The Tips and Tricks thread

[EVOSTi]

man its SO tempting to write up a list of things to do when selling a car

i could do millions but a couple of obvious ones off the top of my head:

- when removing axles turn drum around and put on lug nuts, makes it easier to remove the axle if you dont have a puller, or you could put the rim back on.

- steering wheels are EASY to remove if you just undo the nut to the end of the thread then jerk the wheel each hand at a time nearest the spokes.

- phillips head screws can easily slip and round so tap them first with a hammer, usually frees them up a bit.

- exhaust studs are usually corroded and you think putting some oil on the bolt before you put it back on is a good idea ITS NOT it will make it 10 times harder to get off next time, use inox.

- inox > wd40


there are 100's of little tricks ive learnt over the last few years but most are model specific and i cant think of any right now.

[Garth AE86]

inox is teh suck

LANOGUARD is teh BoMb !!

whats lanogard?

[Youngy]

LanoGuard is a great product made from the Lanolin grease from wool basically!!

For example, it is great for protecting bare metals before you paint them as the Lanolin is not 'absorbed' by the metal so you only have to wipe it down with prepsol before painting. Other products will bleed out of the metal under your paint or finish.

[Mr DOHC]

as for evosti:
undo the steering wheel nut till theres only about 5mm of thread left, then flog the steering wheel like a kid with ADD, left, right, left, right, it'll come loose

if u have hex-head head bolts and the "socket" is slipping, get a solid iron/steel bar about 1.2 inch thick and 8 inches long, flog it with a copper hammer downward first, then if it dont come undone, flog it on about a 30 deg angle in about 4-6 spots around the head, then try again, u may have to hammer the "socket" into the bolt by now, but it never fails,
at my work we pull apart 15 6G72's at a time, 8 head bolts per head, 2 heads per engine {240bolts}, and we only have a problem about once every 3 or 4 runs {1 in every 750 or so bolts}

always flat plate oil pick-ups when being fitted

crc is your friend, as is loctite 262 and loctite 515.

[cri_ag]

- phillips head screws can easily slip and round so tap them first with a hammer, usually frees them up a bit.

just to add to what EVOSTI said for the realy stubborn screws apply twisting force while tapping the end of the screwdriver with a hammer, works kind of like a rattle gun!

[pwrn]

when i was trying to remove my car's front bar, the nut was real tightened and i was scared that my knuckles would hit the raditator bone+thinskin+raditator as i tried to twist the spanner, and this method worked, too hard to explain so a picture tells a thousand words it made the twisting 300% easier which the nut was loosen in one push motion

(i got a steel pipe and put it together like above and moved it, painlessly)

plus when removing the interiors out of old celicas, REMOVE THE DOOR RUBBERS THE LAST, cos i removed them then tried to take off the steering wheel (half inside, half out) and it popped then lost my balance hitting the bare metal that the rubber covers, they are like knifes edge

[JDM hachi]

when i take off heater/radiator hoses i always lube them up with a bit of vaseline before putting them back on so they can be taken off easily at a later date....
matty.

[Hokey]

Any tips for getting rubber off your guards. but yes as evosti said most of tricks i have learnt are KE corolla specific but hey who needs to know any others

[faulksy]

cant get a car starting with foul plugs. get someone to hold the coil lead at a slight distance from the dizzy to give it more of a gap. thing will crank right over.

i know there's alot of coke rumors but this one works. its great for flushing radiators

trouble undoing a bolt. try tighting it and then loosing it. i'm sure plenty of people do this

rubber grease is well worth the money when messing with seals. makes the impossible jobs easy

never use just jacks when working on a car. why not just use those wheels you took of the car and put under the seal panels

dont have a remote wire on your deck to switch on your amp. just running a accessory power wire to the amp.

power windows stuck down as switch broken. just run some 12v power to it

wax and grease remover is good to get stuff off your paint without damaging it

going for a long driving? put some carwash or dishwashing detergent on your front bar, headlights etc. the bugs come off easy

remove auto grease from hands with baking soda and water. i find jiff good aswell

setting the gap on the spark plugs to the widest recommend will mean the car will just better and get more mileage

streaks on paint is caused by washing in sunlight. dry windows with newspaper to avoid streaks

[tricky]

Here's a few I've found useful:

-Always use a drop sheet.
-A big lever will always free a crank pulley bolt. The 1.8m tubular steel I used yesterday wasn't excessive
-A sharp blow will loosen flywheel bolts even if the pulley is not secured.
-Only pussys use rattle guns
-Never use a rattle gun to tighten things (That includes wheel nuts )
-Never use a metal hammer on a metal tool or component. Buy an engineers hammer (rubber end and plastic end)
-to remove broken bolts, use a small ezy out to start with. Otherwise the bolt can expand and gall on the hole. This also leaves you with the option of:
-Use a counter-thread tap, and tighten a HIGH TENSILE counter-thread bolt. If the bolt was destined to come out, it will. Snapping then sucks though... And the heads do shear off because of the localised moment at the top of the shank.
-Instead of rounding a phillips head screw, stop when it doesn't budge and attack it with an impact driver. Brutal but effective.

And finally:

-Don't try to resist the urge to sit on the crossmember and pretend to drive your car from the engine bay after pulling an engine. It will just make your day!!

There's probably heaps more, but I can't think of them at the moment.

[187_20v]

this is all good stuff im reading
should make a section like DIY
cause on OZHONDA another forum theres a DIY section learnt some stuff on it

[Smokey228]

no ones mentioned this yet, but if u havent got access to a long metal pole to use as a breaker bar. then grab ur hydrolic jack handle. the only thing ive ever used as a breaker...

also, avoid using wratchets on tight bolts. i think that this may be the cause of the premature deaths of many of my tools

[o_man_ra23]

by better tools smokey

Ive got an old JBS ratchet i pinched from my old man when he was givin me all his old tools. When i was younger and less clever, i used it for a hammer insted of going out and buyin a $5 hammer. Also ive swung a metre and a half bar off it to loosen tight bolts... well this thing is as good as it was the day i got it... apart from a few dings. ratchet part is smooth as silk still.

Cheers, Owen

[tricky]

no ones mentioned this yet, but if u havent got access to a long metal pole to use as a breaker bar. then grab ur hydrolic jack handle. the only thing ive ever used as a breaker...

also, avoid using wratchets on tight bolts. i think that this may be the cause of the premature deaths of many of my tools

I agree with owen. $70 on a good ratchet will give you much pleasure. Oh, and if you can use your jack handle as a breaker bar, you either have a mutant jack or you need to find some tougher bolts!

But yes, that is the kind of good thinking that saves time and money

[Mr DOHC]

i even used my sidchrome ratchet to hit out my leaf springs shackles.

if u cant get your drums over your axles, belt them with an axle puller