60FlatTop

Here is my home made ground tester. The big clip goes on the negative post of the battery. There is about 35 feet of wire to get the alligator clip on the ground side of any component on the car. It is the quickest check you can do to find a bad ground. 1960s GM tail light grounds are nothing the GM engineers went home and bragged about working on at the dinner table. I prefer soldering a ground wire and running it right to the frame rail. Make one of these test jumpers. You will be glad you did.

"Alright. One more time, cracked is the same as broken. End of discussion." Welcome!

That takes me back to the days when a friend would ask "Hey, have you seen the new undercover police car?". "Oh, yeah. It's got the big engine in it too." Backed in off Main St. idling and coking up the spark plugs. Nothing stood out like the undercover cop car.

The color is red but if you ever get to Coleman's restaurant in Syracuse, NY you will find their can be an ethnic order of things that must be maintained. https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/buffalo/explore-ny/2016/10/18/explore-ny-tipp-hill-traffic-light And the back dining room at Coleman's sure reminds me of my Grandma O'Brien's house.

Flxible added 4" to the cowl and hood as this car has. Evidence of a long door on the left rear would probably make it an ex-hearse. We had a few of them floating around my area, Buick and Cadillac. They usually ended up as cut down fire department cars.

When I first started my business a client told me I was promoting the ideas of this book. https://atulgawande.com/book/the-checklist-manifesto/ It is a great read, especially for those old enough to be spending more time with medical institutions. My application is in building operations and it is an incredibly hard sell. We had a Valvoline oil change facility in our town at one time. I was impressed with the upper and lower floors and the grates. I went there once but still preferred my own oil change process.

Turning the key with the wrong hand may not be special but certainly out of the ordinary.

A rebuilt starter doesn't mean much anymore. Most of the shops I have seen, even the best one I use, just do a visual inspection. There is a starter torque testing fixture. There don't use that anymore. There are growlers. They don't use that anymore. You can Ohm out each segment of the armature. They don't do that anymore. I had an Allis Chalmers starter that was giving me trouble a while back and got those questions answered. One time I did a job on a poor performing Cadillac hydraulic pump, similar to a starter. The owner told me to take it to an old timer starter/generator shop. The owner said "Pay attention. He's been doing it a long time. You might learn something". Yeah, stay away from the old hack. After doing the supposition dance too many times I was "allowed" to diagnose it. I fixed it following my "book learnin'" techniques. I read the first book well over 60 years ago when I was first introduced to BS. But also give the starter every change to perform properly.

That '31 is a 114" wheelbase so I would figure the torque tube would have to go no matter which way you went for the updated engine. If you can swallow that the field is wide open.

They weren't much of a frame to begin with so repairing it by a good frame shop might end up in the $1,000-2,000 range. The really good thing about having a job like that farmed out is avoiding the "while I am in there" syndrome. Big plus.

FATSC is a good company. L & L Transmissions in Batavia, NY let me order my parts from them prior to removal and inspection. I bought the kit, bushings, and whatever else was on the list. Not those bolts though. Friendly, that even asked which mechanic at L&L was doing the job. Three years already!

I wasn't mounting wheels 70 years ago, but it was 65 years ago. The first time I did I had a better understanding of esthetics that mechanics. My Dad pointed out that the taper of the lug nut went toward the wheel, not outward to create a pleasing look as I had thought. 65 years ago I was only mounting steel wheels. The steel for both was either from a Detroit or Pittsburgh foundry and samples were dipped off the furnace to adjust the proper carbon content. The lug nuts were tapered and I don't remember any shouldered or flat base ones on cars I worked on. That's the tried and true method that may not be true anymore with varying alloys, sources, and quality or all the interrelated components. I will consider all current instructions and generally used then with my discretion. I do like the long reach of the lug nut dedicated torque wrench. I used it yesterday standing erect. And "I" don't used an impact wrench on the plastic wheel cover nuts. I also do my own oil changes and really don't miss the smell of oil burning off my exhaust manifold at the first stop light I come to. I had it done by others a couple of times. I think they advertised and 17 bump oil change. As I understood it the service manager was paid a base plus commission on the bumps above the original service request. Although I do miss some of the comical bump spiel I have heard. Hmm, I always changed my own oil on the BMW. I wonder if they called it bump spiel or bump sprecht in those shops.

My wheel torque wrench is a recent addition. A nice chrome plated well balanced four way has always been at hand for 60 years. I saw so many references to proper torque on wheels I became concerned. Buying the Z71 Avalanche with 17" alloy wheels pushed me over. 60 years is a long time to think things would be the same. And with age and experience I tend to embrace the leading edge to stay current in technology rather than reply on the old tried and true that may not be true anymore. As it turned out my four way guess-a-tightnening was so close to the torque wrench there was little difference. The torque wrench has a thicker, comfortable handle, clicks, and ratchets as well. Racheting means the old guy has to get as low either. Convenient one arm job. I'm for it.

That's what I look for in advice. And it usually works great.

As I wrote earlier, that auction was poorly placed and difficult to find. And no reserve. Like the car warranty guy says "Who does that?" It reminded me of the add I placed for my '56 Willys pickup. "My wife says if it doesn't sell I can keep it."

After the 600 LB-FT of impact torque stretches the wheel stud the thread alignment just ain't the same. I have a inexpensive click torque wrench with a Chevy truck lug socket and proper setting just for my trucks.

Could be part of a Deco bubble pipe,

Any connection to the Mendez family?

I remember them in a bin at the Western Auto Store right next to the chrome plated nut covers.

Public domain for the picture. No credits for resources at the end. So it must not be part of his Master's or Doctorate thesis. I don't think he has ever driven a Triple Turbine Dynaflow, either.

I am a flatlander. Glacial compression and scarification. Smoothed out around 20,000 years ago. (Glacial geology is another hobby of mine). But my yard has a pretty good grade. I always park my cars around the lot as if they were going to get away. I have quite a few clusters of deciduous shrubs that I actually point my car towards, nothing heavier than a lilac, nothing lighter than a rhododendron. I figure they are enough to hang the car up but not badly damage it. There has never been a really big incident yet but the awareness is always there. I was working on my Chevy Avalanche front suspension today. Wheel cock at the rear, resting on a jack stand, a floor jack with slight pressure about a foot from the jack stand. I had to turn the front wheels for better access. I stood on the narrow running board tread and reached to unlock the ignition. "Well, this ain't too smart" I thought. And I got right inside and sat in the driver's seat. Fully aware that in the event of a mishap the first two works out of my mouth would be "I thought", the two most dangerous words in the English language. I have lived my life hidden in the shadows of non-events and never received recognition for it. In fact some have said I never did anything!

If you want a real treat slide behind the wheel of a Bentley T-series. You will be shaking your head going "How'd they get away with this?"

In 2011 I looked at lots of options for my badly abused sludge encrusted, non-running 1986 Park Avenue. I located a long block at an engine distribution warehouse in St. Petersburg, Fl. for some like $300. Some of that stuff gets dusty as the model years age. And they are happy to move it out. The engine had been rebuilt by one of the large southern rebuild houses. I don't recall the name of the rebuilder or distributor but a little investigation may exceed your expectations. Terminal to terminal freight is quite reasonable. In a similar vein, I am going to need a right side CARB catalytic converter for my '05 Cadillac STS V8. How many buyers are there for those manifold integrated dust collectors. Oops! I was just ready to push the submit button and your location popped up. Maybe someone else can use my tips.

How did I ever miss this!. Reminds me of the woman who made roast beef when her mother was visiting. Her mother sat at the kitchen counter and watched her daughter cut a small slice off each end of the roast. The mother asked "Why did you cut the ends off?" The daughter replied "That's the way you always did it when I watched you as I was growing up. I thought it was how it was done." Her mother replied "I didn't have a nice big pan like you." The closest I ever came to a mentor was my grandfather, my Dad's stepfather. Dad told me "You can learn a lot from Jerry, just watch him, don't copy him." Then there was the instrumentation mechanic who set up all the precision balance points and fulcrums in a control cabinet, close the door, and give the cabinet a sharp rap with the palm of his hand when finished. I watch and internalize that stuff. Like the old man thing where he gives your fender two gentle open hand palm taps just before you drive away. Always two with the same pace. I will chuckle next time I put a head on. But it's really going to bother me if it leaks.

My cars are inanimate and non-gendered. I like it that way.