The Automotive Thread

[Master slacker]

If you can get a voltmeter on the alternator, it should read 14.5'ish volts when engine is idling.  But charging is independent of the bearing issue, if there is one.  If the bearing is rough, bring that ish back.

 

[Supe]

I wonder if the advance auto parts alternator I bought was crap? Would it read low if I put it on one of those battery / alternator testers?

It was still cold out so I didn’t mess with it this weekend //content.invisioncic.com/r86644/emoticons/default_sad.png

Other than NAPA, I won't buy a parts store branded alternator anymore.  They are all absolutely terrible.  I ended up eating $600 labor on the "Bosch Premium Remanufactured" alternator for my Saturn a few years back that **** out in < 30 days.

 

[Road Guy]

yeah I agree, I dont have one very close to me though for some reason -   i think i got used to this one being so close to the house - I will check the volts at my lunch break  Its only been 2 months so maybe I can just do a straight up refund and go find a napa one.

 

[jeb6294]

It's been a while since I had to use anything from one of the usual suspects, i.e. Autozone, O'Reillys, etc., but I seem to remember that it was always really easy to return parts within the warranty period...kind of like they know their stuff is garbage so they don't put up a fight.

 

[MA_PE]

Decided to swap my winter snow for the summer wheels/tires.  Ea ch is mounted on wheels so it’s just a matter of lifting the car and swapping 4 tires.  The local tire place charges like $20 so I have them do it and whiles it’s there I have them change the oil.  I like to drop it off and they can take their time and I’ll pick it up later.  Saturday AM we get up early and head over, my wife is following behind to pick me up.  I’m in the tire store and they take my car and my wife calls and said she just bounced off a curb and has a flat.  She was about .5 mile from the tire store so I tell her to call AAA and I’ll walk to her.  I get there and there’s a big gash in the sidewall, it’s completely flat and there’s no way we can limp it to the store without changing the tire.  AAA sends a notice they’re on the way and should be ~30 minutes.  Thank god it was nice out, so we just hang around.  The car has a donut spare and a toy jack/tire wrench so I’m just not going to try myself.  50 minutes later AAA shows.  He lifts the car, takes all the lugs off and the tire is frozen on the hub and isn’t going to budge.  He kicked at it and sprayed some penetrating oil and still no go.  Luckily he was a tow truck and said he just as soon tow somewhere.  Well I was just at the tire store 1/2 mile away.  Told him to tow it there and I called and they said they had a tire available.  We walk to the store and meet the tow truck.  But we don’t have a ride home.  Given the covid situation I don’t want to take an Uber.  Mean time while we were waiting for AAA, the tire store called and said front brakes are <1mm.  I said fine do the brakes.  
 

I figure they can throw a tire on and we can at least go home and wait.  After another 45-60 minutes hanging outside the tire store my car is ready but the wife’s is not.  Fine get me the **** out of there.  Get home and put the snows away....they put the aluminum summer wheels on using the cheapo lug nuts for my steel winter rims instead of the chrome capped lugs for my summer wheels.  ***.  It said on the work order the “mounting hardware is on the floor in the back seat”.  We go back and get the wife’s car and I wait another 1/2 hour for them to bring my car in and swap lugs.   What should’ve been $60 tire swap and oil change took the better part of the day and cost me $500 for both cars.     :suicide:

 

[Road Guy]

Well there isnt much to do these days on a Saturday anyways.. but yeah that sucks..

I changed the pads on the wifes and sons car a couple of weeks ago, they were both at around 90K miles and I would say they only half worn. Maybe the Toyota factory pads are not too shabby..

 

[jeb6294]

I changed the pads on the wifes and sons car a couple of weeks ago, they were both at around 90K miles and I would say they only half worn. Maybe the Toyota factory pads are not too shabby..

I had to change the brakes on our Toyota Sienna, everything up front and pads in the rear. It had maybe 45-50k miles on it. Pads up front were gone so the rotors needed to be changed anyway, but was nice to do anyway because apparently they didn’t bed them in at the factory because they had a pretty big shudder. 

 

[Road Guy]

Is that the mini van?

Wife has a highlander and son has a Rav4 - they are pretty easy to do since they have small tires, both the wife and my eldest drive like an old lady so maybe that helped -  now that the jeep has 35's I dont know if it will be so easy on mine (I need to get a bigger  jack)

 

[Supe]

Is that the mini van?

Wife has a highlander and son has a Rav4 - they are pretty easy to do since they have small tires, both the wife and my eldest drive like an old lady so maybe that helped -  now that the jeep has 35's I dont know if it will be so easy on mine (I need to get a bigger  jack)

The long frame jacks and extra tall jack stands from Harbor Freight are actually really nice.  Those and a block of wood will let you jack up from the diff no problem.  

 

[Road Guy]

thanks I will take a look l (I wonder if they are open?) Do you think they would do a 35 IN ?  Sounds like an essential visit to me?

I was going to get a high lift jack for the trail and thought I would use that but those are kind of a PIA in the garage.

also, if I had known the world was coming to an end I probably wouldn't have spent the money on this (February) but I did need new tires anyways and it was WAY over due..

 

[blybrook PE]

I use a hi-lift all the time, but I've made a few modifications, such as the stabilizer frame: https://safejacks.com/collections/hi-lift-jack-accessories/products/universal-hi-lift-adapter-for-60-jack (I built my own out of material mostly from my scrap pile). I'll get a photo later today when I open up the conex again after work.

They're great when you've properly stabilized them, otherwise, they can be dangerous.

 

[Road Guy]

Is that just to stabilize it on the garage floor?  Looks like a good set up, I had been told by other jeep folks not to use the rubber pad in your garage?

 

[Supe]

thanks I will take a look l (I wonder if they are open?) Do you think they would do a 35 IN ?  Sounds like an essential visit to me?

35's only add 3-4" of normal ride height, it will do that no problem.  Harbor Freight is absolutely open, just with some reduced hours.  The one around here is limiting # of people in the store and using sneeze guards.

 

[blybrook PE]

Is that just to stabilize it on the garage floor?  Looks like a good set up, I had been told by other jeep folks not to use the rubber pad in your garage?

I use it in the gravel drive way all the time when working on one trailer that I don't feel like getting the floor jack out for. There are some good youtube videos of this system in use, including lifting the back of a F150 a few feet off the ground and trying to push it over.

I've had it in pretty damp soil and dry sand with good results as well. I take it with me on road trips with my old military M-101A3 trailer, worked great in the Yukon territories when I had a flat.

 

[blybrook PE]

Here are the photos of the assembled stabilizer that I put together instead of purchasing the kit:

Sorry bout the rotation, was done automatically by the web browser. 

 

[Road Guy]

That is Cool- do the cables just give it a little more stability?

 

[blybrook PE]

The cables make the system and really make the assembly rigid. Original design had the cables hooking to the rear of the jack. The updated design has it out front like my pictures show.

The cables get tensioned with the eye bolt. 

 

[jeb6294]

Is that the mini van?

Wife has a highlander and son has a Rav4 - they are pretty easy to do since they have small tires, both the wife and my eldest drive like an old lady so maybe that helped -  now that the jeep has 35's I dont know if it will be so easy on mine (I need to get a bigger  jack)

We prefer “swagger wagon” thank you very much. I already got the big jack from HF (on Beechmont Ford since they jacked up my brakes on the previous oil change, thank you very much) when I had to do the brakes on the truck so it was supper easy. Hardest part was looking up the jacking points.

I’d have to look up the Jack I got, but guarantee, if it’ll lift my F350 it’ll work on a Jeep. EDIT: It is the Pitt. 3-ton low profile floor jack with 19 5/8-in lift. 

When I had my Jeep several of us had hi-lift jacks, but they were strictly for off-road emergency use only. Things honestly aren’t made for regular use. If you still want one, you could always get the little pins that lets you mount it on your hood hinges and look like a true mall crawler. 

 

[Road Guy]

I have a sears 3 ton floor jack (unsure of the lift height on it)  and when I went from 31's to 33's I had to use wood blocks to even get it to reach the differentials  - ^ that was maxing out the 3 ton lift to do that -  The differentials on the trucks are a lot larger and sit closer to the ground than the ones on jeeps though - Id like to get something that could lift it easily cause I still prefer to do brakes and such myself - The closest HF is a good drive but I am going to hit them up this week and see what they got

I always figured the hi lift jack was more to be used as a come along (that's what Ive seen it used for mostly when riding) Seems every rig has them here in Colorado but I rarely saw them in GA, we just used an actual come along.

Moab is opening May 1st - May have to make a weekend trip cause I am going stir crazy..

 

[Supe]

The lift height on the HF long reach jacks are 24", so you can check to see if that's enough.