Hey, I've got one of those.

 

Gary, your package is on it's way to Matt, he'll have it tomorrow.

 

And my packing started today. Gonna see what I can squeeze in. But, it looks like you'll get the top one instead of the most recent purchase, the bottom one. The reason is that the cart comes apart with nuts and screws on the top one and the bottom one doesn't.

 

Ok, whatever works best. BTW, the "mystery" pigtail in the ignition tester is the clutch switch pigtail and jumper. That way you can wire it in and fabricate the linkage later.

 

Cool! Thanks!

 

I'm in my 3rd month of replacing the rusted out radiator core support in my 2001 F150. It's taken this long due to winter weather & conflicting activities. I got to the stage of removing everything else in the way except for the spot welds and the lower frame bolts holding the remains of the core support in place.
Got the $5 spot weld cutter from Harbor Freight, a very good buy that works very well for its intended purpose. Way cheaper than the alternatives.
However I got hung up after drilling out most of the welds attaching the support to the left inner fender. Even with the welds drilled out, the panels did not want to separate, and any pry bars I have served mostly to deform and damage the inner fender, which I want to preserve to the greatest extent possible.
The top wings of the radiator support fit inside slots formed by the fender metal, like a finger fitting into a glove. There are spot welds on both sides of the inner fender &/or support where the pieces mate. Very little space is left for leverage.
Then I found this in the SummitRacing catalog,

It works better than anything else I can think of for spreading & loosened these two parts. It's kind of pricey for what it is, but I don't know of a substitute. The right angle configuration is key for what I'm doing.
I live a short drive from Summit Racing, so I got the tool and used it the same day.

 

Got a DeWalt 18V 1/2" cordless impact wrench for my birthday.

 

Congratulations Bill.
Happy Birthday!



I just ordered a 1/4" hex chucking DC825 to replace one that one of my 'helpers' smoked last weekend on a deck job.

I hope your 1/2" unit works as well as the ones I have been using.

 

It should work great, it is rated 300 ft-lbs torque. I have one of the DC825 units also.

 

I saw this yesterday on Wired.

The technology's nothing new, but the implementation is.
I wonder how much it would cost?
Very interesting concept, anyway.

 

Interesting, brings a whole new concept to the old joke about the mechanic who charges a customer $100 to put a 2x4 down in the engine compartment and hit it with a hammer. When the customer tells him all you did was bang on the engine, I want an itemized bill. The mechanic gives him the bill, bang on engine $2, knowing where to bang, $98.

 

Reminds me of the scene from the first "Star Wars" movie, where Han Solo tries to take off in the Millennium Falcon but the lights in the ship only flicker & go dim. He gives the dashboard a good thump with his fist, the lights come up bright and his ship works fine from then on.

 

Some of you've seen some of this in Dad's Truck Build, but thought I'd share with others. In my efforts to clean rubber parts I've enlisted my Eastwood vibrating/tumbling cleaner - like this one:


And, here's how it works:
And, here's some of the early results:

This one shows the "before" on the left and the "after" on the right. It was done with the large green pyramids that Eastwood sells, with a bit of water and liquid dish soap added.


This picture is the "before":


But, the final "after" is to come - hopefully tomorrow. That's because one of the parts in the video is that one. I'd run it through with the large green pyramids and it was very clean where they could get to it. But, they couldn't get down in the pleats and they were still dirty. So, I've been trying different abrasives and I've found many that don't work. But, they did get it cleaner, as shown below. Hopefully the mix I have in now will do the trick because of the two sizes of pyramids as well as the walnut hulls and sand. Anyway, here's the "'tween" picture:

 

The vibratory tumblers work very well for cleaning stuff. You can also add a couple f shreds of a dryer sheet(bounce) to the thing to cut down on dust. We sometimes add a little cap full of liquid car wax to the mix when tumbling brass to really put the shine on it.

 

Good ideas! I took the parts out from the overnight batch, put some dryer sheet shreds and some liquid auto polish in, and then loaded more parts and started it up. As the polish started getting distributed the sound changed as some of the dry rattle left. We will see after it gets distributed if I got too much or too little. Then I washed the dust off of the parts that had been in and gave them a bit of Ruglyde lube. The wire boot looks good, although not perfect, but we'll see.

Bottom line: If you have one or can get one cheaply, a vibrating cleaner is a good tool. But research and experimentation are needed to get the right abrasive, which can be wet, dry, or in between. Don't expect miracles but it sure beats cleaning parts by hand.