What have you learned in your old age that you feel should be taught to high school students?

You got that right Arlen Nut-All. You wasted your time.

Plonk.

Lifetime on the handtools, 90 days on everything else supposedly. I did return a drill press vise and got my money back with no problem. It was so bad the jaws weren't even parallel. I just fixed a floor jack and air compressor and got on with life. I avoid anything with a lot of moving parts. The pop rivet and wire terminal assortments are hard to screw up and the bungees aren't bad.

Sadly, the stuff at the tractor supply store isn't much better and Ace is caveat emptor too. That goes for a lot of things where cheap Chinese imports give the consumer the illusion of prosperity. It's mostly woodworking but you can find quality tools at Garrett Wade. Of course a small table vise is $105 versus the $23 non-functional HF crap.

What really bugs me about cheap stuff is it looks like the real thing, probably requires almost as much work as the real thing, but is crap. I like those Photon Micro Lights and ordered some from Amazon. Some but not all were knockoffs. They worked but the LED was off color, the fasteners had crude Philips heads, and the battery was some no-name deal. Still, they had to mold the housings and assemble them. How much more would a decent LED, battery, and 4 tiny screws cost?

I contacted Amazon. They told me to keep them, reversed the charges, and kicked that seller off the board but new ones keep springing up.

knuttle <keith snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net wrote

Words matter with rigorous science.

Even sillier than you usually manage and that’s saying something.

Sheese, I get plonked for being honest. Not fair!

Religion. Real shame those people can't separate religion from politics. You'd think that they'd be smarter. Once you allow a god to tell you what you should do all limits are off.

Handy hint: Carrying a small floor jack make it a lot easier to put on chains.

I drove home from my office up Los Robles and east on Orange Grove. there was an actual snowdrift at that corner.

FWIW I skied up at Snow Valley a week ago. Cloudy, flat light. Miserable experience. I'd forgotten just how bad it is when you can't see the snow even on easy slopes. Snow coming down for several days now, and nice weather is expected after the holidays. Yay.

It is special, but people should figure out GOOD places to do it. I'm annoyed by people who pull off on 330/18 to frolic. There are only a few places where that's even legal, much less safe, but people do it anyway.

I love Channellocks, but I used to call them water-pump pliers because that's what a pro mech called them. The smallest ones I have are only

We have CROWFOOT wrenches, but we've never used them. When they're dirt cheap at yard sales you buy everything even if you can't figure out what you'll use it for.

Bumps on the soles of boots are called "lugs".

That would be a "hole".

They used to sell ratchet repair doohickeys for a penny. Seems like a good idea if you have tools with sentimental value. Local Sears, OSH and K-Mart are shut down now; still a few left in the Los Angeles area, but not worth driving to.

Lifetime on hand tools last I heard, although son had three electric drill/screwdrivers replaced.

We had to change the heads to "smog heads" with hardened valve seats.

That's confusing two of you said harbor freight had lifetime warranties. I thought you couldn't return anything based on what friends have said.

I've been told (wrong?) that without a receipt you can't do a thing. And even then they said the receipt only works for so long.

If you brought a ten year old hand tool to Sears they didn't ask for that.

Do you have to have the receipt for harbor freight's warranty to work? Or do they recognize their own tools like Sears did even 10 years later?

The cat adopted me; the only cost is cat food and he's happy with Friskies. Oh, you meant catalytic converters? Let me explain a Harley's exhaust system. I've got one set of mufflers with tabs near the end so if a cop shoves a stick it he will think there are actually baffles.

The Toyota is the only thing I have with a cat. I've had three of the same model and never had fuel problems so no need for SeaFoam. I don't use the 'injector cleaner' snake oil either.

I use Stabil in the tanks of the stuff that will be down for the winter but I've had long debates with myself over whether it's necessary.

That's another interesting discussion -- how much of the snake oil actually has a beneficial effect. STP oil or gas? Marvel Mystery Oil? Bar's Stop Leak. I have used Bar's with some success but it was in a '62 Dodge D100. I don't think I'd use it in anything made in this century.

Luckily, no. I had a Yamaha Seca with shim-over-bucket. I tried to get the Yamaha tool in preparation but they didn't make one anymore. The gaps were in spec so it wasn't needed.

The V-Strom is shim-under-bucket so you need to pull the cams. Fortunately that was in spec. Checking the valves wasn't my primary goal but to replace a defective stator you need to remove the bodywork, seat, and tank. By that time you might as well check the valve.

The DR650's design goes back to the early '90s and is OHC with screw adjust rocker arms. It's interesting in that it's a one cylinder engine with 4 valves. The rockers are bifurcated to handle the pair of exhaust or intakes. Kawasaki makes a similar big thumper but I selected the Suzuki because of the screw adjust and oil cooled engine. If I'm going to work on it I'd rather go simple. The Kaw is water cooled which might be an advantage for slow climbs on a hot day but not enough to deal with a separate system.

The worst thing I've worked on was an Alfa. DOHC and you could lose a finger releasing the idler on the drive chain. It also had wet liners so you were looking at replacing both the liners and pistons. They didn't offer oversized pistons.

What I'm about to explain below is long - but it explains everything. And I mean everything.

However, the reader must be of at least average intelligence to benefit. The ignorance of people can be cured by reading but their stupidity can't.

The rabid {Democrats,Republicans} position on these two issues is unsound. a. The rabid Democrats' position on the vaccine NOT being your choice. b. The rabid Republicans' position on abortion being based on religion.

We've hashed out how asinine the Democrats' position is where only an idiot wouldn't instantly notice how firmly they stand on the principle of your choice of "some" medical procedures but it's no longer your choice on others.

Either these rabid Democrats firmly stand on the same resolute principle for both or they instantly prove *they don't give a shit about medical choice*.

The same firm principles should stand for abortion.

The scientific facts are that abortion is a very ugly thing indeed. In New York state, for example, you can abort at 9 months and beyond.

As longs as that innocent child hasn't been born - you can abort in NY. They don't even make any pretext about the ability to survive on its own.

The ostensible argument is a medical necessity & privacy argument (as enshrined in the Supreme Court so we can't realistically hash it out here).

Just as the rabid Democrats hate that people have a right to own guns (as enshrined in the Constitution so we're not going to hash that out here), the rabid Republicans hate that people have a right to abort their unborn child.

The problem for intelligent people to realize is _how_ they each go about eliminating your current rights (as enshrined in the law of the land today).

What's rather interesting is my observation that both actually go about taking away your rights the same way anyone goes about attacking a fortres.

The Germans chipped away for a while at Fortress Europe and then when they invaded Poland everyone realized they would incessantly chip away (each time claiming that's their _last_ attack) until nothing was left.

They'll never stop. Only until France & Britain drew a line in the sand did they stop for pause. But even then, they didn't attack the Fortress Maginot directly. Nobody sane attacks the Constitution directly. They find a way to eliminate your rights with a million little attacks.

Every law the rabid {Democrats,Republicans} make on {guns,abortion} are an attempt to chip away at your rights until you no longer have those rights.

The only sensible protection you have is to draw a line in the sand. It's how _all_ military attacks against anyone have ever worked.

The Japanese didn't go frontal against Washington DC in WWII. They attacked the easier outlying islands instead.

Why? Because they wanted to chip away slowly. They and the Germans and Atilla the Hun and the Mongols and everyone in history from the Mysterious Sea Peoples to Alexander to Hannibal & Scipio, to Vercingetorix to Arminius (fast forward) to today do the same thing.

Everyone. In all human history. They all do the same thing. It takes only an average intelligence (no more needed than that) to see it.

If you can't go frontal against the fortress, you chip away forever. Until the walls fall down and you finally massacre everyone inside at will.

Only an _intelligent_ person can see what the rabid politicians are doing. a. The rabid Democrats are chipping away at your right to own a gun b. The rabid Republicans are chipping away at your right to abort a child

It doesn't matter to them any principle. That's what any intelligent person can see.

You can easily tell principle doesn't matter if you're intelligent. a. The rabid Democrats don't give a shit about "your body" "your choice" b. The rabid Republicans don't give a shit about "your medical privacy"

Each wants to eliminate one of your rights. Unfortunately, history shows clearly there is only one way to defend.

And that is to draw a line in the sand and defend against every parry. (If you can come up with a better defense, you'll change history.)

Direct injection is getting more popular, mostly for economy and emissions advantages. The biggest drawback is the high pressure fuel rail. That runs around 2000 psi rather than around 40 psi for multiport. BMW and VW have had problems with the high pressure pump.

Toyota is a belt and suspenders company and uses direct and port injection in the D-4S system.

A lot of the earlier systems used throttle body injection. It was cheap. Also you could replace a carb with the throttle body and vice versa so a manufacturer could put FI on the fender of some models without doing a lot of work. I don't think it's used on any new cars.

Finding TDC on the DR650 isn't as sophisticated. There are markings in the inspection port but you pull a plug and stick a pencil down. Same idea. If the valve covers are off you rattle the rocker arms to make sure you're on the right cycle.