I believe a quality bearing would required grinding to the final tolerances. volvolugnut Hi, Yes that's what they did. From memory, first the machining to the rough size. Then heat treating in a molten salt vat for some minutes, then quenching. Then there might have been another machining cycle. Th...

Many sealants are self vulcanizing and contain acetic acid. You can tell from the vinegar smell. Once at a work place, self vulcanizing sealant was used to seal a lid on a steel tank. Later all of the internals of the tank were found rusting. volvolugnut The steel corrodes, the sealant will live lo...

I’ve dulled three drills, one arbor hole saw, and a spade bit over three days trying to put a 3/4 hole in a vinyl floor to plumb in water for a toilet. I am close to going postal on this one Sometimes my brain solves problems in my sleep. I wonder why my installer didn’t mention he left the tile in...

We had a thermocouple living next door for a while. Glad they moved.

The answer has been worked out by engineers for decades. There are standards for sliding and press fits of mating parts. Sliding fits, of course, have to have more clearance than press fits. Tables are made with a range of tolerances for each class of fit. When an engineer or designer is creating t...

When I was 17, working on my '73 Ford Capri, I took some assembly apart and found a stripped bolt. Big bolt. Its a Sunday of course, no parts stores open in those days, and I need it Monday morning for work. Our neighbor across the alley, Bud Hashburger, was the retired head mechanic of the big down...

I just reread the Carfax, it looks like the car has been over maintained by the Volvo dealer which is not uncommon, particularly with a gullible unknowing owner. The assumption would be that there shouldn't be much that hasn't been addressed. I've never bought an auction car due to fear of the unkn...

After days of drilling, I finally got the bolts out, and the pump on. It seems the M7 tap in my kit was a little oversized, as the bolt can wiggle around in the hole once threaded in. I decided to ignore the broken bolt at the top of the pump for now, one bolt was able to be torqued very carefully t...

Just a cool Saab photo

Oo! Oo! Yes!