Calling all tightwads, packrats and home made do it yer' selfers. Pics please.

[woodbowl]

Ever need to fix something, knew better that to patch it but patched it anyway? I sure hope to stir some old timer hearts out there and prompt them to share some long lost secrets and dying arts. Please post pictures if you have them.......................Patching up to me is just what it implies. It's a tempory fix and it may help limp through the job, but there's nothing like fixing it right for the long haul. I admit that my home made fixin's have gotten me in trouble more times than not, but don't you just love it when things work out real good! Every now and then I run up on a fellow that is a lot better at it than the average Joe. When I heard about this one, I once again headed for the bait. Next thing I knew, I was underneith our 93 Chevy Astro shimming the knocking rod bearings with a Tuna fish can. Now................before you start laughing, I should say that this is not a new idea. It was quite common during the war when parts were hard to come by. I was delighted to find that it worked. How long will it work? I don't know. I can still hear a little rattle like I heared 20,000 miles ago. If I get 10,000 more miles, it will be worth the effort. Will I do it again? I don't know. An egged crank is an egged crank and it should be turned if it's to be done right. ---------------------I hope to see your back yard inventions soon. Here's a little bit of my scratchin' around.

[woodbowl]

1- The first pic was grinding off the end of the bearing. 2- Cutting shim stock. 3- Calipering the shim size.
4- Placing shim on cap. Placing shim between bearing and cap. Placing shim under bearingshim between bearing and cap. Ready to install
Cutting plastigage to length Locating plastigage on bearing

Cutting tin can for shim stock

[woodbowl]

Calipering thikkness- .010
Gaging the compression of the plastigage against the chart

[Dan_Shade]

haha, nice, though you may be causing yourself another headache down the road ;)

I once made a tackle box out of old plywood and used peices from an old shoe to make hinges, and a piece of innertube with a hole punched in it to fit over a nail as an "elastic" latch

my brother used to give me all kinds of crap over that, but it did what I needed it to do!

[Ernie]

Way back in the old days, I guess it would have been about 1953/53 when I was 12 or 13,  Terry and I were great friends and had the typical, "how's it work" thing.  Fortunately, Terry's dad was an aircraft mechanic at the Island airport in Toronto and had an unbelievable set of tools and the will to let us learn.  He used to pick up old Austins and Morrises which had seized up for us to learn on.  I am still amazed that we never lost any of his tools.  I digress.

We got pretty good at getting them running at no or minimal cost.  The tin can thing was a favourite as long as there was some bearing shell left, if not, we used to soak old bits of leather belt in hot oil, cut to length and use that as a bearing, very quiet running ;)

I wonder what Terry is up to now, I haven't seen him for about 45 years, he wanted to go to the states and become a fighter pilot.

[twoodward15]

why wouldn't you just spend the $20 on a new set of bearings????  If you're gonna spend an hour grinding and getting tools out and putting them away you may as well just buy new bearings (oversize) and spend less time doing it right! ;D

[redpowerd]

could have called this thread "caution on buying used vehicles" :D

hope it works for ya, whats that blocky thingy with all the squares? caliper shelf?

[woodbowl]

twoodward,    I don't think that there is a right way since the crankshaft journal is egg shaped. Most of the wear from a knocking rod is located at 10-20 degrees after TDC. All you can really do is get some slack out. The first thing I did was put new bearings in. Problem was, each rod was different. The range difference was .004 to .017 thousands. That's where the plastigage came in. It told me to the thousanth how much shim to put in. It's an old clunker anyway. Not worth putting a motor in, but couldn't bare to junk it.

[Buzz-sawyer]

Youll get a lot of satisfaction out of the next 20000 miles.......... ;)
When you live out in the boonies like I do ....well, ya learn to fix stuff........and I LIKE makin stuff work, Sometimes folkes just throw money at a problem (Modern day mechanics often do )
But putting the old noodle to work, using what is at hand often makes a "BEST" fix that lasts!!

[DanG]

Well, it looks like ya got the picture postin' thing down. ;D ;) :D :D  I've heard tales of old timers replacing a bearing on the side of the road with a piece cut out of their shoe tongue. 

I didn't get into mekanikin until poverty and the "Cantankerous old Curmudgeon" syndrome overtook me, so I'm a little behind the curve.  I wish I'd paid more attention when I was younger. :-\   I gotta dig out the brand new water pump from under all that plunder on the front of my truck engine tomorrow, so I can take it back for exchange.  It has less than 200 miles on it and it's dumping water faster than I can put it in! >:(

[woodbowl]

Hey DanG,  thanks for helping me  figure out how to do all this. Couldn't have done it with out cha'. ;) I bought me a 40' long flatbed trailer the other day.  :oEver heard of such a thing? If you need to use it sometime just hollar.----------

[DanG]

FAWTY FOOTS?    Wow!  You gonna pull it with the Isuzu? :D :D

[Furby]

If ya do, better get a pic!  :D

[Harold]

I once was on a fishing trip many miles from any where in Canada,  It was a two hour boat ride after we got in the water,  Any way one of the boats we had was a old inboard, I don' t recall how big but automotive size.  We were fishing about the 2nd day of a 10 day trip when the starter locked up.  well they guy had minimal tools, and no mechanical abilities.  While stranded out in the middle of the lake, I manages to get the starter off,  The nose cone bushing was gone, causing the armature to bind.  Well we did have lots of Labatts Blue cans available.  So with my sharp Fillet knife I cut thin strips of aluminum and wrapped around the armature and fit them in the nose cone, used some grease I found on the engine, put it together and it started like new the rest of the trip.  The guys were amazed at the fix,  Only a couple of hours down time drifting around.

Harold      ;D   ;D   ;D

[Bro. Noble]

This morning we were just finishing up with milking when the vacuum level dropped to where it wouldn't pull the wash water through the lines.  There is a plastic ball in the bottom of the vacuum tank that drops down when it is shut off to let any water accumulation drain out.  The DanG ball was busted (I got it 'gorella' glued now).  I had to have vacuum to finish milking so after looking around I spied the cat's bowel.  I turned the pump on and stuck the bowel (upside down) against the pipe that the ball fits in.  It worked just fine and after running the soapy water,  I shut the pump and got the rinse water ready.  When I went to put the cat's bowel back in place,  it was already there.  The vacuum lifted it off of the floor---about a half inch ;D

I may not even put the blooming ball back :D :D

[oldsaw]

Sorry, my escapades predate my digital camera.  Matter of fact, I never did think about taking pictures of them with a regular one either.

I'm always doing something like that.  I hand filed an adjuster arm for my Stanley 113 compass plane.  Works great.  I rebuilt my father-in-law's carb on his riding mower with a beer can, two screws from a computer printer I tossed out, and some epoxy.  It was Memorial day and the thing was too old for a new carb.  It blew up two years later, the rebuild still intact, but the con rod..not so much.  I replaced an intricate metal heater tube in a VW Jetta with copper tubing and fittings.  It was Sunday, and I needed to be gone the next morning.  It was my first real intro to "plumbing".

My all time scrounger idol is my old roommates dad.  He bought an old pull type combine that was pretty well used up, for $25 at an auction.  He found a nicer identical one that actually worked for $30, but needed a couple of parts.  So, for $55, he had a combine he used for well over 5 years, with the parts to keep it going, a big flatbed trailer, a hog feed hopper (with auger and trailer...he had a pickup axle), and lots of angle iron and sheet metal.  I will forever defer any title offered to me to the true master.  I'm unworthy.

[beenthere]

""This morning we were just finishing up with milking when the vacuum level dropped to where it wouldn't pull the wash water through the lines.  ...............  I spied the cat's bowel.  ............ stuck the bowel (upside down) against the pipe that the ball fits in.  It worked ..............  When I went to put the cat's bowel back in place........................""

I may not even put the blooming ball back :D :D

Can't help wondering if you meant "bowl" when you typed "bowel" here, as a cat having to 'loan' you it's bowel for any length of time would have a hard time surviving the ordeal.  :D :D ;D ;D
Sorry, couldn't resist poking fun at you for the typo. 

[Murf]

I do (did?  :() my share of binder-twining, but only as a stop gap till I can fix it right, usually.......

I had a roller bearing grenade on the caster wheel of one of our big mowers while out of town on a job. The factory parts were not an option since the only source was thousands of miles away and durned expensive to boot. Stoooooopid imported specialized stuff!!!!

Anyways, we needed the machine up and running, and fast. To make problems worse  Ihad to be a smarty, I figgered if one wheel was bad the other might not be far behind, sure enough, it was ready for the scrap heap too.

The problem was they had put a sleeve in the bore then the rollers inside that, the hub was real hard, but the sleeve was soft, so the sleeve wore through on one side, that made it spin when it shouldn't and that let the whole thing go bad.

A quick check with a borrowed caliper told me that, without the bad sleeves, I had exactly 1/2" clearance between hub and axle, but the axle was scored bad in places too. So foraging I went, there was a ship repair facility on the island so I went there first. Scored!!!

A couple of 1/2" grade 5 bolts for new axles, and a bunch of 2" long pieces of stainless steel rod for bearings later and I was putting it back together.  8)

That was about 6 years ago ........  I really should order the new parts soon I guess ........  :D

[Bro. Noble]

Beenthere,

That wasn't atypo (nor was it cat innards)-----I just don't smell very well :D :D

[SwampDonkey]

This will keep ya guessing  :D :D





Below, is my attempt to make wood clamps. The thread on the rods was too fine and took forever to thread the clamps.

[beenthere]

My initial guess is to cut threads on a wood dowel. Looks homemade and a lot of work to get the bolts with cutting ends and adjusted to the right depth.  But, also looks like it might work pretty well.

The second guess would be to clean threads on old pipe, or something.

[crtreedude]

About two years ago, the trusty Montero's slave cylinder sprung a leak, so a mechanic got the rebuild kit down here and rebuilt it, sort of.

Saturday, it decided it had enough - I told them to replace the thing. I am almost certain the cylinder walls were scored the last time.

Slave cylinder cost - Less than 40 dollars.
Labor to install the Slave Cylinder = 3,000 colones ($6.00 - I am not kidding)

The fact that labor is so cheap here that I wouldn't even think of picking up a wrench - priceless.  8)

[DanG]

I've been too busy fixin' broke things lately to be very creative.  A couple of months ago, though, I stuck these things on my loader.




I just welded a couple of pockets onto the bucket and made some setscrews from 1/2" bolts, and stuck in some scarifier teeth from an old boxblade.  They are proving really handy! 8)

[wiam]

SwampDonkey,  My guess is that you have toooooo much time in your hands. :D :D

Will

[woodbowl]

Swampdonkey,  you trying to make a die to cut threads for wooden threaded rod? I got to know if this  works. That stuff is expensive to buy and the tools to thread with ain't cheap either. What about the nuts? How you gona' do that? ;D