The Tips and Tricks thread

[LeeRoy]

Only on the newer ones, and dealers can change them to whatever they want anyway.

Updated my post with your extra info.

["Z" UTE]

I always check for five wheels, the fifth one usually being located between the drivers seat and instrument cluster.

The "spacer" occupies the space between the steering wheel and the seat .

[skiddz]

thought i would share this with y'all

http://pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=328619

some fuckin fantastic ideas in there

[tojo]

Here`s one for those small phillips screws in hard to reach places:

put a bit of plastercene putty or gum on the tip of the screwdriver. Keeps the screw in place until
you have guided it into the hole. Can be a real timesaver,

[TERRA Operative]

Bluetak works wonders for this too.

[tojo]

Got a brake piston that doesnt want to come out of the caliper? Find a greasenippel that suits the brakefitting

threads. Put a pice of wood where the pads go, get your greasegun and start pumping. Keep fingers
clear as they tend to come like a bullet once free.

On multi piston calipers free one at a time while blocking the others. Dont let them come all the way out until all are free.

[andrew_mx83]

Got a brake piston that doesnt want to come out of the caliper? Find a greasenippel that suits the brakefitting

threads. Put a pice of wood where the pads go, get your greasegun and start pumping. Keep fingers
clear as they tend to come like a bullet once free.

On multi piston calipers free one at a time while blocking the others. Dont let them come all the way out until all are free.

or just blow compressed air in where the brake line screws in if u dont have a grease gun.

[big_zop]

Got a brake piston that doesnt want to come out of the caliper? Find a greasenippel that suits the brakefitting

threads. Put a pice of wood where the pads go, get your greasegun and start pumping. Keep fingers
clear as they tend to come like a bullet once free.

On multi piston calipers free one at a time while blocking the others. Dont let them come all the way out until all are free.

So how do you get all the grease out once you are done? Good suggestion none the less.

[tojo]

Tip is for if pistons are frosen / stuck and wont come out the normal way.
You get more force by using a greasegun than compressed air.

A piston that has been stuck will need to be taken all the way out
, seals changed , piston cleaned -possibly changed and bore cleaned,
or honed , maybe even scrapped depending on reason for sticking and
condition.
Once out, grease is easily removed : )

["Z" UTE]

For cars that have windscreen and rear window stainless steel mouldings attached using a clip, eg Celica TA22 and old Crowns. Sometimes there are rust issues that require replacement of a part of the window opening that these clips attach to. When the rust repair is done you lose the pin, I have used with huge success a screw in pin that will replace the the welded on pin that the clip locks onto. These pins are avilable from Rare Spares, part No CP1167. Come in a pack of 20 for about $6.50 per pack.

cheers Chuck.

[mick08]

isn't oil thicker when hot? i would have thought it was best to do it cold, this is interesting, anyone want to give a quick run down on why more comes out?

Thanks

The other reason to drain oil when it is hot and just been running is it stirs up all the contaminates in the oil so more shit will be removed with the oil, the oil theoretically is thicker when its hot but in reality it runs better so it seems thinner, the additives in the oil do the magic with the molecules and keep metal parts from touching each other, if i remember rightly its called 'sheer' or something, Yeah had this discussion with my tafe teacher when i did my apprenticeship, its the additives in the oil, I used to put penrite 40-70 in my 400chev and that shit is so thick that when you finish pouring it in and do dipstick check and go again the drip from the spout of the container takes ages to run down the bottle but when it was warm it ran like any other oil, 40wt meaning cold and 70wt when its hot, in theory its thicker when hot but in reality you work it out.

[RobertoX]

Engine oil has a lower viscosity when it heats up, it is not 'thicker'. (it is also not thicker when hot 'in theory')
The 2 numbers specified on the oil can are from different scales so even though the cold viscosity has a lower number it is actually a higher viscosity.
The aditives will cause the viscosity to vary less with temperature but it will still drop when the temp is raised.

[mick08]

So when oil is a monograde like say 30wt the hotter it gets the thinner it gets, how did they get away with it in the old days with V8s and 2stroke diesels when the technology wasn't there with respect to additives? Surely the temps would be very high in a race situation or on a haulroad with a dumptruck, What does the 20 and the 50 mean in a 20-50 mineral oil? I thought that the 20 and the 50 meant the same thing but at different temps being a multigrade doesn't it mean its like having 20wt monograde at start-up and then 50wt when you need the extra protection when hot and under load?

[GT1978]

So when oil is a monograde like say 30wt the hotter it gets the thinner it gets, how did they get away with it in the old days with V8s and 2stroke diesels when the technology wasn't there with respect to additives? Surely the temps would be very high in a race situation or on a haulroad with a dumptruck, What does the 20 and the 50 mean in a 20-50 mineral oil? I thought that the 20 and the 50 meant the same thing but at different temps being a multigrade doesn't it mean its like having 20wt monograde at start-up and then 50wt when you need the extra protection when hot and under load?

Very close. In a 20W-50 oil, the 20W means at the reference temp (not sure what it is for oil but we'll say 25 degrees for this example) the viscocity will be the same as 20 weight mineral oil also at 25 degrees. If you increase the temp of 20W mineral oil to say 100 degrees this will reduce its viscocity by say 50%. Starting to get quite thin and not offering much protection. If you were to take a thicker 50W mineral oil and raise its temp from 25 to 100 degrees it will reduce its viscocity by only say 20%.

So back to the meaning of 20W-50. At 25 degrees has same visco as 20W mineral oil however if the temp is raised to 100 degrees the viscocity only drops by 20% as if it were a 50W. So the additives act to stabilize the oil and reduce the rate at which it thins out.

In reference to the good old days prior to magic additives, the way they got around using mineral oil was with larger tollerances between moving parts allowing them to use thicker oils.
Hope thats clear enough.

Glen

[mick08]

MMM, thank-you for that lesson, it is something i'am very interested in and enjoy reading about, its one of those things that you don't use all the time but its good to know its in the memory bank somewhere.