Hey all what’s happening?? Anyone know what a CV joint is? If you don’t then read on! CV joints or Constant Velocity joints became widely accepted in the late 70’s and 80’s and are used in almost all front wheel drive applications today. You will also find these joints being used in a wide variety of four wheel and all wheel drive vehicles. What CV joints accomplish is large angles to be made in a shaft and they also tend to reduce vibration in the drive line. CV shafts are a pretty cool design really, there is a housing in which balls, cages, clips and a race live in and connect to ends of two shafts. Looking at each individual part the race is a piece of metal that has grooves cut out of it where the balls will ride. This race slips over a shaft, (for instance a drive shaft) and is held in place by a clip. The balls fit in to the grooves in the race and the cage holds the pieces together. There is almost always a flexible rubber boot over this whole unit to keep out contaminants. What we have done here is essentially cut a shaft in half and assembled the pieces listed above to allow the shaft to be super strong and be able to achieve bending at great angles. Since balls are used as pivots the shaft can rotate, bend, flex, absorb imperfections in the road and still remain strength. CV joints are typically found at the wheel side of an axle but they can also be found in other places. They are really that simple! Since they are always moving when the vehicle is in motion CV shafts to wear out, there is always friction and the pieces ore metal for strength however when you consider their job and how long they last I think you will agree CV shafts are AWESOME! There it is, now you know as I do. Be safe out there!!
Whats up all?? Yesterday we talked about the basics of carburetion. Let’s look at some of the other goings on inside a more advanced type carb. First lets look at the choke plate. What the choke plate does is cut off air and is used to start a cold engine. It allows a rich mixture (remember rich is a low air higher fuel condition) to enter the combustion chamber and get’s the engine to “kick” or fire, gets the blood pumping so to speak. Next the choke opens some (or you open it on manual choke units) to allow a less rich mixture to once again fire the engine, start it and run it at an idle. If you keep the enging choked it will sputter and try to run on a mixture that is too rich. On most carbs there are a couple screws that are actually needle valves that help you set and fine tune a carb for optimum performance. One is used to control the amount of fuel delivered by the jet (we discussed yesterday) at maximum throttle. The other is used to control the amount of fuel delivered at idle conditions. We didnt discuss this jet yesterday but this jet is the low idle jet and is also located in the venturi – (please check yesterdays blog for more information). Well theres more on carburetion for you to digest. We will go into even more detail sometime in the future but now you know as I do. See ya soon!
Whats up? Whats new? Whats good? (post answers on our FB page) Anyway here’s the topic of the day, carburetors. Thats an old school term right? Right, it is. The only place you find a carburetor now a days is on some high performance hot rods, old old vehicles, lawn mowers, old bikes, race cars etc. Everything nowadays at least the majority is fuel injected. So why talk about carbs? ‘Cuz they are cool! Not only that its something everyone should know about. Let’s just talk about what carbs do, or better how they work and some history. So I’ve read that the carburetor was invented by Karl Benz, yup one of the namesakes of Mercedes Benz – also know as Diamler corp. Anyone know what else Diamler owns?? Hmmmm?? For all you truckers out there that would be Freightliner. Anyway back to carbs. So Mr. Benz’s creation was around the 1880′s time frame and carburetors were used up until the late 1990′s and on some models of cars, even later. You will still find them used on racing applications, small enigne and quite a few motorcycles. The basic concept of a carburetor is to regulate fuel and air to the proper mixture. Too much or too little or either is not a good thing. The idea is to mix the right amount of gasoline with air to properly run the engine. A condition called “lean” occurs if there is not enough fuel delivered to the engine. In the opposite scenario if there is too much fuel the engine “runs rich” and either floods, runs poorly and smokes. At times these scenarios are desired for instance when your staring a cold engine you need a rich mixture to draw more fuel to the engine to “fire it up”. Looking a a real basic carb there isnt much to them, think of a toilet paper tube. A toilet paper tube?? Yeah just work with me here. There is a quarter down in this tube, some where in the middle, which moves, as in, it can block the tube off so you couldnt blow much air through it. This is what we will call the throttle plate. It regulates the air flow. Now lets take one end of the tube and crush it down a little, like make it taper. This taper is refered to as a venturi in carb speak. As air passes through the entire tube it goes past the throttle plate in to the venturi (or taper) this actually creates a vacuum. Now if we were to put a small hole (called a jet) in the taper part of the veturi and attach a fuel hose to it the vacuum would suck the fuel in to the carb and in to the engine for combustion. Pretty cool stuff eh? That in it’s simplest form is pretty much how a carburetor works. There are other components to carburetors and we will save those topics for another day. Know you know as I do. P.S. yes you can still buy carburetors and yes you can get them from us! Until next time – be safe out there!!
Posted in Uncategorized
|
Tagged 2bbl, 4bbl, air, barrel, carb, carbs, carburetor, carter, fuel, holley, single
|
A funny thing happened to me on the way to the office today……….Ok not really but I always liked that saying. Sorry for missing a day or two but were back on track. Something that is still gaining a lot of popularity is specialty LED lighting, especially for the trucking industry. More and more people are wanting all the benefits that come along with LED’s. Some include longer life, asthetics, (they look nice), less amperage draw, vibration proof, etc etc. I am a firm believer in LED technology and so is the industry that is why you see more and more of them on automobiles every year. LED’s have been around for a very long time. It is basically a diode, which is a very small electronic semiconductor. LED stands for Light Emitting Diode, which was actually pattented in 1961 even though the technology had been around prior to that. LEDs come in many forms, shapes, colors and sizes and vary in price according to their popularity of color hence the reason if your looking for white, blue or green LEDs the price will be higher then your every day red and amber ones. They other colors are not as popular as the red and amber ones and arent mass produced in the quantity of red and amber ones. Most LED’s give off their color, not the lens. If you take a lens off an LED light you will notice when the LED is powered it gives off the light it was intended to. So yes for the most part they will use green or blue colored LED in the actual light. Now in some cases the manufacturers will play with reflectors inside the light and color them instead of the LED to give the appearance of a green or blue light but its really an optical illusion. You can even get LED lights in purple or that appear as a tunnel inside the light, different diode counts etc etc. Excpect to pay more for specialty colored LED lights. You can get LED replacements for just about every light on a tractor trailer now a days and best of all you can get them from US! If your looking for a particular LED replacement light we almost always can find it. Now you know more about LED’s as I do. There is much more on this subject and we will revisit again! Thank you and PEACE!!!
Hey all, heres an interesting topic to chat about today, automotive headlamps! How excting you say? Well sit right back this is good stuff!! Loosly put as the begining of the automotive age began more and more people were driving and if you happened to stay out to late at Aunt Suzies you needed light to drive in the dark or when the weather was less then cooperative creating percipitaion, fog, rain, sleet, snow etc. Visibility is dramatically reduced in these conditions (obviously) so hence the advent of using light to move around in your automobile in these not so ideal situations. Sometime near and around the 1880′s the lighting used for automotive applications consisted of burning acetylene gas or oils. In the late 1890′s is when the first electric lamps were used in the Automotive market. Now that you have a “basic” history of automotive lighting lets look at some of the things that have changed the lighting industry as it relates to headlamps. The majority of headlamps out there in the market today are Halogen sealed beams. This was not always the case, as a matter of fact these bulb weren’t widely accepted in the American market until the late 1970′s a good 10-15 years after they were introduced in to the European automotive market. Halogen filled capsule bulbs create a chemical reaction within the bulb itself which actually helps slow the loss of integrity of the bulb filament itself resulting in a longer life bulb and sometimes better quality of light output. Other achievements in automotive lighting include Xenon, HID, LED, mercury, argon etc, etc, etc. HID lighting in simple terms takes away the filament and replaces it with electrodes that produce an arc when electrified which in turn produces a lot of heat and light. Different forms of gasses and chemicals like argon, xenon, mercury etc can be used inside the glass bulb or envelope to help intensify the light, add longer life or both. Also recently some companies are experimenting with LED technology for headlamps. LED’s are light emitting diodes where light is produced from a chemical reaction when electricity is intorduced. LED’s really offer superior heat control, high light output, longer life, typically lower power requirements and better vibration resistance of many of the other light types out there, however LED technology for headlamps is available in the market but is still in its infancy. Let’s look at some things that make headlamps fail. The obvious reasons would be stone hole or just holes, cracks or breakage in the glass bulb or housing itself allowing contaminents, water etc in to the filament area causing failure. Not so obvious reasons for failure are vibration, heat, voltage spikes, ground or wiring problems and simply use. Like many things in this industry the very nature of these parts is they just simply wear out from use. Since the creation of light for the automotive industry many many people and companies are always trying new things and making advancements in technologies to improve not only the function of headlamps but also the life span. A lot of what has been written above also can be related to smaller automotive bulbs as well. Down the road we will dive in to these catgories of automotive lighting more. I guess the one thing I want to relay here is just because it looks, smells and feels like an apple doesn’t make all apples the same that goes for lighting as well. For the best results, longest life and most bang for your buck take a minute to find out what type of lights your car or truck uses so when and if your faced with a replacement scenario you know what it is your looking for and you get the same type your replacing that matches the others on your vehicle. This will also ensure your lighting output from your headlamps are the same from both sides. No one wants to see better on one side of the vehicle then the other!! Now you know as I do. Be safe out there!
Air compressors. Heavy duty air brake system compressors. We talked about them yesterday, actually we talked more about unloaders which are more part of the head of the air compressor but i wanted to take it a step further today. Oh the Head?? Yeah thats one of the parts of the compressor, other parts include the case, piston(s), piston rod, wrist pin, crankshaft, head, unloaders, gaskets, seals, piston rings, and a few other components. As a general rule air compressors are faily easy to diagnose (as mentioned yesterday) its pretty obvious if you have a piston rod bent or broke, a leaky gasket or seal, a busted or defective crank etc. Its a little more complicated to diagnose an air leak condition but still not that bad. Its either a blow by condition inside the unit, a blown or leaky gasket, a stuck unloader or a hole in the case somewhere. (typically theres a rod hanging out the hole, pretty easy to spot!) How an air brake compressor works is it takes in air from the atmosphere through the intake valve, compresses or pushes it through the unloaders through a one way check valve in to the system for storage in an air tank or tanks for use when you need to apply the brakes. Thats about as simple an explanation as there is. A few other things happen but thats the jist of it. If your system isn’t building up air theres a few things you can do to troubleshoot your compressor if you suspect its at fault. Listen for any obvious signs of leaks, see if the compressor actually discharges air from the discharge line, check your unloaders, etc. A sticky unloader may often be the cause, or perhaps the governor is bad which we will talk about in a seperate blog sometime. Hopefully this was informative about air brake compressors. The best thing is you can get your compressors or any of the parts associated with a compressor right here from US. Now you know as I do. Be safe out there and until next time, Peace!
Hey all, got a good one for you today. Let’s chat about Heavy Duty truck air compressors. There are several versions of air compressors on trucks. In a nutshell the main function of the air compressor is to take in air from the atmosphere and provide air to the air brake system. So what about air compressors? For starters do you realize how long air brakes have been around? I believe they were patented in 1872 by George Westinghouse. That is a story for another blog post, however what I want to touch on is Haldex air compressors. For starters the majority of air compressor failures are not what they appear. Unless there is a rod hanging out the side of the compressor they are typically hard to diagnose unless you follow a specific set of procedures. Inside every air compressor is what is called unlaoders. These little units are “controls” for letting air pass. The problem with atmospheric air is it is contaminated and when you pass it through a compressor you heat it and the contaminates in it and that creates by products. These by products sometimes refered to as COKE or CARBON can damage or clog unloaders which causes a condition which calls for the compressor to be replaced. In reality if a faulty compressor came in to our shop we would run some simple diagnostics including inspecting the unloaders on the compressor. Ususally a compressor is deemed bad if it doesnt send air or enough air to supply the braking system on a truck. What happens is a $500 – $700 compressor is replaced at a minimum of one hour to 2 hours labor. This means you can spend $1000 to fix a faulty compressor that may have stuck unloader valves. Why is this important?? For the simple reason it could be fixed for less then $200 including labor instead of replacing a “defective” compressor. If your running a Haldex compressor boy have they made life easy for you. Unlike other compressor manufacturers and remanufacturers Haldex utilizes the same compressor unloader valves on almost every compressor model they offer. On that point all compressor manufacturers offer replacement unloaders for their compressors however they all utilize different unloaders. How difficult is it to repair unloaders? Its simple as heck really. Most unloader kits come with the appropriate gasket, and enough valves to complete the job (usually 2). Like I said if you running a Haldex compressor almost all of them take the same unloader kit. About 50% of diagnosed “bad” compressors have a stuck unloader valve easily fixed if the mechanic knows what to look for. So now you know as I do, if you have a “faulty” compressor take the time to diagnose it correctly and check the unloader valves. You could save yourself a considerable amount of money!!
Well, it happened. Yesterday I missed the blog post for “A Day in the Life of The Partsman”. Well I’m back today so I hope you can forgive me. Anyway I don’t have a ton of “interesting” things to talk about how ever I do have some not so common information to share. First since “Talledega nights” is playing in the background I need to state “I mean I wake up in the morning, I piss excellence”, ok now that I got that out of my system we can get down to business. Let’s talk about wheel seals, and specifically SKF / Chicago Rawhide seals numbering system. Chicago Rawhide (known as SKF now) has been around since the late 1800′s and I believe they created the first seal system (designed to seal lubricants in and bad stuff like dirt out) which was made out a leather sealing lip. At any rate CR / SKF has been around a long time and have made significant upgrades and advancements in sealing components and design however what is most impressive about CR / SKF seals is their numbering system. Actually this is sheer genius and an amazing help to parts people and others alike. Let me ask how many times have you needed a seal and all you had was a shafts outer diameter? Well, if you know this little detail its pretty easy to find a seal regardless of where the seal goes whether its a camshaft, axle, wheel end etc, etc. Simply measure the outer diameter of the shaft that the seal rides on and voila you have the first three digits of a CR / SKF part number. How cool is that?? So if you have a shaft that measures 1.61 the first three didgits in the CR / SKF part number is 161, conversely if you have an shaft that measures 4.62 the first three digits of the CR / SKF part number is 462 and so on. Doesn’t matter where the seal goes that rule applies. Now I can’t give away all my secrets in this post so at a later date we can talk about the other digits in a CR / SKF parts number. So on that note, you now know as I do. Thanks for reading my blog and check back tomorrow for more info! Peace, have a great one!!
Welcome back! As I mentioned from yesterdays blog post it is time for me to share the things I learn in this business. So what were going to talk about today is a certain air conditioning compressor, one you would think would be very straightforward, but as many things in the parts business – it never is as it appears. The 1970′s – 1980′s model of A/C (air conditioning) compressor was known as an A6 model, (which actually stands for A=axial and 6= the number of cylinders in the compressor) or a large long doorstop as one of my compadres lovingly called it. Often times in this industry you get calls where the one on the other end of the phone says thing like “I need an air compressor, you know the one, it fits all the 70s General Motors cars, its an A6 model.” As soon as I hear this I go into “Oh boy, here we go mode.” “OK sir, what year are working on?” I say, knowing whats coming next – “dont matter, there all the same.” If I had a nickle for everytime I’ve heard this……well lets just say I’d be on a beach somewhere. Being the smart ass I am, my tyipcal comeback to this is “So, what your telling me is no matter what compressor I send you listed for a 1970′s ish A6 it will fit? So if its wrong or doesn’t fit then we’re good right?” This is why, as frustrating as it is sometimes, parts people, good parts people ask questions. It’s not because were stupid (ok sometimes that category fits) it is usually for a good reason. Like in the case of the General motors A6 compressor. There happens to be 4 or so versions of this particular compressor. Four versions you say?? Yup, a minimum of four actually. Let’s chat about the differences shall we? OK, here they are, #1 – you need to know how many pullys are on the compressor your replacing. Typically one or two. #2 – there are 2 differnt type switches on these units. One is refered to as a Hi-side switch and the other is refered to as a superheat switch. The superheat switch was typically located in the rear head of the compressor. The purpose of the switch is to detect a “superheat” condition in the evaporator and then turn the compressor off to prevent a failure.
Why is this important? It’s important because typically replacement A6 compressors do not come with a new switch, so your going to have to take the switch off the old one and put it on your replacement compressor. OK so now we know that there can be different pulleys and different switches.
Now theres another thing we need to take in to consideration as well and that is the clocking postion of the coil. To detemine this look at the compressor from the front and determine if the coil is clocked at 10 O’clock or 2 O’clock just as if you were looking at a real clock. Well that about it, thats about all we need to know to detemine which A6 compressor to sell you to replace your bad one. However there is another way and that is to have the number off the old unit handy, if you don’t have it then now you know as I do how to identify the correct General Motors 1970′s – 1980′s style A-6 air conditioning compressor.
Well, here it is. Finally another blog post. Bet you wonder where I’ve been, or perhaps you don’t. Either way I had an epiphany today and I am back, better then ever!. For those of you who don’t know an epiphany is defined as “the sudden realization or comprehension of the essence or meaning of something” by wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany). My personal epiphany was the fact that after looking at the amount of people who visit this blog I am doing a grave injustice to them. If I am going to have this blog I need to….well….um…. BLOG!!!! And I need to do so on a consistent basis and with pertinant information, on a daily or a minimum of bi-daily basis. So I been thinking…..what the heck do I blog about? Hence the epiphany. After being in this business of selling parts for 25+ years, what better to blog about then things I continue to learn about this business and aboutparts in general on a daily basis! WOW, struck me in the head like a ball pein hammer (ball pein hammer is to be reserved for another blog day when absolutly nothing new has happened! ~pretty rare actually!~). For example, today, I get a call from a customer looking for a transmission for a Dodge panel (delivery) van. After some research I find out there are two versons of this transmission available. The particular transmission in this case is a model 32RH. I’ve never heard of a 32RH transmission, so what happens? My mind goes in to overdrive (no transmission pun intended). What the hell kind of transmission is a 32RH?????? OK, dig deeper. Being the professional Partsguru I see myself as I dug deeper to find out that a 32RH transmission is otherwise know as a 904. Anyone who knows MOPAR knows that a 904 is a pretty popular MOPAR tranny out there. (Again as I am doing a service here on my blog – MOPAR is is the automobile parts and service arm of Chrysler Group LLC. The term was first used by Chrysler in the 1920s and has been in continuous use ever since. – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mopar Well there ya go. Now I know a 32RH transmission is the equivelent of a 904. VERY cool stuff for a parts guy to know. By the way for all you out there that may need a 904 guess what????? We sell them!! You can’t find them on our transmission page so we probably need to change that, but we sell them for around $799.00 exchange. So you may be thinking, “hey, you said there were two versions of this transmission, um, mind filling us in on version 2???” OK, no I sure don’t mind. One is for a 4 wheel drive and the other is for a two wheel drive! Simple?? Now you now as I do. So in closing here on day 1 of “A Day in the Life of the Partsman” I want to ask you to stay tuned, subscribe and read, you will learn as I do. Thanks – peace out – be safe!
