Helpful hints

[axisg]

Ever have a corroded electrical connector and cant get in all the nooks and crannies to clean it ? Coca Cola is cheap, plentiful and will react, clean and neutralize the corrosion.

 

[Bonnewagon]

If you have a rare set of steel wheels that have had the lug nuts tightened too many times and now the rim holes are so enlarged the nuts don't clamp very well, find some "bulge" nuts. They are made with a large conical seat surface that spreads the clamping load over a much larger area and you can continue to safely use the rims. Gladly, they are much easier to find nowadays.

 

[pontiacgp]

One project that could save you some problems in the future is to clean all the grounds and make sure the ground wires are in good shape.

 

[pontiacgp]

here is something that will help you out on many cars, if you have remote locks and locked your key fob in the car and have another fob at home use your cell phone to call your house and have someone on a cell phone hit the unlock button pointing the fob at the cell phone while you point your cell phone at close distance at the car.

 

[soma]

I thought I would start a topic about those little time and effort saving things that make a job go easier or faster. Lets share them and maybe if we get enough it will become a stickie so anyone can browse it quickly. Here's a few I like: When you take an alternator apart and try to put it back together you never can find a suitable pin to hold the brushes out of the way. The thin red plastic straw like you get with a can of carb cleaner or WD40 works perfectly. When removing a parking brake cable from a drum brake backing plate, the retainer won't release. Wrapping the retaining clip with a tiny hose clamp will compress the retainer and out she comes. On a QuadraJet or Dualjet carburetor that has an Ajustable Part Throttle, the APT screw should never be unscrewed without first bottoming it out while counting the turns that the factory set it at. Then it can go back to the factory setting. The screw is a double "D", the same as late Q-jet/D-jet idle adjustment screws. That type socket can be hard to find, but a Q-jet secondary rod hanger with the fat end ground off fits perfectly and the hanger end gives good leverage to turn the screw. Removing the aluminum plug right above the APT screw in the air horn and replacing it with a threaded plug lets you make adjustments without opening the carb. That's a start so feel free to add your own so we can all benefit.

just throwing this in to the alternator brushes problem,a straitened out paper clip works awesomely as well =)

 

[Rktpwrd]

Here's one for any of you that do any kind of fabrication.

If you've got a very small or long and thin (or any difficult shape) cardboard template that you want to transfer over to your material but you can't hold it in place without it moving, lightly apply a thin film of that "UHU" glue to the back of your template.

It's a light enough tack that your template won't move around as you're tracing out your piece, and it won't become permanent. It usually leaves behind little or no residue. Especially helpful with making small sheetmetal pieces.

 

[565bbchevy]

For brake bleeding I like the traditional way of pumping the pedal and holding it down but this usually requires two people.
What I do is use the original Club Steering Wheel Lock and use it between the seat and the brake pedal, make sure it is locked for your final pump and extend it while you push on the pedal and it will racket out but won't release until you unlock it.

 

[565bbchevy]

I was using cunifer brake line Today to make all my new lines and if you have an original line to copy you can continuously zip tie the new line to old one to follow all the bends and angles. It worked very well on the front line (with a ridiculous amount of bends) going from the proportioning valve to the pass. side caliper.
I also used some 1-3/4" tubing to wrap the new lines around to copy the factory style lines coming off the master cylinder,

 

[pontiacgp]

Take a few minutes to make sure the drain holes in the rear quarter panel and doors are open so water that enters will not be trapped to rust out the sheet metal

 

[Bonnewagon]

If you open the door panels and find that the water shields are torn up or missing altogether, just use some roofing tar paper or heavy plastic sheeting to replace them. The purpose of the water shields is to direct any water that makes it past the window fuzzies safely past the door internals and down to the bottom so it can drain out the aforementioned drain holes. Just cut holes for any wiring or protrusions like door handles and tape the shields to the door frame, then reinstall the panels.