How Do You Shift into First?

[TechMan]

http://www.mymagictank.com/

[Scout26]

I bet you can save $30.00, just by having the ol' Mark-1 Eyeball glance at the gas gauge every so often and never letting it get below 1/2 or 1/4 (your choice).

[mtnbkr]

Unless you defeat the clutch interlock on most current cars and trucks, that is no longer a possibility.  Defeating that interlock is common among hardcore offroaders.

My 4Runner has a built in interlock bypass switch.  The manual even covers using it to get the truck rolling on very steep inclines (put it into 1st gear in low range, engage bypass, turn key). 

Chris

[230RN]

"(put it into 1st gear in low range, engage bypass, turn key)."

I've started many a manual shift car by rolling down a slight incline or pushing, but I use second gear since it cranks the engine more easily.  

One thing I noticed (at least with an older Audi I had) was that the whole computer/electrical system goes dead with a battery voltage <10V.  (This was the first year Audi put a computer in the car.)

On the other hand, I've started older BC (Before Computer) cars with less than 8 volts by pushing.

[KD5NRH]

I bet you can save $30.00, just by having the ol' Mark-1 Eyeball glance at the gas gauge every so often and never letting it get below 12 or 1/4 (your choice).

Gauge is busted, OEM part doesn't exist anymore, and I can't find a junkyard cluster that fits.

Trip meter is busted too. Odometer works, but doing math while driving is error prone.

[Ron]

I'm a year or two away from getting a new vehicle.

My last car with an auto trans got towed away to the bone yard in the late 80's. The last two cars I've owned have had five speeds.

I'll probably try and find some form of Subaru with a manual trans when the time comes.

If I find one with an auto at the right price I may do that; it would be weird not driving a manual.

 

[RoadKingLarry]

Unless you defeat the clutch interlock on most current cars and trucks, that is no longer a possibility.  Defeating that interlock is common among hardcore offroaders.

When my daughter managed to kill the clutch in my '97 dodge it failed so that the pedal wouldn't move at all. She was 15 or so miles out in the  country at her grandma's house and it would have cost way more than she could afford to tow it.  I started it by jumping across the selenoid with it in neutral and made her push me to get me started rolling down a slight incline. Once I was moving I jambed  it into gear and drove it to the shop where it was getting fixed. The tricky part was timing it to get across the 4 lane highway.

[Scout26]

Gauge is busted, OEM part doesn't exist anymore, and I can't find a junkyard cluster that fits.

Trip meter is busted too. Odometer works, but doing math while driving is error prone.

Post it note with a number on it the indicates "Start looking for a gas station, you only got 150-100 miles of fuel left."  You prep for everything else, this one should be easy.   

I'm a year or two away from getting a new vehicle.

My last car with an auto trans got towed away to the bone yard in the late 80's. The last two cars I've owned have had five speeds.

I'll probably try and find some form of Subaru with a manual trans when the time comes.

If I find one with an auto at the right price I may do that; it would be weird not driving a manual.

I can recommend Gerald Subaru in Naperville, there on Ogden and Naperville Rd.  They have treated me very well (and I was recommended to thme from a couple of my friends).

[charby]

I know it's a completely crazy idea (and just doesn't have the same fun fire, kaboom, and horrible screaming death potential as a jerry rigged trunk tank) but I just fill up the main gas tank when it gets low...works for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IDU7cLw3_8

[KD5NRH]

Post it note with a number on it the indicates "Start looking for a gas station, you only got 150-100 miles of fuel left."  You prep for everything else, this one should be easy.

I don't want to give the odometer a reason to break before I get it to 300k.

There are plenty of 10-11 gallon racing tanks out there that would fit nicely in the front section of the trunk, and shouldn't be any less safe than the existing one under the car.

[Scout26]

I don't want to give the odometer a reason to break before I get it to 300k.

There are plenty of 10-11 gallon racing tanks out there that would fit nicely in the front section of the trunk, and shouldn't be any less safe than the existing one under the car.

That first sentence is probably the dumbest thing I've read all year.  And it's only 22 Dec.   

[KD5NRH]

That first sentence is probably the dumbest thing I've read all year.  And it's only 22 Dec.

Guaranteed if I get that dependent on it, it will break.

[charby]

There are plenty of 10-11 gallon racing tanks out there that would fit nicely in the front section of the trunk, and shouldn't be any less safe than the existing one under the car.

Its not that the tank isn't safe, its the delivery method that you are proposing.

[230RN]

KD5NRH remarked,

Guaranteed if I get that dependent on it, it will break.

Well, little plastic gears twirling around each other for years and little pawls and cams bumping up the next digit (or all six at once) in all temps, dust conditions, reversing, etc...  Sure, not much torque involved, but lotsa time.  And in all that time the plasticizer in those little cams and pawls and gears is evaporating.

Can't blame you for thinking that way.

I belatedly discovered on one of my cars that you weren't supposed to reset the trip odometer while the car was moving.  Even said so in the manual.  Oh well, so much for that trip odometer.

Another RTFMIED moment.  (RTFM In Exquisite Detail.)

Terry, 230RN

[Scout26]

Guaranteed if I get that dependent on it, it will break.

Neither has any effect on the other.  Therefore, I fail to see how using the "Post-it Note system" is more dangerous then your current potential Flambe' system.

However, since you claim you can't find the necessary part to fix the gauge, a little Googleing yielded this:  http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/search/?Ntt=Fuel+Pump

Replacing a fuel pump isn't that hard.  (We did it on 1961 Ford Falcon after 20+ years of Indiana road salt).   Do yourself and everyone here a favor, so you don't burn you and your kids in an accident.   

[KD5NRH]

However, since you claim you can't find the necessary part to fix the gauge, a little Googleing yielded this:  http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/search/?Ntt=Fuel+Pump

Replacing a fuel pump isn't that hard.  (We did it on 1961 Ford Falcon after 20+ years of Indiana road salt).   Do yourself and everyone here a favor, so you don't burn you and your kids in an accident.

The pump is fine.  The gauge itself is broken.  As evidenced by the fact that the low fuel light, which operates off the same signal, works.  The light just can't tell me anything other than "it might already be too late."

[230RN]

Amusingly, my fuel gauge had been acting funny, giving wildly false readings.  There are two senders in that Subaru tank, and the outputs are averaged by some arcane Japanese method.

Got a goodly bump from a guy in a pickup truck behind me at a traffic light.  No damage, just some marks on my rear bumper.

Fuel gauge worked fine after that.

[41magsnub]

KD5NRH remarked,


I belatedly discovered on one of my cars that you weren't supposed to reset the trip odometer while the car was moving.  Even said so in the manual.  Oh well, so much for that trip odometer.

Wait..  you're not supposed to do that?  That might be how I killed the trip odometer in the land cruiser last month!

[230RN]

Mine was an Audi.

Son1 says it's the same thing on his BMW.

But he's smart enough to RTFM first, before breaking stuff, unlike me.

[Scout26]

The pump is fine.  The gauge itself is broken.  As evidenced by the fact that the low fuel light, which operates off the same signal, works.  The light just can't tell me anything other than "it might already be too late."

They've got this neat thing called the interwebz these days.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/fuel-gauges/saturn-sl1-1997/c27170d50966y1997j1s23.jcwx?filterid=d50966y1997g2

For about the same price as your self-propelled IED system, you can have a working fuel gauge.   Easy-Peazy Lemon Squeezie.

[lupinus]

They've got this neat thing called the interwebz these days.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/fuel-gauges/saturn-sl1-1997/c27170d50966y1997j1s23.jcwx?filterid=d50966y1997g2

For about the same price as your self-propelled IED system, you can have a working fuel gauge.   Easy-Peazy Lemon Squeezie.

Self propelled IED?

I can neither confirm nor deny knowing a fellow who had a dodge Dakota with some jury rigged diesel engine crammed in to it. Who drove from New Hampshire to Mississippi,  to south carolina, back to new Hampshire,  and various other points along the way, often staying a week or two here and there driving around.

 Whilst managing to not stop for fuel once during this expedition, as he was towing a trailer with multiple large drums covered by a tarp and which may or may not have been filled with a portion of his diesel stash. And another jerry rigged quick disconnect system of tubing and siphons leading to the fuel tank.

To the best of my knowledge he made no stops at garden supply centers during this road trip.

[Ben]

The pump is fine.  The gauge itself is broken.  As evidenced by the fact that the low fuel light, which operates off the same signal, works.  The light just can't tell me anything other than "it might already be too late."

You could always get a $15 Chinese ODB2 reader and Torque Pro.

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/monitor-your-cars-performance-with-the-torque-app-for-android/

[Monkeyleg]

Nearly everything on my '91 Saturn is inoperable, including the odometer. The gas gauge is also partially inoperable. When the level gets below 1/2, the needle will swing between 1/2 and empty, then as it gets close to 1/4 tank, it swings between 1/4 and empty.

I'm not about to put a new gauge in that old beater, so I just put gas in every so often, and remember when. If I'm driving further than a few blocks away, I'll put gas in just to be safe. I usually only need to put about $15 a month in it.

[mtnbkr]

Based on this thread, I've decided assuming a little debt now and then to have a working car is better than driving around with fuel cans in the trunk because I'm too sorry to fix my daily driver.

Then again, I paid off my last new car in 12 months so what do I know.

Chris

[Scout26]

You could always get a $15 Chinese ODB2 reader and Torque Pro.

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/monitor-your-cars-performance-with-the-torque-app-for-android/

I know Autozone and Carquest (IIRC) will do the reader thing for free.