Whats the best "trick" or tech tip a mentor showed you?

Have you ever got done working on your car took a shower and then noticed you still have grease on the backside of your forearm? If your living with a wife or girlfriend there is more than likely some baby oil in the medicine cabnet( for removing makeup) its mineral oil and works like a charm.

 

Drill a hole at the end of a crack, it will stop..
Duane

 

and sockets, too. every time i go to a swap meet where someone is selling craftsman tools i try to buy at least one each 1/2 & 9/16 combination wrench and sockets.

apparently i should be looking for more 3/8 ratchets, too. i know that i own at least 3 of them but when i went to the tool box ratchet drawer last night there wasn't even one in there. i had to use 1/2 drive stuff just to take out one small bolt.

 

Friends and co workers have taught me so many it's hard to remember them all, but one of them has helped me often. I was fighting a gasket on an oil pan once and trying to keep it in place long enough to get it on the engine. A friend told me to get some thread from my wife's sewing machine and tie it through the bolt holes to hold the gasket in place so it wont get knocked off when installing it.
I've used that trick on many valve covers, pan gaskets, etc. over the years and it really makes life easier, and the thread is so thin it never affects the seal.

 

Carb cleaner kills them big black bees that drill the round holes in wood.

 

My mentor taught me patience!!!

 

Back in the 70's I had a Harley 45 that did not have a working generator. I ran it on the 6 volt battery. One day we went to another town about 30 miles away and almost made it back home. The battery went dead one block from home and I coasted in!

 

Don't smell your finger after you checked the rearend

 

......sometimes after the front end too.

 

"give a boy a fish and he'll eat for a day..... teach a boy that a vagina smells like a fish and he'll be prepared"

 

I've had many older mechanics help me over the years but one that sticks in my mind was a Ford dealership mechanic. I was 16 and determined to replace the distributor bushing in my 289. Try as I might I just could not get a punch to catch the small area of the bushing that was exposed. This mechanic took one look at it, tapped some threads in the bushing, screwed in a bolt and punched it right out.

B

 

My Pops advice, " DONT loan out your tools!"
And Leave one side of your brakes together to use as a reference to finish the other. Just in case you cant quite remember which spring goes where etc..

 

...fish smells...

Hilarious. Can we get back to these excellent tips please?

One of the best threads on the H.A.M.B. let's not ruin it. Thanks to all who are posting their tips.

Here's mine: Always run burns under cold running water for AT LEAST 5 minutes. Splashing some cold water or running your burn under a tap for a few seconds will do nothing. Never use ICE. Never use ointments or creams (first I've heard about egg whites though).

Ordinary clear safety glasses reflect 99% of the UV rays from welding. Obviously always wear proper welding masks (never tack without a mask - I see people doing this all the time - it's stupid and impresses no one) but if you are in a workshop with people welding around you always wear safety glasses anyway. They will save your eyes from reflected flash(unless your dunce enough to not care).

If you are feeling inspired by a build thread ALWAYS go straight out and start work on your own project. If you leave it too long TV will win again.

Thanks again for starting a great thread. I have learned HEAPS!

 

I have learned from my mentor and friend Royalshifter to never pass up giving someone the chance to ride in/drive an old car. Odds are you'll make them happier than you can ever imagine.

 

I am just a kid myself but my favorite thing to do is take my friends kids for rides in my old cars. They love it and I hope it makes an impression on them, maybe they will save cars.

 

Long ago I ran a B/MP 57 Chevrolet as a teenager and the weak point was always the rear end. After one race I blew the posi unit and sheared off an axel about 10 or 12 inches from the third member.

As you know, all of the axel has to come out to get the third member out. Not going to happen with the shaft still attached. I had no idea how to free it up, too far in to reach, couldnt move the third member out. Old time Chevrolet mechanic shared a solution.

The trick was this...... a 4 or 5 foot length of 3/8 inch copper tubing, with some strong wire inside and at the end a noose which was then slipped over the broken shaft and pulled tight. With some patience, a little cussing it freed the shaft from the third member.

 

I took a young kid for a drive once in my bright yellow yellow 34 3 window coupe with exposed engine, loud noises and a bang shifter (not a hamb car at all). He just played with his phone or "whatever" latest gadget he was holding so I said "put that down - you're in a hot rod get into the experience!" So I got him to bang the next gear. He enjoyed that but then when I asked him to change gears again a few miles down the road he would do it without even looking up from whetever game he was playing. It was like he was humouring me and that left me a little unimpressed.

I suppose that was kind of cool but I sure wish he had get a buzz out of it. I work on my cars all the time and invite him around but he's just not interested. Breaks my heart a little bit because I would have KILLED to have been able to hang out with a hot rod when I was his age.

Having said that my neighbour's (much younger) kids run over from across the road when they are allowed (and my garage doors are up). I always let them sit in the car, twirl the wheel and even encourage vroom vroom noises so I can fire it up and make real vroom vroom noises. I think it might be too late for the older ones (or too early?) but the ones still in primary school seem to enjoy. I wish I had someone interested in hot rods but I'm pretty much alone down here with no one to laugh when my spanner slips but perhaps more sadly - no one to share my knowledge with. Perhaps that's a good thing.

 

so we all got an oil rag in the back pocket to wipe our hands to go take a piss, answer the phone etc. On my bench I also keep a spray bottle of windex cleaner, one squirt in each palm and a lather before you use the oil rag will get your hands super clean and the spray dries up instantly when you wipe em dry.

 

How to open a bottle of beer with a seatbelt tongue.

 

Well back in the day, using a well worn Mercury Dime as a feeler gage to set your points (in a crunch).

 

i don't know if this have been said but the best one i can think of is when you need to remove bolts or pushrods or anything along those lines and you want to keep exactly the spots they go back find a old cardboard box you don't need or were planning on tossing out and label the front of the box and push the bolts or pushrods into the top of the box to keep them in order when putting whatever your working on back together.

 

Here is another. Releasing tie rod ends,ball joints etc. by a sharp blow with a BFH on the "eye" that the tapered stud goes through. No need for a pickle fork or tie rod removal type tool.

 

It use to have propane as a propellent.
Propane plumbers torch with the nozzle stuck in the intake will run a small engine that has carb problems. Gasoline engines love propane just don't light the torch.

 

I have a piece of old paneling, easy to slide on to get in and out from under a car and wipes off for use next time.

 

I still use this.....Power window motor inop on a car/truck...KOEO, turn off all accessories except radio,have radio on AM between two stations so you have alot of static, now operate the power window switch,if wiring to the motor is good and switch is good, you wil hear a Click or pop thru the speakers.

 

This is one the old timers didn't show me, but they sure did get a kick out of it when it happened - never leave an old rag in your pocket if you've had it in varsol. They did congratulate me on being lucky enough to not have put it in my front pocket though.

I had a neighbor who taught me a few things too

1 - If a bolt won't come out, maybe consider it's left hand thread. That after he watched me for days trying to get a pedal off my bike

2 - Just knowing the firing order isn't enough to change a set of plug wires. I needed to know which way a Ford distributor turned too.

3 - Engine additives to fix a smoking engine work just fine ... so long as all you use them for is to keep the internals from rusting while you've got the engine apart fixing what's really wrong.

 

After replacing a part and still having the same problem don't assume it must be a defective part and not a defective diagnostic.

After replacing a part and still having the same problem don't assume it must be a defective diagnostic and not a defective part.

 

Why pay someone to make the same mistakes you can make yourself.

Doing something for a long time doesn't mean your any good at it.

 

Ive use petroleum jelly (vasoline) as assembly lube when rebuilding engines. It works great, its cheap and it stays on the internal parts just long enough to prevent initial wear on the parts.

 

After completing a major task celebrate first, then check to see if it works.