Murphy's law and the Deer in the Headlights

[dbrick]

Well, it's finally time to get tires, so I get out the set of 5 slots I drove to Lancaster Pa. to pick up and spent a lot of time cleaning up and polishing. Just for fun I thought I'd check the clearance before putting tires on .....Wrong offset, back tires would hit the fenders. OK, let's check the old Western Turbines, the ones my Wife hates...OK, they fit, guess they are going on the car.

In the process I looked at the 200SX wheels on the car, well, someone had welded up the bottom of lug nut holes and redrilled them 7/16 instead of the original approx 3/4, I fixed the fronts, but forgot about the backs. To top it off, the wheels use bigger diameter lugnuts, and the lug nuts were the wrong outer diameter, sloppy in the holes in the wheels by alot, and some moron (me) forgot to fully tighten the rears. Thankfully, brake problems kept me from driving too far. The back wheels were basically being held on by a 1/4" thick weld bead. I did remove the 1/4" stacks of wasgers the PO had on the front wheel lugs to space the wheels out before driving the car.

So I took the Western wheels to Sears, to get the Falken Ziex ZE-512's 185-60-14, good price, last day they were on sale.

I went to pick them up tonight, and there was between 9 ounces and a pound of wheel weights stuck on EACH WHEEL, and in some spots three layers of tape on weights. I spent about 15 minutes with the manager trying to explain how his balancing machine should work, blank stare, You don't just keep spinning it and adding more weight until it reads "0-0"???? I finally got disgusted when the kid was adding 4 ounces for the third time to the same wheel and said to just scrape off the weights and refund me the balance fee, which he did without too much argument. They were running out of tape on weights anyway.
I'm all set for the surf fishing season now with all this spare lead.

OK, so now I am loading the tires in the truck, took out the first two, and realized that they have directional tread, so they need to be mounted with 2 "lefts" and 2 "rights". the two I had were 1 left and 1 right, so I walk back in, REALLY hoping the other two were the same, and luckilly they were. I complimented the manager on remembering to get the directional treads on right, and he gave me a blank look, what did I mean directional???

I just took the last two tires and left.

I miss working in the industry, I was able to mount and balance my own tires and do my own alignments with the shop equipment.

[shifty]

I just about jumped out of my skin when I had to take my Miata in to a Quicky-Lube (the guy I usually take it to retired). They leaned on the headlights, misaligning the panels, put scratches on the finders while leaning under the hood, washed the plastic rear window with Windex and a squeegie. Then they warned me that the airbag light comes on when the car is started and I should have that looked at....

I take the wheels off any car myself and take them in to have the tires mounted so they won't use the airtools and mangle the lugnuts or strip the bolts.

Got into an argument at the smog check station with the tech who put the front wheels up on the roller. "What year did they switch to rear-wheel drive?" he asked after I showed him the diff in the rear.

It's to the point that I''m shocked when find someone who knows what they are doing!

[datsun65]

Well...Every once in a while you do get lucky.

Right before Solvang (5PM the day before leaving to the show), I had run out of time to handle changing the oil on my 1500 myself.

I found a Jiffy Lufe nearby (never gone there before) and they were pleasently nice about changing the oil on my 64 1500 and replacing the oil filter cartridge (which I provided). They carefully spent the time to properly change the oil/filter. Even asked my permission before touching the tires or vaccuming the car.

Then, they asked if they could lube the car & I gave them the thumbs up...I heard the tech below the car telling his manager..."Yeah... this car has over 20 zerks..." At least he lubed most of them.

Again...I was shocked that nothing was screwed up...

However...don't get me started on the hundreds of $$s (in screw-ups) the Local tire/brake shop cost me on the same car..

[SLOroadster]

Wow, a Jiffy Lube person did his job. I'm blown away. When I worked at one, I was the only person who would check for fittings, and grease all of the ones I could find. The same went for draining the oil, it was common practice to pull the plug, then replace it when the oil started to slow down. Not come to a countable drip. All they cared about was getting cars in and out as fast as they could. No quality control, and no one cared (aside from me.) I never had a customer complaint on a car I worked on.

Will

[Linda]

At Jiffy Lube you have 3 mo to come back to top off fluids or fix any deficiencies. When I took the Roadster in they only found 5 grease fittings, according to the receipt, which I didn't catch at the time. I called the number on the back of the receipt later and the guy said take it back for a redo. Sure enough they knew I was coming and I told them to look for 20 or so.... They did. As a franchise they can't get too many complaints and suffer the repercussions.

Linda
68 1600

[datsunrides]

I too miss having access to shop equiptment to do the work myself. I worked as a wrench for about 12 years before leaving for "greener" pastures Hopefully my new shop will be built before the end of the year and i can start going to auctions to get some of those thing I miss like a twin post lift, tire changer (old Coates 40 would work fine, changed many a tire on those), old style bubble type wheel balancer ( never seemed to have a problem balancing a tire with one of these, seems like the "new" spin balancers take a couple of tries to get it right.) hydraulic press, brake lathe, drill press, and if I get lucky, maybe I can find a deal on an old Bridgeport end mill and a machinist lathe. (I also worked as a machinist for a short time) The shop will also have a "clean room" for anything from engine assembly to painting a car. I have worked my @ss off the last couple of years doing a lot of O/T to cover the cost of this shop, and I can not believe I am this close to realizing a dream. I can not wait for the day I do not have to decide if I want to risk someone else working on one of my rides or suck it up and crawl around on the floor and do it myself and have a sore back and kinked knees the next day, (yes, I am lazy, but I like being pain free AND enjoying my chosen hobby ) Scary thing about most chains I have had friends work at, all they want you to do is push for "extras". This is where they make their money. How many times have you gone to a "quick lube" and they have tried to sell you a new air filter when you know it was just replaced last time? (insert sales pitch here) Sound familar Will? Don't even get me started on a certain large transmission chain ( honk honk )

Mark

[dbrick]

Hopefully my new shop will be built before the end of the year
Mark

Mark is my hero. I dream of even a 2 car garage. It's in the works, but kitchen first.
I was in the industry for 15 years from wrench to pen (service manager).
My body just gave out, knees and back. Although I spend my days now up and down ladders and crawling around attics and basments, it's not the same stress as bending over a hood for some reason.

I had to change the O2 sensor on my Dodge truck Tuesday. I was VERY STUCK and at a bad angle. After crawling around on rough asphalt for 2 hours and exhausting my vocabulary of profanity, it was done, 3 days later my left arm is still killing me. At least the truck idles better. Now to fix the AC.

[shifty]

Sounds like a nice garage! I dream of radiant floor heating and a lift!

[datsunrides]

Yes, it will be nice. The whole thing will be just under 3000 sf. and be able to hold 10 cars! Most of the shop is dedicated to just storing cars and motorcycles. I will have one 2 car garage sized bay for "repairs" and 2 other 2 car sizes bays, but will fit 2 cars deep and a office/lounge. My plan is to get back to wrenching on the side, not neccesarily for the money, but to help Datsun owners out (yeah, I'm biased- NO TOYOTA'S ALLOWED! although I somehow have a desire for a 2 dr. Corolla wagon ) wether they need someone to fix it for them for a reasonable price who is knowledgeable on their vehicles, or if they may want to do the work themselves but just do not have the tools or space. Radiant floors would be great, but are kind of overkill here in the bay area (and the cost) but the "shop" portion will have forced heating and A/C! Dave, are you located anywhere near Flemington?

Mark

The current fleet:
1966 Roadster (frame off) U20 turbo project
1970 Roadster U20
1972 Datsun B110 (1200) with a hopped up A14
1973 240z, almost completely original (1 repaint)
1957 Plymouth Fury, needs restoration, will be a modern Christine!
1972 Camaro R/S clone, fully restored-now wife doesn't want!
1967 Chevy C-10, Frame on "restored"-for sale!
1996 GMC Jimmy
2006 Dodge 2500 Ram w/ Cummings
2005 Dodge Magnum-yeah, it's got a Hemi!
1997 Ford Ranger w/ 35's, 6" lift and 3" body lift- needs trans.
1990 Yamaha FJ1200
1984 Yamaha Seca 400-first new bike!
1999 Buell M2-For sale!
1983 Suzuki GS750ES (donor for GT550 engine transplant)
1996 Suzuki GS500E (donor for T500 engine transplant)
1978 Yamaha XS500 (engine to be transplanted into a FZ600)

[dbrick]

I'm about 30 miles from Flemington, why?. Oh, and the Yamaha xs500 was my favorite bike, best sounding twin I ever heard.

[datsunrides]

No reason. It's just I have family that lives there. I used to love going to watch the modifieds at Flemington speedway when I visited as a kid. (when it was dirt) Ken Brenn, Stan Poloski, Billy Pauch, Joe Cloverdale and a few others I can't recall were the fast guys then. I have had a couple of XS500's and there were good, reliable bikes. I don't know how they got such a bad reputation.

Mark

[dbrick]

They were nice simple bikes. Funny thing with mine was the electric start would not start the bike cold, cranked like crazy, wouldn't fire up. Give it two kicks and it started right up, then the electric worked all day. Traded that for a Seca Turbo, now that as a fun bike.

Oh, another update on topic. I just took a closer look at the wheels, they put 3 inch long valve stems in, now I have to change those too! For all this agrevation, I should just have hand mounted the tires myself.

[dbrick]

Followed my own advise...Went to a mechanic with grey hair.

We checked all 4 wheels, none were even staticly balanced. He took off more than 30 ounces of lead before losing count. Then put the wheels on his 50 year old bubble balancer, total on all 4 wheels is now less than a pound. Guaranteed to 100plus MPH. He removed the combination valve stem / curb feelers Sears put in and put in nice 3/4" long valve stems.
Then we spent half an hour talking about straight front axles, kingpins and parts that haven't been made since 1960.

All for $5.00 more than Sears charged.

[datsunrides]

I've always had very good results with the good old fashioned static wheel balancer. For reasons I do not understand, dynamic wheel balancers do not seem to be as good.

Mark

[dbrick]

I think it's all hype. the guy that did mine runs and builds drag cars down into the 8's. All he does is the 50 year old bubble balancer.