Petrol head thread!!!

[billy rubin]

wife texts:

son's car wont start. had it towed home. can you help when you get here?

sure

i get home.

start it, i say to the son behind the wheel.

no start, no click, no whirr. possibly battery, connec tions, starter, or solenoid, or maybe neutral safety switch or ignition circuit.

i twist the battery connections and blow the horn. good horn, no start. so its not the battery or battery terminal connections. could certainly be the starter or the neutral safety switch. or key switch.

i get underneath. i cant even find the starter. eventually i locate it way up in darkness land. i reach up and jiggle the ignition circuit pigtail on the solenoid.

start it, i say.

it starts.

start it again.

it starts again.

i say to the son, its corrosion on the solenoid terminals.

so today we take it to the warehouse, unclip the single solenoid connection, clean the corrosion off the blade with emery paper and plug it back in covered in dielectric grease.

it still starts. i look good, for a change.

the son is leaving home forever this weekend to go live in the distant city with his sister and needs a reliable car. luckily this went bad before he left.

it still has two bad codes, camshaft position sensor and evap emission circuit sensor. but if it runs, i dont care if there are codes or not.

a good day, all in all.

[Tank]

A nice little bit of fixing satisfaction

[billy rubin]

a couple of weeks ago my daughter had to leave her truck in the woods. wouldnt start.

i worked with her over the telephone and coached her until she could tie a screwdriver to a stick and short the starter solenoid by reaching down from above.

same thing- solenoid worked, starter worked, no start at the key.

she got it to the shop and the mechanic found her lost ratchet wrench in the center console. it was jamming the gear shift lever so that the neutral safety switch could not disengage.

so that was cheap and she got her 10mm socket back too

[Dark Lightning]

a couple of weeks ago my daughter had to leave her truck in the woods. wouldnt start.

i worked with her over the telephone and coached her until she could tie a screwdriver to a stick and short the starter solenoid by reaching down from above.

same thing- solenoid worked, starter worked, no start at the key.

she got it to the shop and the mechanic found her lost ratchet wrench in the center console. it was jamming the gear shift lever so that the neutral safety switch could not disengage.

so that was cheap and she got her 10mm socket back too

   Another 10mm socket found! That's a standing joke on a truck forum I frequent.

[Icarus]

10mm sockets have a soul of their own. They are vagabonds that are inclined to move on. !4mm sockets have also been known to go down the road, sometimes accompanied by 10 and 14mm end wrenches.

[Dark Lightning]

[Asmodean]

10mm sockets have a soul of their own. They are vagabonds that are inclined to move on. !4mm sockets have also been known to go down the road, sometimes accompanied by 10 and 14mm end wrenches.

The Asmo's 10 and 12 mil wrenches ran off, too. He suspects that they may have been sleeping together and thought He'd disapprove.

[Tank]

That explains the 11.5mm wrenches that don't fit anything!

[Asmodean]

Yes. It, however, is right there *point,* mooching off The Asmo.  






(He actually does have one, too. It started life as 11 mil wrench, but... Grew. Which may or may not have been due to improper use by a certain The Asmo, but He may or may not never admit to using a otherwise-"uselessly" sized wrench as a somewhat-useful miniature prybar.)

[Dark Lightning]

I'm reminded of tool sets used in the engine rooms of Navy ships. One may only purchase (ship's money) wrenches by the set. The first thing to happen is everything 5/8" and under immediately evaporates. Then we were left with Model "T" Ford-style wrenches in shit sizes like 19/32" and 25/32", which fit none of our fasteners. I wanted to grind the 19/32" to make it 5/8", but was told that that would get me in trouble for "vandalism". 

[Asmodean]

They are totally sleeping with each other then running away, leaving us enterprising fixers with nothing but their neer-do-well offspring. 

[billy rubin]

I'm reminded of tool sets used in the engine rooms of Navy ships. One may only purchase (ship's money) wrenches by the set. The first thing to happen is everything 5/8" and under immediately evaporates. Then we were left with Model "T" Ford-style wrenches in shit sizes like 19/32" and 25/32", which fit none of our fasteners. I wanted to grind the 19/32" to make it 5/8", but was told that that would get me in trouble for "vandalism". 

the petcocks on my motorcycles have gland nuts that are all 19/32.

theyre the only reason i keep my 19/32-inch wrenches.

[Asmodean]

It's such a weird size for a thing to my metric eyes though... Nineteen parts out of thirty-two.

Could have been worse, I suppose. Could have been base-60 with decimals. 52.7/60. could have been that.

[billy rubin]

its actually 5/16-inch whitworth.

[Asmodean]

5/8 is 20/32, so... damned close.

I think I just find it weird because 19/32 is so... Asymmetrical, in a sense. 20/32 is a bit "prettier," but not by much.

But then, it's a born-metric The Asmo talking. I suppose fractions of an inch "make the right noises in the head" to someone used to them, like millimeters do in mine.