Swinger 340
Well-Known Member
That's my MOTTO, "at first you don't succeed, then read the instructions". Mostly now-a-days you need to go on-line to find the instructions.
9 old tools almost nobody uses anymore
- Thread starter Lord Sparky
- Start date
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BillGrissom
Well-Known Member
A timing light is useful even on modern engines with no spark timing marks. I used my timing light to quickly confirm the coil pack was bad in my 2002 Chrysler 3.8L engine. I just clamped it over each plug wire and found two off the same coil didn't constantly flash it. Much faster than using an inline spark tester. Listening close, I could hear faint ticking sounds inside the coil-pack. I got a new timing lamp with adjustable delay so you only need to adjust until the TDC damper mark aligns with 0 deg on the tab then read advance degrees on the lamp. It also measures rpm.
For those still running points, as the article explains you set the gap only to get close, then read "dwell" with engine idling. That is the fraction of time the points are closed to recharge the coil between sparks. Not needed with electronic ignition. Chrysler's system is just a transistor with no dwell-control other than the rough control the ballast resistor provides. The slightly later GM HEI and Ford TFI have electronic dwell control so need no ballast, as does Ignitor II and III.
For those still running points, as the article explains you set the gap only to get close, then read "dwell" with engine idling. That is the fraction of time the points are closed to recharge the coil between sparks. Not needed with electronic ignition. Chrysler's system is just a transistor with no dwell-control other than the rough control the ballast resistor provides. The slightly later GM HEI and Ford TFI have electronic dwell control so need no ballast, as does Ignitor II and III.
I have one of these but with air ratchets or cordless battery powered tools, I never use it.
Swinger 340
Well-Known Member
With all the comments here I think a
"TOOL" Museum is in order. Maybe a display of tools for every decade before all is lost. I for one would enjoy such an exhibit. I'm sure many would donate.
"TOOL" Museum is in order. Maybe a display of tools for every decade before all is lost. I for one would enjoy such an exhibit. I'm sure many would donate.
My Chevy Chevett alignment tools! Likely should have never bought them!
But as an old tech in the 80’s you just did not know.
But as an old tech in the 80’s you just did not know.
I started on the alignment rack in 1973. If I remember when the Chevy Chevette came out potholes were killers for them.
I may be wrong but didn't you have to remove and turn the upper ball joint 180* ?
I started as an alignment guy in about 1987. I don't do that anymore, it pisses me off that I know have to have it done and can't find an alignment guy worth a damn. I can't get a good alignment without taking something in at least 2 different places and paying each time. I found it not worth going back to where I paid the first time, winds up a total waste of time. Though the last couple of times I've had to just drop them off and couldn't be there to babysit and make sure they set them where I want them.
for a while when I first left it around 05, I had 2 places I could go and do my own. But the old shop I used to work at sold to new owners I don't know, and my career center auto shop teacher retired, so now I have to pay like joe average.
Once I took my Durango back to the shop that I used to work at and asked for an alignment.
The other alignment guy that I worked beside had gone back to that shop under the new ownership after more years of being gone than I have been gone but like all of us he's older now too and went back for the new guys as a tire buster and oil change guy and the new management wouldn't let him go back to his alignment rack because that's not what he was hired for. And the 1 guy at the counter that was also there with me asked if my Durango was a "slip shaft" style adjustment, which it is, and which I had gotten really good at back in the day. He refused my alignment because he said "the guy I have now can't do those" and sent me down the road. I have only been to that shop down the road that one time, you know, "once fooled/twice fooled"....
After all that, one tool I wish I could find would be an old ammco caster/camber gauge and a set of turn plates...
I went to a guys house a few months ago on a CL and and he had one of the first hunter alignment systems I worked on starting around '88-89ish packed into a corner of the garage. I wish I had the space for one ......
for a while when I first left it around 05, I had 2 places I could go and do my own. But the old shop I used to work at sold to new owners I don't know, and my career center auto shop teacher retired, so now I have to pay like joe average.
Once I took my Durango back to the shop that I used to work at and asked for an alignment.
The other alignment guy that I worked beside had gone back to that shop under the new ownership after more years of being gone than I have been gone but like all of us he's older now too and went back for the new guys as a tire buster and oil change guy and the new management wouldn't let him go back to his alignment rack because that's not what he was hired for. And the 1 guy at the counter that was also there with me asked if my Durango was a "slip shaft" style adjustment, which it is, and which I had gotten really good at back in the day. He refused my alignment because he said "the guy I have now can't do those" and sent me down the road. I have only been to that shop down the road that one time, you know, "once fooled/twice fooled"....
After all that, one tool I wish I could find would be an old ammco caster/camber gauge and a set of turn plates...
I went to a guys house a few months ago on a CL and and he had one of the first hunter alignment systems I worked on starting around '88-89ish packed into a corner of the garage. I wish I had the space for one ......
Gotta get a dizzy machine. The table top is the best.
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