Ron Wanttaja wrote in message . ..
On Wed, 2 Jun 2004 10:13:58 -0700, "Rich S."
wrote:

Ten minutes later, I finally had the spare tire down from its hiding place
under the bed. "Ooh - my back is starting to twinge already, I'd better pace
myself. Where's my Bud?" "Okay - spare's ready, now to spin those lugnuts."

Twenty minutes later, I have one nut unscrewed about four turns. It has now
stopped turning and no amount of force I can apply will budge it in either
direction. I believe it has welded itself to the lug. Before you ask, yes -
I wire brushed all the lugs and allowed plenty of time for the penetrating
oil to do its work. BTW, the rear lugs have an inch of excess thread beyond
the nut to allow for the installation of duallies, so four turns is just a
small beginning.

The hubcaps and the spare tire went in the truck bed. The jackstands were
put away and the truck taken to the local tire shop. That was fifty bucks
well spent. He even charged an extra fiver to stow the spare.

Conversely, my brother-in-law was in town last weekend, running his Camaro
in the SCCA races. I was visiting him on Sunday when he decided to swap
his slicks for rain tires. Took him all of about five minutes for all four
tires....all I did was roll the replacement units up and pull the removed
ones away.

Makes a difference when you do it four or five times every weekend. :-)

Ron "Rollaway" Wanttaja


Let's be fair, Ron, it also makes a difference when the machine is
DESIGNED to be owner-maintained, versus designed to be maintainable
only by a dealer with special equipment.

Back in the day, I rebuilt the carb for my old Datsun pickup on the
kitchen table. I rebuilt the master cylinder in a parking lot. Just
like building a model - follow the directions and don't bend the
little parts. A friend (Army-trained truck mech) sat on the fender of
her 70-something Impala and did the valves on the Indestructible Chevy
Straight Six. Feet dangling inside the engine compartment. I helped
another buddy weld the frame of his Triumph Spitfire. (He rebuilt the
electrical system after it burned. Electrics by Lucas - Prince of
Darkness; you KNOW it's going to catch fire at some point. A five-ohm
resistor on the schematic turned out to be two meters of wire running
from the dash to the bumper and back.)

Point being, those were machines designed to be maintained by
mechanically-competent owners and shade-tree mechanics, not
"factory-trained professional technicians." Nowadays I don't even
change my own oil. You can't dump it in the gutter anyway.

Corrie