XPost: alt.home.repair

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 4 Apr 2021 06:48:52 -0700 (PDT), trader_4 <trader4@optonline.net> wrote:

Just now I read that brake cleaner doesn't leave residue like I thought
it did. Should I start again looking for vacuum leaks with brake
cleaner?

Is there something else to do?

I never used one, but there are fog/smoke generators that you can hook up >that pump smoke into the system and you can see if any comes out. I've
read of people using fog machines that are made for dance floors and such. >Years ago when I looked I think you could find them on Ebay for maybe less >than $100. Then you'd have to make up some plumbing to pipe it in.

It's hard to find vacuum leaks because the hoses go all over the place and >the engine compartment is packed, you can't easily even see them all,
others go into the cabin, to the tranny, etc.

I may give a more relevant answer later, but this is relevant to your
last 2 lines.

When my brother graduated medical school he moved to Brooklyn and bought
a new '65 pontiac which came with a 2-year warranty. When he drove, and
after he went to Viet Nam and gave me the car, when I drove too, we
couldn't pull away from a stop without stumbling. Car was only 3 or 4
years old. Finally I just happened to be up on the fender looking down
and 1) I saw the vacuum hose to the distributor was completely missing.
At both ends. From the side, the view of both locations was
obstructed.

After it was replaced, all was fine. I wonder how much dirt got sucked
in that tube over 4 years. I wonder if they left the hose off when they
made the car**, or if the dealer removed it. (It had other problems and
had been to the dealer many times. By the time I got to Brooklyn 7
years after he bought the car, the dealer, Alpine Motors, was out of
business.

**2) Without AC and they had failed to connect the fresh air doors in
the L and R kickpanels to the controls that opened them. They were
always closed.

3) They had mounted the steering wheel upside down so that turn signals
turned off if you turned the wheel 90^*** and then let it go back to 75
or 80^. ***Instead of 270^ like all other cars. When I figured this
out, I wanted to just turn the steering wheel upside down but the way
the handgrips on the wheel were designed, that would have but them
between 3 and 4:30 and between 7:30 and 9. AFAIK, no one holds the
wheel like that, and even though you don't have to hold the wheel at the designated hand grips, it would look funny. All I had to do was drill
another hole through the steering wheel "hub", a piece of metal an inch
thick, and everything was good again, but how did they make these
mistakes. Did the original assembler put the steering wheel on upside
down because it looked better to him that way, just as it did to me (and
he wouldn't know it would mess up the turn signal)?

4) The car wouldn't start if you left the lights on too long with the
engine not running. He had it into the dealer several times for that.
They said they replaced the battery, the starter, and the alternator two
times each. Not sure about the regulator. Still didn't help. I only
spent a couple short visits with him but once the car wouldn't start for
us right in midtown NYC. After the two year warranty was up, they said,
"[yeah we never fixed it, but] the warranty has expired."

After I got the car I decided the battery had been ruined so I took it
to Sears (very big in Chicago) for a new battery and the mechanic who
would put it in said, Do you want our free 788-part multi-check? and I
said, I really just need a battery. And he said, "it's free". I don't
like to argue so I said Okay. And it took him less than 5 minutes to
find the problem the dealer couldn't find in 2 years. The connection of
the battery cable at the starter motor would get "dirty". In my
experience only when I forgot and left the lights on, even for 2 hours.

He took it apart and cleaned it, but later I found that even with good
clothes on, I could reach under the car, find the cable and rotate it
around the bolt, probably just in one direction, and that was enough to
make the car start.

There must have been a permanent solution, a cable with different kind
of connection at the end?? But although I saw other cables for sale,
none said anything about being different or corroding less or anything,
so iirc I bought a buzzer that buzzed if I left the lights on and that
pretty much solved it. (though once early on it had started then
stalled 10 minutes later just as I was about to get on Lake Shore Drive.
I'm glad it didn't stall on that busy road.)

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