06 Feb 09 08:02, Roger Nelson wrote to Roy Witt:


 RW>> RN> No more than that and probably less.  We put a new battery in my
 RW>> RN> Lincoln last month and instead of the $39.95 I'm used to paying,
 RW>> it
 RW>> RN> was $111.00.

 RW>> Isn't that insane. I've got an Optima Red Top in three vehicles and
 RW>> they've gone from $95 to $150 in less than three years.

 RN> Apparently the price of a lot of things has gone up 300%.  I should
 RN> call the local Lincoln dealer and ask them what the price is today to
 RN> replace the heater core, which involves R&R of the dash, as you may
 RN> remember.

Betcha they'll charge more than an independant mechanic. I forget now how
many hours were quoted in the labor book on that R&R, but it probably will
take more than a day to do.

 RW>> RN> My 1984 Chevy 3/4 ton truck had a 4.10 rear end and you could
 RW>> pull RN> houses with that thing.  Lousy highway mileage, though.

 RW>> Standard trans?

 RN> Turbo-Hydramatic 350.

That's why. Those trannys didn't have a 'lock-up' torque converter, nor an
overdrive gear. My 72 had that trans and got about 12mpg. That jumped to
16mpg when I swapped in the 700R4. 3.73:1 rear end and .7 overdrive with a
lockup torque converter.

 RW>> Scissor jack! All I've ever seen in Chevy pickups are bottle jacks.
 RW>> My 72 had a bottle jack. But, it doesn't matter what kind of jack
 RW>> they come with, none of them are up to the task. And none of them
 RW>> are as easy to use as a floor jack. I have a bottle jack I salvaged
 RW>> from a late 80s pickup that a friend of mine parted out. It had a
 RW>> long, long handle under the hood, which I thought was a Ford
 RW>> exclusive. Guess not.

 RN> You would not be surprised at the number of complaints GM had about
 RN> that, given the number of trucks it sold.  No matter which type it
 RN> was, the jack was strickly from hunger.

I think the small bottle jack was an improvement over the scissor jacks.
Even if it does mean you have to get on your hands and knees to use it.

 RN> The previous owner may have changed the jack from bottle to scissors,
 RN> but I don't think so.  The first smart thing I did when I bought that
 RN> truck was to remove the spare from the undercarriage to inside the 8'
 RN> bed where I chained it down, ala the stepside version, only mounted
 RN> inside.

My 72 came with the spare mounted in front of the grill. The previous
owner had a wooden leg and couldn't get down on the ground if he had to.
Like you, I removed it and the bracketry and put the spare in the camper.
When I didn't have the camper on, it went into the bed. Mine also had twin
saddle tanks, which gave me almost a 500 mile range before refueling. Ever
see a gas gage go from empty to full while you're driving? When you
switched from the main tank to a saddle tank, that's what mine did, until
the saddle was empty.

                R\%/itt


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