Personally I think this is a really interesting discussion. I am an engineer at Honda R&D near Columbus, OH. At my location, there are over a thousand white collar workers, mostly technical. Within a hundred mile radius of me, there are a 4 Honda assembly plants, employing around 10,000 people. At other sites in the US and Canada, there are probably another 15,000 workers. Each of these plants is turning out thousands of new Hondas per day. Nearly every Honda/Acura sold in the US (by volume) is made in the US. The engines, transmissions, every major component. Furthermore, Honda actually *exports* cars from the US, something that the Big 3 can barely talk about. Sure, there are niche cars like the S2000 roadster that are 100% Japanese, but that is a tiny part of our market. I think these are pretty impressive numbers, especially if you consider that Honda is only something like the 7th largest market share in the US. Its been here since 1979, I'd wager that in those 27 years Honda has contributed significantly to Americans and their way of life. There are a lot of secure $25/hr plus full benefits jobs available in Ohio because of Honda. The US auto industry lost their way in the oil crises. They haven't been able to turn it around since then. They concentrate too much on short-sighted markets like giant fuel-guzzling SUVs. Its not that the Big 3 makes bad cars, its that they make cars that aren't in demand. Compare a Focus to a Civic. A Taurus to an Accord. Sure, those Fords might last 200k miles, but I'd much rather spend that time in a nice Accord than a hard plastic Taurus. I would rather support the thousands of American workers who build Hondas than support a few suits in Detroit and drive a Mexican Dodge. That said, my garage: 1980 Lawn Boy 7229 1996 Stihl trimmer 1997 Honda Accord (shocking, right?) 2002 Triumph Speed Triple (mc) 1976 Honda CB400F (mc) 1976 Suzuki GT550 2-stroke (mc) 1948 Johnson Sea Horse (outboard) 1949 Evinrude Zephyr (outboard)

Smarsh, I'm a bit late to this forum (just joined today) but I have an old Kemp Chipper/Shredder that has a tired centrifugal clutch with shoes that look very similar to yours. I am about ready to replace it b/c it slips more & more even at full engine RPM. My cluch is mfg. by NORAM. I have found their specific info at www.noramclutch.com You can also find other mfg. by googling 'belt drive centrifugal clutch'. Let me know what you end up doing. btw: your chipper/shredder looks very similar in constructions style and color to the the Kemp Chipper/Shredder I picked up 2 yr ago. I replaced the engine w/ a greyhound from aHarbor Freight and now need the clutch. I will need new shredder 'fingers' sometime too. Let me know if you run across any Kemp chippers.

I put a new Briggs 16 HP cast iron engine (Model 326437) in our 1971 or 2 Gilson. Did this in 1983, and installed an hour meter at the same time. The engine now has well over 1000 hours and just this summer began burning oil. On taking it apart, the valves and valve seats were still excellent, the bore showed almost no wear, and the crankshaft connecting rod journal looks good and is within the Briggs' manual reject limits. The piston was the main sufferer. It has an eroded top land near the exhaust valve side. I've ordered a new standard size piston, connecting rod, and a set of very pricey chromium plated piston rings. These are no longer sold by Briggs, but I found set from a parts supplier. When the engine was new I added an oil filter and have used Mobil 1 synthetic ever since, 20-50 weight. Also clean the air filter regularly, oil the foam band around the air filter, and change the oil when it looks dirty, which is often much more than the 25 hours recommended by Briggs. I believe that other engine brands would do as well, or better given equal care. My favorite engine is the little Kubota on our ZTR.

I had the same problem. jdbillp made a nice list except he forgot the Volvo station wagons. We went with a used Subaru outback and we LOVE it. volvo was a bit too expensive and VW actually didn't have that good a rating (for used) the outback had a high safety rating and high reliability, which is why we chose it. In addition we have ALOT of snow here and found that the all wheel drive does come in handy. We are thinking about buying our second one, which would be the smaller wagon outback (impreza outback). it is a little shorter than the legacy outback. Anyways, we have two dogs and we love being able to put them in the back for long trips and we still have room in the back seat for our stuff. One thing I have heard about the older outbacks is that if you are taller you may not like them. I am shorter and the outback fits me perfectly. My bestfriend's husband is almost 6 ft and he can't stand driving them. I have heard the 2006 outbacks have more legroom now. Mileage is ok. It isn't any worse than my 10 yr old pontiac grand am V6. However we are thinking of buying the impreza to take place of the pontiac, which hardly runs anymore and we will use the impreza to commute to work. We rarely use the full sized outback to commute. We just don't need something that big for everyday use. It also has a V6 so we can tow easily however this does mean it uses more gas. -renee -renee