Too many missed posts
I've had many things on my mind which I felt like posting about, and failed to post on any of them. I'm catching up here:
Throwdown: Haynes vs. Chilton
Ever been in your local auto parts store, looking at the various guides and wondering if they would be any help in your current project? Well, the answer is, gentle reader, no, they won't help a bit.
Of the two leading versions, Haynes and Chilton, I've found Haynes to have better technical content and diagrams. The Chilton guide is slightly better organized, but not so much so that it is superior to the Haynes guides. That being said, both suffer from a similar problem: they don't offer any useful advice for working on your vehicle.
What do I mean by that? After all, I have a '97 Ford Ranger, and the guide says Ford Ranger 1994-2000. It should include my truck right? Well, it does. But my truck is ten years old, with over 100k miles. The one in the book...just rolled off the assembly line. Haynes will tell you how to press out the ball caps on your old u-joints, and put the new ones in, but it doesn't tell you that if you try to press the old ones out with a C-clamp, all you will do is turn it into a parenthesis clamp...because at this point they are cold welded in place. (I eventually hit them with a hammer. A big hammer)
Pull A Part
So now I have a drive shaft with new u-joints. And a bent yoke. Because apparently hitting them with a big hammer is a Bad Idea (R). So I see an ad for a new place in town call Pull A Part. Ever done U-Pick Strawberries? Same idea with cars :)
The lot is on West 130th, just north of 480. You bring your own tools, and pay a buck for entrance to the lot. It took me a half an hour to find a Ranger that still had a drive shaft, but once I did, and got it out, I realized the real benefit. Cost of a drive shaft, with 30 day guarantee and entrance fee? $17. Beat that Auto-Zone.
And now for something completely different
Heh.
From the "Its About Damned Time" Department
Raked the lawn last night. Pulled up all of the leaves that had been there since, oh, say, November. And raking leaves in the dark is fun. I don't have to worry about sunburn...
Of course, now, instead of looking like an over-grown, leaf covered field, our lawn just looks like an overgrown field.
Throwdown: Haynes vs. Chilton
Ever been in your local auto parts store, looking at the various guides and wondering if they would be any help in your current project? Well, the answer is, gentle reader, no, they won't help a bit.
Of the two leading versions, Haynes and Chilton, I've found Haynes to have better technical content and diagrams. The Chilton guide is slightly better organized, but not so much so that it is superior to the Haynes guides. That being said, both suffer from a similar problem: they don't offer any useful advice for working on your vehicle.
What do I mean by that? After all, I have a '97 Ford Ranger, and the guide says Ford Ranger 1994-2000. It should include my truck right? Well, it does. But my truck is ten years old, with over 100k miles. The one in the book...just rolled off the assembly line. Haynes will tell you how to press out the ball caps on your old u-joints, and put the new ones in, but it doesn't tell you that if you try to press the old ones out with a C-clamp, all you will do is turn it into a parenthesis clamp...because at this point they are cold welded in place. (I eventually hit them with a hammer. A big hammer)
Pull A Part
So now I have a drive shaft with new u-joints. And a bent yoke. Because apparently hitting them with a big hammer is a Bad Idea (R). So I see an ad for a new place in town call Pull A Part. Ever done U-Pick Strawberries? Same idea with cars :)
The lot is on West 130th, just north of 480. You bring your own tools, and pay a buck for entrance to the lot. It took me a half an hour to find a Ranger that still had a drive shaft, but once I did, and got it out, I realized the real benefit. Cost of a drive shaft, with 30 day guarantee and entrance fee? $17. Beat that Auto-Zone.
And now for something completely different
Heh.
From the "Its About Damned Time" Department
Raked the lawn last night. Pulled up all of the leaves that had been there since, oh, say, November. And raking leaves in the dark is fun. I don't have to worry about sunburn...
Of course, now, instead of looking like an over-grown, leaf covered field, our lawn just looks like an overgrown field.

