Leaderboard

Years ago I sacrificed this Craftsman screwdriver to make a Z brake adjustment tool, it has worked very well.

Steve, I don’t think there is any confusion on the wiring. I was teasing my brother Yarb…

Well, it should be no surprise really, but we are all (well most of us) carrying a little device that is more spatially aware than we ever dreamed. The humble iPhone has considerable power to know where it in space, what is level and what is plumb, which way is north and how far away you are from the sales at Best Buy…. Built in apps already expose those powers. Check out Level and Measure. I’m not going to go to great lengths to describe what I found, I’m just going to leave a web link here to an company that has developed an app and some simple hardware that I think is incredibly good at what it does. Read their story and see what you think. It’s called: Gyraline https://gyraline.com/products/the-case It consists of a little flat 3D printed plate that you mount your iPhone into. The plate has nubbins that let you place it against your wheel’s rim lip in a dependable way so you can align your phone to the rim correctly. Fire up the app, place the phone in a few key spots, push buttons, BOOM. Out spits your alignment. I will say I have their version 1, been using it for about a year, and that it works. I can get a toe in and camber measurement in literally 1 minute. All four wheels. Yeah…… I’ve compared it to “Real” alignments and it’s very very close. I just had my Mazda cx70 done at the dealership and I plan on comparing it to what they said as well. Anyway, read, study, you decide. The thing is not cheap, they know what they have. They are challenging the big guys with their marketing materials. No more string for me…..

I recognize the beat, never saw the video or heard the whole song. A song about drugs, with a "don't do it" disclaimer in the middle. They even shout freebase, and (co)ca(i)ne... sugar. Drugs. rang dang diggity da rang da dang Of course, Eric Clapton turned an old blues song about cocaine in to a big hit. Rock and roll...

And, as I noted in 2023, that NAPA kit seems to be NLA. But do your own checks. You might just get lucky and find one sitting on some NAPA shop's shelves. I just re-checked my old files. The NAPA kit (PN 6601000) was described as a 'RANCO HTR-100' rebuild kit. It was evidently applicable to the heaters used in the Studebaker Avanti, so it's conceivable that it was used across the entire Studebaker line (Lark, Hawk, etc). A little snooping around a Studebaker owners club website might turn up a lead. RANCO appears to have been swallowed up by Robertshaw. Most of the focus for the RANCO product line these days appears to be in electronic temperature controllers used for commercial/industrial heating systems. I suspect that the 'RANCO' of 2025 may be nothing more than a brand name (i.e. it's unlikely you'll find a RANCO factory with a parts desk). Just one thing, though: I see that NAPA Canada lists something called a 'URO Parts Heater Valve Repair Kit'. A little checking indicates that URO Parts is a brand marketed by A.P.A. Industries (Simi Valley, CA). A.P.A. provides aftermarket parts (incl. cooling system parts) for a variety of European, Asian and North American cars and trucks. In their website, they say: "A.P.A. specializes in accurate reproduction parts for classic vehicles, including a wide variety of items that are no longer available from the dealer". Maybe there might be some leads there. The heater control valve design used in the 510 and Z probably wasn't unique to Nissan. In fact, the Nissan heater design bears certain resemblances to the British 'Smiths' unit that was used in so many UK cars back in the 1950's and 60's. A little investigation along these lines might turn up a British shop that specializes in heater restorations and has a back room filled with obscure parts like a little rubber washer that will fit your 510's control valve. Try this link for a starting point... The MG Experience - Smith's Heater Restoration

Anybody remember this one? White Lines