Inane ramblings to avoid thread jacking

[ryandalling]

Podium is podium.  Congrats!

Not me... I dropped it.. was just saying that the bikes that finished all hit the podium. T8 was unkind to me... then today it downpoured on us and I had to do a last minute tire switch... then on the sighting lap I was hearing noises in the crank... and well... perhaps they were phantom and telling me I didn't want to rain race... anyhow.... two wrecks in a week... I need to rest and heal my aching parts....

[scott_araujo]

Sorry, thought you had held it together and placed.  Heal well.

Scott

[INFIDEL]

Jeesh . . . you go down more than Paris Hilton 

[ryandalling]

The SV grids sucked all weekend. I think I have a serious mental road block on wet races now. Every time you made a tire decision, the track changed and you were wrong. Most races were dry for half and then torrential downpour for half.  Our pits had standing water in them at times... and both my tool boxes got about two gallons of pit tent run off poured into them when I was changing on my rains... I spent two hours cleaning tools last night as they were starting to rust already. Aaargh.

[krolik]

Harbor freight tools will do that to ya.

[Bendy]

Rust is character, yo. So is tetanus.

[ryandalling]

Harbor freight tools will do that to ya.

Most of my tools are craftsman... cause I live almost across the street from Sears... makes it easier when you are on a project and you are missing a size... lol....  They rust just as good as the Harbor ones... which I have some of them too. Although, you do get what you pay for... some of them tools are just worthless after a few uses.

[bnbmike]

I always tarpped the tool box and everything else was in those flip top containers you get at Costco, they stack in the garage and they were under my truck in the pits to stay dry, electronic and engine diagnostic tools in rubber maid.  15 years and only the bottoms of spray cans got rusty.

Wipe down your tools with a very light coating of WD-40.  I also use the silica packets in every drawer of the tool box.  Down here at the coast, I also wax everything that is cast iron or it will rust in the garage, even though it's insulated and heated.

[duc_fan]

My dad always wiped down his tools after use with a greasy/oily rag (old cloth diapers used to wipe off the dipstick and random grease/oil elsewhere in the engine bay).  His toolbox has a distinctive smell because of it, but none of his tools have ever rusted.

All of my tools that get that treatment are fine.  I have a few where I was lazy and didn't wipe off with the oil-soaked rag, and those picked up some surface rust.

In other random news... my '98 GTI has 106k on it, and those O2 sensors you're supposed to replace at 100k are starting to show their age.  Check engine light came on yesterday when the pre-cat sensor started responding too slowly.  Time to order $150 worth of sensors and crawl under the car...  should probably do a more complete tune-up and replace the spark plugs and wires while I'm at it.

[scott_araujo]

Dan, Harbor Freight just had the OBD readers on sale for $40.  And the nice cashier gave me a 25% discount ($10) and then used that $10 to give me the extended warranty for free.  I got the cheap one since my last one got stolen.  Upgrade, the old one just spit out the code number, this one's got the fancy words and everything.

It was nice when I actually had to go out and listen to the carburetor, check the valves, etc, when I needed to know what was wrong.  Now I just plug in the box and see what sensor died.  Not as much fun but then again, I'm too old to stand out in the rain figuring it out any more.  That's why I bought my Honda Civic in '96, didn't want to spend a cold, rainy October weekend under the VW bug swapping out a blown motor.

Scott

[duc_fan]

Thanks for the info, Scott!  I'll do some shopping around for code readers.  Last time I looked they were still around $150... so I took the car to Oil Can Henry's and they pulled the code for free (hence how I know it was the front O2 sensor responding too slowly).

I'd like to have my own around, especially since my current and future SUVs will be OBDII, my '98 GTI is OBDII, and the wife's Saturn roadster is, of course, OBDII.  I may be selling the '98 GTI and keeping my '86 (which has no electronic codes), but I'll still have 2 vehicles that need a reader to diagnose.

[scott_araujo]

Once you have one you'll wonder why you waited so long.  My wife owns a Volvo.  It needs it so much that I keep it in the car, that's how the first one got stolen

Scott

[ryandalling]

Rain rain go away!!! What the ya is up with all this rain? We tend to average about 2 inches of rain in June... and we have already hit that... and it's only day 2.... argh... 

Do I need to go build an ark??


Two of each type of motorcycle.... Ryan's Ark... I could deal with that... as long as it stopped raining after 40 days... and dried up enough to ride.

[scott_araujo]

Yeah, when we're riding under clear skies and mild temps in early October it won't matter  

Scott

[Bendy]

Long summers for the win!