Show us your tools

[gstallons]

When I can remember , I remove the battery from them when I finish . Jus like today I went to measure something........DEAD battery ! Maybe I will remember some day .

[footgoose]

9 hours ago, Tinus89 said:

Interesting... Even though I like analog ones and have learned the ropes with them, I have two 10eur cheap digital ones... So far (5yrs), I've never replaced one battery. One of the two is even in the shed where temps go sub-zero in winter...

Agreed Tinus.. mine from Harbor Freight (China discount store) were $8. 10 years ago and have surprised me with dependability. Still on orig battery.

[po18guy]

What's a guy to do if his compression tester has only 18mm and 14mm threads, but his bike (Kawi 500) has 12mm plugs? Well, what fits better than a spark plug? Gutted the plug, squared off the top on my handy-dandy drill press, tapped 14 X 1.25, filled the cavern with JB weld and drilled through it, slipped a high pressure viton O-ring on and there ya' go.

[po18guy]

Hearing of the charging amperage requirements of the Odyssey battery, I did not want to lay out the bux for an "approved" charger. Ya' see, I had a perfectly good Schumacher rollabout charger that will do 2/10/40/200 amps. Not worried about the 40 and 200 here. 10A seems about OK. But, it has only those huge automotive battery clamps on it. So, I picked up an SAE connector w/10AWG leads and wired them to the output of the charger. They lead to a covered, polarized outlet that I mounted on the front panel for access. Now, amping up is that much more convenient. But 10amps through an SAE connector does have me wondering a bit. We'll find out on that. Will have to be used in concert with a volt meter to ensure staying at or below 15V. 

Got some leather tool holsters for the automotive clamps so as to avoid shorting. They'll go on the sides.

[gstallons]

 

I hope it works well for you .

 AGM batteries need AGM chargers .

[po18guy]

1 hour ago, gstallons said:

 

I hope it works well for you .

 AGM batteries need AGM chargers .

Will be primarily for conditioning, as regular riding keeps the battery up.

[gstallons]

Do yourself a favor and look on the Odyssey website and see what type charger they recommend . These batteries use a different charger . 

[po18guy]

2 hours ago, gstallons said:

Do yourself a favor and look on the Odyssey website and see what type charger they recommend . These batteries use a different charger . 

That I know. I read and have posted their "reconditioning" protocol. They need a minimum of 6 amps. I figure 10 will do it, if watched carefully. If I fry it, I'll just go back to Yuasa AGM, as they are not as weird and my last one lasted 9 years with no extra care required. . 

[footgoose]

I use a very old standard charger set to manual and 6a. I time it and try to not forget. I have 3 545's and this charger works fine. I have done the conditioning protocol and brought back one I thought dead, and successfully condition the other 2 seasonally.  Only question for me would be how to discharge them on the bench. I used a test clip with a light but it doesn't pull enough.

[docc]

I use a couple 1156 bulbs in series or an old fog light from a Jeep Wrangler. Simply watch the voltage a few minutes until it stabilizes. 

[po18guy]

For my light duty torquing (300 in/lb - 35 Nm), I use a Consolidated Devices Inc./Snap-On 3002LDI dial torque wrench. It does not ratchet. It is not ergonomic. It measures torque. They are not prohibitive to purchase, but as always, are far less expensive on the surplus market. Dual scale on both directions. Resettable zero. Had a nicer example, but some local meth-heads stole it.

 

 

[gstallons]

I am sure he got $10 for it !

[po18guy]

10 hours ago, gstallons said:

I am sure he got $10 for it !

Had to sell it, once he figured out it wasn't a dope scale.

[gstallons]

We've got a meth-head so screwed up , he stole all the wrought iron fences around the ( extremely old ) family graveyards around here . 

[Gmc28]

i'm guessing there may be a thread on this but not seeing it....

My old Twinmax i've had since Y2K has been my sync tool.  On the last go-around with the red v11 i noted that even on the most sensitive setting i wasn't getting much change as i adjusted things.  In comparison, on the old oilhead i had for years that twinmax needle would bounce around soon as adjusting things out of the sweet spot on the sync in either direction.   On top of that, at one point many tune-ups into owning the oilhead, i had the BMW dealer do a sync once, and it came back better than my previous sync's.  Hmm...i had been confident in my technique and results, but now had a new standard.  what was i missing, or did they just have a better/more sensitive sync tool?  Not too long later, sold the oilhead, without resolving in my head what the bottom line was on all that.

Fast forward to now, and i'm looking at comments (TomChri, etc) on the carbtune pro, and some other options, and generally see that folks tend to think the the carbtune pro might be more accurate than the twinmax, but thats really the question.  I haven't ventured from the twinmax in 20-ish yrs, and love a good tool, so thought i'd fish about for input on whether to consider shelling out for a different sync measure tool.

and no thanks for all the "just make it yourself" stuff.  I know, those work, but I'm only interested in retail tools, and ones that are better than my old twinmax.  And/or thoughts on what else i might be overlooking for why i'm seeing such little variation on the twinmax as i adjust the sync/white knob (yes, valves done, idle backed off, un-connected, etc.)

Ciao