25Aug

A Guide To Choosing Automotive (hybrid vehicles negative environmental impact) Lifts

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By Christine OKelly

  One of the most important tools in an automotive repair shop is the auto lift. Providing access to the under belly of a car or truck, automotive lifts make the job of car repair much easier for the home garage or auto shop. Choosing a lift that meets your needs is the key to profitability in time and money. There is a large variety of lift types available to meet the needs of anyone who is looking to purchase one. Keep the following in mind when choosing the best automotive lift for you.

Auto Lifts For The Home User

Consumers with a garage at home can now easily perform maintenance and repairs on the undercarriage of their automobiles. The convenience of owning a home auto lift not only increases the productivity of repairs, but also increases the amount of storage space available. Home automotive lifts usually involve a group of four posts, pneumatically controlled to lift an automobile safely.

These lifts provide a safe means to raise one’s vehicle for access to the car’s undercarriage for transmission and oil work. Automotive lifts also provide increased storage space, by allowing the consumer to lift their car out of the way and to open up the garage floor space. Lesser used vehicles and box storage can be placed on the lift and raised out of the way. Then, you can park your own vehicle underneath the lifted platform.

Automotive lifts are great for people who collect cars. A typical garage can only house two cars, but with use of a lift, four cars can be efficiently parked.

Auto Shop Automotive Lifts - Features To Consider

For more serious garages and commercial operations, there are heavy-duty automotive lifts available. Standard equipment usually involves one, two, or four post lifts. The final choice involves the balance of lift capability, lift stability, and available additional space for the lift equipment. These heavier lifts usually require additional maintenance. The industrial nature of these auto lifts means that their maintenance is better left to professionals if the user has any doubt about being able to work the equipment while maintaining the designed safety features.

One post lifts are the most economical in terms of space. The two varieties of one post lifts are centered lifts and offset lifts. Centered one post auto lifts have a lot more strength than offset one post auto lifts. Offset lifts provide space for a vehicle to be placed underneath a lifted object, providing space economy. Four post models also allow for the same space saving capabilities as a single post model, but they do require more space and power. The upside to a four post lift is a greatly increased power output (four times that of a single post). The two post model is a balance between the two versions.

Auto lifts give a home user full access to their vehicle from different sides. This allows you to perform maintenance and repairs on your vehicle from the comfort of home, saving you both time and money.

Christine O’Kelly is an author for SVI International, an automotive lift company specializing in home and commercial auto lifts.

How To Get Your Moped Running
By Isabel Paull

  The top three reasons why your moped isn’t running are A.) a dirty carburetor B.) a faulty spark plug, or C.) worn or mis-adjusted ignition points. The most common reason is a dirty carb. If your moped isn’t even running, the first thing you should check is to see if the spark plug is working. First, pull out the old spark plug and put a brand new one in the cap. Hold the metal part of the plug firmly against the cylinder head while you pedal rapidly with the key and switch on. If you see a blue spark on the spark plug, then that is good. If you don’t see a spark, then clean the ignition points.

To clean the ignition points, use sandpaper, a piece of clean paper, a pair of scissors, some aerosol brake or carb cleaner, and some compressed air. Take off the ignition cover and look for the points in one of the holes in the flywheel. When you find them, lay the bike on its side and sit on something to get situated. Next, pry the points open with a small screwdriver and stick the small pieces of sandpaper (about 1/4″ wide, 3″ long) in between the points and let them close. Now pull out the sandpaper. Do this a few times to each side until they’re smomoth. Then, pry the points open and blow them with compressed air and spray them with cleaner. Now, pull a piece of regular paper through the points to see if they come out clean and smoothly. Blow the points off again with some air and they should be good to go.

If there IS a spark, but the moped still doesn’t run, squirt a spoonful of gas into the spark plug hole and try starting it. If it starts and runs for five seconds and then dies, check for fuel flow to the carb. To do this, take out the fuel line going into the carb and turn the gas on. If it doesn’t flow freely out of the gas line, then you may have a vacuum operated petcock (if you do there will be another rubber line going from the engine to the petcock). Take this second line off the engine or carb and suck on it. Check for fuel flow out of the other line. If there still is none, then take off the petcock and clean it.

Dirty carburetors are the number one reason for poor moped performance. The small holes in the carb (where the air and fuel pass through) are what is dirty. You need to use compressed air to blow the dirt out. Remove the float bowl from the bottom of the carb, then try to blow air through it. If you look through and it’s not clean and clear, push a piece of thin wire through. Then, use aerosol carb cleaner and compressed air to clean out all passages in the carb. Squirt the cleaner in all the small passages, then blast some air in. Do this in each direction several times, then reassemble the carb. If you can soak the entire carb in a can of cleaner overnight (remove rubber and plastic parts), even better. Then blow it out the next day.

Good luck in your quest to get your moped up and running. If all else fails, take it to a mechanic, who can do a thorough inspection to see if something major is wrong with the bike.

Darren Stock is an expirience motor mechanic from Chipham, UK.

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Categories: automotive

Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 11:55 pm and is filed under automotive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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