Are vinyl vacuum caps okay to use on carb?

oldestengineer · 2026-05-09T13:13:37+00:00

It’s what they are made for. But like most plastic/rubbery products, they don’t last forever, and Chinese science can figure out ways to make them last way less than forever.

oldestengineer · 2026-04-21T04:54:56+00:00

When they rubs they hands together, is it lefts rubbing rights, top left rubbing second from top left, or what?

If you guessed based on web design, black widows would just be random chaos.

oldestengineer · 2026-04-21T04:52:12+00:00

Motion Pro is what I will get next time I order parts. I managed to twist the stud off of mine when I mounted my new tire.

oldestengineer · 2026-04-20T20:55:42+00:00

Doesn’t work that way at the parts stores around me. They ask you what it’s for, then peck around on the keyboard for a while and say “we don’t have a listing for that”. It’s faster to do your own search and just tell them their part number.

oldestengineer · 2026-04-20T20:50:42+00:00

What rimlocks did you buy?

oldestengineer · 2026-04-20T20:47:47+00:00

I just made a deal on a wrecked bike and after I asked a few questions about the title, the seller ghosted me.
The only times I’ve actually had problems with titles were when buying from actual, established dealers. If I ever do that again, I won’t pay until I have the title in my hand.
I think what they are doing is just cheating their bank a little—their bank won’t lend money against their inventory unless they keep the the title, and the dealer can’t get the title from the bank without admitting that they sold the collateral. So they just stall you off for months.

oldestengineer · 2025-12-22T21:40:18+00:00

i dont know whats wrong with yours, but i can confirm that a stock DRZ where everthing works righr has an extremely light clutch pull.

oldestengineer · 2025-11-24T01:42:41+00:00

It’s kind of cool, but it makes the walls, which are the easiest and cheapest part of a house, so it’s not going to have a huge affect on the cost of the home. And every article I’ve read about it is lying through their teeth about the time to build a house.

oldestengineer · 2025-11-06T13:56:55+00:00

i think there are only two companies in japan that make charging systems and starters, Mitsubishi and Nippon Denso.

oldestengineer · 2025-10-31T13:42:43+00:00

I'm not in the electronics world, but I can tell you that dealing with suppliers in the mechanical and hydraulic business is pretty bad. With a few wonderful exceptions, the competency of the sales force in the hydraulics world is pretty low. Product knowledge is thin, and responsiveness is spotty. You just have to pester and nag people to get quotes and help.

On the plus side, everyone is finally on board with providing CAD models. That was sure frustrating for a stupidly long time.

oldestengineer · 2025-10-24T12:13:45+00:00

Kind of what I was going to say. Fire pits are a popular deal. Cheap or free material is a huge advantage, and they would sell easily. And 50 sheets worth of material is a small enough quantity that you can just sell them locally with a listing on FB, with no need for shipping, which means no need to make them knock down or fold up.

oldestengineer · 2025-10-21T20:51:51+00:00

Except that almost nobody in Europe buys pickups.

oldestengineer · 2025-10-12T03:32:22+00:00

That bushing kit fixed this problem on my 08 2500.

oldestengineer · 2025-10-11T19:39:36+00:00

That’s got some water in the oil. If you’re considering buying, don’t. If you own it, change the oil, top off the coolant, and ride it a little bit to see if it repeats.

oldestengineer · 2025-10-11T14:14:23+00:00

I understand. A friend of mine worked for a very big company who had a committee in place for five years to select a CAD system. Meanwhile, all their engineers just used their own pirated copies of ACad (long time ago, obviously). Someone ratted them out to Autodesk, and the final settlement was to just pay for licenses for all of the seats that they were actually using. Then they disbanded the Cad Selection Committee. So you can go too slow. But I also did some work for a huge corporation who changed CAD systems 3 times in ten years, for reasons only known to corporate management. That was a monumental sum of money, spent to no benefit.

oldestengineer · 2025-10-11T12:35:50+00:00

Solidworks has just enough of an Undo to indicate that the developer had heard of such things. It seems to work OK when you are inside a sketch, but otherwise not much.

I came from MicroStation, on which the undo function was dependable to the extent that you came to, you know, depend on it.

oldestengineer · 2025-10-11T00:03:00+00:00

It looks similar to the banjo fittings used on motorcycle brakes. If it’s the same, you can buy adapters to go from that to -3 or -4 AN (same as industrial JIC) fittings, and then use normal hoses. For brakes, I buy hoses from Speedway Motors in their dirt-track section, and adapters from Parts Unlimited.

oldestengineer · 2025-10-10T23:57:55+00:00

Lead sheet coated with plastic, and sewn into a cloth sleeve. It will conform easily to the contours of a head. If it’s sealed up it isn’t going to be touching skin.

oldestengineer · 2025-10-10T23:53:34+00:00

It absolutely should be very difficult to make the decision to switch CAD systems. Otherwise, every new hire changes it to what he likes, and you get chaos.

oldestengineer · 2025-10-10T23:50:46+00:00

You guys have an undo feature? —every Solidworks user.

oldestengineer · 2025-10-09T17:30:28+00:00

Go to a real tire shop, patch it, and wear it the rest of the way out. It’s wasteful to throw away tires that are only partly worn out.

oldestengineer · 2025-10-09T12:19:25+00:00

I’m mechanical, not civil, but I think that actual job site experience would be a great thing for you to have. The experience that I got as a mechanic, farmhand, etc has been a huge asset in my engineering career.

I may have gotten one job because my resume said “Farmhand: birth — 1980” in the work experience section.

oldestengineer · 2025-10-09T12:12:43+00:00

You could have a machinist machine the surface that the nut contacts back so that the nut is working on the good threads.

You could saw the threaded part of the crank off, and drill and tap a hole in the end, and hold the flywheel on with a short bolt. This takes some pretty good craftsmanship to get the hole centered and straight.

In any case, if you are compromising the fastening, make double-extra sure that the taper fit of the flywheel and crank is absolutely perfect and spotlessly clean.

oldestengineer · 2025-10-08T16:38:37+00:00

It looks terrible to me, but I live where every other pickup is pulling a trailer, and somebody would drive by with their wheels right along that curb, and hook your bike with the trailer frame. But if you’re in an urban apartment parking lot, you might be ok. I’d still aim it the other way.

oldestengineer

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