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30 years ago my motorcycle mechanic friend, Steve, gave me a brand new Snap-On stethoscope still in the box. I’ve played with this thing on and off for all these decades for things ranging from engines, gearboxes, electric motors, clocks, and transformer hum.
My conclusion is that it is a fascinating tool that amplifies mechanical sound with startling intensity, and it is really remarkable to bring out sounds not heard with the unaided ear.
However, the range of sounds that come through the stethoscope is so large, and so many things are heard, because metal transmits sound so well, the a diagnosis is generally confounding and not any better than a knowledgeable unaided ear. At least for me.
Consider how much medical traning an MD gets just for some simple “lub-dub” heart valves, or a bit of pulmonary air flow. And the MD is only looking at a few “machines”.
What was really neat is the attachment of accelerometers to vital equipment (nuclear primary heat transfer pumps) to get a “sonic signature” when the equipment is new, then watch and diagnose the changes over its service life.
But I’m not throwing away my stethoscope any time soon.
Thanks guys.
I did go and observe the blinking red LED, and the frequency of the blink seems to be about the same as the frequency of the milliamp spike. And the duration of the lighted LED seems to match the time spent at 33 mA.
Also, it seems to make sense that this small LED would be about 60 milliWatts. The amperage spikes from 0.028 to 0.033 A in a 12 Volt system, making for a 60 mW LED.
This seems about right for the power draw of a small LED.
I think you would notice a valve mis-timing of one tooth. Sluggish running, bad mileage, and bad idle.
About 30 years ago I offered my Civic to an oil company for gasoline testing. In exchange for filling out a performance log, I got free fuel for about a year. I was surprised that variations in fuel quality (composition, volatility, detergents, de-icers) were 100% mimics for poor engine tune. And don’t think that the gasoline distribution system is perfect as it is handled repeatedly between the refinery and pump. All this to say, “Maybe bad gas”.
I’ve had a lifetime of Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys.
Regarding fuel mileage, I’ve noted for nearly 30 seasons that the Honda’s fuel mileage is much more sensitive to cold weather than Toyotas.
The only thing I can believe is that Honda opts for a much richer A/F ratio in the cold compared to Honda. The Toyotas never seemed lean during warm-up, so I have to conclude the Toyota just did a little better mapping. All a guess of course.
Police are very frequently verbally abused. With the weapons and skills they have, they cannot lose their cool, and use these in any un-prescribed manner.
I think in police training, officers are verbally abused by very good actors, hired for that purpose, that make the situation realistic. If you have some friends that are cops or military, have a chat with them, and they might help you.
Perhaps consider having some of your friends purposely get hot and critical with you, while you practice staying cool. The interesting thing, like every skill, being cool is truly a matter of practice. The good news is that all of us eventually get enough “be cool” practice that we mellow with age. But don’t wait until you’re 50 to be the master of yourself.
Police are very frequently verbally abused. With the weapons and skills they have, they cannot lose their cool, and use these in any un-prescribed manner.
I think in police training, officers are verbally abused by very good actors, hired for that purpose, that make the situation realistic. If you have some friends that are cops or military, have a chat with them, and they might help you.
Perhaps consider having some of your friends purposely get hot and critical with you, while you practice staying cool. The interesting thing, like every skill, being cool is truly a matter of practice. The good news is that all of us eventually get enough “be cool” practice that we mellow with age. But don’t wait until you’re 50 to be the master of yourself.
Got to love ebay. Dozens of April 1966 Hot Rod magazine for about 10$ So I’ve ordered one.
I’ll try to remember this posting and put up a few scans.
The Honda CB450 engine was particularly memorable for its torsion bar valve springs, that will never have coil surge and have enormously high natural resonant frequency so they never get “confused”. But you still can float the valves.
More later.
Not sure about others, but 99% of “frozen” nuts and bolts don’t seem to be penetrated at all by anything. BUT heat!
Any of these oil is good for winding the exposed threads through a nut, but as for penetration, there all about the same for me, i.e., next to useless.
Is there a FRAM oil refinery, or a FRAM chemical plant, or a FRAM oil blending facility?
If no, then it is likely they are buying it from someone else, then just rebranding it as theirs. So FRAM is just a reseller, but for who?
Only an insider at FRAM and an insider at the supplier would know what this oil really is.
I was curious about the modern situation for gasoline dilution of engine oils.
A fairly convincing publication says that more than 4% gasoline in the oil should be considered abnormal. So it looks like things haven’t really changed from my 30 year old data of 3 to 5% mentioned earlier. So much for the precise modern fuel injection.
I’ll try to copy in a link, but I seem to have problems inserting photos and links in this site. Still cannot paste, so search thermal-lube.com, then under publication and look for the article on fuel dilution.
I used to be involved with a group measuring fuel dilution of engine oils. But this was a long time ago in the carburetor days.
In Summer with hot running, fast engine warm-up, and minimal choke-on time, the engine oil was averaging about 3 to 5% of gasoline by weight. In winter with shorter colder trips, cooler engines, and long choke-on times, it was not unusual for the oil to be 10 to 12% gasoline. Yes, really, 10-12%.
Not much harm was done to the engines with 10% fuel dilution, but we did feel we noticed a bit more cam and follower wear. But in these older days, cams and followers were all sliding and not rollers as in modern gasoline engines.
It was much harder to measure fuel dilution of engine oil in Diesel service, as the heavy ends of Diesel fuel overlap with the light ends of lubricating oil, so you could not distinguish oil from fuel.
My guess is that computer control of gasoline mixture in our present cars will give dilutions a bit less than in the carburetor days.
But the bottom line is, get some fresh oil in there and change it at reasonable time/distance intervals.
Thanks for your reply. I do believe that I have the correct bulb as the code is “7443”, and that is what I have purchased, and it is identical to the OEM “Stanley 7443” in detailed appearance.
But I can’t tell if it is a haolgen, or if it can be installed either of the 180 degree orientations, and whay does it have 4 contact rather than the usual 3 contacts for a classic brake/tail light combination.
For some reason I have not had any luck with posting images or links in this site.
But I think I figured out this 7443 bulb. Since the lens assembly is all plasic, there is no sheet metal ground for the traditional bulb metal base.
So two contacts are ground by wire and the other two are for brake and tail lights. And the socket is designed so that the bulb can just be pushed in without thought to orientation.
There is a caution on the packaging that warns against leaving finger prints on the bulb’s glass envelope, so I think it is a halogen.
It all had added up to a working brake light. This car has 260 000 kilometers, and this is the first bulb to burn out. Pretty amazing. But not LED life either.
I had an old British beater as a teenager.
It took most of the summer to figure out the cooling system problem. No coolant leaks, all perfect, but it overheated at anything but idle or very slow driving.
We finally deduced that coolant pump suction at higher speeds was collapsing the lower radiator hose and pinched off flow. When inspecting the engine with the hood up at idle, the suction was low and all looked normal.
Maybe replace your hoses for some good stiff ones.