You did what with what?

[jronald]

OK
As some of you know, I had outlived my usefullness with my prior employeer, about 2 months prior to my plans and found myself without a job, car or cell phone.

I borrowed my brother in laws 1994 Toyota 4X4 pickup. Plain Jane, nothing to write home about but it is depenable, and its only costing me fuel!

My drive is about 45 minutes 1 way down a pretty hilly stretch of 55mph highway. As the truck was plain jane, it has no cruise, I was literally all over the place with my speed. After perusing the Fleabay I was detirmended NOT to pay $200.00 for an aftermarket cruise control.

SO:
I found one for a 90 to 92 Honda Accord in Canada.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=91945
And purchased it. About $30.00 shipped

As i have a bit of background with Rostra
http://www.rostra.com/
I was pretty sure that they took a universal kit, added a few baubles and bells and then sold it for a specific kit.
I was right!
I pitched the braket the servo was bolted to and mounted it directly to the fender liner (its steel), re-bent the throttle bracket and worked it into the existing throttle bracket, and then cut off the Honda brake light switch sockets and soldered the wire to the the Toyota Brake light switch wires.

On the third road test it came up and controled pretty well. The longest of the hills I suffer from lack of vacuume, so a trip to the Lowes Home Improvement store, yielded a 8 inch chunk of 1.5 inch PVC. A couple of vacuume fittings and a back check valve later, Im motoring along with less than 1 mph sag in speed.

Yes I put a Cruise control from a 1992 Honda Accord on a 1994 Toyota Pickup.
Yes I used Plumbers pipe for a vacuume chamber to drive the servo.

Anyone else have any off the wall I did this with that stories, not related to computers?

Ron

[killer]

A fascinating tale, jronald, and hard to beat ... so I wouldn't dream of trying.

In 1970 I had a Ford Anglia 105e (look it up) and on a long journey through France it started misfiring. I stopped and looked under the bonnet. Petrol was pouring out of the side of the carburettor onto the exhaust manifold.
A brass screw had fallen out. So I looked in my toolbox (everyone carried one in those days) and found a plastic screw that appeared to fit. So in it went. It got me home and lasted until I sold the car in 1973.

It makes me laugh to think how all were things were considered at the time in order to solve the problem. These days we can't normally fix modern cars so we call the roadside assistance people.

[ArtShapiro]

I don't think there's a better feeling in the world than repairing something expensive with stuff on hand, in a manner completely different than the manufacturer might have intended. Good show!

I've done it a few times, such as fixing a misbehaving multi-kilobuck tubed audio preamplifier with the cork from a wine bottle.

Art

[mediasponge]

Given that I own some vintage vacuum-tube test instruments, I was always looking for a vacuum tube tester. You used to be able to go into any Walgreens and test your vacuum tubes on their tester and then buy the replacements. Not anymore. I found a tube tester in a surplus store, and a portable one at that. Bought it for $50 and got it home only to find out the main transformer was completely fried. The store refused to refund. So what did I do with it? I rewound it. I carefully peeled back all layers of a complex multi-tap power transformer, counting all the turns, recording all the wire gauges, and then rewound it from the core. I bought rolls of wire, made a coil winder jig, then rewound it, paper and shellac on each layer as per the original. It took 5 different gauges of wire from #18 to #38. There are about 15 secondaries. Hooked it all back up and it actually worked. It was complex because a tube tester has to produce multiple voltages for filament, plate and grid circuits for many different tube types. And yes, I am certifiable.

[jronald]

How about this one:
We built our house about 10 years ago. In doing so, I put way too many lights in the master bath. Above and around the sink specifically there are 18 bulbs. Wife was always whining about how hot the bathroom got, so I installed a ceiling fan, a small one, but a ceiling fan just the same. Yep you guessed it, now she whined about the ceiling fan when getting out of the shower.

SO:
Using a 24 volt AC/Heating transformer, and a 24 volt AC/Heating relay/contactor from the same salvage unit, I slapped all of the above into a metal box for safety. Now when you turn the lights on over the shower, the contactor pulls in and shuts the power off to the fan. The relay is single poll double throw, so the normally closed position is off, and it powers the fan! Power the light, it powers the transformer which pulls in the relay and "opens" the contacts, which kills the fan.

I like using everyday objects, not intended for their original purpose!

Ron

[fredstev]

Should change the title of this topic to "My best McGyver Moment". Years ago, about 1973 or so, we were on a fishing trip WAY up in Canada, somewhere around the Drowning river, as I recall. At the time, we had a 1968 International Harvester 4WD pickup. My friend and I pitched a 12 ft. boat and 6 HP. motor in the back of the truck & took off for a remote lake. About 15 miles down the 2-track, my truck wheezed to a stop. The fuel pump had failed and there we sat in the pre-cell phone era with no help within miles.

Ended up draining the windshield washer tank of fluid, filling it with outboard gas and hanging the little rubber tube that went to the windshield washers into the carburetor. Careful manipulation of the washer foot valve got us back to camp.

[jronald]

I have bungee corded more than 1 gas can under the hood and moved cars around the yard using gravity to feed the carb!

Ron

[ajkula66]

jronald wrote:

Yes I put a Cruise control from a 1992 Honda Accord on a 1994 Toyota Pickup.

Not bad.

I transplanted a Diesel engine from a W123 240D Benz (4 cylinder, inline, non-turbo) into a Lada Niva. An awesome baby SUV that one was.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lada_Niva

As well as an V-6 engine from a '81 Opel Senator into a '64 Buick Riviera.

There was a lot more stuff like that back in the days, this is just off the top of my head...

Speaking of heads, my deepest to mediasponge...I had wound and rewound many transformers - even guitar pickups - by hand in my younger years, but this business of five different wire gauges and everything else takes the cake...OMG...

[mediasponge]

jronald wrote:
Speaking of heads, my deepest to mediasponge...I had wound and rewound many transformers - even guitar pickups - by hand in my younger years, but this business of five different wire gauges and everything else takes the cake...OMG...

He he he. Thanks for the compliment. Let's just say, I was so frustrated at the idiots running the surplus store that fixing it became a matter of revenge. It didn't cost much to fix, a few rolls of wire and some shellac, just ungodly hours to do. The tester was otherwise in great shape, and came with all the tube charts. I've probably used it twice since then.

At one point, Nikola Tesla was operating a wireless power transmission test station in Colorado Springs. The story goes that he had an arrangement for free power from the nearby hydroelectric plant. He burned out one of their generators and they told him no more free power. He rewound their generator and they restored his freebies. At least it was his design, so he would know what he was doing! I used to wind Tesla coils too, but haven't done one of those in a long time.

I do have one item that I just don't know how to fix. I have an old, professional-grade automotive tester system. It has a large analog gauge on it about 8-9 inches across. The Aluminum pointer on the gauge has oxidized and crumbled. That's going to be tough to reproduce. The balance of the pointer has to be just right or it won't work.

[mediasponge]

I have bungee corded more than 1 gas can under the hood and moved cars around the yard using gravity to feed the carb!Ron

There is actually a period photo of the race car I own when it was being tested by the original builder around 1959, using the same method! It looks like he was holding the gas can on top of the chassis with no bodywork on it, but he was driving it! The actual gas tank he made for that car is a frightening piece of work. It's an Aluminum tank. I've removed it a few times to access what's underneath. With no gas in it, the tank is light enough to easily lift with your pinkie. It probably weighs less than the average frying pan. The tank was originally attached with 2 bungee cords, and the car ran that way for many years, but the SCCA made me fit something more stout. I used the old bungee cord hook ends on vinyl coated wire rope steel cable, with a turnbuckle in the middle. The cable passes through the springy part of the bungee hooks, and continues around to the turnbuckle, where the ends are formed into a normal wire rope loop with crimped ferrules. The turnbuckle eyes are in the loops. There are 4 bungee hooks, one piece of wire rope, and one turnbuckle with locknuts on either end. It came out pretty slick. All the parts came from Orchard Supply Hardware.

Edit: link to old photo (low quality)

[poshgeordie]

During our travels through Africa in '85 in our VW Microbus, I remember when we were crossing the Sahara coming across a completely standard Polski Fiat 125 being driven from UK to one of the Sub Saharan countries for resale there.

The UK couple doing this had no spares whatsoever and it was as if they thought crossing the Sahara was like a trip to the shops.

The car was broken down and we quickly diagnosed no sparks and found the top of the rotor arm had turned into carbon and the sparks were flying everywhere except to the spark plug contacts.

Carbon conducts electricity and we had to somehow isolate the carbon section and the only thing I could find to do this was my (now useless) Barclaycard, and cut out and glued a series of plastic mini barriers around the burnt section.

We heard later from the couple that they made it to the country and managed to sell the car with that same rotor....

[mediasponge]

A guy I knew who was in the US Army motor pool said that part of their training was to use a standard US Army web belt from their trousers as a replacement for a fan belt on a truck engine. They had to demonstrate that they could fit one and that the engine would run without throwing the belt off.

[killer]

Fascinating stuff ... so many brilliant inventions!

@poshgeordie: There had to be a good use for a Barclaycard.

@mediasponge: How many lost their trousers? P.S. I loved the pictures of the racing car.

[mediasponge]

The worse problem with distributor rotors is when they leak internally. There was one car at the race track that had misfiring, and upon closer investigation, the carbonizing was INSIDE the plastic so the spark was leaking from the center terminal to the distributor shaft directly below it through a fine tunnel in the plastic. No way to fix that with a Barclay card. Drove the guy nuts until he found another rotor. It was a BMC motor, so plenty of spares at that event. There's no such thing as traveling light with a Formula car...

Maybe the fan belt test was a way for the Sergeant to get a few laughs at the expense of the recruits.

I only rediscovered that I had a photobucket account when I tried to register the same name again. D'oh! I need to put more pix of that race car up. It's got all sorts of oddments on it. The breather for the transaxle is a genuine San Francisco "Gaetano Giurlani" 1 qt Star Olive Oil can. Numerous photographers have stopped by, looked at it sideways, then crouched down to get a good photo of it. Makes me want to crack up every time. I've scoured antique shops up and down the California coast looking for another one to no avail.

We have an Espresso machine at work that got jammed one time, so I took it home to fix it. It's a superautomatic machine that grinds and brews at the press of a button. The grinder motor is directly underneath the grinder, and there is a gearbox unit in between. The spinning lower plate of the grinder assembly had worn a groove through the top of the gearbox. Coffee grounds had gotten into the gearbox and jammed it up solid. I managed to clean the thing out, but I had to dip the gearbox upside down in hot water repeatedly. Could have brewed a whole pot. Tested the 120V DC motor by connecting it via a jumper to the power supply in a Fender amp from the rock band down the street. The motor was fine. The final fix was to fabricate a shield plate to go between the grinder lower plate and the gearbox. I made it out of the lid from a Polypropylene food tub I bought nuts in. The lid was the perfect size. The purpose was to make the shield plate sling the grounds away from the gearbox. I also made another shield to go under the gearbox cover to cover up the hole. I had to recalibrate the grinder adjustment plate, as the shields raised the grinder cone a few thou. It's still working months later and pumping out ~20 cups of Espresso a day. Gotta have that shot in the morning!

[jronald]

Hey the car rigging got we to thinking.....................
My parents had a Dodge Ramcharger, they towed a 27 foot Travel trailer with.
http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks. ... harger.htm

It seems like every time they went on vacation the AC compressor either locked up, or the AC clutch slung all to pieces. Anyway the alternator, AC compressor were driven on the same belt. Lose the compressor, and you kill the alternator. After it happened the 2nd time, more than 2 hours from home, we figured out that if you invert the alternator, and run the belt under the water pump, instead of over the pump around the AC compressor, the alternator turned the same direction and never knew the difference. Since you could not tighten the belt anymore, and short bungee cord over to the shock tower, kept the belt tight enough to keep it charging. My folks dragged that trailer back home from at least 6 road trips, with the alternator bungee corded to the shock tower. No AC perhaps, but never stranded. One trip was 6 hours on the Interstate, bungee cord doing its job!

Ron

[poshgeordie]

Really enjoying the stories here - I knew there had to be another use for a Fender Amp and the coffee machine mods are totally sideways thinking!

More travel stories: Another couple in a VW van had real tyre problems and ran out of decent ones somewhat early in the trip. The problem was that they'd had so many punctures that the internal wires in the carcasses broke and kept puncturing the inner tubes.

Their solution was to collect all the empty tins of margarines we'd all bought along the way (the only good thing about that stuff was that it was yellow...), flatten them out and then shape them to the internal profile of the carcasses. They did a sterling job keeping wires from tubes and they only had 6 punctures a day rather than 12

On a similar vein, later on in the trip we changed to cycling from Bangkok to Australia (we were young then!!), and again punctures tended to be a problem (the low point was both tyres on both bikes!!)
We found that a suitably modified old outer carcass fitted between the tyre and inner tube worked a treat but the ride felt very "dead".

[jronald]

Back in the days of the small block Chevy engine, if you stretched the bypass spring in the oil pump before you installed it, you got better oil pressure. Problem with that is how much to stretch it. Too little and you never knew you went to all of the trouble. Too much and you pumped all the oil to the heads and starved the main bearings.

Some enterprising young fellow with way too much time on his hands decided to shim the spring, with a Holley carburetor jet! Adds 10 pounds to a brand new engine, adds 5 to 7 pounds to an older engine. Just perfect for most hot rodders. In my 15 years in the parts business, Im betting I have sold 1000 sets, for shimming springs!

Ron

[mediasponge]

The standard cure for oil passage leaks through the head gasket of an Alfa Romeo 4 cyl is to replace the OEM round cross section O-rings with square cross section O-rings. Where do you get those square cross section O-rings, you ask? They're Chevy 260 valve stem seals!

[jronald]

The small block chevy valve stem seal is a crappy o-ring design, that really does not work through 100k miles on the new engine. Forget about the rebuilt engines. The Ford design, is an umbrella seal that covers the top of the guide and works great. Never did install the factory ones on any of the engines I messed with.

Ron

[mediasponge]

The small block chevy valve stem seal is a crappy o-ring design, that really does not work through 100k miles on the new engine. Forget about the rebuilt engines. The Ford design, is an umbrella seal that covers the top of the guide and works great. Never did install the factory ones on any of the engines I messed with. Ron

I never said the Chevy O-ring was a good valve stem seal. It may be lousy at that job, but it works great as a head gasket O-ring in Alfas. The original Alfa O-rings tend to twist into a figure-8 causing loss of oil pressure on the cam bearings, and oil coming out the side of the motor. The other fix is steel roll pins inserted in the oil passages to keep the O-rings in place. All the performance motors I work on have spring-loaded Teflon valve stem seals, even if it means machining down the top of the valve guide to accept them. I use a special tool to install the valves without scratching the Teflon part. That's the tricky part.

[frankiepankie]

Something i did in the past hour: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=92776

[mediasponge]

Something i did in the past hour: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=92776

Yup, nice hack. I did something similar, just not as elegant and reusable, to recharge an X41T battery using an X41. I was hesitant to hack the connector off an old motherboard, as that reduces its rework potential to 0.

[mediasponge]

Here's another goofball repair I did. Some years ago, at a nearby Mall, a store was having a Going Out of Business Sale (no, really!). They were selling off some of the fixtures from their corporate HQ in San Francisco. I spotted a lovely brass telescope in a box there. It is a Meade 314. The telescope and tripod were in very good condition, but it was missing some parts. The eyepiece was missing, but these things are easily replaced. I got it cheap, but the major missing component was the mount between the telescope and the tripod. Major nuisance, as this was not the same as other Meade models. Meade is good at that, coming out with new products faster than they can obsolete the old ones. Sound like somebody we know? Anyway, the fix I applied was to replace the mount with an IO Port video camera mount that usually gets installed on race cars! The mount I used is here. I had to fabricate one adapter block, but otherwise, it was easy. The Meade reps were quoting me alt-azimuth mount prices in multiple $100s. The IO Port one now lists for $109, but I must have gotten it cheaper. Too bad I won't see anything of the Lunar Eclipse tonight. Too cloudy.

I took a photo of the telescope, together with a 500mm telephoto rig almost as large here. I used to lug the 500mm out to rock concerts...