Topic: What did you do to your non-motorcycle vehicle today?

[70CB750]

I lost.  Yesterday I admitted defeat.  Tires 2, me 0.

I was changing 2 tires on my Grand Cherokee.  I was able to get old tires off, replace valves and install new 225/75R16 BFGs All Terrain.

I tried several times to seat the bead, borrowed 5 gallon bead setter, tried the starting fluid trick and nothing.  Today I will take them to an offroad shop

It seems like they changed the starting fluid - it does not go boom anymore. I seated many tires the incorrect way but this time it would always just catch on fire. 

[Bankerdanny]

I moved the V6 I bought to swap into my MG from the floor dolly where it had been sitting for the past year to the engine stand I bought this spring. I would have done this sooner, but I needed to bring the engine hoist up from my sisters. Maybe next year I can actually put it in the car.

[Tintop]

I moved the V6 I bought to swap into my MG from the floor dolly where it had been sitting for the past year to the engine stand I bought this spring. I would have done this sooner, but I needed to bring the engine hoist up from my sisters. Maybe next year I can actually put it in the car.

is that a Chevy V6 conversion?  Are you going to upgrade the tranny to a 5 speed (Mazda?).

[Bankerdanny]

I moved the V6 I bought to swap into my MG from the floor dolly where it had been sitting for the past year to the engine stand I bought this spring. I would have done this sooner, but I needed to bring the engine hoist up from my sisters. Maybe next year I can actually put it in the car.

is that a Chevy V6 conversion?  Are you going to upgrade the tranny to a 5 speed (Mazda?).

Yes, it's a 2.8l high output V6 from an '86 Fiero, ~140hp, which was high output for GM in 1986, but pales compared to the 335hp the twin turbo 2.7l V6 in my girlfriend's 2019 Ford Edge ST. I picked it up from a guy in Wisconsin for $100 who put a supercharged Buick 3.8 in his car. Supposedly it has about 90k miles on it. Installation will require relocating the starter to the other side of the block (the Fiero had the engine transverse in the back, so the starter is on the other side of the engine than on RWD versions used in the S10 and early Jeep Cherokees). There is a guy who sells a kit with jigs and taps to do the change. I got the full wiring harness and ECM too, so I plan to retain the fuel injection, although guys at the MG Experience board say the throttle body fouls against the hood, so we will see. If necessary I can get an intake from an F body.

I have a T5 5-speed from a 3.4 V6 Camaro that will back it up.

I have a factory overdrive transmission in the car now. Selling that should cover most of the cost of the conversion kit.

[dave500]

what a great conversion,itll haul arse!

[Terry in Australia]

I saw a Holden 3.8 litre supercharged V6 on FB for 1000 beans today, I’m vaguely dreaming about re-powering my little truck (which had a 3 litre V6 option so should pass registration regulations) and from what I’ve heard, these old engines have a reasonably good reputation.

I’ll have to do some googling to see if it’s both feasible and worthwhile, my little 2.4 litre engine in the truck goes great, but more power is always good too.

[scottly]

I've noticed that the '04 Chevy pickup I bought in February drains the battery after sitting for a month or so; after sitting since 6-15, it measured 8v by the 1st of this month. My '89 Toyota could sit for twice as long and still have enough juice to start the engine, but evidently the newer electronics draw more? The owner's manual recommends disconnecting the battery if the truck will sit longer than 25 days. I picked up a claimed 1.5 watt solar battery "charger" from Harbor Freight for $15, and while it can't actually charge the battery, hopefully it will keep up with the parasitic drain. So far it seems to be working, but it's only been one full day. Time will tell.    

Update on the H.F. solar battery charger: after sitting for 7 weeks, the battery measured 12.30V, and started the truck with no issues, even though the solar panel is only getting a few hours of direct sun lately. I suspect that the daily reversal of current, into and out of the battery is good for the longevity of lead acid batteries? It seems the best thing you can do to an LA battery is to exercise it, rather than have it in a constant discharge or charge mode?

[dave500]

yeah ive never been into those ctek or smart or trickle chargers left full time,most modern bikes if left unused for months its best to remove a terminal,ive had a few mates with c tecks or whatever and always end up buying a new battery in the end?my honda gets one every 5 or 6 years,same as my car,i charge em with a light charger once every 6 months even on my daily driven car,seems to work.

[BenelliSEI]

yeah ive never been into those ctek or smart or trickle chargers left full time,most modern bikes if left unused for months its best to remove a terminal,ive had a few mates with c tecks or whatever and always end up buying a new battery in the end?my honda gets one every 5 or 6 years,same as my car,i charge em with a light charger once every 6 months even on my daily driven car,seems to work.

+1. My batteries all come out for winter. I occasionally check their voltage and usually give them a short charge every 3-4 months (on a full “shop day”).

I do have a small solar charger mounted on the nose of our farm cart (Golf Cart) and it seems to work too. This Yamaha two stroke is attached to such a massive starter/ generator, it’s probably not needed!

[Stev-o]

yeah ive never been into those ctek or smart or trickle chargers left full time...

We leave trickle chargers on all the classic cars, it really does extend the life of the battery and then the car is ready to go at a moments notice.  The battery on my Corvette is four years old and no sign of loss of power

[BenelliSEI]

The rental Echo ran 2 X 8 hour endurance races at Calabogie, last weekend. Used less than 1 litre of oil in 1560 kilometres! Giving it a good clean up and fresh oil and filter, before “winter storage” in the barn. The Team collected enough points to maintain 2nd in Class for the year.

[RAFster122s]

John, how do you store your race tires to lessen aging? Glad the Echo showed well and has been a good but. Congrats to the team who has been running the rental...

[Terry in Australia]

yeah ive never been into those ctek or smart or trickle chargers left full time,most modern bikes if left unused for months its best to remove a terminal,ive had a few mates with c tecks or whatever and always end up buying a new battery in the end?my honda gets one every 5 or 6 years,same as my car,i charge em with a light charger once every 6 months even on my daily driven car,seems to work.

I was given 4 new USA made Odyssey sealed lead/acid batteries recently. I've no idea what I'll do with them, but I did use one in my daily driver Subaru to run a 12V heater to help defrost my icy windscreen over winter, after the heater blew the cigar lighter socket's internal fuse. I left the heater on one morning, so when I came back out to the car at 2pm, after 9 hours of running the heater, the car was very warm, but the battery was down to 5 volts.

I tried my 3 "smart" chargers, and none of them would do sh1t, so I hooked up the old Arlec "Dumb" charger I bought 40 years ago, and set it to "High". Two days later it was back up to 14.4volts. I have no idea what to do with these batteries, they're huge (retail price here is $750 AUD) but they're no good to anyone if they're flat.

[BenelliSEI]

John, how do you store your race tires to lessen aging? Glad the Echo showed well and has been a good but. Congrats to the team who has been running the rental...
[/quot

We have an old hay barn. There ‘s room in the centre bay for one (or two small) car(s). The barn boards have enough gaps that it’s nice and dry, never wet. I pull the battery and leave the car on stands. The race tires and battery stay in the house basement. Years ago we discovered that filling the car with a dozen “Bounce” drier sheets keeps the mice out of the inside. I usually pull the air filter cone and tape up the intake and exhaust pipe with that metal foil tape used for ductwork. Mice don’t seem to like that either! I put the front windows back in, so I can roll them up and seal the car. Probably won’t cover it, just a good bath in the Spring……

[Terry in Australia]

I lost.  Yesterday I admitted defeat.  Tires 2, me 0.

I was changing 2 tires on my Grand Cherokee.  I was able to get old tires off, replace valves and install new 225/75R16 BFGs All Terrain.

I tried several times to seat the bead, borrowed 5 gallon bead setter, tried the starting fluid trick and nothing.  Today I will take them to an offroad shop

It seems like they changed the starting fluid - it does not go boom anymore. I seated many tires the incorrect way but this time it would always just catch on fire. 

Sorry mate, just saw this. Did you try a ratchet strap around the tyre's tread trick? Crank that sucker down and it pushes the sidewalls out, I've done it with both car and bike tyres and it works well.

[RAFster122s]

John, how do you store your race tires to lessen aging? Glad the Echo showed well and has been a good but. Congrats to the team who has been running the rental...
[/quot

We have an old hay barn. There ‘s room in the centre bay for one (or two small) car(s). The barn boards have enough gaps that it’s nice and dry, never wet. I pull the battery and leave the car on stands. The race tires and battery stay in the house basement. Years ago we discovered that filling the car with a dozen “Bounce” drier sheets keeps the mice out of the inside. I usually pull the air filter cone and tape up the intake and exhaust pipe with that metal foil tape used for ductwork. Mice don’t seem to like that either! I put the front windows back in, so I can roll them up and seal the car. Probably won’t cover it, just a good bath in the Spring……

They, mice, hate steel wool too...
You can use it to block them from going in pipes or holes you wanna keep them out of, stuff a wad of steel wool in so it isn't easily dislodged...
Do you stack your tires horizontally and air them up?

[BenelliSEI]

Will add steel wool into the mix! Tires get stacked in the basement. Try to avoid freezing the rubber.

[Don R]

 Not mine but I rode 4 hours to Chicago to pick up a rough chopped 30 model A sedan, my buddy found it on Craigs list, it came with an aftermarket frame, kugel front independent suspension and a Corvette rear with Jaguar coil overs. New front fenders, old fenders, body, doors, a new appearing Richmond 4+1 5 speed trans, a ford new flywheel, New hood, mount kit, side panels and radiator, several sets of coil over shocks and brakes, new cowl trim (unobtainium), A load of trim and misc body parts, the guy said just take it. His father passed away and this was his abandoned project. My buddy gave him $500 anyway.

[grcamna2]

Not mine but I rode 4 hours to Chicago to pick up a rough chopped 30 model A sedan, my buddy found it on Craigs list, it came with an aftermarket frame, kugel front independent suspension and a Corvette rear with Jaguar coil overs. New front fenders, old fenders, body, doors, a new appearing Richmond 4+1 5 speed trans, a ford new flywheel, New hood, mount kit, side panels and radiator, several sets of coil over shocks and brakes, new cowl trim (unobtainium), A load of trim and misc body parts, the guy said just take it. His father passed away and this was his abandoned project. My buddy gave him $500 anyway.

I'm glad your buddy and you were ready to go when that Deal showed up ! 

[Terry in Australia]

Not mine but I rode 4 hours to Chicago to pick up a rough chopped 30 model A sedan, my buddy found it on Craigs list, it came with an aftermarket frame, kugel front independent suspension and a Corvette rear with Jaguar coil overs. New front fenders, old fenders, body, doors, a new appearing Richmond 4+1 5 speed trans, a ford new flywheel, New hood, mount kit, side panels and radiator, several sets of coil over shocks and brakes, new cowl trim (unobtainium), A load of trim and misc body parts, the guy said just take it. His father passed away and this was his abandoned project. My buddy gave him $500 anyway.

Wow, what a bargain! I’m guessing ghe son had no interest in old hotrods Don, his old man is probably spinning at 20,000 RPM in his grave! My father was a military airplane nut and has a huge collection of military aviation art, magazines, photographs, hundreds of model planes, old “control line” planes, etc etc. I would have gotten the job of finding a new home for it and wasn’t looking forward to the task, but lucky for me my 94 year old Ma contacted a military museum one town over and the museum curator couldn’t get his truck ocer to Mum’s place fast enough!

So far he’s done 6 loads and is still going, so me and two of my three sisters are ‘rapt that it’s gone to a good home. I think I better make a bigger effort to get rid of as much bike stuff as I can before I snuff it, both my boys like bikes, but have no idea what some of this stuff is worth.

[BenelliSEI]

Not mine but I rode 4 hours to Chicago to pick up a rough chopped 30 model A sedan, my buddy found it on Craigs list, it came with an aftermarket frame, kugel front independent suspension and a Corvette rear with Jaguar coil overs. New front fenders, old fenders, body, doors, a new appearing Richmond 4+1 5 speed trans, a ford new flywheel, New hood, mount kit, side panels and radiator, several sets of coil over shocks and brakes, new cowl trim (unobtainium), A load of trim and misc body parts, the guy said just take it. His father passed away and this was his abandoned project. My buddy gave him $500 anyway.

Wow, what a bargain! I’m guessing ghe son had no interest in old hotrods Don, his old man is probably spinning at 20,000 RPM in his grave! My father was a military airplane nut and has a huge collection of military aviation art, magazines, photographs, hundreds of model planes, old “control line” planes, etc etc. I would have gotten the job of finding a new home for it and wasn’t looking forward to the task, but lucky for me my 94 year old Ma contacted a military museum one town over and the museum curator couldn’t get his truck ocer to Mum’s place fast enough!

So far he’s done 6 loads and is still going, so me and two of my three sisters are ‘rapt that it’s gone to a good home. I think I better make a bigger effort to get rid of as much bike stuff as I can before I snuff it, both my boys like bikes, but have no idea what some of this stuff is worth.

Terry.....your last line is so true! I rode the Benelli the other day, first real ride this year! My K0 paid for a lovely European holiday this summer (my wife and I spent two weeks in Croatia and Slovenia). She’s entered in an International Dragon Boat Festival in New Zealand in April. I think the Benelli might turn into another very nice trip too.

[Stev-o]

Drove the "ol' Chevy" to a car show two weeks ago and the stereo would not turn on.  Pulled the Alpine head unit and hooked it up to alterative power source and still nothin'.  Very disappointed, the head unit is only four years old, and not cheap, paid around $300 for it. Now same system is $119 but do I want to go that route?

[simon#42]

my alpine head unit has a small fuse in it , might be worth checking if yours is the same .

[Don R]

  I went out to put some E track in the race car trailer for tie downs. Nope, it's just too cold in there. I left a heater running in it, we'll see if that helps. I need to load two bikes inside before it goes to storage one is in a storage unit now but not the one where the trailer goes. This old Dad needs a barn but I live in town.

[Stev-o]

my alpine head unit has a small fuse in it , might be worth checking if yours is the same .

Yes, fuse on the unit and an inline fuse both tested good.
Thanks