Rethinking "Made in China"

[Keith Nuttle]

I had two slant sixes. One in a 1962 Plymouth and the other in the most terrible car ever built a 1976 Aspen. (I only got 200k trouble free miles on the engine, and there a few rattles as it approached the 200k mark)

I had trouble with the carburetor on the Aspen. When I made a left turn the car would die out for a second and then continue normally. After messing around with it for about a year an old mechanic told me the float was saturated with gas and replaced it. Never had a problem after that

Question: Will your Craftsman table saw handle the rpm produced by the slant 6? :->

[Doug Miller]

Ummmm...... No, the starter is *not* "on top" on a slant six. It's on the upper side of the slant, yes, but it's down at the bottom of the block, just like it is on every other engine I've ever seen.

[Jules]

Well yes, because there's no incentive for them (or anyone else) to sort out the problems or make better products - it really is "you get what you pay for", and most folk seem happy to buy complete crap so long as it's cheap. I've seen good Chiense products in the past - with the associated price tag.

Their labor's cheap, but still skilled if that's what's required; they'll build and test stuff to the exact level that the buyer's paying for.

cheers

Jules

[J. Clarke]

There is a notion popular in the colleges of education that the teacher's skill is teaching and that the teacher doesn't actually have to know anything about the subject matter, and that expertise in a subject is actually undesirable.

[Jules]

Define "cold". My water comes out of the ground at a pretty much constant

55 degrees year-round, and that's considerably hotter than freezing ;-)

[Jules]

I believe they fitted aircon to at least some of the lines recently - I'm yet to go back over and try it out. I used to go into London a few nights a week and the trains were always hell in the summer months, with almost no air circulation... (and they used to bump around and feel like they were coming off the tracks, and the lights would sometimes all go out for several seconds at a time... ahh, memories :-)

cheers

Jules

[Stormin Mormon]

I remember when I was a real little kid my dad had an old beater Valiant - I think it was a '64 or thereabouts. He was always having problems with the carburetor on it... years later I dated a girl with a '69, that car had a Holley 1bbl and it too had issues. Replaced the carb with a Carter and it ran splendiferously ever after.

CY: Those carbs were interesting, you could actually adjust them. I found the adjustment that worked for me was lightly closed, and then out 3 half turns. The vacuum lines always wanted to fall off. If the vac line fell off (the one to the air cleaner) the car ran poorly.

Only problems with it after that point were a ballast resistor that failed,

CY: And the engine didn't run. I learned to carry spare ballast resistors. As also did most Chrysler owners.

and the fact that the points would burn just about every 9 mos. like clockwork (maybe due to a off spec replacement ballast?)

CY: Burning points is typically due to bad condensor. They are replaced as a set.

then she had to have the head redone because she didn't adjust the valves (probably ever) and burned one.

CY: Most likely, never. Few people do.

Other than that it was a very reliable car, wish I had it today.

CY: A starter and alternator every year and a half?

nate

[Stormin Mormon]

I had two slant sixes. One in a 1962 Plymouth and the other in the most terrible car ever built a 1976 Aspen. (I only got 200k trouble free miles on the engine, and there a few rattles as it approached the 200k mark)

CY: What was wrong with the Aspen? Mine was a 1974 Dodge Dart Swinger. Got 10.5 MPG, wouldn't run when it was wet.

I had trouble with the carburetor on the Aspen. When I made a left turn the car would die out for a second and then continue normally. After messing around with it for about a year an old mechanic told me the float was saturated with gas and replaced it. Never had a problem after that

CY: That mechanic was worth his weight in gold.

Question: Will your Craftsman table saw handle the rpm produced by the slant 6? :->

CY: Adjustable throttle, silly. Just don't rev it wide open like a teenager.

[Jules]

Question: did they ever sell the truck version in the US? (think bus but with most of the roof chopped off and a load bed in the back).

Couple of my uncles had those as farm trucks in the early 70s (because they were cheap, easy to fix and they never needed them to be fast or go long distances, I suppose). There can't have been many manufacturers offering rear-engined pickups. Not seen one on the road for years, though.

cheers

Jules

[basilisk]

SWMBO is a high school teacher, 10th, 11th, 12th grade biology, forensics and AP biology as well as chemistry and physics. She entered the teaching profession about 6 years ago after having worked 17 years in private industry.

She is unique in the local school system, in that she is the only person employed by the local school board that has ever been a success outside of education. Most teachers and administrators have no clue how the real world works and wait for the next crumb of "enlightenment" to drop from the ivory towers of the universties and state administrators.

When school is in session, SWMBO will average working 15 hours a day with 5 of that spent on non teaching related task.

Effective discipline is nonexistant, most parent are unreachable and could care less what happens at school.

No one is allowed to fail.

The system is broken beyond repair.

In contrast she sometimes teaches partime at a private military school, the kids are respectful and do their work. I have sit in on several of these classes and always leave feeling good about life in general, just knowing that there are pockets of humanity where good behavior, manners and and hard work are still practiced in school. Zero discipline issues in these classes, if any one ever raises their voice or causes a disruption they are removed from the room by upperclassmen, and according to her, when they return there is no more problems with that student "ever".

basilisk

[Keith Nuttle]

Let me know how it works on your saw.

I had a 3 speed standard transmission on my slant six Aspen an got about

19 to 20 miles per gallon. About the same as today's cars of the same weight and size.

[Stormin Mormon]

Do the presently employed teachers do a good job teaching the liberal agenda? Be dumb. Be compliant. Fear global warming. And, lets teach everyone how to have "safe" sex by rolling a condom on a cucumber before going to town.

[Stormin Mormon]

Does one replace a slant six starter from under the hood "on top" or from laying on the ground "underneath"?

I've always done Chrysler slant six starters from under the hood.

[Jules]

Interesting. I found that with a lot of the old Holdens when I was in Oz and NZ - lots of them were based on US models, but somehow they just had that little bit more grace and elegance in the styling...

And actually, when I say "first generation Celica", I think I'd aim for one of the post-'75 ones after they gave them the facelift. Problem with my being in the US is that I think all of the US ones may have had shitty rubber bumpers added - the Oz ones just had chrome as Toyota intended.

I'm a self-confessed sucker for '70s cars with quad headlights... ;)

cheers

Jules

[salty]

Yes, they were sold in the US. Chevy had a corvair pickup with a rear engine.

Jeep made a cab-over pickup, which was pretty interesting.

[basilisk]

I owned a '76 aspen as well, drive train was beyond complaint, but the rest of the car disintegrated to nothing. Engine held up to about 280,000 miles but I will admit to running bar and chain oil in it for the last 6 months of its life.

basilisk

[N8N]

hich is on top, on the

I'd still consider it "on top" as in one would replace it from under the hood, not by crawling underneath the car like one would on most engines...

nate

[Mike Marlow]

I should think it would be better to simply explain that if they washed the cucumber properly first, there would be no need to slip a condom on it for safe sex...

[salty]

It might be simpler, but it would be incorrect. Perhaps with fatal results.

[Stormin Mormon]

To reduce leaks?

My green Dodge van, had a leak at the rear crank shaft. I ran exclusively used motor oil for the last year or so. Amazing ammounts of oil.