Recent content by Gym123

Disclaimer- I have never, nor will I ever, use Common Core Math. A British comedy show has a woman who has degrees in Advanced Theoretical Mathematics, Quantum Mechanics & other areas and when she mentioned a show with 'smart' kids "using some kind of magic Maths", she said one 11 year old...

50% idiot, 50% moron and 50% nimrod.

My next door neighbor has someone service her mower and snowblower but she wasn't great at starting them, so I showed her after she came over to ask since mine always start easily. I explained that pulling the cord slowly a few times draws gas into the cylinder and builds compression. The...

And it's easy enough to find out if it will be a problem- shake the container and pour some into a clean, clear bottle. If it's cloudy, let the gas in the gas can settle, then pour the good gas into a different container so the water can be removed. I stopped filling my 5 gallon container and...

My relatives out there say Newsom is a moron, or an idiot- can't remember which.

I'm familiar with Carlysle, having worked at boat dealers and seeing that brand on so many trailers, although they had a bad reputation for awhile but that was likely due to being overloaded, over/under inflated or generally abused. I have used Kenda on my bicycles for a long time and they last...

Update- probably corrosion on the terminals- I tested the lights separately, found that one socket was definitely corroded when I disconnected the plug at the hood & connected a battery, cleaned it and that problem was solved. The switch was good, checked any other connections and after sliding...

I have an Ariens 42" riding mower and the front tires don't have much tread so they slip on hard turns- do the least expensive replacements last long, or should I spend a few bucks more and buy something else? It has Carlysle tires now. Rims are spotless, so I'll just replace the tires.

I was wrong- one fuel line was on my 2 stage, which I still have and I still have the second paddle type, which is much newer. That's true- one is gone, still have the other so I'l look (it's covered). I checked the lines for internal delamination & blockage and found nothing, but I have had...

Yeah, and CARB is a big part of the reason the whole country has to conform to the emissions standards. I like clean air as much as anyone but the gang of 543 in Washington become involved in legislating some aspects of our lives, it's not a question of if, but when it will be a problem.

Color in/on an object is only possible if light can reflect the proper wavelengths. In the absense of light, there is no color, only matter, or nothing.

The shut off valve is a good thing to have, as long as it's not too far from the carb- changing a short piece of fuel line isn't a big deal. I had two different paddle type snow throwers that stopped working well- they ran fine for awhile, then it was like they just had nothing more to give...

Black is the absence of light or energy.

The custom car paint industry has a color called 'Blacker than black'.

They also have more poor people than some whole stated have people, so old/bad running vehicles are common. Then, they have Long Beach/shipping nearby, trucking, wind blowing polluted air against the mountains- it's a bad place for people who want clean air.

Those are the double beam that click, right? The beam wrenches are good unless you can't fit behind something to see the fastener and scale.

It can't be assumed that 7 year old cars have been maintained properly for the whole time and they often run badly because of that. If they HAVE been maintained, there's no reason they can't run as well and cleanly as they day they rolled off of the assembly line but higher reliability and the...

Might be similar to TV sales ads in the 1970s- "We lose money on every one but we make it up, in volume".

Worst government money can buy.

That's an insult to monkees. Most of this began because California has so freaking many people. Many went there for the weather- I get that an have been there many times because I have relatives but the first time was in late 1966 and when we went to Griffith Observatory, the smog was terrible...

Can we see a photo of the seat? That could make it easier to find a solution.

For anyone who may have a Panduit ratcheting crimper with a cracked frame near the dies, Greenlee bought the company and hopefully, they still cover Panduit, but I called to find out what they do about the crack- they sent a Greenlee replacement without the dies, which are still interchangeable.

Proper terminals, you mean Scotch Locks? :)

Probably meant 'no gap', which many terminals have.

3-5 years? Not for me- I maintain mine and drive much longer than that. I bought a 2005 Chevy Astro in 2011 with 78K miles and it now has a bit over 275K, runs great, rides amazingly well considering the terrible roads here and it isn't a rattle trap. It always passes emissions. It's very easy...

Sensors fail, causing higher emissions, making the EPA/CARB sad and it chokes the gophers. WRT people expecting a tip FOR EVERY GD THING THEY USED TO DO AS PART OF THEIR JOB, I sometimes say "You want a tip? Never pet a burning dog" or "Buy low, sell high". Asking them "Do you think you have...

Fuel injected outboards, or inboard/stern drive? Both are great- I have worked as a boat mechanic and they both provide reliable operation and they start very easily, but only if they're maintained properly.

Del City may have them. If they're the same size as the small terminal on car speaker wires, these would be .187".

If you don't need to drive anything in or can drain the tanks after they're inside (I would drain them before arrival, so the fumes won't fill the place), maybe the storage owner will allow them. I stored my mower and snowblowers after running them dry with the valve closed, then drove to the...

I don't know what/if anything was added, but this came out of the Ariens 42" I got recently. It started extremely easily, but as the previous owner wrote in the ad, 'white smoke' began not long after the engine warmed. The first thing I gig after looking into the tank was drain it, then refill...

The bottle on the left has a milky appearance at the bottom, maybe 1/8"-1/4" high, the one on the right doesn't.

I would use a floor jack and whatever impact gun you have. Lift the lighter end and remove the spark plug. PB Blaster to remove, clean the bolt/shaft and use anti-seize on the head/washer and blue thread locker on the thread. I have an Ariens 42" riding mower and when I changed the head...

Is it OEM? What brand is it? Duct tape will let go in high temperatures- can you post a photo? Depending on the plastic, you may or may not be able to glue it on but if the pad has come off in a large area around the rim, maybe a compatible plastic piece can be screwed to the bottom or back...

OK, I'll play- a leatherworker had seen into the future and decided that he should make leather chaps. He didn't know how they would be used, but he did it anyway. All of the people in the village called him 'Chappy' and he left the world without ever seeing the genius of his efforts. :)

Perfect, no, but with Aluminum parts, it's not a bad idea to be more precise. With cast iron, it's not as critical in most cases but in a case like the Briggs that really should have had a bolt where the gasket fails so frequently, undershooting the torque will just make it fail sooner and...

The question of "What should I do if it doesn't meet spec?" needs to be considered, too. That's the main thing preventing me buying a used torque wrench- repairing isn't cheap.

I have seen that, but as I posted, I bought the torque adapter and won't use an in-lb wrench often, unless I find myself working on bicycles and mowers more often.

These are a bit like crotch rocket engines- wind it out and the power is there (measurable) but there's not much torque behind them. I bought a bagger attachment for the Ariens 42" and the seller had replaced their 46" with a light commercial model because the cost wasn't much higher, but the...

I haven't seen small engines that were anything but normally aspirated, so displacement still matters. These don't have super/turbochargers or gearboxes that multiply torque in the way cars & trucks do, so crankshaft offset and piston diameter are about the best ways to increase torque...

To the OP- The saying in drag racing "There's no replacement for displacement' is still valid for these, but we're working with much smaller engines and in order to really see the effect of a larger engine for this purpose, we need to look at the whole machine. As an example, the 17.5HP Briggs...

The manufacturers could have been made to show HP and Torque in the way many other engines are rated, but it would confuse the people who don't care about or understand car performance- show a Power and Torque curve and where it was connected to the measurement device- crank or at some point...

But if you think about it, fractional measurements came about when most people couldn't read and many couldn't write, but they could make marks on a stick and divide it, visually- no calculations needed. Decide on a unit (usually by the King), in feet or inches, use it until a smaller increment...

Metric was introduced as a way to prevent people working on their own stuff? Recent 'right to repair' legislation is an attempt to change that but it's beyond late. 'Shade tree mechanics' have, and will always, exist. People who are mechanically inclined have always been able to figure out how...

Is it called belt dressing? It can work for the short term, but if the belt is glazed, it should be replaced.

How much gas was in the tank? If the tank outlet is above the fuel, well, we know what happens. It also won't run well if there's not much gas in the tank because the pump still needs some fuel pressure at its inlet. If it doesn't have a pump, make sure the fuel line isn't routed too high...

For future reference, starters are supposed to be serviced at some point- preferably annually. Boat starters freeze because the Bendix shaft isn't lubed and these would be the same- turn the gear opposite of the normal direction and the gear will move, so the shaft can be lubed. If you lube the...

How do they measure HP now and why does the change from cu inches to Metric matter? HP is a calculated value, just like Newton-Meters or Joules.

The B&S parts store shows several engines for sale and in stock- the 17.5HP was about $750, IIRC.

Look into the way ballparks do this- they make the grass lay down as they pass.

TEST, don't just replace! Have the battery load tested, not just a simple volt test. If you don't tighten the bolt on the cable, it becomes loose, corrodes and loses contact, as others posted. If you did tighten it, do you leave the cables on and float charge it during the off-season? Better...

Ever gone on a boat forum where someone asks "Why doesn't my boat start? It ran fine yesterday," and it turns out, they forgot that they put the safety switch lanyard in a cup holder?

Yes.

None of the wrenches we tested clicked, with or without the screw turned in. I know how these work and I actually read the instructions, which also show that the adjuster needs to be turned to the max setting and back to the lowest a total of three times. If anyone had been there to adjust them...

Nope- I saw several with that rating and one from Lowe's is rated for 50-245 in-lb. There's nothing on a bicycle that would need a wrench that is calibrated for high ft-lb torque. Bikes are mainly in the Metric world, so it's usually Newton-Meters, but these have that scale, too. I had...

That would take too much time- I was on the clock and was either winterizing or summerizing, so I didn't have time for anything other than improvising. Hitting the bolt is great, especially if it had rusted- PB Blaster, to the rescue!

This is the reason I made the comment about the man behind the screen.

It's a bit ironic that so many spark gap testers are open-air, since they're often used when combustible fumes are present.

When I was servicing ski boats, I had a couple of very small Brass raw water pump cover bolts break off in the housings, but since they weren't threaded to the point where they jammed into the bottom of the hole, they were easy to remove. Steel would have been a royal PITA but all I needed to do...

The one that didn't work looks like the one at the left, without the tickers- what brand is yours?

If you were referring to my comment about HFT torque wrenches,. I would clarify that I only meant the Pittsburgh I had bought, but they sell three sizes and I didn't check the others, Quinn or Ikon (other than the small one as I posted). I was also looking for a dial type, but the ones I saw...

Some of the self-appointed tool testers on YouTube bought torque wrench testers, at least one was from SnapOn and it cost more than $2K. They say they cycled the torque wrenches 1000 times, but it's three times at each setting. I had my SnapOn wrench tested on their tester in a dealer's truck...

I checked- none of the ones that are close had anything for loan, or the in-lb type. One store isn't even open on Sundays.

I gabbed the wires of an electric fence one. Just once. That was just about enough, for me......I also put my hand on a distributor cap AND exhaust manifold when I was working on a boat with 5.7L Chevy engine. That.Was.No.Fun.At.All.

Taking and remembering are two different things. The ones who annoy me think that replacing gas & Diesel is easy but know absolutely nothing about energy and why Ethanol is worse WRT fuel economy. If Ethanol is cheaper, why do corn farmers need to be subsidized when they sell to biofuel...

If you really want a good test for spark, use a spark plug or a spark gap tester.

I think we'll need to watch this- if there's any financial incentive for stations to sell E15 over E10, they will and we'll have to search for stations that carry what we want. That usually means the areas surrounding larger cities won't have any options.

I had been rebuilding a Trek road bike and don't have a torque wrench that can read inch-lb, so I used the 'good and snug' method but last week, I got an Ariens riding mower with a bad head gasket and the torque is more important for reinstalling the head. I had bought a Pittsburgh wrench from...

"Pay no attention to the man behind the screen".

I added a fuel shut off when I changed the filter yesterday. My hose pinch pliers are too big for 1/4" and it didn't stop the gas dripping out- I just raised the end of the tank and fuel line so the hose was too high for gravity to work. Since the tank is held in place by two bolts, I removed it...