My wooden garage door had the extension springs. What I liked about them is that they were easy to install because after you put the door all the way up and locked it in place with a c clamp there was no tension on the spring at all. I had 2 of them break in 20 years… I put cables down the middle after the first one broke and took out a row of oil bottles, what a mess.
When I had a steel garage door installed, it came with the torsion springs. Home depot had a free installation sale and the actual installation was done by a local garage door company. The guy installing it asked why I just didn’t buy it from them. I asked him what his company charged for that size door and he quoted me a price just about double what I paid. Neither he or I could figure out why his company would charge so much more for a door, but take on installations so cheap for someone else.
Those tosional springs can be dangerous, a friend of mine was adjusting one he installed for someone on a hot dy with a big crescent wrench and was sweating and his hand slipped and the wrench came around and broke his arm. I am not sure if a crescent wrench is the right tool for that.
Last winter was so cold for so long that my garage floor heaved so much that the cable came off the pulley. Thinking about my friend, I called someone out to fix it.
Yeah when you start getting to the end of the winding, they can have a lot of force to them. But you use two steel rods and alternate them in the holes as you are winding. If you get tired you can just let the one rod rest against the top of the door for a minute and continue. The thing is you should put your ladder to the side of the winding cone so you aren’t in front of the spring or the steel rods but on the side. Then if you slip, you aren’t in the way. Helps to have an 8 pt 7/16 socket for the set screws.
Technically it does because you’re carrying around an extra 40 or 50 pounds of gas, but that’s inconsequential considering the advantages already pointed out.
Having once run out of gas due to a broken gauge in heavy traffic on a hot summer day and once nearly stranded running on fumes in the middle of the night in winter due to an unforseen situation, both back as a young driver, I’ve maintained the habit since of rarely going below half a tank before filling up. It has saved me being stranded on the side of the road several times when caught in hours long traffic gridlock in bad weather.
I ran out of gas with my Morris Minor once. It used to get about 2 miles per gallon and I’d carry a gas can in the trunk. Unfortunately my mother tracked me down before I could get it going again. She was not happy that I wasn’t home on time-running out of gas or not. You didn’t want to make Mom mad and midnight was midnight, not 12:30. What I put her through but I’ve never run out since.
Is that a typo? I’d expect a MM to get closer to 20 miles per gallon.
Do you folks remember the problems w/buying gas during the oil embargo back in the 1970’s? I was a student, but used to work at a gas station in the evening as an attendant in those days. On even number days I could only give the customer gas if their license plate was an even number. I noticed one lady would buy gas every day, both even and odd days, same car. Apparently she was switching the license plates with another car … lol … The gas station owner told me to put out a sign that said “Out of gas” every night at 10 pm. I asked how he knew he was out of gas at 10 pm? He said he wasn’t out of gas, but he needed to have gas to sell the next day. He didn’t want to be completely out of gas on any day, so he rationed the gas using the “no-gas” sign.
Yup I remember that. I had two cars though, one even and one odd but never really needed to use that option. I had a good station that did everything he could to keep gas in the tanks and I’ve always traded there since because of that.
Yeah something was wrong with that Morris. The guy had a chunk of rubber stuck in the carb instead of the plug. I didn’t know enough at the time to go through the carb and didn’t have it that long. I filled up and drove it to the next town 10 miles away and filled up again to get home again. Hey, I only paid $125 for it. I guess given enough time and money I could have made a decent little car out of it, but I didn’t have either.
I’m pretty notorious for pulling up to the pump whilst running on fumes. Particularly so if I have a substantial amount of fuel points to redeem. I’ve never had to replace a fuel pump due to failure in my entire life. Maybe I’m living right or something.
Yeah the carb was one of those SU and instead of the dash pot screw had a big chunk of hard rubber stuck in it. The guy that had it before was a real bruiser so I don’t know if he had it apart or it just needed to be rebuilt. Prolly why it had trouble starting. I didn’t know much back then and there was no internet or even a service manual.
Sometimes SU’s are configured as a pair of carb’s for one engine. Some VW Beetles I think are sometimes done that way. Apparently it is quite a challenge to get the pair tuned so they match with each other, so I can see how a single diy’er rigged SU might not run the engine very well.
1980 CJ 5 that the fuel gauge stopped working - ran out of gas twice.
2001 Dodge 1500 work truck - the darn truck was out of gas when the gauge read 1/4 tank. I adjusted my refuel routine after running out of gas twice.
1973 Chevy caprice - This was my parents old car and I was still in high school. I coasted (literally) into the gas pumps once. The car had a 454, and I swear I must’ve poured half a gallon of gas into the carb to prime it.
My Morris just had one carb. My VW just had one too but overhauled that and don’t think it was an SU. My Corvair had two carbs and I overhauled them. If I remember right you had to adjust them with a vacuum gauge to get them balanced.
Our 41 Buick had two, 2 bbl carbs. Each one had a primary and a secondary. Fastest American production car of its day, quicker acceleration and higher top speed that the 49 Olds Rocket 88.
I’d expect a MM to get closer to 20 miles per gallon.