some automotive truths that revisited me
 

"Universal fit " should be "universal misfit" and teeny, tiny, screws have no place in automotive use.

George

How are you going to keep the carb's butterflies in the shafts? ;)

Those should be larger also. They are a pain to deal with. More to the point, assembling stuff on the engine and dropping the tiny screws provided sucks.

I decided to do a dress up, installing those ball-milled aluminum spark plug looms. Clamping the two halves together with the tiny screws is a joke with my hands.

if i ever remove them, I'll redrill and tap for 14-20 button-head cap screws, a manly improvement! First i need to get some matching longer plug wires, some are too short to fit in there.

George

I honestly wish the US had adopted the metric system for fasteners whenever standards were being put in place.

Why can't all metric fasteners be dyed red or something?

Nothing worse than finding my reading glasses, grabbing a tiny screw, grabbing it with tweezers, starting it and discovering I had picked up an M3 screw and needed a 4-40....

George - check out ebay 386049368160

There are dozens of designs and sizes.

I don't even try to start a 4x40 on the workbench without one.

And your universal mis-fit is "one size doesn't fit any"!

Jon.

"if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

i have lost far more driving hours due to fiddling with something that didnt need fixed or upgraded than i ever have to things that were working actually breaking down on me.

That's why I still have new parts sitting on the shelf, LOL I know that it will create havoc with some other aftermarket part. Just because you buy an aftermarket part it does not mean that it will play nice with another aftermarket part.

Thanks, Jon.

Another tale of woe....thought I would get my horns working. My frankenmobile never had horns when i got it...probably due to a previous accident. Anyway did that years ago when I had the front end off, but they never worked

I also have a Grant steering wheel with the misfit parts they have for the adaptor for a '67...(way old story i posted way back then).

Anyway, the relay doesn't work.Took it apart, just because....the parts inside were all loose, that explains that. re[placed it with a Bosch-type relay....tested it out with a jumper to ground. Works! Hit the horn button....works!

Turn the wheel to move it out of the garage.....horn blows! This whole thing blows!

Not having good days lately even with my boat.

George

George

I also have a Grant steering wheel with the same adapter kit. Thursday night I parked it in the detached garage. Friday morning I go out to the garage and when I open the car door there lays the horn button cap and spring in the driver seat. I pick them up and rattle the contact ring left on the steering wheel and I hear the horn relay clicking. Turns out sometime in the middle of the night the cap shot off and the horn honked until the coils in the horns melted.
Why am I not surprised?!?
Gotta love these old cars and aftermarket parts.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Oh my gosh...of all the luck

i had the grant horn thing too ... driving down the road and the horn comes on for no apparent reason ...

One of my brother's buddies had that happen with his '55 Chevy with a Grant wheel. His solution--a toggle switch under the dash to activate the horn.:confused:

Funny about the grant wheel, thats about the only thing working right on my car lately....lol

Rich

Jon I checked that eBay number but it comes up empty. What is the tool?

automotive truths - yeah sure

Remember back in the day there was always a story about the guy who got a new car that somehow got the experimental carb that was not supposed to be on the assembly line. Got unbelievable mileage until the factory sent out the leg breaker Guido to take it back. The guy with the car was always the cousin of some brother-in-law. You never got to talk to the guy with the car so you could call him it's all BS.

The way I heard it, Guido worked for (insert the name of your favorite oil company).

Part of the story is true:

In 1933, Ford sent out 1000 V-8 cars with an experimental air valve Bracke (Division of Holley) single barrel carbs.

The dealers were instructed to remove the carb at the first service, and replace it with the then standard Detroit Lubricator carburetor. This is documented in the Ford Service Letters.

I have found no record of performance, and nothing about Guido ;)

I have one in my museum pictured here:

https://www.thecarburetorshop.com/Ca...eum.htm#Holley

Some of the myths actually have SOME truth to them.

Jon

It was a screw-holding screwdriver.

There are several different designs

(1) Magnetic (doesn't work well on brass screws :p )
(2) A double blade where the blades overlap (my favorite)
(3) A spring loaded "jam-blade"
(4) A spring loaded bracket that fits around the head of the screw.

There are probably many more; I have been using these for decades. 3x48 throttle plate screws are too small for fat fingers ;)

Jon

Once my day time job in electronics came to the point of having to solder in 1/8 watt resistors like these to repair something I stopped complaining about small mechanical and automotive parts.

I don’t even mind carburetor Jesus clips in the least bit anymore, lol!

The brotherhood!

Those are well known to me and I share your disdain. Pushing 30, I was building microelectronic prototypes. I could honestly thread a wire-bonder with my bare eyes and a pair of tweezers. Today, I can't even see a 1-mil wire.

Another discovery of late is my skin has turned to paper. I cannot do anything on my Pontiac without getting a dime-sized bruise on the back of my hand. If I go fishing for that tiny screw I dropped and touch anything sharp, I'll be reminded for days...