oldracer

I have worked on cars and machinery in general since 1963 give or take a year. I have filed away some handy things that may help those that are a bit younger than me so here are some:

- When installing a bolt through a surface and the washers and nut are hidden or underneath, try the following: layer the large washer, small washer, lock nut and finally the nut on top of each other and use some blue painters tape to hold all together. Put the whole assembly over the hidden nut and slowly turn the nut onto the bolt. Then tighten, forget about the tape as no one will see it.

- Get pneumatic 1/4 and 3/8 inch ratchets from Harbor Freight. They are VERY handy to tighten something like the hidden nut mentioned above and you do not have to move the wrench.

- Get a pneumatic lug wrench or even an electric one as it sure makes wheel removal easier.

- Get some magnetic bowls and metal strips to put nuts and bolts on when you take things apart. Beats crawling under the car when you knock then off that edge in the engine compartment.

- Get several torque wrenches, one that goes down to 5 ftlbs and one that goes way up to 200 or more. Note the transmission gasket is torqued to 120 inlbs which equates to 10 ftlbs.

- Get a 4 foot piece of 2 inch black iron pipe to use as a cheater bar in case you need to remove very old axle nuts. We actually lifted the back of a VW van off the ground before the nut broke loose with a huge bang and the neighbor thought it was a gun shot and called the cops.

- If you do the work yourself, get a code reader or software for your laptop. I have used AUTOENGINUITY since 2003 when I bought a F350 diesel and it has the modules to read everything for which ever make you have. In my case the GM enhanced module will read over 17,000 data points on my HHR or my wife's Caddy. You can monitor things when you drive which is very nice.

- Get a multimeter, Harbor Freight has then for FREE now and then. Learn to use it.

Hope these might help and hopefully others will contribute.

SS fan

Great advise I like the one about the VW gun shot. Who lives next door...Gladys Cravits ?..

whopper

Oldracer - what a cool list, and good advice.

Here's one for you:
- if a single wrench does not provide enough leverage, hook the box end of a 2nd wrench onto the open end of the first, and you effectively double your leverage.

843de

Excellent tips, especially for the younger members here, you know...the ones who don't have a pair of reading glasses stuck in every room of the house.

One more trick to keep washers in place when you're working blind, lightly smear some bearing grease on them, it'll stick the washer in position until you get the nut started.

Oldblue

great write up of great tips for maintaining our rides, thanks for the pointers Oldracer

oldracer

Here is another one I forgot since HHRs have a top fill ol filter. On other makes with a bottom pull oil filter, break the filter loose then put a large zip lock bag over the filter and un screw it. Keeps the oil from running down your arm.

hurst2001

I have a tip when replacing spark plugs if you don't have a spark plug socket i would use a 3/8 fuel line about a foot and half ,and use your socket to loosen the spark plug were it is easy to twist by putting the hose on the top of the plug were it will grip it and turn it to get out .. then put 3/8 line on new one it will grip and hold it and then you can start it by feel then tighten tell you can not do anymore then snug it with a socket done... you will not have to worry about striping it.

alexrckid

get used to using assembly lube on bolt threads. make dissambly a snap and gives smooth torque readings a well....
and, using blue/red locktite where necessary.....
and, dielectric grease on elec contacts as well as plug boots.....

scbill

Also a 2 liter drink bottle cut to fit, let it drop in the bottle when unscrewed.

questgraves

Oh that's golden stuff. Thanks a bunch everyone for these tips. I can say that I have faced almost all of these situations, yelled and cursed, broke things, stripped bolts (got another torque wrench, manual, lighter weight for those type after breaking a clutch spring bolt on my KX250 dirtbike -the aluminium is sooo much different now than the old steel from 10-15 years ago). I started working on my dirtbikes at about 10 years old, cars at 14 but took a hiatus at age 22 from 2001-2011 came back to find a lot of changes. BTW that cheater bar tip is a great reminder. I almost always end up needing something like that for various projects, scour my garage knowing darn well I have nothing....then break stuff. Usually skin. I'm buying something this weekend. A tip I can give from a medium age guy is this: If you can record with your smartphone or digital camera photos of each step of tear downs or video explanations of the steps. I did for my radiator replacement. although I wish I had been able to record my actual repairs instead of intervals it would have helped for much of the underside splash guards. I'm posting those videos to Youtube for others to watch as we speak. Thanks again!