Shopsmith Forums

robinson46176 wrote:I had a good friend (and later, employer) who came to Indiana from Fort Myers FL driving a newish Ford Maverick that he had bought new without a heater in it. He drove it through most of the first year and about froze to death. Worse than the cold was the window frost etc. He drove most of the winter peeping out of a little scraped hole.


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Farmer don't let my gloat about not needing a heater in Florida bother you.

The Air conditioner evaporator is located right beside the heater and you have to have air here in Florida. Every car I have owned since living in Florida has had the complete dash pulled at least once and on my truck numerous times to replace the evaporator core. The heater is usually right there.

Today most cars require the steering wheel to be pulled also. Since the dash and steer wheel both have air bags you are almost required to have a mechanic do the job. Unless you know how to make the airbags inoperable while you are pulling things apart. As I understand it requires more than just disconnecting a wire. Certain jars will cause them to fire without any electricity.

I saw what happens when an air bag cartridge goes off by someone messing with the dash. Let's put it this way it is nearly a tie between that and saw accident for being ugly.

Anyone besides me see the youtube video of the Russian that sat on the air bag cartridge and allowed his buddy to set it off? The guy was surrounded with tires and he shot straight up about 10 feet and landed on the concrete floor like a sack of potatoes. Let's just say he didn't jump up and brush himself off.

Farmer you might do as I did as a kid. Had a jeep that had a working defroster fan. I installed two ducts so the fan drew air off the exhaust manifold and blew it into the jeep. You would stick one duct up each pant leg and it helped keep your feet from freezing as you were plowing snow.

If you had a buddy with you, you each got one hose.

Ed in Tampa wrote:Farmer you might do as I did as a kid. Had a jeep that had a working defroster fan. I installed two ducts so the fan drew air off the exhaust manifold and blew it into the jeep. You would stick one duct up each pant leg and it helped keep your feet from freezing as you were plowing snow.

If you had a buddy with you, you each got one hose.

When I first bought my 1961 IHC Scout ("very" used ) it did not have a top or doors... And I didn't have any extra money (OK, we were downright poor then )
I drove it like that cutting firewood a couple of days a week (I was selling firewood back then) for a good part of the first winter. With no top or doors that great heater was just wasting a lot of effort for nothing. It had a 5' long bed in the back and I pulled a small trailer with a 4' x 8' bed behind it. I was cutting at our little 17 acre place over in the next county 13 miles away from here. At 10 degrees even only going about 30 MPH you could not physically put on enough clothes to keep from freezing. I finally made a quickie plywood top with no sides or back which helped a tiny bit but not much.
Then one day a previous owner came in our store and said that the guy I bought it from had bought it from him and never finished paying him for it. He said that since he didn't get all of his money that he did not give the other guy the pickup style steel top and doors for it that he had in his garage. He said that he would sell them to me for $30. I almost jumped over the counter and kissed him... I put them on right away and thought I had died and gone to heaven.


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robinson46176 wrote:When I first bought my 1961 IHC Scout ("very" used ) it did not have a top or doors... And I didn't have any extra money (OK, we were downright poor then )
I drove it like that cutting firewood a couple of days a week (I was selling .....

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Well, my woodworking is not going too great right now. I may have to give it up and just read the stories to enjoy my hobby.

You know, Chevy claims to be "like a rock."

Well, you know what a rock does, right? Nothing. It just sits there in the middle of the road waiting for someone to come kick it out of the way.




I'm a Ford man.

I popped the dash open on my truck this mid-week and wiggled all of the connectors pressing them on and now I have heat again. I won't say it too loud for fear of jinxing it...
Now I just need to find out why the four wheel drive quit first of the week. It has one fuse for the transfer case and another for the front axle actuator. Both test good. I also wiggled those connectors while I had the dash open. I know that I have power to the transfer case because it is shifting. There is a switch on the transfer case that controls the front axle actuator when the transfer case shifts. I now need to check that I have power to that switch and power from it when the transfer case shifts. Then I need to check that I have power at the front axle actuator. If I don't have it working by then I will need to check out that actuator. Not that much of a job, I just haven't felt like doing it yet. I have a big batch of extra machinery (for my boot shop) sitting in the drive bay in the farm shop. That and one side effect of my meds is dizziness. Its not been much of a problem but I find laying on the ground on my back has become rather unpleasant.
I have been talking about buying a 4 post auto lift for some time now and now may be a good time.
I used to own a set of 3 building where one had a service pit built into the concrete floor. I really liked working from that pit. Unlike a lift it was easy for one person to work underneath in the pit and another work above under the hood on the same repair. Very handy.


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