mws

I may be wrong here, but is it not better to mount an amp on a piece of wood or other non-conductive surface? Nice idea for the stealth install though! Not a problem IF the amp is properly designed, built, and installed. There is a very slim chance of inducing some ground loop issues if the ground wire from the amp is mounted a long ways away from the amp - but it never should be. The shorter the better.

Don't know the answer to your specific question, sorry. You may already know this, but just in case: Optima's have considerably less capacity than a regular wet cell battery (a little more than half last time I checked). This only poses a problem if you want to have your battery power loads when the engine is off like stereos or lights. Other than that, they are fantastic batteries.

I just heat up the needle and bent it back... but that only lasted until temps started exceeding 105 again. It has now crept back and is starting to rub again. This time, I'll heat it, bend it back, and then epoxy a straight pin or sewing needle to the back of the needle to brace it straight.

Ordered an IR 121K-6 super duty hammer and 2 other bits (total of 8) for $100 delivered... Oughta get 'er done!

AT's have become extremely complex little buggers. I'd confidently argue that they are more complex than an engine. When all is well, they are quite convenient. But when one little thing goes wrong (and there are literally THOUSANDS of things that can go wrong), it gets ugly. It's quite challenging to rebuild one and have EVERYTHING go back together and work perfectly. So I usually recommend getting a known good lower mileage used OE transmission over getting one rebuilt.

Urp.... I'm the only one in the 6+ category? Come on, there's got to be more "collectors" out there! FYI: A collector is someone who collects cars of unique value or character. A "collector" is someone to whom stuff just seems to migrate and stick...

Pawn shops are always a great idea... unfortunately, we only have one in town but lots of people aware of it. The supply and demand curve is way against me - anything decent gets picked before it even hits the shelf. I also had good luck with Husky tools in the past - but then they got popped by the FTC a few years ago for advertising and labeling tools as "Made in the USA" when they were actually imported. So I have boycotted them ever since (I'm kinda cranky that way). But since that was several years ago, it is quite possible they have since cleaned up their act... Anybody know?

Want to pick up a decent air hammer/chisel to simplify rebuilding the front suspension on my tow van (getting 20 year old A-arm bushings out is a bear!) Anybody have any brands/models they recommend? Or recommend avoiding? I see prices from $20 to $200+... I want adequate power to destroy old bushings, but I don't need it often enough to rationalize buying a really nice pro model. I already have chisels.

Hee-hee! Reminds me of my nephew's stream (small river?) crossing lesson on dirt bikes. He decided to try the narrower section - his thinking being narrower would be easier! He rode in only to discover it was close to 7' deep. One handlebar end and his helmet was all that could be seen. Moral: Narrower usually means deeper!

Hmm, starts quiet and then gets louder? So it varies with temperature... Oil thins out as it heats up... and metal expands and fits change with temp... A somewhat inconclusive, but quick and easy diagnostic check I use: Change the oil and see if the noise behavior changes. Use the heaviest grade of oil the manual recommends. Or just drain off a quart and add a thickener like Lucas Oil Stabilizer. If no change at all, more likely exhaust or something like that. If it goes away and stays away for quite a while, I suspect a leaky lifter that is going out or a sloppy bearing of some kind.

Yup, that would be the variable viscosity approach I mentioned. If it can be dialed in, it would be much cheaper than using all the various valving. And yeah, 99% of consumers believe the existing tech is adequate. As I did. Until I experienced better. Now I consider them "the annoying compromised turds I gotta live with until the aftermarket offers something better at a reasonable price". Riding dirt bikes and feeling what a high tech suspension can do for control, comfort, and safety was just mind blowing to me. Feeling the difference from my damper rod (piston and orifice) damped forks on my old KDX to the rather trick suspenders on my '04 KTM is literally unbelievable. These things can controllably absorb huge amounts of energy from big impacts, yet are plush as a caddy on small impacts. Imagine that on your truck - no bottoming - even off 2' jumps, yet smooth and plush enough to drink coffee on a wash boarded gravel road at 45 mph. It is possible...

Also look for broken wires or damaged wheel speed sensors.

Hey Aaron - Love seeing the real world feedback. A couple of the TBI spacer marketers are now offering versions with the separator between the bores partially eliminated in an aerodynamic looking way. The claim is that this improves balancing between cylinders at low rpm and improves peak power at higher rpm as each cylinder can draw from both bores of the TB. That theory and $5 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks... But, then again, that theory also sounds an awful lot like the old Yamaha V-Boost system on the V-Max. On that engine, it worked and made a huge difference as the bores were undersize for the displacement - so letting cylinders breathe thru two bores eliminated a major restriction. I wonder if the bore diameter in the TBI present a power limiter to these engines at high RPM? Are the bores separate or joined in your plates? Have you tried the other option? Wanna be our guinnea pig?

Generally, HID conversions are OK to do when using European headlight assemblies, if the HID element is designed correctly. They are a bad idea on US (and possibly Canadian?) models as the US DOT standards require a certain small percentage of the light be projected upward in order to illuminate road signs. Plug in an HID element and you WILL blind oncoming traffic. European standards generally require a hard cutoff with NO percentage of light projected upward - as that will blind oncoming traffic. I have a set of European spec Hella H4 headlights on another vehicle. When driving on a freeway at night, road signs are almost impossible to see when the low beams are on. This kind of headlight can safely be converted to HID if you use an HID element designed to be used in a headlight originally designed for H4. So that's the simple test - if road signs reflect back brightly, do NOT convert. If almost impossible to see, OK to convert.

Well, Slick and MZ pretty much illustrate the variety of opinions and approaches, ehh? I think I fall somewhere in between. I use NGK's about every couple years - prob about 30K miles.

Higher end auto shocks use various and multiple combinations of pistons, orifices, shim stacks, blowoff valves, bypass circuits, etc etc etc. But all automotive shocks I am aware of use hydraulic fluid as the energy absorbing media. Some protoypes have even used variable viscosity fluid! High end Shock design and function is some pretty wild stuff - You can vary damping any way you want - as long as you can afford it! Velocity dependent, position dependent, whatever. F1 cars develop the new concepts. Other race series exploit it. Motocross shocks have really brought the exotic stuff to the masses. And it's neat to see it FINALLY trickling down to 4x4 trucks and bicycles. Unfortunately, the majority of off road shocks purchased today are primitive piston/orifice designs -which are actually a pretty inferior design. All the shocks I see on the market for the Pathy (save the IAS and RSX) are still piston/orifice dinosaurs. BUT, shim stacks and blowoff valve/bypass designs are showing up on stadium and baja style race trucks, and a few high end private owner trucks. You can spot them easily - when coming off a jump or big bump, the truck lands, the truck squats as it absorbs the energy, and then smoothly rises back up. No bounce, no slam, no kidneys flying out the window. The Edelbrock IAS and Rancho RSX are the first "consumer" level shocks to start seeing bits and pieces of this theory and technology. But they are barely scratching the potential. As I see it, the big problem is consumer awareness and acceptance. As long as buyers consider a Rancho 5000x or Rough Country to be adequate, the laws of supply and demand mean we'll keep getting primitive tech. Also a significant factor to lack of consumer demand is cost - a well designed and built shock is a very complicated deal with a lot of precise parts and is going to cost over $150. Each. A really nice shock will be at least $300. As long as consumers are more concerned about looks and cheapness, we will still not get the opportunity to buy good ones.

Another long shot: My nephew's eurovan had intermittent fuel and temp gages. Work sometimes, not others. Dismantled gages, checked all connections, all looked good. Still no worky. Since it was two unrelated gages, we still suspected the instruments rather than sending unit. Got the magnifier out and started inspecting all the connections on the PCB (printed circuit board) in the instrument panel Found 3 cracked solder joints. Reflowed them and everything worked fine.

Hmmmm... thinking... thinking... thinking I recall these are electric speedos, right? I can't remember, even though I had to pull mine out for a different problem. Mine would not go back to zero - would stick at 20 or so, then once accelerated up to 40 or so it would jump up and read fine. Turned out that was a bent needle problem. It gets so freakin' hot here the plastic needle softened and the internal stresses resulted in the needle bowing back until it touched the face of the gauge. Sounds different, but worth a quick looksee.

OK, back to the original topic - 1 locker, front or rear? I would say it depends. In some situations, in the front would be better. In others, the rear. Not trying to be flippant, honestly. I think the difference in opinions has to do a lot with what challenges the author of the recommendation is most concerned about. For precise creeping activities (rockcrawling, tight stuff in the forest) I can see the advantage to having the ability to have the key "directional deciding" wheel locked on demand to pull you in the right direction. That would be the front tire with the most weight on it. And for frequently driven street vehicles, it is usually preferable to not have a locker in the rear because of the noise and possible tire wear issues - so that part of the population may give the nod to the front. For steep hill climbing with lots of switchbacks and on the edge traction, I can see significant advantage to having it in the rear - where all the weight is and it affects the steering less. But I think everybody agrees either is far superior to neither.

I actually read all the linked articles and couldn't find a single mention of why it is "not a good idea to think you can just unlock a hub and drive around like that". Which is, I believe, what the subtopic was. I do apologize for the thread hijack there - maybe that's what flared the attitude. Every article points out the risk to driving around with front end locked (ARB or lincoln) and both hubs engaged, which was never in question... Could one of the administrators please move the subtopic posts to their own thread? I believe that could lead to more productive discussion. I'm quite done here, but don't want to cease mature discussion on the welding idea. Thank you.

One thing to keep in mind - This is a very high frequency signal and the miniature coaxial cable inside that umbilical to the antenna is extremely precise and rather delicate. For best results, use extreme care to not pinch the cable - even minor crushing of the dielectric can cause serious signal degradation. Since it is a digital signal, damage does not result in hissing or anything like that - it just increases the rate of "lost signal". I'd be willing to guess the vast majority of complaints about "loss of signal" problems from satellite radio users is self induced. I see a lot of kinks/pinches/knots in the cables that just make me cringe. Something as simple as getting a knot in the wire and tugging it can induce enough damage to result in 50% attenuation... Do not cram it in slots with hard objects, do not install it someplace where it could get squished. Oh, if you need to know why my recommendation might have some validity: I design, specify, and build ultra-high frequency controlled impedance cables for the semiconductor industry. I handle this stuff every day. We have even built some cables for XM Radio to test their equipment! And I LOVE my XM Radio!

What's with the attitude?

Ooohh.... nice! Maybe I shoulda got the bigger wire feed welder... :o Nahh... Just need to get a big a## stick welder for the plate stuff! Anybody got one laying around they don't need?

I am taking a welding class this fall and will have access to a large enough welder to make a bumper. So I am looking for ideas for a front bumper for my '87. I want it to be protective, but not any heavier than necessary. And designed to allow a winch to be mounted but easily removed for theft deterrence. And with minimal complex bends since I don't have access to massive presses! Been surfing the web and have some ideas, but curious if any of you have any pics of really nice setups you've seen? The more input I get, the closer to perfect I can get my own bumper!

I've never heard of him... I wrote it down and will be seeking out at the bookstore on my next visit! Thanks!