Jim Warman

This is about four blocks from my house. Thankfully there were no annhydrous ammonia cars in this consist. http://globalnews.ca/news/1321777/clean-up-underway-following-cn-train-derailment-in-slave-lake/

I don't see how that's going to work for air flow restriction... Is my feeble old mind missing something?

You should see how separated tie rod ends are sometimes dealt with. Strips of moose hide are falling into disfavour as bicycle inner tubes seem to last longer.

There's an old saying from the rec.woodworking usenet group. "Buy the best you can get and only cry once - get cheap and cry every time you use it". The following is a page directly from e-bay that pretty much sums up VCMs http://www.ebay.com/gds/VCM-Clones-and-Chinese-Knock-offs-DONT-BE-A-VICTIM-/10000000028016083/g.html

We've been a single income family (unless you take my loving brides disability pension into account) for most of our over 40 years together. There's a girlie bike in the driveway instead of the bagger I would like, The Mustang was a V-6 until it had to be liquidated. We should be happy with those things we do have instead of unhappy without the things we don't. Today I woke up on the sunny side of the dirt.

Such is the problem with fasteners made of stainless steel and other nearly exotic metals. Never re-use stainless fasteners - they will tighten up twice but they rarely loosen twice. Running a stainless bolt in with an impact can generate enough heat in the threads to make you consider a new career in the food and hospitality industry.

Another down and dirty way is to swap the locking hubs side for each and reapply vacuum. +1 on spinning the wheels when testing.

Yes but a washer works just as good. It doesn't take long to gain some extras in the `tickle trunk`.

This almost sounds like experience talking? There is just way too much to remember any more. Seems like you need to run OASIS for EVERYTHING. I wonder what a loose tie rod end on a rough road could do?

When I first went to work for this dealer, we discussed this very subject. After each of us diesel techs talked with the DP, the official stance became one of not selling tuners and intakes since this was demonstrating an approval (of sorts) of the device(s) in question. It's not very tactful to sell a tuner or intake and then tell your customer it's "his" fault his warranty is null. Sadly, lift kits, levelling kits and cat back exhausts are still fair game but suspension repairs are easier when it comes to warranty approval. I my experience, it is never the accessory that is at fault, it is always the POS truck it is bolted to.

Actually, the VMM was quite an improvement over the cartoon presented by WDS. The good thing about VMM is the "canned" parameter set-ups. It can be easy to get lost in manual set-ups. Like we told the guys on the fire dept. "play with your toys" - familiarity is your friend.

There doesn't appear to be much stuff out there for the 5.8 - not that it needs it that bad considering the first Shelby my buddy had.

We're gonna put the overdrive pulley on the snake prolly next month. The puller cost more than the pulley. Neither is in the Motorsport catalog, yet.

Anything in the way of performance parts that Ford "approves of" can be found in the Motorsport catalog in a package bearing a Ford logo. A disclaimer regarding its use on street vehicles is usually accompanying it. Two of the cardinal rules of performance - there is no replacement for displacement - and - don't mess with your daily driver.

For universal health care, I'm unsure if it (our flavour, at least) is well understood south of the 49th. Even with universal health care, you are still smart to carry private health insurance for stuff universal care doesn't cover. If you suddenly need a hospital, you can get care without having them check your credit rating and bank balance first. When I was sent from Slave Lake to Edmonton by ambulance, they admitted me to the Slave Lake hospital first. Everything they did to and for me was covered by AHC (Alberta Health Care). The ambulance ride was covered as well as the time I spent in Royal Alex hospital. All the drugs and treatments I had in the hospital were covered. Out of the hospital, my prescription drugs are covered by my private health carrier (some wind up being co-pay but our portion is barely pocket change). Last week, for example. I drove to Edmonton - I pay this but it is tax deductible. The doctor visit was paid by AHC - this is what pays for everyone. She scheduled me for an ultrasound - amazingly, it happened the very next day. I have a blood clot and the doc prescribed a blood thinner. My private carrier picked up the tab for that (60 syringes of Lovenox - no idea what they cost and I'll probably never know). Bottom line - I get to worry about me rather than how I'm going to pay for all of this. FWIW, AHC is paid for through our income taxes and my private health insurance was about $250 a month until I got sick. I had my choice of private carriers but settled on the group coverage offered through work. I really don't understand the problem - reach over, turn off Fox News and relax.

Tyler - who will be your instructor? Tuesday, I got up early to go all the way across the city to visit Darryl. Turns out he was instructing in Calgary - but I did get to meet Geoff (who thought I was there for the basic electrical course). In spite of everything, I'm feeling great - being on the sunny side of the dirt can make you realize that any day you get out of bed is a good day FWIW, there are a whole whack of pretty nurses (doctors, too) that you get as eye candy. My cell phone contacts is starting to look more like the medical association index . Hopefully, next week will be a little less frustrating.

An update.... also known as cluster-phuques this way come. So, the crap in my head is behaving nicely but the crap in my lungs - not so much. Depending on what is in my lungs, I might qualify for human trials (I guess in my case semi-human trials) on a new miracle drug that Astra Zenica is working on. But - they needed to take a fresh biopsy by doing a bronchoscopy. Last Tuesday was to be a consult in Edmonton and Wednesday was to be a bronchoscopy. Tuesday I was told that I wasn't going to have that until next week. But the doc said she thought my legs looked "bad" - I agreed and told her that is why I never wear shorts..... "Not like that", she said and told me I needed an ultrasound. "Go home?" sez I. Yep, the reply. So, I go to where I'm staying and retrieve my stuff, travel to St. Alberta and load a Costco cart to the gunnels with stuff. Whence my phone rings - "you have an ultrasound tomorrow". I abandon my shopping cart in the store (no sense in risking the probable freeze) and return my belongings to our friends house. The ultrasound isn't until next afternoon. So I hit Costco the morning of the ultrasound to save time, park in a parkade and go for the ultrasound. Wouldn't you know it - I have a blood clot in one leg. Ultrasound doc tells me to walk over to my docs office - a little over a block - and he'd call her. I get there - no doctor - but her nurse slams my ass in a wheelchair and carts me down to emergency..... and promptly abandons me. With the triage nurse repeating "I have no idea why you are here". They admit me to hospital with me repeating my explanation of the truck laden with groceries, how I'm not well prepared for admission to hospital, etc., etc. Finally, several hours later, my doc shows up in emergency. I can go home but here's a prescription - I have to give myself two needles a day. After all that - I have to go back next week for the bronchoscopy. At least I'm still on the sunny side of the dirt and I celebrated year one since my diag. Thank Yaweh or whoever for universal health care. And how was your day? Before I forget - parking at every hospital I've gone this past year has been $2/ half hour.

I've said it before, Brad. Some guys have jobs and some guys have careers. The public often don't see their vehicles as the machines they are and usually drive from one breakdown to the next calling this "normal service procedure". Parts suppliers often don't care that they are selling substandard parts built in off-shore sweatshops by workers that are little better than slaves. They don't seem to worry that many of the parts they sell to unqualified purchasers have the chance that they might turn a truck into a deadly missile with one or more of their loved ones in the crosshairs. The cure would have technicians become a self-regulating body, something I feel is probably too late in the making. < Sunday morning rant mode = !OFF! >

Like Kieth mentioned. It may be a good time to start with the no start diag from the PC/ED - hopefully before you get too far in or too frustrated. Points to ponder - ICP pressure is a computed value where ICP volts is an actual sensor reading. If the PCM doesn't like ICP volts, It will start making shit up as far as ICP pressure is concerned - check ICP volts before cranking as well as during cranking. Same deal with M_PWR (check L_PWR AND V_PWR at the same time) - check it while cranking. You don't say that you fixed your glow plug concern. Try plugging in the block heater for a few hours if you don't have a good glow plug system. The key here is to follow the diag process carefully - jumping from one thing to another is non-productive, costly and can have us missing important clues and/or steps. Good luck with your problem child.

Bruce, early engines (particularly aero engines) are a fascinating obsession of mine. Those early rotary and radial engines featured a "total loss" lube system.

Actually, it goes back to the days when bean oil was the good stuff, Kieth. The smell of a car with castor bean oil in the tank was indescribable.

Jim, we put oil in them too. Well, of course.... but is it the recommended stuff? Pop quiz... anyone know the origins of Castrol?

We sell Motorcraft oil unless customer has a preference. 7.3 get 15W40 in summer and 0W30 in winter. 6.0 gets 10W30 summer and 0W30 winter. 6.4 gets 10W30 low ash (unless they found something else by now). And I can't remember what we were putting in 6.7s. Disclaimer - I haven't worked much since last March.

That's weird looking, Matt. Usually it's the inside that screws up in our area.