I am truly jealous. All that stuff for ten bucks? Over here, you never see Trackers/Sidekicks in junk yards hardly ever, much less get anything at such a price. Great deal!

 

I got to thinking about the deals, how to share the wealth.

I'd be willing to pull simple parts and ship, if I had a list. Of course I can't promise I'd find everything, but with a shopping list I could pull stuff (as I spot it) that otherwise would be expensive or downright unobtainable.

I go to the yards with testers and vac pump and a whole wheelchair full of tools. Several yards know that before they close they probably have to pull me out from "just one more car" in the far back before they turn the dogs loose. Some of the yards are more fun than shopping closeouts at Walmart. Some yards won't let me past their front desk. I have to ask and receive. But parts is parts.

However, I'm not portable-equipped to pull (nor ship) engines, trans, axles - so if you ask and I find, I'll put those items on "hold" and get you the contact number to talk to the yard owner directly. Most yards ship internationally around here. Shipping rates might be scary, but you can decide if the part is worth it or not.

I have the feeling that I'm looking at the last season for good hunting on TracKick parts in my area (South Coast of Mass). Crushers are going gangbusters, the bone yards have empty space that is growing at an alarming rate, and lately the very few TracKicks I pass on the road are starting to wave "Hi". It's time to proactively harvest and hord the wealth.

Seriously, tack on your requests - let's say "before June 7th, 2010". This forum has been wonderful - here's a way I can repay. State the year and model range(s) you are comfortable will fit your vehicle. I can promise to pull from same (as I discover them), but cannot promise that the pulled will fit your vehicle. I'm not nearly as well-versed as, say, Kick-Fix.

For small stuff I would ship, ask for actual cost of part(s) and shipping. You send check or money order or PayPal when you receive. International no problem - we'll just have to work out a reasonable exchange rate (if not using PayPal) so I don't get killed at the bank. As for customs, these are not new parts, just "gifts".

I suppose non-payers should receive negative feedback, but I'm betting that won't happen. I don't see anybody from Nigeria selling get rich quick scams here.

 

you are very lucky to find a donor car.
and all those electric parts are very costly new.

all the best to you, brother kicker.

 

Bitbucket,

You are doing a wonderful service for all mankind, maybe now Bex will get her lighter...
KickFix should make a list of the valuable and small parts you should get, because he is a true veteran and knows this stuff. I have seen requests for the heater control plastic knobs, and I know the auto trans gear indicator switch lists for $303, but it is harder to pull than it is to fix in place.
I hear the MAF is expensive, that's a good one to grab.
What do you mean "a whole wheelchair full of tools", are you navigating the yards in a wheelchair? Man that is some feat, if you are...
Keep up the good work.

 

What do you mean "a whole wheelchair full of tools", are you navigating the yards in a wheelchair? Man that is some feat, if you are...

I use a folding wheelchair as tool transport. Great big rear wheels to get over ruts that hand trucks will get stuck in. 2 wheel parking brakes to keep it nearby. Doesn't tip over when I take half the tool chests off. Cost nothing and folds into the rear or onto the roof. Came with side and rear "purses" (pockets to us ambulatory folk). I did remove the foot rests.

 

Bitbucket,

I did a quick search, for "PN Switch" and here is one for sale, with restrictive conditions, seller won't ship, won't answer emails, takes only cash, and you have to go to "Thornton" to get it (and hop on one foot all the way?). Be nice to know where that is first... 92-95 Suzuki Sidekick Auto Switch

This mounts around the shifter shaft on the right side of the auto trans, and senses when you are in Park and Neutral. On my Zuk, PO bypassed it because it opens the starter circuit. I fixed mine to get the backup lights working, and I left the bypass in place because the mechanical shifter lock works fine for safety.

I had to dig through the floorboards to find mine, and I opened it up and cleaned the sliding brushes, so it works good now, but other people may not have that much luck with it. I suggested it because they are so expensive, not because anybody I know needs one.

I hate to lead you into spending time and money on parts that may not sell, it is a risk you will have to take, but it sounds like you are better at this than anybody, so if you got the talent, go for it...

Also glad to hear you use the wheelchair as a tool carrier, may it never be used for anything else. Clever.

Now get out there and start your new business!

 

... This mounts around the shifter shaft on the right side of the auto trans, and senses when you are in Park and Neutral. On my Zuk, PO bypassed it because it opens the starter circuit. I fixed mine to get the backup lights working, and I left the bypass in place because the mechanical shifter lock works fine for safety.

I had to dig through the floorboards to find mine, and I opened it up and cleaned the sliding brushes, so it works good now, but other people may not have that much luck with it. I suggested it because they are so expensive, not because anybody I know needs one.

I hate to lead you into spending time and money on parts that may not sell, it is a risk you will have to take, but it sounds like you are better at this than anybody, so if you got the talent, go for it...

Also glad to hear you use the wheelchair as a tool carrier, may it never be used for anything else. Clever.

Now get out there and start your new business!

Ah, not a "... auto trans gear indicator switch ..." as you earlier mentioned, but the Park Neutral switch which prevents the starter from doing anything except in park or neutral or when it fails altogether. I was thinking something that caused indicator lights on the dash to signal where the gear shift resides.

I've cleaned a similar PN type switch myself. You went in from the top. My experience is to go in from the bottom (different 4x4 brand). Either way it's hard to reach, even if one has a new part sitting on the pass seat. Frightfully expensive new, but dirt cheap from yards. Must check the seals and meter the switch from pulled sources or in goes another corroded switch. Crazy 4x4 drivers want to splash water all up and down the tranny. Don't know why. I'd have one at least for me, because as you noted, the starter won't crank if the switch is bad. Been there, replaced that, know the agony of trying to locate one that works.

Yes, I'm thinking of making a mini-Tracker warehouse for small retaii-expensive parts. It's not yet illegal in this country to horde small auto parts. Easier market to sell into than trading for gold bars. A gold bar in the trunk won't start your engine. Non-the-less, my current offer still stands.

 

Bitbucket,

It does have a contact for each gear position, and tells the TCM what gear is selected, but I think "PN Switch" is the normal name for it. It could drive indicators for each gear, but doesn't in my '95 JLX. It has one section for PN and another section for individual gear position outputs.

I went in through the top because I love sawing things but the right way is from the bottom, like you did. I think I would prefer a car with no floorboards as they just get in the way. Just had to hack a hole out near the rear hatch to change the fuel pump, more sawzall work, the tool of the Gods.

I think you would do well with a used parts warehouse, you could even do a little rebuilding, like with this switch, easy to clean up and reface the contact surfaces.

Good luck with all of this, and I hope I break something that I can buy from you...

 

... clean up and reface the contact surfaces ...
QUOTE]

"Burnishing". So much more romantic a term. Geeze, it's all coming around again. I hope this doesn't portend nighttime valve jobs in the Blythe desert.

 

No you are a civilian now, no nightime valve jobs in the desert.
Burnishing sounds painful, how can that be "romantic", or ar you just trying to impress Bex?

Somehow I don't see the romance in a dirty switch contact. I guess the words could be rearranged, but geeze, this is a family website....

 

...Burnishing sounds painful, how can that be "romantic", ... but geeze, this is a family website....

Oh, sorry. "Burnishing" is A Very Good Thing in the electrical world, as well as in the copper and aluminium metal arts.

Sometimes mere words bring back memories of ages gone by. Mine are fond memories. I used to burnish stuff with a pride in performance. Nowadays I just clean things up.

The history coming around part was that I was primarily a 2-wheeler back then. Somebody gave me a bike-in-a-box, an honest-to-gosh Triumph Bonneville completely in parts, every bolt, nut, wire tossed randomly in a box just big enough to hold the frame, tank, wheels, upper and lower ends, pipes, seat, etc. I put it to use for at least 20,000 miles before I moved to a Circuit Yamaha TD1 that I (somehow) made street-legal in Calif (crap that was a fast bike), then a year or so later traded the TD1 for a Berkeley (front-wheel-chain-driven by a Royal Enfield with 4-speed fwd and one reverse) before finally putting honest windows and a roof overhead.

Talk about the Zen of Motorcycles. And near-death experiences. I guess you could say those years "burnished" me to a "fine glow", just like my copper and aluminium works. So, good memories, not wierdness. Sorry about misunderstanding I might have created.

 

LMAO, Very good Bitbucket, just what we need, some levity....

 

Apparently the 5-speeds decompose and emit some sort of hallucinogenic gas if left near a peat bog long enough, or maybe it is the heather growing nearby...




.

 

That was TRULY excellent!! Please remember that, in a world expectant of new forms of electrical power from things like wind and tidal generated turbines, I live in a country where the electric utility company still generates the preponderance of the country's energy through the use of 2 large Peat Powered generators (as in strip mining bogland) for the country's electricity. It is therefore possible that the 5 speed tranny, found by the side of the road, may well be thought of as some futuristic power plant, to be brought home by Sean and Sarge, and with scientifically placed rubber bands and an array of popsicle sticks, will become the prototype for a novel, environmentally attractive new form of energy, using a new substance aptly named fossil fuel. I will be hailed as a hero.

 

Well don't accept the Nobel Peace Prize, because you will be in bad company...
We now live in an "every kid gets a trophy" world.
We like you just the way you are...

 

...and now, the rest of the story...

(Loud screeching noise, like metal grinding its way into 400 year old wood, followed by loud thumping of fist on door)

Bex? Bex, you in there?

(Quiet squeek of wheelchair slowly making its way to the door. Door opens)

Sean! Sarge! How nice to see you again. We're you not here just a week ago?

(Bex looks down at Sean's hand, sees a stick thingy attached to an aluminium box which is at the end of a very long gouge in the nursing home's old oak floor).

Oh, good, you found my mechanical velocity transmorgifier. I've been needing that to complete my inverted torque multiplier, which when coupled to the bearing-supported counter-revolving circular-torsion-bar-pacified heavy duty friction surface, I can engage a centripital-force surface-effect driving plate, mating the two like super-glue.

Super-Glue?

She means the stuff we use to lift finger prints, Sarge.

I knew that, Sean. I just don't see how finger printing has anything to do with that hunk-o-chunk of aluminium you drug along. It shoulda been logged into Evidence and lost like everything else.

But we know it belongs to Bex...

Righto, Sean, that and no matter what we can't blow it up. Bex, how did this, this, this THING come to be in a ditch 5 klicks out of Dublin?

Well, before you yanked my license last week, I had it firmly lashed down to my trailer. Or at least I thought I did. You know that I was the oldest living driver in Ireland until your boy here started playing loose with my paperwork?

Oldest living driver ever, Bex. Don't be bashful. I read this year's Guinness. What was the infraction, Sean?

Pulling a thousand-kilo trailer with a wheel chair. Bex didn't have lights, brakes, or registration. Worst was, the chains were not hooked up. Trailer was empty, though.

Sorry boys, my hearing's not so good these days. I guess when the pulling got easier, I should have figured...

Bex, what are you using this, this, THING for?

Nursing home power generation. You wouldn't believe the methane gas produced in this facility. I've got a hydro-phobic rectungular collector, a turbo enfabulated modulator, one bank of monistors, a second bank of disistors, a third bank of trisistors, and a phased-array of perambulated CPUs from a warehouse of Z.U.K. parts to monitor the ECU. I just got the ECU in today, it's around here somewhere. Sucker's so small that I can't see it without my glasses. Oh, well, I can always ask for another on the forum...

Yes, Bex, but what exactly do you DO with this, this, THING? I mean, I don't see how it would even plug in.

(Sean spins one shaft, the other starts to move, but very slowly. With a CLUNK he joggles the stick thingy and the other shaft goes faster, but not a whole lot more. Two more CLUNKs and the two shafts are spinning at the same speed. Before Sean can joggle the stick thingy one more time, Bex rolls over and puts a shaky hand on Sean's arm)

Nononono, you got it all backwards. I'm going to use it as an STS.

STS? Sarge, didn't we see gaffitum like that?

No, Sean, that was STP. I still don't see what this, this, THING does.

STS is a Stepup Transfer Station. And like I said, you got it backwards. Spin the other shaft, start in 4th - yes, no, oh hell, let me show you (grabs the stick thingy and deftly throws the box into 4th gear, whatever that means). To speed things up, you go like this (CRUNCH) and you're in 3rd, and see, the main shaft is going faster than the tail shaft. Can't call it what we used to, so I'm calling it Main Shaft.

What did you use to call it, Bex?

Input. But now all that is GIGO. Wait 'till you see what I can get this sucker to do in first. This little baby will do better than 4:1 ratio. Some transductional, mass-enduced, friction-enchanced losses, but I will recapture most of that as heat. Waste not want not. I do wish the box had been drilled and tapped for cooling lines like the Type 7 boxes were, but I've got an an old single-blade eggbeater to which I've strapped a sharpened spoon. Not much different than when they drilled the Chunnel, you know? No, you wouldn't know. Kids these days.

Bex, you mean you need this, this, THING to finish your power generator? Wow, do you think this will save the last peat bog?

It had better. The Nobel Peace Committee shows up tomorrow. Come, help me hook this up. And Sean, will you STOP dragging the beast, please? Sarge, help Sean - pick up one end. That stick thingy should be pointing up, by the way.

 

Bitbucket,
You sure can spin 'em, you got skills. man.

 

... You sure can spin 'em ...

I have no idea where this stuff comes from. Like a sneeze, a story just suddenly shows up. And, like a sneeze, it hurts if I try to suppress 'it. Litterally cannot sleep until I get these, these THINGS out. Unlike a sneeze, people don't seem to complain. Mostly, anyway. In keeping with the sneeze metaphor, off-beat comments in juxtaposition (such as yours and Bex' in this case) do seem to tickle something in my right brain. I suspect that when these, these THINGS stop coming you'll find me in room 214, some young CNA spoonfeeding me and talking about her boyfriend while I'm confused, asking between bites where I put "the multi-drive ratchet wrench" because I cannot find it under my pillow. She'll smile and say "Maintenance has it for cleaning." And I'll say "Has what? Say, have you seen my multi-drive ratchet wrench?" And she'll offer another spoonful...

 

Incredible, you probably have way more connections between your nerve cells than most, causing a ripple of literary prowess to cascade into that flood you call a sneeze. Beer will help, in large enough quantities.


.

 

... Beer will help, in large enough quantities....

Hmmm, maybe. The fella at the far end, the one who owns the stool and oversees the bar? Right now I think I owe him large quantities of beer.

 

The moderators are tolerant, as long as you hijack your own thread... and you are very entertaining... or vary entertaining, both.

 

Glad the moderators are tolerant - after all a portion of any forum is a certain amount of social interaction, beyond the scope of the mechanics at hand. In any event, Bitbucket, you spin a great yarn, really funny. Hopefully your typing skills match... would hate to think you hunting and pecking through all of that. Thanks for the entertainment! It was great.

 

... Hopefully your typing skills match...

If I had told my Father, back when I graduated high school, that I expected to make a living randomly striking plastic caps over rubber detent contacts connected by hair-thin wires to a buss, and do that for over 50 years basically non-stop, his best response would have been "Huh???"

Me thinks I've been subsumbed into the Million Monkey Monitor Machine, and if I'm not careful, Shakespeare will start to flow out.

 

The way the stories come cascading out, I am sure Bitbucket has the typing skills...
Fascinating stuff he does. Isaac Asimov, eat your heart out.

 

My response is also "Huh??" I thought "buss" was a fuse...

Also I bet there are a lot more creative entities in there...

 

No a BUSS fuse was a particular manufacturer/model(Cooper Bussmann).

A bus (single s & related to wires) is a group of parallel connections on a common bed.

 

Your stories are exciting, and you keep us on the edge of our seats. You are holding out on your loyal listeners, so what were the other CEL codes? We want to know what you found and how you fixed it, you could tell us during your next lucid moment. There is a lot of help available for that last "half-problem".