Dial Herco

Archive for the ‘Autos’ Category

The tanks are full. I’m ready to head up to Castaic to chase bass, but The King is still holding court. So I ask, “George, other than transmission work, what’s the most common repair you see here?”
“The most common repair we see now is usually related to maintenance. For example, lately we’ve been seeing a tremendous number of people with pre-1990 carbureted vehicles that are hauling pretty good loads. These vehicles aren’t set up for the newer fuels, some of which act as cleaning agents in the fuel tanks. And that can result in plugged fuel filters.
“It’s actually pretty preventable if you do regular maintenance, if the filters were changed before the trip….”
“They wouldn’t have to make a stop here, would they?” I say.
George smiles. He’s seen it all up along The Grapevine.
The intricacies of towing can fill an engineer’s notebook with fine print, but for most of us it boils down to a simple formula. if you want maximum towing or load-hauling performance, match the vehicle to the weight, keep the transmission cool, and perform regular routine maintenance. Basic advice. For my money, it’s worth a king’s ransom.

Mayer also believes that The Grapevine claims many vehicles “that are inadequately geared.” By this he means that vehicle owners are running the wrong size of differential gears.
Let’s say the truck is fitted with a rear-axle ratio of 3.08:1, which is fairly common. This gear ratio ensures good fuel economy but may not deliver enough power to the rear wheels for optimum towing performance. The end result is a lagging engine and a hot transmission—a deadly combination.
But a truck equipped with a lower axle ratio (4.10:1, for example) can pull a load more easily with less heat buildup. This is especially important if your truck pulls heavier loads such as big bass boats. The trade-off is higher fuel consumption, which is still cheaper than rebuilding a transmission.

“Many people don’t fully understand how heat fries a transmission,” Mayer says. “The transmission will heat up fast while you’re towing because the automatic transmission fluid is moving very quickly through it. Heat breaks down ATh and that leads to premature transmission failure.”
Under normal operating conditions, the temperature of the ATP is about 170° E Stop-and-go traffic can raise the temperature to 250°
F—and that’s without a towing load. In towing conditions, it’s not unusual to get up to 270° E.
“If the temperature gets up to 300° l” Mayer tells me, ‘you better stop at the next gas station, because you’re not going to go much farther than that.You’ve lost it all.”
The easiest and cheapest way to solve this problem is to install an auxiliary transmission oil cooler, which helps ensure that the temperature of the AlT stays in the best operating range. For some reason, many tow vehicle owners resist this option, even though the cost is miniscule ($60 to $120) compared to a rebuilt transmission (as much as $2,000). Another inexpensive transmission-saver is a temperature gauge so you can see when the transmission is headed for trouble.
“I definitely recommend an auxiliary transmission oil cooler,” says Mayer. “Remember, the cooler the transmission oil runs, the better. You’re definitely going to hit yourself in the wallet if you don’t have it.
“I also strongly recommend a drain plug on the automatic transmission—if you can find one.We’ve learned this from vehicles that get heavy usage.When the transmission oil is drained between filter changes, the transmission is a lot less prone to breakdown and failure.”

I don’t know anyone who enjoys haggling with a dealer, and the inevitable mg-of-war between buyer and seller makes buying a 4×4 about as pleasant as having your guns scraped. But if you go armed with a firm strategy based on careful research, you can make the experience bearable.
A friend of mine likes to launch a preemptive strike when he enters a dealership. “When I walk in, I’m ready to buy,” he told me. “I know exactly what I want down to the last detail. I tell the dealer, ‘You’re not going to have the truck I need on the lot. I’m going to order it, and you’re going to turn a profit for very little worlc”
This approach works when buying a domestic truck. Import truck buyers have much less leeway because you can’t special-order from the factory.
A Montana trout fisherman confronts dealers this way: “First, I get the invoice price of the truck.These figures are usually available from libraries, banks, credit unions, or the Internet. Then I call a dealer (I never walk on the floor ff1 can help it), ask for the sales manager, and tell him I’ll buy the truck for “invoice plus $350, straight cash [outside financing], If the sales manager won’t go for it, I may have to offer invoice plus $500, but that’s as far as I go.That’s plenty of profit for a dealer, because he usually also gets incentive money from the factory. The whole process takes about 2 minutes 30 seconds, and there’s no skating around.”
The only way to make this system work for you is to do all your homework, know exactly what you want, and be persistent. Also, the “plus” figure will vary. It might be as low as $200 if the vehicle in question isn’t selling well, or much more if it’s in great demand. If the dealer has plenty of trucks on the lot, he’s usually more willing to bargain, but if he has control of his inventory, he’ll tell you to take a hike. You also need to make sure the invoice figures are current (last year’s won’t do) and cover all the options and special equipment you need.
Don’t use the process to lowball the dealer with a completely ridiculous offer. Doing so brands you an idiot. Remember, this guy sells trucks 6 days a week, 8 (or more) hours a day. You buy once every ten years. He is not going to sell you a truck at a loss. A fair offer tells him you are serious, and you are more likely to get the truck you want at a price you can bear.
If you live in an area with few dealers, or if you want a red-hot vehicle, you won’t be able to bargain as effectively. Even so, have the numbers at your fingertips. Walking into a showroom completely unprepared is a recipe for disaster.
If you can’t come to terms that you can live with, walk. Let the salesman know you’re willing to buy a different model from another dealer. That will often bring him back to the table with a more reasonable offer. (I must admit that sometimes this doesn’t work. I once had a salesman just turn away from me as I walked out the door. I later bought at a better dealership with a terrific service department, so in the end I made the right move.)
Once you strike a deal, don’t compare it to the deals engineered by the guys at work or at the gun club. Are you happy with the deal? That’s all that matters. Salesmen can cut a deal in many different ways, and unless you’re party to every aspect of the negotiations, you can’t really judge the merits of a particular sale.
How much truck can you afford? The general rule of thumb is the purchase price should not exceed half of your annual income. And though you need to be cost-conscious, don’t underbuy. In order for the truck to perform on target, you must order the needed special equipment. This is no place to scrimp, especially if your hunting and fishing takes you far from the beaten track.

Truck manuñcturers have noticed how hot the truck accessory market is these days, and they are rushing into the game by offering some accessories that traditionally have been left exclusively to the after- market. The problem is that truck manukcturers design a product to appeal to a broad, general market. Hunters or fishermen may find that manufacturer-offered accessories don’t meet their specific needs.
Much of the rest of this book is devoted to accessories that have been specially designed to meet the needs of hunters and fishermen. Make a point of reading the relevant chapters before you buy any new accessories.