Please share any tips you have like; use a hacksaw to clean up the head of a slotted screw, you can make a bolt longer repetaly hitting the shank with a hammer on an anvil.
Make a depth gauge for a drill by marking the bit at the depth desired with a 'flag' of masking tape...and when the flag brushes away all of the chips to smooth surface, depth is 'right'.
Model T generator armature commutators have been turned many times and are smaller than the 1.750 inches diameter when new.
Lightly coat the commutator with finger nail polish, wrap a piece of one inch wide by 8 inch long #220 grit sandpaper with the ends cut on bias around the commutator with the cutting side out, glue down the end, place a rubber band around it for 24 hours to fully dry.
Install the armature and individually place each of the three brushes down on the commutator with brush spring tension, turn the drive gear by hand and form the radius of each brush so it has 100% contact with the commutator surface.
This makes an awkward task very easy with the correct result.
Ron the Coilman
I used to use a piece of paper, folded in a "V" and taped to my project to catch small, falling screws. Here's the closest pic I could find on the web to match that. Looks like another good use here if you don't want to let drilling debris fall.
My Dad taught me when using a "Liquid Wrench"type product take your hammer and "tap" the area you want it to seep into .....It helps it penetrate and do its job........My Dad was a machinest for the AT&SF railroad, and taught Machine Shop three nights a week,,Adult Ed.....Not an automotive mech by any means , But he could take apart a Steam Locomotive in his sleep....We worked on my Model T and learned together ....I was 13years old....Now 64 it seems I've always had one.....I learn something new everyday on this forum...Carl
Egg cartons are great for holding small screws and other parts while working on your car. They are narrow enough to fit on top of the engine or on the floor. Each carton can be labeled and stacked on a shelf or in a tool box. Great for holding light bulbs.
Well, an old timer didn't show me this .. but I'm almost 60, if that counts. :-)
I used an old child's rocking chair to assist with sloshing the etching chemical in my fuel tank:
Sure saved the back!
Well, an old timer didn't show me this .. but I'm almost 60, if that counts. :-)
I used an old child's rocking chair to assist with sloshing the etching chemical in my fuel tank:
Sure saved the back!
My Dad taught me how to tap out gaskets using a ball pean hammer. Consequently, I only buy gaskets I cant make these days. Saves time too.
My Dad taught me the best "Old Timers" trick of all---Listen to the old timers!!!! He was right!
"Forget every thing you think you know about cars". Early T advice given to me by one who knew. It rings in my ears.
One thing that I was taught about forty years ago when I worked in a welding/machine shop was how to remove rusted bolts and nuts. Heat them up to red hot, then, let them COOL. Then, apply a good penetrating oil, and SLOWLY start to loosen them. Work the wrench back and forth until you can make a full turn. They will usually screw right out then. Dave
If you have a jar or can of hardware, shake it and the small parts go to the bottom.
On the lighter side :
HAMMER:
Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate expensive parts not far from the object we are trying to hit.
MECHANIC'S KNIFE:
Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on boxes containing seats and motorcycle jackets.
ELECTRIC HAND DRILL:
Normally used for spinning steel Pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age, but it also works great for drilling mounting holes in fenders just above the brake line that goes to the rear wheel.
PLIERS:
Used to round off bolt heads.
HACKSAW:
One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence it's course, the more dismal your future becomes.
VISE-GRIPS:
Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
OXYACETYLENE TORCH:
Used almost entirely for setting various flammable objects in your garage on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside a brake drum you're trying to get the bearing race out of.
WHITWORTH SOCKETS:
Once used for working on older British cars and motorcycles, they are now used mainly for impersonating that 9/16 or 1/2 inch socket you've been searching for for the last 15 minutes.
DRILL PRESS:
A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against that freshly painted part you were drying.
WIRE WHEEL:
Cleans rust off old bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprint whorls and hard-earned guitar calluses in about the time it takes you to say "Ouch...."
HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK:
Used for lowering a motorcycle to the ground after you have installed your new front disk brake setup, trapping the jack handle firmly under the front fender.
EIGHT-FOOT LONG DOUGLAS FIR 2X4:
Used for levering a motorcycle upward off a hydraulic jack.
TWEEZERS:
A tool for removing wood or metal splinters.
PHONE:
Tool for calling your neighbor to see if he has another hydraulic floor jack.
GASKET SCRAPER:
Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for getting dog-doo off your boot.
BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR:
A tool that snaps off in bolt holes and is ten times harder than any known drill bit.
TIMING LIGHT:
A stroboscopic instrument for illuminating grease buildup.
TWO-TON HYDRAULIC ENGINE HOIST:
A handy tool for testing the tensile strength of ground straps and brake lines you may have forgotten to disconnect.
1/2" x 16"-INCH SCREWDRIVER:
A large motor mount prying tool that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end without the handle.
BATTERY ELECTROLYTE TESTER:
A handy tool for transferring sulfuric acid from a car battery to the inside of your toolbox after determining that your battery is dead as a doornail, just as you thought.
AVIATION METAL SNIPS:
See hacksaw.
TROUBLE LIGHT:
The mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called a drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin", which is not otherwise found under motorcycles at night. Health benefits aside, its main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105-mm Howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battles of the Bulge. More often dark than light, it's name is some-what misleading.
PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER:
Normally used to stab the lids of old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; can also be used, as name implies, to round off Phillips screw heads.
AIR COMPRESSOR:
A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty bolts last tightened 60 years ago by someone and rounds them off.
PRY BAR:
A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.
HOSE CUTTER:
A tool used to cut hoses 1/2 inch too short.
I use the CFL style bulbs in my trouble lights. Nice and cool, no burns.
Don't leave the handle down on a floor jack that's holding up a car. One of the Long Beach guys is walking with a game leg now.
rdr
Dad has a lot of these:
Use right tool for the job
Dont overtighten
keep your parts organized or you'll loose them
clean up stuff you are working on
if it ain't broke don't fix it (ok he borrowed this)
don't jump to conclusions
think it through
grease is good
if its making a noise or not working right, fix it!
keep an extra key hidden somewhere
Clean off the tools and put them back where they belong.
Rick
From my former job: "If it's broken and out of warranty I've got nothing to lose". Larry.....Get the tools!
If you're working with something electrical, use one hand and put the other hand in your pocket. No sense using your body to complete a circuit. I forgot who taught me this.
Gary White mentioned the CFL bulbs in trouble lights. I use those too, and in addition to being cooler, they don't stop working if you drop the light or knock it off its perch. (That saves me a lot of $$ on bulbs.)
From my life long T mentor that now has passed. "The first thing you need to know about driving a T is to pull your head out of your a$$."
From my gramps: When you remove a part dont just throw the fasteners into a cup or something, re-thread them back into the holes you removed them from so you dont lose them and debris cant enter.
pour your screw assortment out onto a rag then it's easy to pick them all up and put them back.
CFL globes are a bit of a liability, they contain mercury which isn't good for you by any stretch of the imagination...
these are bullet proof...
http://www.burnbrite.com/Our-Products--Services/Product-Details/Pages/Electronic s/Lighting/Portables/Versa-Lite-Portable-Rechargeable-LED-Work-Light.aspx
Anthony, that looks like a wonderful Father's day gift. No cord to wrap up.
Dad
1. If you have to use a lot of force, something is probably wrong, and is about to break.
2. I also often recall the one seen here before about not to tighten a nut or bolt till it strips/breaks. Stop just short of that.
3. Don't test new ideas on someone else's car.
Proper torque-Tighten until it strips and back off a 1/4 turn.
If you feel you are about to twist off a bolt stop and use a hammer on the end of the wrench to impart physical shocks to break it loose. A brass hammer is preferred.
Burn out a broken bolt or stud in cast iron with a cutting torch. Re thread after. Bolt will burn before the cast iron.
To find the compression stroke on #1 cylinder, take the plug out and put your thumb in the hole. Crank the engine over, using the electric starter or an assistant on the hand crank, and when your thumb blows out of the hole, you have found the compression stroke for that cylinder. Run the spark plug wire that is next to the rotor when your thumb blows out to that cylinder. Run the rest of the wires according to the firing sequence.
To time an engine, one without a spark advance on the steering column, loosen the bolt holding the distributor, open the throttle a little, about 1,500 rpm, and advance the timing until the engine no longer speeds up. Retard the timing until the engine starts to lag, then advance again. Find the spot where further advancing the timing does not make the engine run faster. Tighten the bolt. This works on some modern cars too, the ones with cam angle sensors. You can usually put a wedge, like a screwdriver, somewhere in the throttle linkage to keep the engine at a moderate clip.
To find high resistance in a starter current path, feel for the warm terminal after trying to crank the engine. Usual spot is a battery terminal, but might be a thin wire or the switch. Clean the battery terminal with your pocket knife by scraping vertically all around the post and scraping the inside the terminal. Scrape to see shinny metal.
If you suspect the carb of running lean, put a few fingers over the intake while the engine is at a moderate speed. If the engine speeds up, the carb is running lean. The more fingers it takes, the more the carb is too lean. If it slows down, that is not the problem.
To tighten a babbitt bearing, take one shim out at a time, going from one side to the other, until the bearing is too tight, then put one shim back. If still too tight, add another shim. The shims are usually composed of many thin leafs. Each leaf might be 0.001 inch. Peal off one leaf at a time.
In a pinch, shoe leather can be used in place of babbitt. Cut to fit, tighten, drive home, replace the babbitt.
When I think of more, I will post them.
I qualify to be an old timer.
Neil
I thought it was torque until bolt snaps and then back off a quarter turn. That's what I get for listening to old timers Hal.
Philip
Neil, you don't have to say you're an old timer. "Clean the battery terminal with your pocket knife..." says it. We were born in a world where men and boys all carried pocket knives. Today's "zero tolerance" policies don't let boys carry "weapons" like pocket knives and nail clippers.
I'm never without my jackknife........been carrying an "Old Timer" for as long as can remember.
I always carry a pocket knife and usually have a pocket screw driver on me as well. When I fly I just put them in the tray with my keys, wallet, pen, pocket notebook and pocket change. Never have been stopped. I really feel safe due the fact that I have a 2 inch blade on me and the rest of the passengers have less than 2 oz of shampoo. The only time this did not work is when I visited NASA. As Paul Harvey said that that is the rest of the story!
Paul
Kabar..... Got it in 1971, it's in my pocket right now and I used it earlier today!
Funny you should mention that, Steve. After my Dad passed away in April, I had the sad duty of going through his house and in his dresser, I discovered the Boy Scout knife he confiscated from me back around 1965. Haven't seen it since then. Kind of a bittersweet find.
Back in the day, there were any number of things in the everyday world that made such a pocketknife a very useful thing to carry around. Now, I can't find much use for it outside the house. Maybe it's time to start thinking about camping out, again.
Joe,
You must live in a tough neighborhood!
One tip I remember is "measure twice and cut once."
Along that line, if you cut a wire a little to long, the boss may grumble. If you cut it just a bit to short, it will be much worse.
Bob,
1 Open mail
2 Sharpen pencils
3 Liberate products that come encased in a plastic sarcophagus
4 Cut up boxes to burn in the fireplace
5 Cut string when you tie a plant to a stake
6 Free a rotary mower bound by high grass
7 Trim insulation from wiring
8 Stir and apply plastic wood
9 Cut electrical tape
10 Trim calluses that feel like a pebble in your shoe
My dad taught me:
"just one more turn will do it...Steve get me another bolt."
and for fencing:
"one more pull...Steve go see if we just pulled the brace out of the ground down there."
and for most things mechanical like hay balers, silage choppers, or anything with a lot of bearings that start getting a little noisy:
"it will run a long time just like that."
and for clearing trees with a bulldozer:
"never hit a dead tree because the top will break and out and fall on you before you can find reverse" - turns out he was right on that one.
I had an intermittent short in a wire in the '65 Mustang, kept blowing fuses when I hit a bump, but couldn't find the short. My wife's 90 year old uncle wired two light bulbs in series to the ends of a burnt fuse and plugged it back into the fuse holder. I wiggled wires until the lights came on. That showed me which one was shorting out without blowing a dozen more fuses.
When taking things apart, use cardboard to keep track of fasteners. If for instance you are pulling the hogshead to change bands, lay the new gaskets on the cardboard and trace them with a marker including the holes. Now using a utility knife, cut a slit across each fastener hole. As you remove fasteners, push them into the cardboard in the same hole where they came from.
This is especially helpful if you won't be putting it back together immediately. You can hang the cardboard on the garage wall and when it comes time to re-assemble you have all the bolts and screws. I also write notes on the cardboard such as "bolt heads face down" or whatever.
I learned this years ago doing heavy maintenance on jet engines. Each flange has probably 100 bolts and they are different sizes due to brackets and such than attach at a certain hole. That and it would often be a week or more before re-assembly. Beats the crap out of a coffee can!
Lol, Randy my dad I restored a '65 Mustang GT that was semi-barn find: 1 owner and car had sat parked in old lady's garage since 1978. The hardest part about working on that car was dealing with the electrical system, it was like voo doo. I know now why several people recommended removing all of the wiring and just starting over with a complete wiring kit.
How old does one have to be to qualify as an old timer? I suspect around 80 or so?
BTW, I have some old timers in a gallon jar in the shop.
Gary....I WAS going to do just that when I had to remove the hogshead on the '25 Fordor........but didn't.......
I'm still kicking myself for not listening to me.
I guarantee next time I WILL!
"I've cut this board twice and it's still too damn short!"
Story of my life. A carpenter I was not.
Never put Brake Fluid, Gas, Antifreeze, Battery Acid Ect. in a Pop Bottle, or other food container, even if it is marked.
Some one you like may Die, it has happened!
If you don't like them, the way things are now, you may go to Prison!
Ken, old is always ten years older than I am.
Kohnke ... I saved a couple oil changes from my '74 British Leland .. in an empty windshield washer bottle. My wife got REAL pissed with me when she started to dump the 'washer' fluid in yer new Ford Fusion washer solvent bottle. Luckilly, she only let a couple 'bloooops' go in before she realized SOMEthing was wrong. We agreed to disagree on who was at fault .. the dumb axle that didn't label the bottle .. or the dumb axle that took the bottle from out of a case of oil (rather than the storage shelf on the other side of the garage, where we always store the fluid).... So now, I keep the bottle around for good 'fun' .. with a big skull and crossbones on it, and labled DANGER!! USED OIL!!! (like I SHOULD have done in the first place!) We split the $60 to have the Ford dealer take the tank out and flush it.
Use a HCCT to demagnetize screwdrivers or needle-nose pliers or any other item. Turn the HCCT slow and let the end of the tool slide/rattle over the ends of the magnets. The alternating poles of the magnets goofs up the magnetism in the tool.
The Weller transformer (induction) style solder guns will also magnetize
or demagnetize small tools. Hold the tip of the tool between the poles (tip
holder) and trigger the gun on and then off to magnetize, and withdraw the
tip of the tool from between the poles with the trigger on to demagnetize.
Works great to magnetize the little jewellers screwdrivers as well.
Of course just dragging them over a strong magnet will do so as well.
to remove tie rod ends and ball joints on modern cars place a heavy hammer on one side of the arm holding the tie rod then smack the other side with another hammer... pop of they come! Works well to remove stuck rear wheel hubs on T's if the wooden wheel is removed/gone.
When something goes wrong, look at what you did last!!
When I was a little guy, my Dad told me if I'd take the oil pan off the old '45 Ford truck while he was at the Western Auto getting a new set of inserts he'd buy me a big old Hershey bar. I guess I was about 7 or 8 years old and I new what a half inch socket and a ratchet was and I went to work. When Dad got home he laughed so hard I thought he was going to be sick. He gave me my Hershey bar and I walked around the yard eating it till I got sick. Dad told me I looked like hell all full of oil with a bunch of chocolate around my mouth. Then he said "you're sure as hell related to your Mother's side of the family, you're dumb as a stump". The he came out with these bits of wisdom, "Son you have to drain the oil before you take out the pan bolts". And since then I've never failed to drain the oil before...
Be careful that you state exactly what you would like a helper to do, word it badly and you may be in for some grief.
A couple of examples.
When I was teaching at college we had a workshop clean up an the end of each day. A fellow teacher asked one of the students to hose down the floor. The student grabbed the air hose and proceeded to blow dust and dirt all over everyone else in the shop.
This one is a classic.
A friend hired 2 guys on their summer holidays to strip down a Camero, he left instructions for them to dismantle the whole car.
when he returned from a holidays they had done exactly that!
every last nut, bolt, screw had been removed from every part of the car. all put into a few boxes, every part had been reduced to it last component, not one part (carburetor etc ) was more than a body with every jet, screw, nut bolt, lever and shaft pulled apart and put into a box with every other piece of the car!!!