TodFitch

the "heel" of the shoe has a round hole that fits over an eccentric bold. That bolt can be loosened and then rotated to move the heel of the shoe up and down as well as in and out. That motion is the "major adjustment". There is a cam that contacts the brake show about halfway between the heel pivot point and the brake cylinder. That is your "minor adjustment". Getting a copy of a service manual for your vehicle would be a good thing. These are not complicated vehicles but there are a number of items on them that are significantly different from modern vehicles so there can be a little bit of a learning curve.

Ventured out to the grocery store today and found that everything on my shopping list was in stock. Looks like the store is almost back to normal as far as stock though I didn't look down the paper goods isle so that might be an issue still. They were only letting a limited number of people in at a time but they also had every check out register staffed. The result was the time normally spent at the end of shopping waiting in the check out line was replaced by about the same amount of time waiting to enter the store. I think the whole experience took about the same amount of time as it did “BC” (before coronavirus). Since there was limited number of shoppers in the store it was a more pleasant experience than BC. Our county public health office has started posting the number of cases in each town (before they were just listing the totals for the entire county). As of today there have been 10 reported cases in the relatively small city that I live in. The shape of the graphs is pretty scary, a lot more people are going to get sick and die before this is over. Stay safe, keep your “social distance” and wash your hands!

Gentle reminder: Requests for parts need to be in the classified area.

Hmmm. The fuel tanks on modern cars is pretty well sealed, I didn't think that moisture from the atmosphere getting in the tank was a problem like it is on our old cars with vented tanks. On the new car I usually fill up when the nag light on the dash lights up. I was under the impression that the big reason for keeping the tank at least 1/4 full was so the electric fuel pump was properly cooled to prolong its life. I've never bothered filling up before empty and I've never had a modern car's electric fuel pump fail on me. That includes all the new vehicles I've had since 1992. Small sample size, so not scientifically valid. But it would seem odd that the engineers at the car companies would knowingly create that type of failure condition. Another argument to keep the tank 1/4 or even 1/2 full heard is that it simply is a reserve to allow you to drive some distance if/when buying gas becomes an issue (evacuation from a fire or flood zone in an emergency, etc.). This actually seems to be the strongest argument to me. Regarding the argument about better average fuel economy by letting the tank go empty, that seems pretty weak too. The best thing you can do for fuel economy is buy a car that gets good gas mileage. Incrementally increasing your mileage by dropping your tank below 1/4 on a car that gets, say 25 to 35 MPG still is horrible compared to buying a car that gets 55 or 60 MPG. And yes, in the US you can buy cars that get 55 to 60 MPG today.

Tucson must be moving up in the world. Back when I was being raised there in the '50s and '60s is was definitely not the place to be, always felt like we lived in hicksville. Now Arizona and Tucson are becoming trendy. Things being named after the state and city like Arizona Iced Tea, Hyundai Tucson vehicles. And, apparently, the elevation has been increased from 2400 to 3500.

On my car there is a expansion/welch/freeze plug on the head above the sensing bulb. Not sure that exists on all versions of the Mopar L-6 engine but maybe it does. I believe you can remove that plug to give you a place to push from behind the bulb if it is frozen in place. I know from experience that it is quite easy to break the seal between the bulb and capillary if you try pulling on it. Been there, done that and that is why I figured out how to graft a new bulb on to my dash unit.

Been that way for thousands of years: Sinister was latin for left handed and you know what it means now. Or, more recently, gauche (currently “lacking social experience or grace”) started out in French meaning left handed. Since the left hand was used for personal hygiene you can see how a person using it for public greetings, etc. could have been considered poorly trained in the social graces or maybe even evil.

Not as popular in the US as some other parts of the world, but you can get by with a lot less TP.

The tomatoes planted last April survived our version of winter. The current crop is not as sweet and good as during the heat of the summer but the ones we harvested last week made a really nice roasted tomato pasta sauce. And the remnant of grass we haven't yet removed to plant with zero-scape or native plants needed to be mowed and I finally got around to it today.

Definitely unexpected and positive. Makes me want to see what Penny's is selling nowadays and shop there if they have stuff I need or want. Seems like that would be a way to reward good behavior.

A bunch of my sockets and open end wrenches are still the PennCraft set I was given when I acquired my old car back in 1973. Still working just fine and are usually the tools I grab first though they've been supplemented by tools from other vendors.

Some place on the web I came across a place were a fellow claimed to have made a new bakelite replacement using a standard 3-d printer. Not sure how long the plastic would hold up but it would probably work for a while. (Actually, if the part you are referring to is the one I am thinking of then it is more likely micarta, the stuff they used to make circuit boards from in the old tube electronics era.)

Stopped by the store to get a couple of items (some spices, etc.) and was astounded to see the empty shelves. Not just TP and bottled water. Looks like people are making a run on everything. Well, not everything, the spice shelves were well stocked and it looked like the fresh fruit and vegetables area was well stocked. But anything that could be remotely considered a staple with a long shelf life was in short supply or missing altogether. The weird thing to me is that this is earthquake country and standard advise is to have enough food, water and medicines to hold you over when "the Big One" hits. It's not like other areas where you might get a day or more of warning before a hurricane or blizzard strikes, you should be stocked up all the time since earthquakes cannot be predicted. So why make a run on canned goods, pasta, etc. on the off chance you'll need to self-isolate for a while? You should already have a pantry full. And if you don't there is likely to be a friend or neighbor who could make a trip to the store and leave the groceries on your door step for you if you can't leave the house. I'd sure do it for my neighbors and am pretty sure they'd do it for me. Bizarre. Really, really bizarre.

I've been totally confused by this TP hoarding. I've seen nothing to indicate that the symptoms of Covid-19 require significantly more TP than for a healthy person. Maybe everyone has decided to purchase Frantz TP style oil filters for their cars?

Drove through some light rain today. . . The windshield on my '33 Plymouth is vertical enough that the water droplets don't get blown off. They just dance around merging until a droplet forms big enough to migrate down to the cowl area where it then gets blow off. Sort of interesting to watch. That said, the Rain-X did keep the windshield clear enough that visibility was no issue.