Archive for December, 2008
Carburetor Tuning
Carburetor servicing or tuning makes sure that all the parts are in working condition. There are several reasons why a carburetor may stop functioning or may not function to its full capacity, including gasoline resins or dust particles clogging the carburetor jets, gumming up of the throttles and stickiness of the choke valves. Carburetor parts are controlled by springs that may become worn out over time, which will affect the functioning of the carburetor. Tuning the carburetor from time to time will prevent its complete breakdown.
Tuning may involve replacing some of the parts that are available as carburetor kits. Tuning a carburetor ensures that the engine is in good working condition. Carburetors are affected by several conditions like unfavorable climate, different types of fuel, the terrain, and the type of riding. There is not time limit for carburetor tuning; it should be done whenever the ride was dusty or when the roads are muddy.
Carburetor tuning starts with pressure washing the bike, especially at the bottom where roost and oil is likely to accumulate. The sub-frame can be removed for better access. A look at the vent hoses would reveal any melting or clogging that might cause the engine to bog. Check the cable for any frays or kinks. Sometimes the rubber dust cover may be torn and may need replacement. Check the float bowl, jet baffle, float, airscrew, and the fuel inlet needle. Ensure that all these are in working condition, free of dust. Next, check the bell mouth of the carburetor to see that there is no clogging at the two holes at the bottom.
Flush the passage after dismantling the carburetor. This can be done by a can of brake or carburetor cleaner that is available in any automobile parts store. While spraying the cleaner, ensure that it flows out the pilot and the air passage in the bell mouth. Next, spray it through the tiny passage between the venture and the intake spigot. This will open any clogging along the passages, thus ensuring free flow of gasoline and air. Lastly, flush the slides bore and slide.
Jetting is the process of adjusting or changing the air or fuel jets. Before jetting, look for crankcase air leaks, crankcase oil leaks, coolant-system leaks, carbon-seized exhaust valves, blown silences, broken reed-valve petals, weak spark, clogged carburetor vent hoses, too low or too high carburetor float level, and worn carburetor fuel-inlet needle. There are certain things to be taken into consideration before jetting, including the air temperature, humidity, altitude, track conditions, fuel, and load. There are three types of carburetor tuning gauges including Relative-air-density (RAD) gauges, Air-fuel (AF) ratio meters and Exhaust-gas-temperature (EGT) gauges.
Ski Repair and Tuning – A Comprehensive Guide
First thing is to go online and buy a diamond stone sharpener and a de-burring stone. These are actually very cheap only a few dollars. Also buy a rough file and a smooth file (also called bevels). Purchase some ski wax and a plastic wax scraper. If you have huge divots in your skis you will need to get a glue gun and some P-Tex sticks. If you can you should buy some large table mounted clamps to hold your skis while you do the work. Couple other items you will need are a clothes iron, a c-clamp, a sanding block with some medium and fine sandpaper. You might not need all these items everytime you do a tune-up but you should have them around.
Now that you have everything you need the first thing you will do is repair any divots in the base of the ski. Turn the ski facing with the bottom up in the table clamp. Take a razor blade like an exacto knife and cut out the divot making the hole deeper so the P-Tex will hold. Sometimes you have to use a small chisel to get get the hole bigger. Run some rough sandpaper over the hole mainly inside the top edges to create a surface for the repair to bind to. The P-Tex stick looks like a glue stick so just put one in the pre heated glue gun and squirt some P-Tex in the hole. Next take a regular c-clamp and a small flat smooth piece of metal and put the metal over the repair and use the c-clamp to put pressure on the repair while it sets. Wait at least 12 hours before proceeding. When the repair is dry remove the c-clamp and metal and put the ski bottom up on the table clamp. Use your rough bevel to grind the top off the repair as it wil be sticking up a couple centimeters from the base of the ski. Don’t over grind the repair with the rough bevel it could easily take off too much and you will have to re-do the whole thing. Also don’t slip you could ruin the edge of your ski. If you hit the repair wrong with the bevel it can also rip the whole thing out and you have to start over. You have to use finesse really when you do this and it does take some practice.
The repair has been done and now you move to the actual ski tune. You will be using your smooth bevel to grind the bottom of the ski and get the big burrs out of the edges. This will smooth out your P-Tex repair more and smooth any scratches out of the base. For skis that have been sitting a long time the bevel will remove any rust on the metal ski edges. It is important that you hold the bevel correctly by grasping it with your hands facing down and your left hand forward of your right hand. It looks like you are holding it diagonally. Start at the bottom of the ski work your way forward with the bevel. You might have to practice with it a couple times just dont press down too hard on the ski until you feel comfortable. You will now you are doing it right because the edges of the ski will begin to sharpen and the base of the ski will be lightly shedding material in an even way.
When you are done the bottom of the ski should be smooth and the base of the ski should be flush with the edges. If you are having trouble getting that to happen you might have to wet-sand the bottom of the ski with a block of medium-fine sandpaper (make sure you use plenty of water while you sand). In ski shops they run the skis over a wet belt sander that quickly grinds the ski bottom down before they use the bevel. Sanding yourself takes more time but it works too. Next take the diamond sharpener (also called a de-burring tool) and run it over each metal edge including the sides and you will see it get amazingly sharp and smooth. After you use the diamond sharpener finish up the edges with the de-burring stone. This can take some time but it will give you unbeatable performance with your skis. When completed the edges will sparkle and should be very sharp.
Finally the wax. You will probably have a block of wax and will need to hold a lighter under it and let the wax drip along the bottom of the ski. It’s ok if you put too much you can scrape it off later. When the wax is dripped on the bottom of the ski you must take a hot clothes iron and carefully and fairly quickly melt the wax onto the ski base. If the iron is on the ski too long it will melt the base of the ski and ruin it forever. Be careful. After the wax dries use your plastic wax scraper and starting scraping at the top of the ski running down to the bottom as many times as it takes to smooth it out flush with the edges and the base. The idea is to scrape as much wax off the ski as possible. You can put a little silicon on a cloth and buff it as the finishing touch.
What you just learned is similar to what they do at the ski-shops and ski techs normally charge $100 and up per repair and extra for the sharpening and wax. Do it yourself and you become more in-tune (pun intended) with your skis.
Guaranteed Car Finance – Easy Options
Wanna know guaranteed car finance better? First, imagine this: you got an extremely poor credit score; or let’s be a little mild – you got a less than perfect credit score. You want to own a new car and decide to get a loan. However, the lender sweetly denies you, labeling you as ‘a high risk client’. You come back home with a long face. Gone are your dreams of owning a car. Wait! This is just your imagination!
Now, let’s look at the reality. Your score remains very much the same, but the end scene changes. Instead of coming home with a long face, you come home jumping with joy thanks to guaranteed car finance! These are special sort of loans given to those individuals who were denied loans elsewhere either due to poor scores or any other reason. The lenders dealing with no credit check car loan provide finance even to those who have mortgage arrears or CCJ’s.
Get Loans Without Credit History
And don’t think that because you have no history, nobody will pay attention to you. Guaranteed car finance makes sure that everyone gets to own a car. Therefore, they provide no credit auto loans to those who have nil credit history. Usually these students are just out of college. For them, this king of car finance is no less than a boon!
New Is Good
Although many people are apprehensive of trying something new, they do not want to face the embarrassing situation of loan denial. And this will happen, if you go to any other lender for loan with a bad credit. They scrutinize your rating with such details like a scientist examining bacteria under a microscope! Finally, when they have scrutinized to their heart’s content, they calmly refuse because your scores are lower than their expectations. And mind you, they aren’t interested in knowing WHY your scores are low. So, don’t ever think that you would melt their hearts with a sob story of credits!
You can avert this situation by opting for guaranteed car finance. Well, you might have to pay a bit higher interest rates for poor scores, but at least you get a loan and a car at the end. So, the choice is yours. Do you wanna apply for them and own a car or apply for regular loans and get a long face?
The Basics Behind Car Finance Loans
It is not everyone who can afford to buy a car for cash these days. As a result more and more people are finding themselves applying for car finance loans from the different credit providers. And whilst much profits have been realized by such credit providers it goes without saying that the receivers of the loans have been equally satisfied. Nonetheless it is useless to want a loan when you do not know a few things about getting one.
When you have decided to apply for the auto loan its best that you do some research into the different credit providers. Researching into these gives you an idea of which ones are reputable and which ones are not worth the sweat at all. Search through testimonies on the internet, mainly on blogs, as these provide one of the most unbiased information on car financing institutions.
The more common type of loan is the personal car loan. Such loans are given by credit institutions at different rates of interest and they actually pay the car dealer cash and then obtain their financing back directly from you. Before contracting with them it is important that you compare the different rates of interest as they are offered by different loan companies.
Interest rates are never a good wakeup call but they are an inescapable reality nonetheless. There are ways used to cut down on overall interest rates. One thing for certain is a first rate credit score. Whenever you pay back your loans a good credit score/record accrues to you resulting in a reduction in interest rates.
In addition to this interest can also be reduced by making a down payment on the loan. A down payment, or deposit, is the initial payment on a loan that gives a credit provider the reassurance that you are a good debtor. This reduces the risk of paying you the loan and the corresponding rates of interest.