 teeth on it. Yeah, the distributor shaft is keyed, you can't put it in any teeth off (which also made it a big pain in the rear end to reinstall, it took me ages to get it oriented exactly right so that it would slot in flush). It's fine, I just need to rotate the cap another 2.5 degrees. Doing this without a timing light was always going to be not super accurate. The main thing is, it looks like the smoking issue isn't entirely due to the timing being wrong. some texas redneck posted:Do the basics - new plugs, new cap, new rotor, and change the oil (old/dirty oil will cause your HCs to go way up, especially if it's burning any oil). Adjust the distributor a little more to get it where it should be. New oxygen sensors probably won't hurt, they may be fouled by running with the timing all hosed up, but I'd probably do those last if it fails again. I put in new cap, rotor, plugs, and wires three months ago. I also had an oil change when my mechanic did the re-replaced oil pressure sender, just before I put on the new parts. Also went through two tanks of gas in the last four months. Oh, and it now has a new battery, too. And, while I was doing the rest of that, I also ran a can of seafoam through it (some in the gas, some in the oil, just a week or two before the oil change). Didn't get into it too much, but basically, my brother doesn't have a car and after a couple years of unemployment it looks like he's finally going to get a job. (He enrolled at the steamfitter's union, passed the tests, has been taking classes, and is slowly moving up the list... word is, the next job they'll be taking apprentices at will start mid-May.) At my dad's request, I've been getting the truck into shape so that my brother can borrow it for a little while, until he's able to save up enough money to buy his own car. So the truck sat for a long time, but I've driven it a bit every couple weeks to keep it from getting too hosed up. I spoke to my mechanic yesterday. He made a similar suggestion about thicker oil. He said he usually uses 5w30, so that's what's in the truck now; a higher viscosity will help reduce oil intrusion into the combustion chambers. There are special "high mileage engine" branded synthetics, so I'm thinking of doing a change and putting that stuff in. Plus, get the timing exactly right, and then as you said, drive the truck on the freeway for a bit, get it good and hot. The mechanic also mentioned that blue smoke could potentially be a leaking PCV valve? I went ahead and submitted the registration today, so I wouldn't have to pay a late fee. CA DMV shows it as "incomplete" but that means I haven't broken the law by driving on an unregistered car if I drive it after today.
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Apr 30, 2015 17:46
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I have a 2009 Malibu with the 2.4 L 4cyl and six speed automatic. It has 120000 kms (75000 miles) on it. My driving is about 90% steady speed highway driving. The owner's manual claims the transmission fluid never needs to be changed unless the car sees severe service. I'm not sure I buy that and am thinking of having a fluid change done. Should I? Can I expect an independent mechanic to have the information they need to do it properly, or would it be better to take it to a dealer? Also, how much should trust the oil life monitoring system? It's indicating very long oil change intervals. I have been changing it when it reaches 50% and using a synthetic oil.
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Apr 30, 2015 17:58
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Leperflesh posted:Yeah, the distributor shaft is keyed, you can't put it in any teeth off (which also made it a big pain in the rear end to reinstall, it took me ages to get it oriented exactly right so that it would slot in flush). It's fine, I just need to rotate the cap another 2.5 degrees. Doing this without a timing light was always going to be not super accurate. The main thing is, it looks like the smoking issue isn't entirely due to the timing being wrong. It's only keyed to the oil pump so it is possible to get it off if the pump gets turned, but again if you were trying to do that you'd be off by a hell of a lot, not just a few degrees. I would skip on any actual synthetics in an engine that old / that may have blowby, but I would probably try some of the high-mileage dino oil (like Pennzoil's stuff that's maybe $2 more than the yellow bottle, but cheaper than Ultra) or maybe just go right to 15w40 Rotella / Delo 400. Those oils kept my old 350 running even though it had enough blowby to pop the dipstick out, and was constantly spraying the valvecovers from both breathers. rocket_350 posted:I have a 2009 Malibu with the 2.4 L 4cyl and six speed automatic. It has 120000 kms (75000 miles) on it. My driving is about 90% steady speed highway driving. The transmission fluid change on that is probably no different than any other GM vehicle (remove pan, replace filter, replace pan, fill it up with enough Dexron). It probably requires Dexron VI, but that's pretty much ubiquitous at this point. I think you'd have to try to find some old Dexron III somewhere. And yes, "lifetime" fluids usually mean "until the transmission burns up from lack of fluid changes", so I would definitely change it at some point. The oil life monitoring, on the other hand, is usually reasonably accurate on modern cars. Highway driving is very easy on engine oil since it means you always get it good and hot. How long is "very long"? If you really doubt it, take a sample from your next change and send it to Blackstone. I'd expect they tell you it's safe to run a good while longer.
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Apr 30, 2015 18:15
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Is it difficult to seal and mount tires on alloy rims? I have 15" rims with standard tires (195/65R15) and when I bought the car, the tires were all losing a pretty good amount of air overnight. I brought it back to the dealership and had them remount and seal all the tires, but one of them is still going down to ~20psi (and then staying there) after 24 hours. Because I just bought the car, they're not charging me for repairs, but I don't want to have to keep going back if they're doing a lovely job because it's 20 miles away versus the many tire shops near me. If I can go to a firestone or tirecity or whatever and pay 20 dollars to be done with this, then I might, but if tire sealing and mounting is some Herculean task and a 75% success rate is admirable, then I'll head back to the dealership.
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Apr 30, 2015 18:21
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It's not something you'd want to do yourself. If I was in your position, I'd maybe go back to the dealership for free once, and if they manage to gently caress it up again, I'd pay a tire shop to do it right.
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Apr 30, 2015 18:48
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IOwnCalculus posted:How long is "very long"? I've never let it count all the way down, it would probably be over 10000 miles if I did.
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Apr 30, 2015 19:03
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rocket_350 posted:I've never let it count all the way down, it would probably be over 10000 miles if I did. Modern oils in modern engines are capable of lasting into the 12K-15K mile range. You can go with your gut (because you aren't hurting anything), or you can get used oil analysis from Blackstone Labs and see what they say.
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Apr 30, 2015 19:30
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BrokenKnucklez posted:They are independent front ends. Very similar to (if not identical) to the 1987 3/4 pickups. Nice call! Too bad it's not solid, but if the rest checks out I think I'm going for it.    Looks to be pretty clean underneath and in the bay at least!
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Apr 30, 2015 19:31
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rocket_350 posted:I've never let it count all the way down, it would probably be over 10000 miles if I did. This is oil after ~8300 miles, on the second change ever in my CR-V, and still using the factory filter (Honda only recommends changing the filter every other time).  Any properly sealed engine with good oil that isn't getting beaten on all the time, should be able to run 8-10k oil change intervals.
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Apr 30, 2015 19:32
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Astonishing Wang posted:Nice call! Too bad it's not solid, but if the rest checks out I think I'm going for it. That looks like a pretty clean old suburban. Its going to be an utter pig on fuel, but you can only tow a small 2 story house. You have to leave the larger homes to a 1 ton truck. Chevy hasn't used solid front axles on the 2wd trucks since.... late 60s is my best guess (IOC could confirm if his C10 is independent). I know Ford used the twin I beam front suspension since the 60s as well. If I am not mistaken, even the 1 ton trucks were independent front suspension as well.
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Apr 30, 2015 19:53
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IOwnCalculus posted:It's only keyed to the oil pump so it is possible to get it off if the pump gets turned, but again if you were trying to do that you'd be off by a hell of a lot, not just a few degrees. I never turned the engine over or rotated the crank in any way while the distributor shaft was removed, so I'm pretty confident it's fine. I just need to turn the cap slightly farther. 2.5 degrees of rotation off from where I measured it is well within the tolerances of my ghetto duct-tape-and-printed-protractor measuring methods. Thanks for the oil recommendations. I'll give one of those a try. This truck never sees low temperatures (the coldest it gets is a few overnights each winter that dip below freezing, and I'm basically never driving at 3 AM in January) so a higher-viscosity oil is not going to be a cold-weather problem.
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Apr 30, 2015 20:04
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I don't trust the old mechanic's wisdom of using higher viscosity oil to reduce oil burning. Higher viscosity oil burns just the same. The thing is, it doesn't flow as easily, so less will get squirted onto your cylinder walls. You will see less smoke, because there's less oil there to burn in the first place. Without speccing your bearings for it or putting in an oil pump that can keep the flow up with higher viscosity and pressure, you shouldn't deviate from your manufacturer's viscosity specification. Accept that it's going to burn oil until you correct whatever situation is causing the oil burn (stuck rings, valve guide seals, etc.). That, or dump enough engine honey into it to dump it on CL and be that guy.
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Apr 30, 2015 20:58
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I have to pass smog once every two years. I can go with a high-viscosity oil once every two years if that's what it takes. Also, this engine can handle a higher viscosity than 5w30. The shop manual says 10w30 for temps of 0F and above. Since I never seen temps below about 30F, I'm comfortable with a higher viscosity... 20w on the low end will be fine, especially during these summer months when a "cold" start is still likely to be at least 50 degrees. If this were a low-mileage engine, I'd probably agree with you, of course. In this case, it's an engine from 1992 that has 220k miles on it. If it's leaking oil into the chambers, it's because the piston rings and/or the cylinder walls are worn enough to let oil ooze past, in a larger quantity than it did when new. Reducing the amount of oil penetrating to the cylinder won't accelerate wear, since we're only attempting to replicate the amount of oil that's "supposed" to be there. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Apr 30, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 22:19
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My parents recently bought a Dodge Ram 3500 pickup truck and are having problems with removing / putting on the tailgate. Currently, my dad is in charge of manhandling the tailgate, and my mom is in charge of maneuvering the left hand side of the tailgate to (un)set the pin. She really sucks at this and often gets her fingers pinched. My dad is trying to figure out a way to turn this into a 1-man operation - he's not able to both manhandle the tailgate and do fine maneuvering on it, so he's looking for some mechanical way to offload the manhandling part. There's generally only one location (their home) where he'd need to do this alone, so the solution doesn't need to be portable. He's thinking of trying to rig up some sort of pulley system to the roof of the garage so that he can lower down / raise up the tailgate and (un)set the pin on his own. Does anybody have any experience with removing / putting on a pickup truck's tailgate as a one-man operation, e.g. any DIY or commercial device that would help out? My dad is 59, so him getting stronger / more athletic isn't really an option.
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Apr 30, 2015 22:58
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Why is he taking it off so often? Would it be easier to buy a tailgate with the cutout for his gooseneck or 5th wheel hitch I'm assuming he has?loinburger posted:My parents recently bought a Dodge Ram 3500 pickup truck and are having problems with removing / putting on the tailgate. Currently, my dad is in charge of manhandling the tailgate, and my mom is in charge of maneuvering the left hand side of the tailgate to (un)set the pin. She really sucks at this and often gets her fingers pinched. My dad is trying to figure out a way to turn this into a 1-man operation - he's not able to both manhandle the tailgate and do fine maneuvering on it, so he's looking for some mechanical way to offload the manhandling part. There's generally only one location (their home) where he'd need to do this alone, so the solution doesn't need to be portable. He's thinking of trying to rig up some sort of pulley system to the roof of the garage so that he can lower down / raise up the tailgate and (un)set the pin on his own.
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Apr 30, 2015 23:03
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He's got a truck camper, so the tailgate has to be completely removed before the camper can be put on
loinburger fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Apr 30, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 23:04
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loinburger posted:He's got a truck camper, so the tailgate has to be completely removed before the camper can be put on When I take the top off my Jeep I use a brake winch and line routed through a series of pulleys to lift it straight off. The top is attached via a sling made out of seat belt webbing. One person cranks it down, the other person guides it into place. They also have small electric winches you can mount on the ceiling that make it a one person operation. Maybe you could look at some of those setups for some inspiration on a similar kind of lift. You may also be able to use an engine hoist depending on how tall you have to get the tailgate to put it in place.
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Apr 30, 2015 23:21
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loinburger posted:He's got a truck camper, so the tailgate has to be completely removed before the camper can be put on Are you sure you know what a 5th wheel tailgate looks like?  And if for some strange reason he needs to take it off it's going to be a hell of a lot lighter.
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Apr 30, 2015 23:42
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