Comments by "spaceflight101" (@spaceflight1019) on "Rainman Ray's Repairs" channel.

  1.  @eternaloptimist2840  Electricity isn't a hobby. There are codes that govern this kind of work. Getting shut down by the city inspectors or worse, having an insurance claim denied because you don't have the inspection certificate is a major buzzkill. My brother in law had a place in Fort Myers at Siesta Key. He tells me that Florida requires that a certified electrician does electrical work. In the park next door they've had two electrical fires from certified electric contractors calling FP&L and having them restore power. Now the utility is cracking down on these contractors.
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  2.  @randyfitz8310  The best part is that if the owner had started with the distributor advance weights they could have saved the money spent on sensors. Frozen advance weights are common in humid environmental conditions on vehicles not driven often. Timing not advancing results in unburned fuel going into the exhaust systems where it elevates temperatures.
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  3. Love bugs are particularly good at plugging things up. We were on the way to Disney World and had to visit a quarter car wash to get the engine temperature to come down. Then I found a net, and problem solved.
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  4.  @graken22  As the axle moves straight up and down, the length of the driveshaft needs to change. If the axle's movement traced an arc then the distance between the carrier bearing and the axle would remain constant.
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  5. There are a LOT of specialty code requirements that Ray will soon learn about. Fire department and local codes. State codes. EPA codes. OSHA codes. And you MUST keep track of all of the paperwork because you will be audited and if one thing is out of place they will shut you down!
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  6. Here are the basics, from the old days: Check oil and coolant levels at every fuel stop. While this may not be necessary for your daily commute, it's a good idea when you're traveling, like on vacation. Check your tire pressure at least once a month. When the temperature starts getting colder everyone's tire pressure alarm goes off. This becomes critical when the temperature turns frigid, as the combination of low temperature, low tire pressure, and a pothole can result in a blown tire and a broken wheel. Don't forget the spare, as it has a pressure sensor too. Many shops offer a Multipoint Inspection from time to time. If you're not a car geek I recommend having this done in April and October.
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  7.  @lgninjalo  How does grounding the trailer frame NOT provide a direct path to ground? I'm not seeing what you're saying.
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  8.  @lgninjalo  You are correct. NEMA Bulletin 90 details this. I would have posted the link but YT doesn't permit that.
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  9. It starts like this, innocently enough, but it soon mushrooms. Next step: hiring another mechanic because the workload justifies it. Then the other businesses complain to the landlord because Ray's customers are taking up all of the available parking spaces. Now Ray has a difficult decision to make...limit the number of cars he can work on, which leads to lost business, or expansion.
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  10. Timken bearings are no guarantee of quality. Some years ago I replaced the front hub assemblies in my 1993 Dakota and spent the extra money on Timken bearings. In less than a week they became sloppy. Auto Zone refunded the difference between the cost and the price of the generic replacement they had in stock. The Timkens, which I expected to be made in America, were imported from Italy.
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  11. They typically waterproof those with a conformal coating that makes it water and repair proof.
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  12. And not a soul is saying squat about how much CO2 these fires are dumping into the air.
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  13. More like the OnStrike update...
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  14. It also helps illuminate the inevitable creepy-crawlies that will set up shop in the shop.
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  15. I knew a guy with a squatted VW who ran a dead animal over on the PA Turnpike, and discovered that he had no brakes.
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  16. The "hot wrench" is the tool of last resort. Part of the problem here is dissimilar metals. The tubing nuts are steel and what they thread into is alloy. Better to PB Blaster it up and wait. Sometimes that doesn't work. I used to keep a can of canned air on my tool cart. Turn it upside down, and you get a blast of -40 degree juice to shrink the tubing nuts just enough to get the PB into the threads.
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  17. We used to hear Four Non Blondes but it stopped suddenly.
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  18. We typically used Gumout brand products. You'd pour a can into the gas tank and empty a spray can into the carburetor. This was the middle of a tune-up. The first thing you did was to set the ignition timing and points gap after you replaced the points, condenser, rotor, and distributor cap. Wires are optional after inspection. Do the fuel system cleaning and then replace the spark plugs. Check the idle RPM, adjust the idle mixture screws for the best idle after replacing the air filter, and you're done.
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  19. Years ago NASA was struggling to find the source of repeated hydrogen leaks on the shuttle during the runup to STS-38. They would test with liquid nitrogen with no leaks but it would leak with hydrogen due to its much colder temperature. They put refrigerant dye in and found a crushed seal in one of the engine pumps. Good stuff!
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  20. Nice job! Other than a check of the emission controls system (which your code reader would have done) you performed a Pennsylvania safety inspection, a Multipoint Safety Inspection, an oil change, and a tire inspection/rotation. Wherever you live, please have this work done on your ride once a year.
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  21. Things are going to be dicey at best for three or four days across most of Florida.
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  22. I disagree with your "parking brake, not emergency brake" opinion. When you step on the pedal and it goes to the floor the E-brake is your friend... unless the cables snap, or are rusted frozen. Been there, done that. Learning by doing is the foundation of an apprenticeship. People who never went through an apprenticeship are inclined to treat advice from experienced people as "band camp stories" and blow you off.
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  23. You buy what you need to do the work. 44 years ago I was an Instrument Repairman apprentice at Homestead Works. When the mill closed in 1981 they gave me my tool belt. It was more than sufficient to do the work until it was stolen from my company truck in Columbus, Ohio in 1992. Westinghouse bought me a toolbox that became known as "The Hernia Box" because I kept adding tools to it. Most of the tools in it are Craftsman. But the major Harbor Freight tools I use now that I'm retired are an Earthquake 3/8" cordless ratchet and a Chicago Electric plug in impact gun. They are a good value for the money.
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  24.  @paulrooster2108 , I bought it when I needed to get a front axle nut off a 2001 Ram 1500 4x4. PB and a 3 foot breaker bar didn't get it done. Chicago Electric and Duquesne Light got it off in about 5 seconds. I use it to remove lug nuts and a Pittsburgh Tools torque wrench to tighten them back up. Can't beat it.
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  25. Unless that socket is hiding or AWOL.
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  26. Here's a tip: spark plugs are made of steel. Heads are made of aluminum alloy. They have different coefficients of expansion. Heat cycles will cause galling of the threads. I always use a hand ratchet. I loosen the plug, then spray some PB Blaster and give it a minute or two to work its way down the threads. Then I begin removing the plug. If I feel it getting tight, the precursor to pulling the threads, I go clockwise a few turns, and spray more PB Blaster. When replacing the plugs, a small dab of nickel antiseize goes on the plug threads.
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  27.  @Smarterthanyou-mthrfkr  Yeah, see how fast you get "Ok Boomer."
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  28.  @tomokokuroki2506  thanks, now I see Milton saying that he's going to burn the building down...
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  29. Maybe I'm missing something, but to my eyes Ray's workload is divided into two categories: short-term jobs and extremely complex jobs that take a lot of time and tie up the working space. The short term jobs pay the daily bills. The long term jobs don't. How many oil changes can you do in a 10 hour day? At $75 per job, it makes financial sense to get 'em in, get 'em out. Tire rotations? Inspect the brakes while the wheels are off and you'll make more money on brake jobs. I used to work weekends at my neighbor's tire shop and showing the customers how sketchy their brakes were often resulted in a brake job. There is a business axiom that states "Expand, or die". Ray has quickly reached the point of having to ask himself some serious questions, beginning with this statement: this is NOT a hobby! More space, and more help.
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  30. You gotta love the electronic mother-in-law reminding him of the speed.
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  31. Well, it's the results of having a battery push current through connectors submerged in extremely conductive salt water. That one pin was completely burned off. Can't speak for modern stuff, but car modules used to be coated in a waterproof epoxy. Still, with the main power connection burned off, it's garbage.
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  32. When you ride a motorcycle, you quickly learn that giving way at an intersection is a good way to avoid becoming roadkill.
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  33. Now THAT would be ironic!
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  34. Try process instruments in Pittsburgh for torque wrench calibration.
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  35. Florida is the last refuge for the PT Cruiser.
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  36. I was a power plant electrician. If I welded something it meant that I failed to lock the power out!
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  37. That was when you had to state "original miles" when you sold it. Digital ones go to a million miles. No question of "rolling it over" any more.
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  38. Didn't you ever see "World's Fastest Indian"? Ole Burt used shoe polish to conceal the cracks in the tires the night before his record setting run.
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  39.  @futatn  I've lived in Pittsburgh all of my life and have seen many vehicles rendered junk because the road salt killed them. Now that PennDOT spreads fracking brine on the roads every spring brings multiple news stories about vehicle brake failures due to the lines rotting out. The second time it happened to me on a 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 I got rid of it after observing severe corrosion around everything underneath the truck. The term existed 50 years ago, when owners of Mopars without inner fenders caved the fenders in while waxing them in the spring.
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  40. ​ @legogummybear5 Right on red has been around since the 1970s. It was introduced during the 1973 Arab oil embargo as a fuel saving measure.
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  41. ​ @donwyoming1936 When the transmission in my 1993 Durango went at 170k the transmission guy asked me how many times it had been replaced. I told him that it was OEM, but I had the fluid flushed and replaced around 100k. He went on to tell me that the trans dies because material from the lockup clutch clogs the filter and the pumps go dry. 170k on a CVT is a miracle!
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  42. Work, like love, is a relationship and when they fail, it's natural to wonder if it's because of something you did. As you get older, your skills improve, and when you change employers or become self-employed that doubt diminishes. It gets worse when the places you've worked at close permanently. I retired last year, and three months later came the news that the place would be closed and torn down. I took great pride in my work and wondered if it was something I'd done or not done. In the end, it was absolutely nothing that I had any control of. Here is the list: Union Switch and Signal, Swissvale, PA. Closed when operations were moved to another plant. Westinghouse East Pittsburgh. Closed when operations were moved to other plants. U.S. Steel's Homestead Works. Closed due to economic change in the steel industry. WISCO. Bought by Siemens. Closed five years later as operations were sold off or moved to other plants. Elrama Power Station. Closed after 60 years of service due to economic unviability. Cheswick Power Station. Closed after 52 years of service due to economic unviability. There was nothing that I did or didn't do that influenced any of those closures. Sure, it took time and analysis to get rid of the "maybe it's me" gremlins, and our friend Ray will move on too.
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  43. I'm going to add a few tips for us shade tree mechanics. Try to avoid disturbing as much as possible when changing plugs. Plastics get brittle over time and there's nothing quite like hearing that sickening "snap". Spark plugs are made of steel. Heads are made of aluminum. Improve your odds of NOT pulling the threads by spraying your favorite penetrating oil down the plug hole before you remove the plug. NEVER use a power tool to remove spark plugs! When you do it by hand and you feel it tightening up turning the plug back in a turn or two will give the P-oil a chance to do its job. When replacing the plugs, put a dab of antiseize on the threads. This will greatly reduce the risk of pulling the threads the next time. Contrary to popular belief, you still must replace spark plugs. My 2.4l Patriots need them every 30K miles.
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  44. Back in the day, it was conventional tire shop wisdom that adding 5 psi over the manufacturer recommended pressure would give you better vehicle control and slightly better fuel mileage. I've done it on my own vehicles for over 50 years. But in today's litigious society, deviation from manufacturers specifications will open you up to liabilities in case of an accident. Remember, "we get money from EVERYONE to blame!" is the ambulance chaser's mantra.
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  45. First cold morning brings a rash of "low tire" alarms. Time to pump 'em up, including the spare.
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  46. "The smelly smell that smells...smelly."
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  47. What did you say her name was, again? Asking for a friend...
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  48. P-oil and brake cleaner work great on spiders too. Takes the fight right out of them!
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  49.  @jmleewong  technically, in the quest to do the job right, Ray uncovered other issues unrelated to the customer complaint. He performed a "multipoint inspection" as the dealers call it. Now, if this was Pennsylvania, and the truck was being state inspected, then the customer gets a list of reasons why the vehicle failed. The owner has the right to have these issues corrected somewhere else but they must be corrected before the vehicle can be re-inspected. The reason the vehicle must be re-inspected is because other issues may have cropped up. Many are the unlucky souls who've gotten a rock across the windshield on the way to the inspection station...
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  50.  @TLM-Nathan  those have a whole lot less things to go wrong.
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