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Bookworm
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Re: More Stuff

Post by Bookworm »

Hansontoons wrote: Mon Oct 07, 2019 12:15 pm If your vehicle is older, a replacement self-tapping plug might be another good thing to have on hand. It's a bad feeling when the plug starts to get snug but then keeps turning and turning...
A sheet of cardboard is good, if you have a large box you can break apart.

As for the plug - that won't happen if you keep a good washer. That's what the crush washers are for.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
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TazManiac
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Re: More Stuff

Post by TazManiac »

TazManiac wrote: Sun Oct 06, 2019 5:57 pm re: Oil Pan work;

Have your Mech look into whether there is a Neoprene replacement Gasket for any OEM Cork/Paper one.

Less (or even No) leaks down the road...
I thought we were talking replacing the PAN, just changing the Oil is eezzy-peezzy...
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Bookworm
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Re: More Stuff

Post by Bookworm »

TazManiac wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 12:54 am
TazManiac wrote: Sun Oct 06, 2019 5:57 pm re: Oil Pan work;

Have your Mech look into whether there is a Neoprene replacement Gasket for any OEM Cork/Paper one.

Less (or even No) leaks down the road...
I thought we were talking replacing the PAN, just changing the Oil is eezzy-peezzy...
Replacing the _Pan_ is easy-peasy unless it's a GM 6 cylinder engine. Then you have to lift the engine to remove the support bracket that's blocking the oil pan.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
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AnotherFairportfan
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Re: More Stuff

Post by AnotherFairportfan »

Bookworm wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 10:42 pm
TazManiac wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 12:54 am
TazManiac wrote: Sun Oct 06, 2019 5:57 pm re: Oil Pan work;

Have your Mech look into whether there is a Neoprene replacement Gasket for any OEM Cork/Paper one.

Less (or even No) leaks down the road...
I thought we were talking replacing the PAN, just changing the Oil is eezzy-peezzy...
Replacing the _Pan_ is easy-peasy unless it's a GM 6 cylinder engine. Then you have to lift the engine to remove the support bracket that's blocking the oil pan.
Heh.

Back in the early 70s, when GM was planning to offer a rotary engine as an alternative to the base six in some of its compacts {and then chickened out after the design was pretty well set and offered a V8 instead}, the factory-approved procedure for changing the plugs on the V8 involved removing the rear motor mount{s} and jacking the back of the engine up so that you could get to one of the plugs that was otherwise blocked by the frame rail.

At least two GM mechanics i knew at the time told me that the mechanic-approved procedure involved a hole saw.
Proof Positive the world is not flat: If it were, cats would have pushed everything off the edge by now.
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Bookworm
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Re: More Stuff

Post by Bookworm »

AnotherFairportfan wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 11:20 pm
Bookworm wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 10:42 pm
TazManiac wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 12:54 am
I thought we were talking replacing the PAN, just changing the Oil is eezzy-peezzy...
Replacing the _Pan_ is easy-peasy unless it's a GM 6 cylinder engine. Then you have to lift the engine to remove the support bracket that's blocking the oil pan.
Heh.

Back in the early 70s, when GM was planning to offer a rotary engine as an alternative to the base six in some of its compacts {and then chickened out after the design was pretty well set and offered a V8 instead}, the factory-approved procedure for changing the plugs on the V8 involved removing the rear motor mount{s} and jacking the back of the engine up so that you could get to one of the plugs that was otherwise blocked by the frame rail.

At least two GM mechanics i knew at the time told me that the mechanic-approved procedure involved a hole saw.
That's basically what happened with the first Ford Escort's. To change the timing belt, you had to remove the cover (with only about an inch of clearance), and removing the water pump often involved cutting a hole in the passenger side wheel well, so you could get the socket straight to the main shaft.
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jwhouk
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Re: More Stuff

Post by jwhouk »

Beats how you have to replace the headlight in a VW "New" Beetle. Or in a Chrysler PT Cruiser.
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Re: More Stuff

Post by Bookworm »

jwhouk wrote: Sat Oct 19, 2019 12:38 pm Beats how you have to replace the headlight in a VW "New" Beetle. Or in a Chrysler PT Cruiser.
Probably similar to the Pontiac Vibe and Toyota matrix. It involves removing the front bumper, and sometimes the fender as well.
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Re: More Stuff

Post by Alkarii »

I seem to recall someone saying the Chrysler Town & Country requiring the entire engine to be pulled out so you can change the spark plugs.
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Post by AnotherFairportfan »

Pretty sure i replaced headlights on the PT Cruiser and i don't recall it being particularly difficult.

Not like the alternator on the Renault Alliance...
Proof Positive the world is not flat: If it were, cats would have pushed everything off the edge by now.
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Re: More Stuff

Post by lake_wrangler »

Bookworm wrote: Sun Oct 20, 2019 6:08 pm
jwhouk wrote: Sat Oct 19, 2019 12:38 pm Beats how you have to replace the headlight in a VW "New" Beetle. Or in a Chrysler PT Cruiser.
Probably similar to the Pontiac Vibe and Toyota matrix. It involves removing the front bumper, and sometimes the fender as well.
Front bumper... You mean, that thin plastic cover which sits over an equally thin small metal bar, with some styrofoam in-between the two?
(Can you tell I'm not overly fond of how they build cars, nowadays?)
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Re: More Stuff

Post by Dave »

lake_wrangler wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 12:32 am Front bumper... You mean, that thin plastic cover which sits over an equally thin small metal bar, with some styrofoam in-between the two?
(Can you tell I'm not overly fond of how they build cars, nowadays?)
We'll, they have to do something with all of the recyclable plastic, cardboard, and newspaper that the Chinese will no longer agree to import and process!
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Re: More Stuff

Post by lake_wrangler »

Last week, at work, a bunch of supervisors were outside, standing around an electric car that had been brought in for evaluation, or something like that. I forget the actual make of the car, but it really doesn't make a difference...

They were told that this was supposedly "a car for everyone", as in, anyone will be comfortable using it...

I happened to be walking by, coming in for my second half of the workday. Being the "ranking heavyweight" of the bunch who were standing there, I was asked to sit in the car to check it out. I am 6' tall, and weigh 385 lbs (though people wouldn't peg me as that heavy... I "wear it well", I guess...)

Anyway. I sat in, with the seat in its rearmost position, and yet the steering wheel was resting on my belly, regardless of the tilt I gave it. And the console in the middle of the car was so cumbersome that my knee was resting on it in such a fashion that it actually prevented my leg from moving far enough to the right for my foot to reach the gas pedal! I kid you not: I could only have my foot face the brake pedal, and could not move it far enough to the right to press on the accelerator (I guess since it was a fully electric car, calling it a "gas pedal" would be a bit of a faux pas...) My leg was physically blocked from going farther right by the console! :shock:

(Proof, yet again, that cars with a full-size console are not for me... :roll: )
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Post by Catawampus »

Yeah, I was once asked to drive. . .I think it was a Honda or Hyundai 4-door sedan of some type. It wasn't supposed to be a compact car, just a "normal sized" one. I pushed the seat all the way back and down, the steering column all the way up, and tried to get in. Space was so tight that I could only fit my legs under the steering wheel if I had my foot pushing all the way down on either the brake or the accelerator. I wouldn't be able to let my foot up off of whichever one it was without getting out of the car. Which would make for either excessively boring or very exciting driving.
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Post by AnotherFairportfan »

My mother owned a Volvo station wagon. It was not a small car - it was larger than the 4-door Honda i was driving at the time. It had less room for the driver.
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Re: More Stuff

Post by Bookworm »

Oddly enough, the Ford Festiva (NOT the Fiesta) was a tiny car. It also had enough head room that my 6' father, with most of his height in his torso (just like myself) could get in the car without a problem. My 5'2" mother could ALSO drive the car.

I can't ride in a lot of 1980's GM cars, at least not in the front seat. I have to tilt my head sideways against the roof.
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Re: More Stuff

Post by Alkarii »

I'm sure the people who run this company are idiots. At least two of the shifts are terribly short of people, but apparently we're also not allowed to hire any new people.
There is no such thing as a science experiment gone wrong.
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Re: More Stuff

Post by lake_wrangler »

Bookworm wrote: Fri Oct 25, 2019 4:01 pm Oddly enough, the Ford Festiva (NOT the Fiesta) was a tiny car. It also had enough head room that my 6' father, with most of his height in his torso (just like myself) could get in the car without a problem. My 5'2" mother could ALSO drive the car.
I once had a two-door Subaru GL, front-wheel drive, which had a surprisingly large amount of leg room.
Bookworm wrote: Fri Oct 25, 2019 4:01 pmI can't ride in a lot of 1980's GM cars, at least not in the front seat. I have to tilt my head sideways against the roof.
I 1989, I drove someone's Hyundai Excel (how recent was that model, at the time, I have no idea...), and had to open the sunroof, in order to not be pressed against the roof, like what you're describing...
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Re: More Stuff

Post by AnotherFairportfan »

lake_wrangler wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 7:00 am
Bookworm wrote: Fri Oct 25, 2019 4:01 pm Oddly enough, the Ford Festiva (NOT the Fiesta) was a tiny car. It also had enough head room that my 6' father, with most of his height in his torso (just like myself) could get in the car without a problem. My 5'2" mother could ALSO drive the car.
I once had a two-door Subaru GL, front-wheel drive, which had a surprisingly large amount of leg room.
My mother's Ford Taurus, which was somewhat larger than my Honda Five-Speed four-door sedan, had perhaps a bit less legroom - and a windshield which, by comparison, felt like driving a tank, peering through a narrow slit - its dash was about four inches higher, and its roofline dipped down in front, where the Honda's windshield actually ran an inch or so into the nominal roofline.
Bookworm wrote: Fri Oct 25, 2019 4:01 pmI can't ride in a lot of 1980's GM cars, at least not in the front seat. I have to tilt my head sideways against the roof.
I 1989, I drove someone's Hyundai Excel (how recent was that model, at the time, I have no idea...), and had to open the sunroof, in order to not be pressed against the roof, like what you're describing...
The culprit in that case may have been the sun roof itself - a sun roof takes up inches of headroom com pared to a car without one, and adds a couple hundred pounds of weight p high, to boot.
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Post by AnotherFairportfan »

Also, the boxer engine layout that i believe Subarus use would make the engine shorter, allowing more legroom.

Heck the most legroom any car i've ever owned had was in my two Spridgets - where the engine was narrow enough that they could muse a "W"-shaped firewall that extended the footwells to the point that your foot on the accelerator was about even {as i recall} with the Number Three cylinder {definitely the Number Four, if not the Number Three.}
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Re: More Stuff

Post by lake_wrangler »

AnotherFairportfan wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2019 4:30 pm Also, the boxer engine layout that i believe Subarus use would make the engine shorter, allowing more legroom.
That, I knew... The engine in there was so small... a 1.8 L. engine, but only as deep as two cylinders. Think of a V4 engine (no, not a typo, V4, not V8) that was flattened, so that the cylinders were at opposing ends of each other, instead of at an angle to form a V... This meant that a 4 cylinder engine only needed to be half as long as a regular inline 4 cylinder engine. So yes, that translated itself into more leg room.

In fact, the engine was so small, there was room on top of it for a full-size (13") spare tire! :lol:
AnotherFairportfan wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2019 4:30 pmHeck the most legroom any car i've ever owned had was in my two Spridgets - where the engine was narrow enough that they could muse a "W"-shaped firewall that extended the footwells to the point that your foot on the accelerator was about even {as i recall} with the Number Three cylinder {definitely the Number Four, if not the Number Three.}
The most legroom I ever had was in my first truck: a 1977 Ford F250 Supercab pickup truck, with a bench seat in the front. I actually could not pull the seat all the way back, or I wouldn't reach the pedals! :o
(Unlike my current truck, a 1991 Suburban, where I had to rig the front seat, to put it 2" higher and 2" farther back... But now that I have, I am quite happy with it...)
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