The Gearhead Thread

[Hovannes]

What's really weird is that the check oil light has never come on----even in Reno (all the other lights did) and not the other day when there wasn't enough oil to register on the dipstick.
It's gas. I'll have the pvc and plugs looked at. Thanks!

[FredS]

Does the check oil light come on for a few seconds when you turn the key on or start the engine? It should. A defective warning light obviously doesn't cause the oil to disappear, but that could be why you don't get a warning.

[Hovannes]

A jackstand conundrum:
My dad never owned a pair of jack stands. To him, putting a car "up on blocks" meant blocks, either stacked 8x8 douglas fir or cored concrete.
Being a kid into newfangled stuff I had bought a pair of tubular steel jackstands circa 1970 K-Mart, the kind you don't see anymore.
Those jackstands were OK for my old VW Beetle, but when I put them under the '26 Buick with a cast iron straight 6, they failed.
In fact, they failed profoundly, and the Buick even blew the seals on my floor jack while I searched for my dad's 8x8s and concrete blocks.
So I invested in steel 6 ton floorjacks from Harbor Freight, ubiquitous orange and have been using those for many years.
When I started working on smaller cars I needed 3 ton jackstands because of the clearance and eventually got a pair of Harbor Freights recently, just like the 6 ton orange ones except 1) they're blue and 2 they have a triangular piece that blocks the ratcheting mechanism in place with a bit of chain and clip to secure it.
In a kismet moment I discovered a source for all the 1926 Buick parts I need to put the old Buick back together (hopefully by 2026, her 100th birthday)
No $$ for the parts right now, but as I'm working on the T, I figure I might as well putter around with the Buick as well.
So I dragged out the orange 6 ton jackstands and now I'm wondering, are these safe? It seems like they are, but they don't have the triangle "lock." the new Harbor Freight jackstands have.
The disaster with those tubular steel K-Mart jackstands must have made quite an impression on my young mind.

Apparently, this is a real thing----
https://www.thedrive.com/news/33679/sca ... s-they-are

[FredS]

Jack stands are something I won't trust from HF. I do have a couple HF floor jacks - a low profile aluminum 'racing' model and heavy duty 3-ton steel one. It's just a mental hangup for me really. Left over from the days when HF was low cost Chinese stuff. I have a set of AC Delcos from Oreilly and a set from Summit Racing. Truth be told, I'm sure they're all made in China

[FredS]

Hopped in Mrs FredS's car to go to dinner last night. It was raining and one of her wipers was leaving a streak. She said it probably needs replacing. I replace wiper blades every year in July without making a deal of it so I knew it wasn't bad but she didn't know it had just been replaced. I stopped, removed the pine needle stuck under the wiper, held it high and said "or maybe it just needs this pine needle removed".

In other news, I didn't change the wipers on the truck this year. I put silicone wipers on it last year and they're still in good shape. Too good, in fact. They squeak. The programmed windshield washer cycle is a squirt and then three wipes and they clean so good they squeak on wipes two and three. If it's not raining pretty hard, they dry on the up sweep and squeak on the down sweep. Quite annoying.

[SlowToke]

A couple weeks ago, I converted my 1998 Harley Davidson Road King Classic from fuel injection to old school carburetor. It was a fun project. I removed the EFI throttle body and all the fuel injection wiring (what a rats nest), removed the fuel pump and filter inside the tank along with some of the other unnecessary hardware inside the tank, installed the new intake manifold and S&S Super E carb, installed a Pingel petcock and all the fuel lines and whatnot. Initially, I tried to run the ignition with the stock ECU but finally figured out it wouldn't time right because I never could get the carb jetted and tuned properly. I installed a Thunder Heart single stage ignition and from there the carb tuning was pretty easy and I didn't have to chase the jetting down much. Ended up going 0.031 intermediate jet and 0.070 main jet and it runs like a top. It also sounds so much better than it did with the Magneti Marelli fuel injection. The impetus for the change was sputtering once the engine was hot. Instead of trying to diagnose the issue on the MM EFI, I decided to just convert. I've always liked the simplicity of carbureted engines anyway. Turns out, once I got the EFI throttle body off, the issue was very likely the intake seals. They were old, dry, and cracked and there was carbon buildup especially on the rear cylinder. Would have been an inexpensive fix but I'm really glad I switched. The bike runs like a completely different bike with more power. Fifth gear no longer bogs down on uphills on the highway. I only lost a few miles per gallon in fuel efficiency which is better than I anticipated. It even got me inspired to work on the old 1970 Ironhead that has been rusting away in the corner of my garage. I purchased a MIG/TIG welding rig and am going to get the oil bag, battery box, and rear fender brackets welded up and get it ready for powder coating. After that, all she needs is put back together and wired up. I really love old motorcycles and cars. Any Joe Shmo like me can work on them.

[JimVH]

Differentials by Dyson:

[joegoat]

Jack stands are something I won't trust from HF. I do have a couple HF floor jacks - a low profile aluminum 'racing' model and heavy duty 3-ton steel one. It's just a mental hangup for me really. Left over from the days when HF was low cost Chinese stuff. I have a set of AC Delcos from Oreilly and a set from Summit Racing. Truth be told, I'm sure they're all made in China

I have a set of the recalled HF jack stands. They're fine. I don't use them for anything close to their limit. I can't be sure, but I bet the same factory in China poops out every jack stand sold in America and just paints them different colors for each vendor. Jack stands are always better than trusting a tiny O ring in a floor jack. I've seen floor jack seals fail. I have yet to see a jack stand collapse.

[Hovannes]

Jack stands are something I won't trust from HF. I do have a couple HF floor jacks - a low profile aluminum 'racing' model and heavy duty 3-ton steel one. It's just a mental hangup for me really. Left over from the days when HF was low cost Chinese stuff. I have a set of AC Delcos from Oreilly and a set from Summit Racing. Truth be told, I'm sure they're all made in China

I have a set of the recalled HF jack stands. They're fine. I don't use them for anything close to their limit. I can't be sure, but I bet the same factory in China poops out every jack stand sold in America and just paints them different colors for each vendor. Jack stands are always better than trusting a tiny O ring in a floor jack. I've seen floor jack seals fail. I have yet to see a jack stand collapse.

I've seen both floor jacks and jack stands fail. Some of the worse jack stands were the cylindrical sheet steel ones they sold everywhere in the 1960's
It turned out that my 6 ton jack stands weren't sold by Harbor Freight, and I have no idea where I bought them now, 30 year later.
I do like HF floor jacks. I have a 2 ton low profile and a heavy duty 3 ton, and two pairs of Daytona 3-ton jack stands.

[SlowToke]

IMHO, when it comes to jacking up vehicles, it's best not to rely on one device. I've always used a backup. When it comes to my head being crushed or not, I prefer a little insurance.