Topic: Kent Moore CH-47960

[roxer]

I found one used in good shape for around $100.  Is it worth getting?

[POS VETT]

Are you still really in this rut?

[roxer]

Are you still really in this rut?

Nope. But then I'm wondering if I'll ever need to change it and not have the tool to do it. Alignments change over time. Can caster go out in the back in such a way as to affect the driving of the car? It's why I'm asking if I should snag this. My dealer didn't have one.

[Gentleman Jack]

What are we talking about here?

[Sol Asylum]

If you have to ask...then you probably don't have a Kappa that needs a rear axle alignment.

[roxer]

10 years military service might be causing this.    It's the way I am wired I guess.  I know,    I plan on keeping this car for long as it will run and worry that the technology used to service it now goes away.  They made so few of them, right?  Is there another vehicle that uses that gauge?  If so, then I wouldn't care.  I want to make sure that I have what I need to keep the car in decent running condition and drive-able.  I have an 02 Isuzu Rodeo Sport that I am having issues with finding somethings.  Most are cosmetic, some are not.  Good Isuzu mechanics?  Cannot find them either locally (go figure that the best mechanics for both my Sol and Rodeo reside a few hours away in SC - one in Spartanburg and one in Greenville  ).  I cannot find another vehicle made today that I would replace it with - yet.

[Sol Asylum]

Maybe a better way to do this is to have a group of people buy the tool and then loan it out with the understanding that if you need to use it, you put up a deposit and pay for shipping.

[wspohn]

I have lots of parts I have stored but never used for a decade or three.

OTOH, I have had cars that did need parts.  It is kind of like bad juju to lack a spare (especially bearing in mind that most of my fleet are oddball cars with no ready parts source) - if you don't have one, guess what will break.

Example - in the late 1970s I had a water pump go out on one of my old MGs in Northern California.  The pump was specific to only 2 years of engines. I made it from Crescent City CA to Portland Oregon by carrying a gallon of water and running no faster than about 50 mph (boring).  When I got home, I picked up a new water pump and put it in the trunk for future trips. It has been there for the last 36 years and I have never needed another water pump, ergo the engine spirits have been placated.

Same thing with rare alignment tools, perhaps?  And if you do get it, you can loan it to others less prescient than you.

Similarly, some clients of mine opened their own GM based shop a couple of decades ago when they left a closing dealership. They inherited lots of GM specific factory tools.  When they folded their business last year, the majority of them went into the dumpster still in the box, unopened by them.  But if they hadn't had them, who knows..........

[Jim]

As the old saying goes - it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. I'm bad at buying things that set on the shelf for years but when a good deal comes along, I hate passing it up - especially if I think I might need it sometime in the future.

[Critterman]

get it and share it or sell it to DDM for a profit

[SolNut]

U can borrow/rent mine!

[roxer]

U can borrow/rent mine!

Thanks much, but too late. I went ahead and snagged it for 89.99 shipped. With two kappas, I'm glad I got it. I want to snag an NA at some time later.