Post a tip, or trick

[racydave]

Im partial to the heavier impact swivels as they are stiffer, and turn better under torque. Also helpfull, I use caulk, to retain nuts in a socket.

[4babycar]

If you are ever doing a roadside repair and happen to drop a screw or nut down into an inaccessible crevice (such as a rotor screw into the cross member.....) and you don't have one of those handy-dandy magnetic pick-up tools here is a tip. Take a long screw driver an pull it across the back of one of your speakers (I fortunately had one exposed), make sure you pull each time and not rub back and forth. This will temporarily make the screw driver magnetic, albeit not strong but it should be enough to get that pesky screw out of the cross member.

[rlux4]

I find it convenient to have an unemployed 19 year old son at home to give me a hand when I need it. Not cheap, just convenient.
Ron

[ventura ace]

If you are ever doing a roadside repair and happen to drop a screw or nut down into an inaccessible crevice (such as a rotor screw into the cross member.....) and you don't have one of those handy-dandy magnetic pick-up tools here is a tip. Take a long screw driver an pull it across the back of one of your speakers (I fortunately had one exposed), make sure you pull each time and not rub back and forth. This will temporarily make the screw driver magnetic, albeit not strong but it should be enough to get that pesky screw out of the cross member.

On a similar note: If you ever need to find dead center of the car, drop something that you need anywhere in the vicinity of the car. It always rolls or bounces to dead center underneath the car where it is hardest to reach!

A

[mdrburchette]

I like the impact swivel idea. I've had to put tape around my swivel so it would stay put while locating the upper bellhousing nut.

[racydave]

Shrinkwrap works on swivels temporarilly also.

[narfire]

Believe I mentioned this somewhere else but had to do it again the other day on a manifold stud.
Stud is broken off flush or inside the hole,insted of drilling and using an easy-out (I've broken three the past year) A neighbor that is handy with welding placed a nut over the hole and filled it up with weld(wire feed),joining the broken stud to the nut. Place a wrench on the nut and the thing came out real neat and left the threads in one piece. Last year did it on two of my brake calipers as well.
Chris

[racydave]

Easy way to install Spark Plugs, I use a 4 inch long vaccum hose pressed on the tower. Makes it alot easier to install !

[mbouse]

there seems to be no such thing as having too many grounds..electrical grounds. If you have not added a second grounding strap from your engine block to your inner fender, give that a try. #1 it can't hurt and #2 it just might help several electrical gremlins in your car.

I bet we all could come up with a zillion more. I just can't think of any right now. I do recall having a conversation with a 19 year old "apprentice" (daughter's boyfriend) recently. "how'd you know to do that" he said prolly six different times while we worked in my driveway after sunset, on a Sunday night; his brakes, a job started WAY too late in the evening. He started the job w/out my help, and of course, ran into trouble. the disabled vehicle was blocking my next-morning departure for work, so even I was motivated to get it back on the road. I simply amazed him with "tricks" i thought commonplace.

[fiasco]

My dad always used to say "let me show you a little trick I learned in the Spanish army." I must have been 10 years old before I finally realized that he had never been in the Spanish army - but as kid, it seemed like there was no other way he could have learned all that cool stuff.

Anyway - this may be something to which everyone will say "duh!", but when I was installing my clutch cable a week or so ago, I realized that it made a lot more sense to turn the ramps around and put them behind my front wheels and back on to them so they would stick out the front instead of back - right where I wanted to get under the car.

-- se

[manoa matt]

To replace an oil seal insitu with the shaft of whatever still sticking thru the seal Install a self tapping sheet metal screw into the seal and pull it out with a small crow bar. Make sure to remove the metal shavings before installing the new seal, and most important don't drive the screw too deep. You could always drill a small hole and thread a regular screw into it, as the self tapping portion of the self tapping screws is usually about 1/8" to 1/4" long.

Works great when replacing the rear pinion seal.

[manoa matt]

Another oil related trick,

A trick to filling the trans and differential is to get a length of clear vinyl tubing and slip it over the end of the gear oil nozzle after you cut the tip off. Make sure the nozzle is absolutly clean and no oil is on it, or the vinyl tubing will want to slip off. You can then stick the end of the hose in the hole and squeez the bottle to fill it up. You may want to have one hand squeezing the bottle and one hand holding the tubing to nozzle connection, if it slips off while you are squeezing...oil everywhere.

[ventura ace]

Another oil related trick,

A trick to filling the trans and differential is to get a length of clear vinyl tubing and slip it over the end of the gear oil nozzle after you cut the tip off. Make sure the nozzle is absolutly clean and no oil is on it, or the vinyl tubing will want to slip off. You can then stick the end of the hose in the hole and squeez the bottle to fill it up. You may want to have one hand squeezing the bottle and one hand holding the tubing to nozzle connection, if it slips off while you are squeezing...oil everywhere.

Matt, as good as that tip sounds, I've tied it several times, and I always managed to make a mess by the time I got through, -- maybe it's just me. Probably, mostly due to the fact that I'm under the car with little space to move around, and I'm squeezing on a bottle, and my hand is getting tired from all the squeezing . . . so I change hands to rest up the tired hand, and before you know it the contraption has come apart and oil is going everywhere. Another time, I thought I would wizen up and use a hand pump so I wouldn't have to squeeze the bottle for so long, but I ended up knocking over the bottle that I was pumping from and made a mess again. It seems like no matter how much I tried to avoid spilling, I would still make a mess.

Then I tried something that Denise suggested (I think). Run the vinyl tubing up the tranny tunnel to the engine bay, and fill it from the top. Instead of squeezing the bottle, I put a small funnel in the top of the tubing, and poured the tranny fluid into the funnel. Of course, you're going to lose a bit of oil the end, when the tranny is full and you still have the oil flowing down the tube, but if you have everything clean and put a catch pan underneath the filler hole, the overflow oil can be captured and re-used.

Filling from underneath would sure be a lot easier, as you suggest, if you were to own a car lift, and be able to walk around underneath the car!

Alvon

[manoa matt]

I hear you on that Ace, The hand does get tired of squeezing. The rear diff is a bit easier, more room and the bottle can be inverted so there is less squeezing. I guess a larger diameter tube would also help, or make a special cap for the gear oil bottle that has a brass fruled fitting so the hose can be clamped on securely. You could always just fill up the washer bag with gear oil, put the hose in the hole and turn on the pump.

[GOPAPA]

How to fix a flat on a Spider .. boy !!! are some of you all going to razzzzz me on this one ..LOL

Another thing:::

Women with bangs hanging down probably should not try this ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZhszvMjvjg