On 10/21/2010 3:22 PM, wrote:

That was when i junked it and bought the '73 Chevy step van. It had
a 292 and a five speed on the floor.
The 292 was a great egine - lots of torque.
Just knew the 283 was "yesterday's news" by 1968

Only "yesterday's news" because GM kept increasing the bore until they
would only last as long as the rest of the car.

David

wrote:

It's surprising what GOOD vehicles are getting scrapped for $300 in
the "cash for clunkers" fiasco up here.. If it's older than 1995 and
curently licenced and insured, $300


Wow, 300 CDN, what are are the scrap yards paying? Seems like a poor incentive.

Wes

wrote:

On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:55:27 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


Jon Anderson wrote:

On 10/18/2010 2:45 PM, Wes wrote:

How old is the car? I was under the impression that spare parts had to to be stocked for
10 years minimum. Now if I could remember the law, that would be a real plus but my mind
is a bit blank on that bit of info.

Oh that 'rule' is either long gone, or just being ignored. I have a
mechanic buddy that tells tales of people with cars only a couple years
old that he cannot get new parts for. The cars aren't even paid for yet,
and he's calling dismantlers trying to find replacement parts.


Imports?


Granted, this is not all that common, but sure sucks if you have one of
these vehicles. Just another reason to avoid cars loaded up with tons of
whiz-bang features. Yeah, it's mostly the accessory stuff that seems to
fail and not have replacements available.

Jon

In my experience, FORDS


I thought we were talking about US built vehicles? The last couple
Fords I saw were built in Canada.


--
Politicians should only get paid if the budget is balanced, and there is
enough left over to pay them.

wrote:

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:14:28 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


wrote:

On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 09:58:49 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


Ted Frater wrote:

Richard J Kinch wrote:
axolotl writes:

Corrosion in the hydraulic line from the master cylinder
to the ABS modulator, causing a leak near the ABS modulator.

I'll never forget driving a 20-year-old, 10,000-lb motorhome down a city
street, pressing on the brake, having a line rupture, and having that
sinking feeling, wondering what I might hit before the thing stopped
rolling.
As were all sharing reminisences, heres what happened to me back in 1972.
Id driven the 120 miles to London UK for a days work, done that, was
coming out of the city made it to the motorway, had to slow, pushed the
brake petal and it went to the floor.!!
coasted onto the hard shoulder, upped the bonnet( hood in the us of a)
and saw that the power lead from the battery to the solenoid on the
starter hasd vibrated and fractured off the terminal, fallen down and
touched the front brake line and burned it through!!.
I still had 100 miles to go, Rummaged in the tool box for a center punch
and hammer.
Unscrewed the union and removed the cut off piece of brake pipe.
flared the pipe with the center punch and screwed it back together
after pulling the pipe off the bulkhead to make it long enough vto reach
the t union.

A motorist stopped to ask if i needed any help , he gave me some brake
fliud and i bled the line right there.
Made it home and replaced both the line and the faulty lug. Was able
to jury rig that to get power to the starter.


I went to the Dayton Hamfest one year in a '68 GMC Handivan. I was
headed home on I-75 that Sunday evening when the bolt holding the
alternator mount to the engine sheared off and the alternator hit the
highway at 55 MPH. There was about a half turn of the thread sticking
out of the head on the Chevy 283 engine and I only had a few tools with
me so I had to remove that hot bolt with my fingers while the engine was
still hot. An Ohio state trooper had already stopped and told me that
when he made the next pass in about a half hour he would call a wrecker
if I was still there and either haul it to their impound lot, or to my
home. The bill for that would have wiped out everthing I made that
weekend, so I managed to get out the old bolt and found one that fit,
but needed a couple washers to keep it from bottoming out. The
alternator was still hanging from the wires, and had some damage from
being dragged on the highway. I managed to get it bolted back to the
engine and was just leaving when I spotted the police car making hiis
next pass.

Bet it was a 307


Bet it wasn't. The original engine was a 292. The guy I bought it
from blew that engine and put the 283 in it. It was pulled from a
wrecked taxi cab and didn't last 50,000 miles. I found out that it was
definitely a 283 when i started looking for parts. I quickly discovered
that it was a hack job that would need to be completely redone,
including replacing the steering column because of sloppy repairs.

That was when i junked it and bought the '73 Chevy step van. It had
a 292 and a five speed on the floor.
The 292 was a great egine - lots of torque.


Yes, It ran great in a 6000+ Lb stepvan with 9,000 Lb of cargo. It
passed almost everything on I-75 going uphill with the gas pedal about
half way to the floor at 65 MPH.


Just knew the 283 was "yesterday's news" by 1968


That van was a '68 model. I bought it in 74, right after I left the
Army.


--
Politicians should only get paid if the budget is balanced, and there is
enough left over to pay them.

Gunner Asch on Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:00:07 -0700
typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 07:43:05 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 07:12:14 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 23:46:55 -0700, pyotr filipivich
wrote:

Gunner Asch on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:40:44 -0700
typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 01:30:31 -0500, Don Foreman
wrote:

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:16:59 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:23:31 -0700 (PDT), "Denis G."
wrote:

On Oct 19, 1:21*am, Richard J Kinch wrote:
axolotl writes:
Corrosion in the hydraulic line from the master cylinder
to the ABS modulator, causing a leak near the ABS modulator.

I'll never forget driving a 20-year-old, 10,000-lb motorhome down a city
street, pressing on the brake, having a line rupture, and having that
sinking feeling, wondering what I might hit before the thing stopped
rolling.

I had a similar feeling of dread after a ball joint popped on my old
VW Rabbit. Fortunately I was going slow and nothing serious happened,
but it was a sober reminder for me to do better maintenance.


I was driving a water truck, with 1000 gallons of water, 800 lbs of
dynamite on the racks beside the tank and 200 StaticMaster blasting caps
in a box beside me on the front seat, when the right front tire passed
me going down Whitehorse Pass one bright and sunny morning.........

That...was....invigorating.......


Gunner

That was ... really dumb. Caps and demo don't share a ride.

They often do in the oilfields. That btw..was in 1975. Seismograph
crew. Where we often used det cord to hold luggage and other stuff to
the roofs of our cars/trucks when moving from job site to job
site..often many states apart.

No one thought anything about using a hundred feet of 200gr det cord to
hold stuff on.

Shrug

It is all routine fun and games till something catches fire and
explodes.

It is people like you (generic) which caused Roseberg Oregon to
have some of the strictest laws about transporting explosives inside
their city limits. After a truck loaded with 6 and a half tons blew
up and took out much of downtown. Fortunately, it was in the middle
of the night, but still, it killed a lot of people, and injured a
bunch more. Took out eight city blocks, iirc.

Urban renewal, the old fashioned way ....


tschus


Naw..you can burn all the detcord you want and it only burns **** poorly
and stinks.

However Id not suggest putting it on an anvil and bashing it repeatedly
with a big hammer. You have a small but real chance of it popping off.

Its quite safe actually unless its attached to a blasting cap. Then its
eversomuch fun to play with!

I made a fair amount of cash in side bets on cutting down trees and
laying them exactly between markers, using det cord.


For those that dont know about the Roseberg incident in 1959....

http://www.explosives.org/ORfire.pdf

Ooh!


As for those of you that dont know about det cord, "primacord"...etc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detonating_cord

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aleeJ...layer_embedded

It doesn't cut nearly as neatly as a chainsaw, but it looks like a
whole lot more fun. What about stump removal?

It cuts, but it would be hard to remove a stump with it unless you were
simply cutting the roots, which require at least one wrap around each
root. Which you can do far far cheaper with a chain saw.

ANFO would be far cheaper and MUCH easier to locate sufficient
quantities.

Reminds me of a story (Any "war story" worth repeating, have
Valuable Life Lessons there in.) of the guys blasting stumps. The one
had a stump with a hole in it, which they proceeded to place the
dynamite in. Boom! Nothing. Added more dynamite this time' Bigger
boom! Only this time, a woodchuck comes out the hole coughing and
chittering "you dang kids get out of my yard and quit playing with the
explosives so close to the house!"
The other one was the last stump of the day, they've "surplus to
needs" dynamite (meaning "more than enough to blow the stump, but not
enough to take home"), and "never can use 'too much'". Touched it off
and "boom!" up the stump goes, and it arches over, and starts the
descent ... and lands, right square in the back of the one guy's
pickup. "Ka-bong!

tschus
pyotr

I'm trying to recall who told me of trying to blast a stump in really
wet ground. Spattered dirt & mud all to heck and back - but didn't
disturb the roots at all.
--
pyotr filipivich.
Discussing the decline in the US's tech edge, James Niccol once wrote
"It used to be that the USA was pretty good at producing stuff teenaged
boys could lose a finger or two playing with."

Gunner Asch on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:02:21 -0700
typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:23:36 -0700 (PDT), "Denis G."
wrote:

. Another one that I plan is for some sort of
growler to chase down wires inside walls of my house. The ones for
electricians cost between $500 to $1000 and I've got a schematic to
make a simple xmtr and use an AM radio as a reciever.


There are tons of ready made tracers for under $50

Cool ...

http://www.amazon.com/Gardner-Bender.../dp/B000BO6Y1O

This is the type that I use, different brand..but much the same

Oh, wait, you mean the electrical circuit tracers. Not the sort
for bullets and ... "never mind."
--
pyotr filipivich
We will drink no whiskey before its nine.
It's eight fifty eight. Close enough!

Gunner Asch on Thu, 21 Oct 2010 07:12:14 -0700
typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 23:46:55 -0700, pyotr filipivich
wrote:

Gunner Asch on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:40:44 -0700
typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 01:30:31 -0500, Don Foreman
wrote:

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:16:59 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:23:31 -0700 (PDT), "Denis G."
wrote:

On Oct 19, 1:21*am, Richard J Kinch wrote:
axolotl writes:
Corrosion in the hydraulic line from the master cylinder
to the ABS modulator, causing a leak near the ABS modulator.

I'll never forget driving a 20-year-old, 10,000-lb motorhome down a city
street, pressing on the brake, having a line rupture, and having that
sinking feeling, wondering what I might hit before the thing stopped
rolling.

I had a similar feeling of dread after a ball joint popped on my old
VW Rabbit. Fortunately I was going slow and nothing serious happened,
but it was a sober reminder for me to do better maintenance.


I was driving a water truck, with 1000 gallons of water, 800 lbs of
dynamite on the racks beside the tank and 200 StaticMaster blasting caps
in a box beside me on the front seat, when the right front tire passed
me going down Whitehorse Pass one bright and sunny morning.........

That...was....invigorating.......


Gunner

That was ... really dumb. Caps and demo don't share a ride.

They often do in the oilfields. That btw..was in 1975. Seismograph
crew. Where we often used det cord to hold luggage and other stuff to
the roofs of our cars/trucks when moving from job site to job
site..often many states apart.

No one thought anything about using a hundred feet of 200gr det cord to
hold stuff on.

Shrug

It is all routine fun and games till something catches fire and
explodes.

It is people like you (generic) which caused Roseberg Oregon to
have some of the strictest laws about transporting explosives inside
their city limits. After a truck loaded with 6 and a half tons blew
up and took out much of downtown. Fortunately, it was in the middle
of the night, but still, it killed a lot of people, and injured a
bunch more. Took out eight city blocks, iirc.

Urban renewal, the old fashioned way ....


Naw..you can burn all the detcord you want and it only burns **** poorly
and stinks.

I'm told the same can be done with composition 4.
Just don't try and stomp out the fire.

However Id not suggest putting it on an anvil and bashing it repeatedly
with a big hammer. You have a small but real chance of it popping off.

Its quite safe actually unless its attached to a blasting cap. Then its
eversomuch fun to play with!

I made a fair amount of cash in side bets on cutting down trees and
laying them exactly between markers, using det cord.

Hey, cool. Wonder if I can get some for the next Adventure in
Urban Forestry.


tschus
pyotr
--
pyotr filipivich
We will drink no whiskey before its nine.
It's eight fifty eight. Close enough!

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 17:04:35 -0400, Wes
wrote:

wrote:

It's surprising what GOOD vehicles are getting scrapped for $300 in
the "cash for clunkers" fiasco up here.. If it's older than 1995 and
curently licenced and insured, $300


Wow, 300 CDN, what are are the scrap yards paying? Seems like a poor incentive.

Wes
The scrapyards pay you the $300.

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 15:53:16 -0500, "David R. Birch"
wrote:

On 10/21/2010 3:22 PM, wrote:

That was when i junked it and bought the '73 Chevy step van. It had
a 292 and a five speed on the floor.
The 292 was a great egine - lots of torque.
Just knew the 283 was "yesterday's news" by 1968

Only "yesterday's news" because GM kept increasing the bore until they
would only last as long as the rest of the car.

David
Actually the last of the "real" sbc 250s outlasted the average 283 by
a factor of better than 2. Virtually never got a valve job, ring job,
or bearing replacement - all of which were common in 1963 on the 283
before 80,000 miles.

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 17:53:31 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


wrote:

On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:55:27 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


Jon Anderson wrote:

On 10/18/2010 2:45 PM, Wes wrote:

How old is the car? I was under the impression that spare parts had to to be stocked for
10 years minimum. Now if I could remember the law, that would be a real plus but my mind
is a bit blank on that bit of info.

Oh that 'rule' is either long gone, or just being ignored. I have a
mechanic buddy that tells tales of people with cars only a couple years
old that he cannot get new parts for. The cars aren't even paid for yet,
and he's calling dismantlers trying to find replacement parts.


Imports?


Granted, this is not all that common, but sure sucks if you have one of
these vehicles. Just another reason to avoid cars loaded up with tons of
whiz-bang features. Yeah, it's mostly the accessory stuff that seems to
fail and not have replacements available.

Jon

In my experience, FORDS


I thought we were talking about US built vehicles? The last couple
Fords I saw were built in Canada.
Mine was built in Kansas City. Actually all 3 of my last Fords were
built in Kansas City.
Crown Vics were built in Canada.

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 17:57:23 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


wrote:

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:14:28 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


wrote:

On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 09:58:49 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


Ted Frater wrote:

Richard J Kinch wrote:
axolotl writes:

Corrosion in the hydraulic line from the master cylinder
to the ABS modulator, causing a leak near the ABS modulator.

I'll never forget driving a 20-year-old, 10,000-lb motorhome down a city
street, pressing on the brake, having a line rupture, and having that
sinking feeling, wondering what I might hit before the thing stopped
rolling.
As were all sharing reminisences, heres what happened to me back in 1972.
Id driven the 120 miles to London UK for a days work, done that, was
coming out of the city made it to the motorway, had to slow, pushed the
brake petal and it went to the floor.!!
coasted onto the hard shoulder, upped the bonnet( hood in the us of a)
and saw that the power lead from the battery to the solenoid on the
starter hasd vibrated and fractured off the terminal, fallen down and
touched the front brake line and burned it through!!.
I still had 100 miles to go, Rummaged in the tool box for a center punch
and hammer.
Unscrewed the union and removed the cut off piece of brake pipe.
flared the pipe with the center punch and screwed it back together
after pulling the pipe off the bulkhead to make it long enough vto reach
the t union.

A motorist stopped to ask if i needed any help , he gave me some brake
fliud and i bled the line right there.
Made it home and replaced both the line and the faulty lug. Was able
to jury rig that to get power to the starter.


I went to the Dayton Hamfest one year in a '68 GMC Handivan. I was
headed home on I-75 that Sunday evening when the bolt holding the
alternator mount to the engine sheared off and the alternator hit the
highway at 55 MPH. There was about a half turn of the thread sticking
out of the head on the Chevy 283 engine and I only had a few tools with
me so I had to remove that hot bolt with my fingers while the engine was
still hot. An Ohio state trooper had already stopped and told me that
when he made the next pass in about a half hour he would call a wrecker
if I was still there and either haul it to their impound lot, or to my
home. The bill for that would have wiped out everthing I made that
weekend, so I managed to get out the old bolt and found one that fit,
but needed a couple washers to keep it from bottoming out. The
alternator was still hanging from the wires, and had some damage from
being dragged on the highway. I managed to get it bolted back to the
engine and was just leaving when I spotted the police car making hiis
next pass.

Bet it was a 307


Bet it wasn't. The original engine was a 292. The guy I bought it
from blew that engine and put the 283 in it. It was pulled from a
wrecked taxi cab and didn't last 50,000 miles. I found out that it was
definitely a 283 when i started looking for parts. I quickly discovered
that it was a hack job that would need to be completely redone,
including replacing the steering column because of sloppy repairs.

That was when i junked it and bought the '73 Chevy step van. It had
a 292 and a five speed on the floor.
The 292 was a great egine - lots of torque.


Yes, It ran great in a 6000+ Lb stepvan with 9,000 Lb of cargo. It
passed almost everything on I-75 going uphill with the gas pedal about
half way to the floor at 65 MPH.


Just knew the 283 was "yesterday's news" by 1968


That van was a '68 model. I bought it in 74, right after I left the
Army.
I used to run a 1968 GMC 35 pickup with 292 4 gear hauling a tri-axle
trailer. Were were licenced for 20 tons IIRC.
A couple of Cockshutt (White) 1855 tractors on the trailer would make
it snort, but never complain.

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 15:08:38 -0700, pyotr filipivich
wrote:

Gunner Asch on Thu, 21 Oct 2010 07:12:14 -0700
typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 23:46:55 -0700, pyotr filipivich
wrote:

Gunner Asch on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:40:44 -0700
typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 01:30:31 -0500, Don Foreman
wrote:

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:16:59 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:23:31 -0700 (PDT), "Denis G."
wrote:

On Oct 19, 1:21*am, Richard J Kinch wrote:
axolotl writes:
Corrosion in the hydraulic line from the master cylinder
to the ABS modulator, causing a leak near the ABS modulator.

I'll never forget driving a 20-year-old, 10,000-lb motorhome down a city
street, pressing on the brake, having a line rupture, and having that
sinking feeling, wondering what I might hit before the thing stopped
rolling.

I had a similar feeling of dread after a ball joint popped on my old
VW Rabbit. Fortunately I was going slow and nothing serious happened,
but it was a sober reminder for me to do better maintenance.


I was driving a water truck, with 1000 gallons of water, 800 lbs of
dynamite on the racks beside the tank and 200 StaticMaster blasting caps
in a box beside me on the front seat, when the right front tire passed
me going down Whitehorse Pass one bright and sunny morning.........

That...was....invigorating.......


Gunner

That was ... really dumb. Caps and demo don't share a ride.

They often do in the oilfields. That btw..was in 1975. Seismograph
crew. Where we often used det cord to hold luggage and other stuff to
the roofs of our cars/trucks when moving from job site to job
site..often many states apart.

No one thought anything about using a hundred feet of 200gr det cord to
hold stuff on.

Shrug

It is all routine fun and games till something catches fire and
explodes.

It is people like you (generic) which caused Roseberg Oregon to
have some of the strictest laws about transporting explosives inside
their city limits. After a truck loaded with 6 and a half tons blew
up and took out much of downtown. Fortunately, it was in the middle
of the night, but still, it killed a lot of people, and injured a
bunch more. Took out eight city blocks, iirc.

Urban renewal, the old fashioned way ....


Naw..you can burn all the detcord you want and it only burns **** poorly
and stinks.

I'm told the same can be done with composition 4.
Just don't try and stomp out the fire.

Ayup..Ive cooked many a Beans and Mutha****ers over it.

Works better though with Lurps rations in a mess kit cup. Burns pretty
fast and Hot!



However Id not suggest putting it on an anvil and bashing it repeatedly
with a big hammer. You have a small but real chance of it popping off.

Its quite safe actually unless its attached to a blasting cap. Then its
eversomuch fun to play with!

I made a fair amount of cash in side bets on cutting down trees and
laying them exactly between markers, using det cord.

Hey, cool. Wonder if I can get some for the next Adventure in
Urban Forestry.


tschus
pyotr


I am the Sword of my Family
and the Shield of my Nation.
If sent, I will crush everything you have built,
burn everything you love,
and kill every one of you.
(Hebrew quote)

On 10/21/2010 5:13 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 15:53:16 -0500, "David R. Birch"
wrote:

On 10/21/2010 3:22 PM, wrote:

That was when i junked it and bought the '73 Chevy step van. It had
a 292 and a five speed on the floor.
The 292 was a great egine - lots of torque.
Just knew the 283 was "yesterday's news" by 1968

Only "yesterday's news" because GM kept increasing the bore until they
would only last as long as the rest of the car.

David
Actually the last of the "real" sbc 250s outlasted the average 283 by
a factor of better than 2. Virtually never got a valve job, ring job,
or bearing replacement - all of which were common in 1963 on the 283
before 80,000 miles.

I never saw a 250 small block Chevy, I thought they started with 265,
which they didn't make long before going to the 283.

Fond memories of my '57 Chevy 4 door wagon with 283 opened up to 292.

David

wrote:

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 17:53:31 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


wrote:

On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:55:27 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


Jon Anderson wrote:

On 10/18/2010 2:45 PM, Wes wrote:

How old is the car? I was under the impression that spare parts had to to be stocked for
10 years minimum. Now if I could remember the law, that would be a real plus but my mind
is a bit blank on that bit of info.

Oh that 'rule' is either long gone, or just being ignored. I have a
mechanic buddy that tells tales of people with cars only a couple years
old that he cannot get new parts for. The cars aren't even paid for yet,
and he's calling dismantlers trying to find replacement parts.


Imports?


Granted, this is not all that common, but sure sucks if you have one of
these vehicles. Just another reason to avoid cars loaded up with tons of
whiz-bang features. Yeah, it's mostly the accessory stuff that seems to
fail and not have replacements available.

Jon

In my experience, FORDS


I thought we were talking about US built vehicles? The last couple
Fords I saw were built in Canada.
Mine was built in Kansas City. Actually all 3 of my last Fords were
built in Kansas City.
Crown Vics were built in Canada.


These were just old junkers by the time I drove them.


--
Politicians should only get paid if the budget is balanced, and there is
enough left over to pay them.

wrote:

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 17:57:23 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


wrote:

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:14:28 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


wrote:

On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 09:58:49 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


Ted Frater wrote:

Richard J Kinch wrote:
axolotl writes:

Corrosion in the hydraulic line from the master cylinder
to the ABS modulator, causing a leak near the ABS modulator.

I'll never forget driving a 20-year-old, 10,000-lb motorhome down a city
street, pressing on the brake, having a line rupture, and having that
sinking feeling, wondering what I might hit before the thing stopped
rolling.
As were all sharing reminisences, heres what happened to me back in 1972.
Id driven the 120 miles to London UK for a days work, done that, was
coming out of the city made it to the motorway, had to slow, pushed the
brake petal and it went to the floor.!!
coasted onto the hard shoulder, upped the bonnet( hood in the us of a)
and saw that the power lead from the battery to the solenoid on the
starter hasd vibrated and fractured off the terminal, fallen down and
touched the front brake line and burned it through!!.
I still had 100 miles to go, Rummaged in the tool box for a center punch
and hammer.
Unscrewed the union and removed the cut off piece of brake pipe.
flared the pipe with the center punch and screwed it back together
after pulling the pipe off the bulkhead to make it long enough vto reach
the t union.

A motorist stopped to ask if i needed any help , he gave me some brake
fliud and i bled the line right there.
Made it home and replaced both the line and the faulty lug. Was able
to jury rig that to get power to the starter.


I went to the Dayton Hamfest one year in a '68 GMC Handivan. I was
headed home on I-75 that Sunday evening when the bolt holding the
alternator mount to the engine sheared off and the alternator hit the
highway at 55 MPH. There was about a half turn of the thread sticking
out of the head on the Chevy 283 engine and I only had a few tools with
me so I had to remove that hot bolt with my fingers while the engine was
still hot. An Ohio state trooper had already stopped and told me that
when he made the next pass in about a half hour he would call a wrecker
if I was still there and either haul it to their impound lot, or to my
home. The bill for that would have wiped out everthing I made that
weekend, so I managed to get out the old bolt and found one that fit,
but needed a couple washers to keep it from bottoming out. The
alternator was still hanging from the wires, and had some damage from
being dragged on the highway. I managed to get it bolted back to the
engine and was just leaving when I spotted the police car making hiis
next pass.

Bet it was a 307


Bet it wasn't. The original engine was a 292. The guy I bought it
from blew that engine and put the 283 in it. It was pulled from a
wrecked taxi cab and didn't last 50,000 miles. I found out that it was
definitely a 283 when i started looking for parts. I quickly discovered
that it was a hack job that would need to be completely redone,
including replacing the steering column because of sloppy repairs.

That was when i junked it and bought the '73 Chevy step van. It had
a 292 and a five speed on the floor.
The 292 was a great egine - lots of torque.


Yes, It ran great in a 6000+ Lb stepvan with 9,000 Lb of cargo. It
passed almost everything on I-75 going uphill with the gas pedal about
half way to the floor at 65 MPH.


Just knew the 283 was "yesterday's news" by 1968


That van was a '68 model. I bought it in 74, right after I left the
Army.
I used to run a 1968 GMC 35 pickup with 292 4 gear hauling a tri-axle
trailer. Were were licenced for 20 tons IIRC.
A couple of Cockshutt (White) 1855 tractors on the trailer would make
it snort, but never complain.


I used to tell people that I could pull a house off it's foundation
with that truck. ;-)


--
Politicians should only get paid if the budget is balanced, and there is
enough left over to pay them.

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:23:42 -0500, "David R. Birch"
wrote:

On 10/21/2010 5:13 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 15:53:16 -0500, "David R. Birch"
wrote:

On 10/21/2010 3:22 PM, wrote:

That was when i junked it and bought the '73 Chevy step van. It had
a 292 and a five speed on the floor.
The 292 was a great egine - lots of torque.
Just knew the 283 was "yesterday's news" by 1968

Only "yesterday's news" because GM kept increasing the bore until they
would only last as long as the rest of the car.

David
Actually the last of the "real" sbc 250s outlasted the average 283 by
a factor of better than 2. Virtually never got a valve job, ring job,
or bearing replacement - all of which were common in 1963 on the 283
before 80,000 miles.

I never saw a 250 small block Chevy, I thought they started with 265,
which they didn't make long before going to the 283.

Mom's '64-1/2 Mustang had a 265 in it. My first car, a '57 Chebby
hardtop, had a 283 w/ power-packed heads. (larger valves)


Fond memories of my '57 Chevy 4 door wagon with 283 opened up to 292.

Fond memories of my '60 F-100 with the 312. I'd climb under the hood
and stand on either side of the engine to change plugs, points,
condensor, cap, and rotor. It had room to spare.

--
Know how to listen, and you will
profit even from those who talk badly.
-- Plutarch

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:23:42 -0500, "David R. Birch"
wrote:

On 10/21/2010 5:13 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 15:53:16 -0500, "David R. Birch"
wrote:

On 10/21/2010 3:22 PM, wrote:

That was when i junked it and bought the '73 Chevy step van. It had
a 292 and a five speed on the floor.
The 292 was a great egine - lots of torque.
Just knew the 283 was "yesterday's news" by 1968

Only "yesterday's news" because GM kept increasing the bore until they
would only last as long as the rest of the car.

David
Actually the last of the "real" sbc 250s outlasted the average 283 by
a factor of better than 2. Virtually never got a valve job, ring job,
or bearing replacement - all of which were common in 1963 on the 283
before 80,000 miles.

I never saw a 250 small block Chevy, I thought they started with 265,
which they didn't make long before going to the 283.

Fond memories of my '57 Chevy 4 door wagon with 283 opened up to 292.

David
Fat Finger disorder - hit the 2 instead of the 3 - 350 cubes it is.

On Oct 21, 5:08*pm, pyotr filipivich wrote:
Gunner Asch on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:02:21 -0700
typed in rec.crafts.metalworking *the following:

On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:23:36 -0700 (PDT), "Denis G."
wrote:

. *Another one that I plan is for some sort of
growler to chase down wires inside walls of my house. *The ones for
electricians cost between $500 to $1000 and I've got a schematic to
make a simple xmtr and use an AM radio as a reciever.

There are tons of ready made tracers for under $50

* * * * Cool ...



http://www.amazon.com/Gardner-Bender...cker/dp/B000BO...

This is the type that I use, different brand..but much the same

* * * * Oh, wait, you mean the electrical circuit tracers. *Not the sort
for bullets and ... "never mind."
--
pyotr filipivich
We will drink no whiskey before its nine.
It's eight fifty eight. Close enough!

Yes, I'd like to target copper rounds, not leaded ones.

On 10/22/2010 11:37 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:23:42 -0500, "David R. Birch"
wrote:

On 10/21/2010 5:13 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 15:53:16 -0500, "David R. Birch"
wrote:

On 10/21/2010 3:22 PM, wrote:

That was when i junked it and bought the '73 Chevy step van. It had
a 292 and a five speed on the floor.
The 292 was a great egine - lots of torque.
Just knew the 283 was "yesterday's news" by 1968

Only "yesterday's news" because GM kept increasing the bore until they
would only last as long as the rest of the car.

David
Actually the last of the "real" sbc 250s outlasted the average 283 by
a factor of better than 2. Virtually never got a valve job, ring job,
or bearing replacement - all of which were common in 1963 on the 283
before 80,000 miles.

I never saw a 250 small block Chevy, I thought they started with 265,
which they didn't make long before going to the 283.

Fond memories of my '57 Chevy 4 door wagon with 283 opened up to 292.

David
Fat Finger disorder - hit the 2 instead of the 3 - 350 cubes it is.

We must have been doing something wrong, we usually got 120-150k miles
before serious work on a 283. Unfortunately, winter salt in Wisconsin
usually did a number on the body not long after that. After the tranny
blew, my '57 w/ 292(from Utah) was sold to a guy who had a good 283 &
tranny in a rusted out body.

David

"David R. Birch" wrote in message ...

On 10/22/2010 11:37 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:23:42 -0500, "David R. Birch"
wrote:

On 10/21/2010 5:13 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 15:53:16 -0500, "David R. Birch"
wrote:

On 10/21/2010 3:22 PM, wrote:

That was when i junked it and bought the '73 Chevy step van. It
had
a 292 and a five speed on the floor.
The 292 was a great egine - lots of torque.
Just knew the 283 was "yesterday's news" by 1968

Only "yesterday's news" because GM kept increasing the bore until they
would only last as long as the rest of the car.

David
Actually the last of the "real" sbc 250s outlasted the average 283 by
a factor of better than 2. Virtually never got a valve job, ring job,
or bearing replacement - all of which were common in 1963 on the 283
before 80,000 miles.

I never saw a 250 small block Chevy, I thought they started with 265,
which they didn't make long before going to the 283.

Fond memories of my '57 Chevy 4 door wagon with 283 opened up to 292.

David
Fat Finger disorder - hit the 2 instead of the 3 - 350 cubes it is.

We must have been doing something wrong, we usually got 120-150k miles
before serious work on a 283. Unfortunately, winter salt in Wisconsin
usually did a number on the body not long after that. After the tranny
blew, my '57 w/ 292(from Utah) was sold to a guy who had a good 283 &
tranny in a rusted out body.

David

I never got a long time between work on the engine of my 55 Chevy. But I
also raced it all the time.

Califbill wrote:


"David R. Birch" wrote in message ...

On 10/22/2010 11:37 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:23:42 -0500, "David R. Birch"
wrote:

On 10/21/2010 5:13 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 15:53:16 -0500, "David R. Birch"
wrote:

On 10/21/2010 3:22 PM, wrote:

That was when i junked it and bought the '73 Chevy step van. It had
a 292 and a five speed on the floor.
The 292 was a great egine - lots of torque.
Just knew the 283 was "yesterday's news" by 1968

Only "yesterday's news" because GM kept increasing the bore until they
would only last as long as the rest of the car.

David
Actually the last of the "real" sbc 250s outlasted the average 283 by
a factor of better than 2. Virtually never got a valve job, ring job,
or bearing replacement - all of which were common in 1963 on the 283
before 80,000 miles.

I never saw a 250 small block Chevy, I thought they started with 265,
which they didn't make long before going to the 283.

Fond memories of my '57 Chevy 4 door wagon with 283 opened up to 292.

David
Fat Finger disorder - hit the 2 instead of the 3 - 350 cubes it is.

We must have been doing something wrong, we usually got 120-150k miles
before serious work on a 283. Unfortunately, winter salt in Wisconsin
usually did a number on the body not long after that. After the tranny
blew, my '57 w/ 292(from Utah) was sold to a guy who had a good 283 &
tranny in a rusted out body.

David

I never got a long time between work on the engine of my 55 Chevy. But I
also raced it all the time.



Some of those engine blocks were better than others. The cylinder bores
could be all over the place and the thing would run fine but wouldn't
last. The cylinder wall thickness varied quite a bit too. If you have a
good casting and remachined the thing on a good CNC it would sure last a
lot longer than most of them.



John