Maintenance tricks

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Although it's not a CMP maintenance trip, I'd like to share this with you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQhfcdQf1QA

And I'm sure this will trigger some of us to fess up their tricks

H.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Hanno

Interesting little trick, VW is probably one of the few vehicles you do this trick with.

Now if somebody can do this on a CMP, Ford, Chevy, Pattern 11, 12, or 13 that would be a show in a half.

I have seen a variation on this trick for replacing a belt without a tool, that of routing the belt around all the pulleys an part way on the last so that when you bump the starter it turns the partly engaged pulley and the belt slips on. Not necessarily good for the life of the belt though.

Cheers Phil

[gjamo]

Thats fine when the fan is housed and down the other end of the generator. What do you pick your nose with after trying this with a cooling fan belting around.
Graeme

[Ausmick]

Little trick I witnessed was on the Gibb River Road in the Kimberley of Western Australia. We were trying everything we knew to get a Toyota tyre to ‘pop’ onto the rim (tubeless) that was from a tourist 4X4. Tried chain and chain dogs, wire and strainers, let a weight down on it. Being on a cattle station the old air compressor wouldn’t give us the spurt of air we needed. Nearest town was four hours drive.

An old Aboriginal stockman was rolling a smoke and watching. He bet us for a six pack of beer that he could get the tyre to ‘pop’ onto the rim so we could continue to inflate it. We took him up on the offer. He finished rolling his smoke and hung it on his lip. He walked over to a petrol can and tipped a portion into a tin. He walked to the tyre and threw it in then lit his smoke and threw the match into the tyre. (We ran as we thought he had cracked in the heat.) Within a flash the tyre was ‘popped’ onto the rim with a few pound pressure to boot!

We always laughed about the next time the tourist got new tyres what the tyre man would have thought of this tyre with the soot and a match coming out of it.

[cletrac (RIP)]

Around here it's quite common to squirt a shot of ether into the tire then light it to get the tire on the rim. It works on heavy equipment tires too.

[Jordan Baker]

Lets see you try that on a Universal Carrier.

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Ausmick

Little trick I witnessed. We were trying everything we knew to get a Toyota tyre to ‘pop’ onto the rim (tubeless).

..He walked over to a petrol can and tipped a portion into a tin. He walked to the tyre and threw it in then lit his smoke and threw the match into the tyre. (We ran as we thought he had cracked in the heat.) Within a flash the tyre was ‘popped’ onto the rim with a few pound pressure to boot!

The petrol can weaken and destroy the rubber of the tyre. A much better and safer way is to use a quick spray of Aerostart and cigarette lighter. I've used this method on an aired down 4wd tyre that had come off the bead and have it on video somewhere. If you have a diesel vehicle and don't carry Aerostart, some other aerosols will work including Brake Kleen or even some hairsprays and deodorants.

[cantankrs]

Hi,

Watching that Top Gear episode where they drove to the North Pole and they had a tyre collapse running it into a chunk of ice (amongst other damage) so for the tyre it looked to be a quick squirt of that yellow bottled liquid fire lighting stuff around the rim and cautiously tossed in a match (what if it was blowing?) and Whooff! But me, I think I'd wait for a real emergency to try it.

Regards

Alex

[cantankrs]

Aerostart will start a diesel too. But if you need Aerostart for any motor then you've probably figured it's got some problems.

Starting any diesel in the cold can be aided significantly if you can get some heat into the air intake. My Dad uses his little propane torch on the tractor and his lighting plant on cold mornings. Just loosen and lift off the aircleaner and aim it across the top until she's just running. Refit the aircleaner (well).

I've read that for troubleshooting leanness in petrol carby/efi motors you can use the propane torch (UNLIT of course) to direct some gas into the carby or throttle body while the motor is running to temporarily enrich the mixture. At least your hand is a little further out of the way... by that rationale then I guess propane could be used to assist starting a stubborn petrol motor. And if you're apt to reach for an empty tin can to tickle your petrol motor into runing then think again and reach for a plastic softdrink bottle and use it instead - smaller mouth so less chance of spilling the contents (on yourself) should you get a surprise.

Play Safe!

Regards

Alex

[barriefield-brian]

Tried the tire trick with the starting ether fluid. Its exciting but it does work, had 2 tires I could not get up on the bead. Brian

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by cantankrs

Watching that Top Gear episode where they drove to the North Pole and they had a tyre collapse running it into a chunk of ice (amongst other damage) so for the tyre it looked to be a quick squirt of that yellow bottled liquid fire lighting stuff around the rim and cautiously tossed in a match (what if it was blowing?) and Whooff! But me, I think I'd wait for a real emergency to try it.

Ah yes, I remember that! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2HXHFhhHlM (ff to the end)

Seeing this again, I recall they showed it before in one of their shows many years ago when they were driving across gletsjers in Iceland.

H.

[wayne c. petrie]

Wish I had known that fan belt trick when I owned a '59 VW years back.
With a tire that does not want to bead up, I usually tie a rope around the OD of the tire and use a large screwdriver to twist the rope tight. The tire starts to bead up and then I remove the rope and continue to fill the tire with air .
I believe the rope setup is called a "Spanish Windlass".
I used the same setup to install a piece of machinery at work last week, while my co-workers went for a com-a-long.I had the piece in place and bolted up before they returned.
It's quick and easy to use.