Recent content by Chilliwack Murray

Here in BC (the California of Canada) the government is pushing well owners hard to register their wells in the name of safety and water management. The water management is a reasonable argument for deep farm and commercial wells but they seem to be targeting home owners with this. Far more...

Finding an exhaust manifold, even a rare one is one thing, many amateur mechanics and welders could even build a header if a manifold can't be found but there will be no way to keep a car from today with 12 or more ecms on the road, especially something not mainstream. We are at the point...

I agree that the average vehicle lasts far longer now than in the "good old days " but when that period of parts and specialty tool support ends there is no way for an average back yard mechanic to keep them going. Up until the mid 80s everything on a car was essentially rebuildable, even...

Isn’t that just a F-350 with brighter headlights?

I drive a lot, a real lot, in 50+ different rental vehicles a year, cars, trucks, SUVs, major cities, mountains, prairie and in the artic so this is something that really resonates with me. There was always the jacked up 4x4s that were bad and then the F150s seemed to be one of the first with...

My 06 would get quite a bit better mileage if it had the same diff ratio as the automatics but they need to put a short final drive in or you would never be able to back it up. It's already a little fast in reverse to back a trailer up a hill. I've always planned to put manual hubs on to I...

Daily driver Frontier is an 8ish speed auto which is nice in traffic but when it goes it will likely cost what the truck is worth to rebuild. I would've bought a standard if it was offered. Apart from a couple Aerostars everything I've owned were standard and I've only changed a couple...

True, the grass is just making a start but the weeds are well into it already.

I agree and wouldn't bother upgrading mine when it fails either. It's had more than enough output to keep up with use and run lights since I got it and lighting load is only decreasing with LED conversions. Remember, every amp to the alternator is less power to the pump and wheels and these are...

You already have the 10SI but personally I would go with a Denso alternator. You can get them from a Japanese car from the early 80s at the wrecker or new. They are slightly more money but quite a bit smaller and will outlast just about anything else you can buy. The smallest are 35A which...

It's winter and no one is reading? Abandon by Blake Crouch was a good read recently. Keeps you guessing until the very end.

Outside of break-in issues, the main issue with the early synthetics was seal and gasket leaks. The materials used at the time would not contain synthetic oil and some soft parts were damaged by some of the synthetic oils. You should have no issue using any of the mainstream synthetic blends...

I re-read 1984 recently too… The last time was around 1984, I think for English class in high school. Many of the warnings are more likely than ever with advances in technology and indeed happening today in some measure. I was pretty disappointed in the actual story though. It really felt...

It’s a good topic so to help revive it… The Silo trilogy by Hugh Howie I found quite good. Wool, Shift and Dust. Google it for the details. They’ve made a tv show out of it and it looks like they’ve really spent some time and money on it. The first season was good and really captured the...

They were good in their day, at least for teenage me. The original BBC tv series was better than the movie by far but it’s genuinely silly like the books. The Dirk Gently books he wrote after are a lot better in my opinion. I think I’ll have to read those again.