Update on Kaiser bus

I blogged about an ad for the Kaiser articulated bus in an earlier post. Someone asked about them so I decided to check out google. I looked for kaiser bus in google images which is a very general search. That is evident when one considers the finds. One example is the postcard image of the cafe that includes a bus and a 51 Kaiser but no kaiser bus!

But there are some good Kaiser bus images as well. Here is one example.




And check this one out...

The caption on this one is "man driving bus" and obviously the "man" is Henry J Kaiser himself.

I did do a regular web search and found this site that indicates only one bus was built and it was in service from 1946-51.

Next time take the bus!

KF judging at 5 AM at Texline rest stop...

Take a look at that great pic. Every time I look at it I am reminded of some memorable trips out West—either for camping and fishing in Yellowstone country or for more “mundane” activities. Nearly always we stopped at the Texline rest area (at the border between TX and NM) on 87 especially if we were headed out to the West rather than returning home. This pic was snapped by me early one morning as the sun was coming up at the rest stop. I can't be sure which trip it was.

One trip we were headed to Ouray for the 1985 national KF meet. I was in my 54 Late Special and the Stradt boys were in Larry's 52 Kaiser. Both cars had Chevy V8 engines and have been discussed in various articles in the Quarterly before. In fact the very first issue that I edited featured details of the V8 conversion. The 54 made its first road trip to the 1984 national KF meet in Pigeon Forge, TN. This was also the first national I ever attended.

The 54 had been found not far from Nacogdoches and the seller was motivated so I bought it. The car had been subjected to an amateur restoration and looked pretty good but in need of some attention. We got it to run well enough to get inspection so I could get the AR title transferred to TX but the engine was leaking oil badly. So, it was ready for the transplant. Fortunately Tom Stradt was willing and able to provide his mechanical skills and I mostly was the boss and beer wrangler.

The interior looked good since it had been redone but was not original materials. It suited me since I had no plans for the car other than to be a driver.

Anyway here is the scene at the rest area for our stop on the way to Ouray. We got there some time after midnight and pulled in to take a snooze. I decided the back seat of the 54 would make a nice area to stretch out. I soon found that with one door closed and the other open I could use the arm rest of the closed door as sort of a pillow. After some time I woke up and decided it was time to switch positions and put my head in the other direction. It was then that I noted a problem. Get out the judging sheet! No arm rest! Funny how you can overlook something like that until you really need it...

I never got around to finding another arm rest but that 54 provided a lot of fun over the years as many trips to KF events were made in it. Some time back I sold the car to a club member and he has been updating it.

Cattle Roundup on US 75--Saddle the Kaiser

Our 51 Kaiser had been around 100 thousand miles by the time of the event of this tale and it showed it. But it still provided a way for me and my brother to get to school or take a drive to town for the "picture show" as we called it in those days.

It must have been in 1954 when we were living on US 75 a few miles north of Conroe, Texas. We had been to town for the show and were coming home. It was dark and raining slowly. The highway was dark as well. As we headed down the hill near a cafe/beer joint it happened. Boom! We hit a cow on the butt with the right front fender and on the rebound with the right rear quarter panel. The situation was made worse by the fact the cow was black. Luckily we were not going very fast because of the conditions. At the time US 75 was one of the busiest highways in Texas as it was the main connection between Houston and Dallas. Now Interstate 45 has supplanted it.

We were able to get on home with one headlight pointing at a weird angle. My brother and I were not hurt but got a big scare. When we told my Dad what had happened he immediately wanted to go check on the cow. The reason was at that time there was an open range law that essentially made the driver of the car responsible for any harm to the damn cow! Remember this happened in Texas. Well the cow was gone and we never heard what her fate was.

The Kaiser got patched up with a used fender from a black car (not a good match for the Horizon blue color of car) which was not a lot better than the wrecked fender but at least the headlight pointed in the right direction.

Some time later I recall my Dad arranged for a salesman from the KF dealer in Houston to bring out a 54 Kaiser Manhattan for him to consider. In all likelihood I probably hounded him to consider a new car even though I probably knew he could not afford one. I guess they were like most KF dealers at the time and were going to extremes to try to sell cars. It was like a 50+ mile drive from Houston. I remember how beautiful the car was--it was a maroon shade on bottom and beige on top. Well at the time my Dad was unable to afford the car. He was operating a cafe which was on its last legs. Not too long after he was out of the cafe business and somehow was able to finance a 55 Plymouth which turned out to be a disaster. The V8 equipped car was fast but a piece of junk. I think my Dad may have parked it in the dealer's drive in the dark of night and abandoned the payments at some point.

We had an assortment of used cars after that with most coming from the "back row" of Houston car lots. But the 51 was our last Kaiser until I bought a 51 of my own almost 30 years later. I have not driven it in a long time but when I do I will look out for cattle on the road.

I did manage to hit a dog with a Volvo in 1970 late at night when returning from a trip to Austin but still was able to make it home with the grill up against the radiator. Another time a friend and I had borrowed a camper trailer from my brother and were heading home from the coast to Nacogdoches at night and ended up playing "tag" with a horse's ass (a real one). My friend was driving his Ford station wagon and the horse ended up turning every way we did as it ran ahead of the car. We avoided any serious damage.

A Kaiser-Frazer Puzzle

Here is something completely different for you to kill time with. Find the words in the scrambled letters--they may be across left to right or right to left, down or diagonal. You can double click and get large version of puzzle and then right click on that and print it.

Have fun!

51 Kaiser getaway car--the watermelon caper

When I was growing up in and around Conroe, Texas, there were still quite a few farms. Watermelons were a substantial source of income especially in the area west of Conroe. I doubt farming can compete with the real estate developers today as Conroe and Houston are almost the same now.

All these watermelons were a temptation for boys on a hot early summer night--sneak in to a patch and pick a couple to enjoy the sweetness. We figured the farmer had calculated that in to the price of raising the melons. Much earlier when we lived in Louisiana I can remember walking through a melon patch on the way to a favorite pond for a swim. The harvest was over by this time but still many melons left. So many in fact that we did not hesitate to crack them open and just scoop out the heart to eat and then go to the next.

I got my driver's license shortly after turning 14 in the fall of 1951. We had a 51 Chevrolet pickup (it was loaded with two extras--radio and deluxe heater) and a 51 Kaiser Special. I learned to drive in the pickup but soon graduated to the Kaiser since my dad used the pickup for work. My mom did not drive so I had the job of taking her to the grocery store and on other short trips. At some point I drove for a trip she and my brother and I took to see her family in San Antonio. That was either in the summer of 1952 or 1953. I thought I was pretty important by then!

I pretty much had permission to drive the car on almost any night especially in the summer. And my dad had an account at the local flying red horse (Magnolia) station so I could fill it up when needed. Sometimes the other boys along with me would throw in some change to get gas which was as I recall was around 25 cents per gallon.

Anyway some local guy had managed to get his car shot at by a farmer and had the damage to show for it. Of course we had to try to prove we could do the job without getting shot at. We may have thought the guy had invented his story or maybe we were just stupid...

After some long-term planning (about 15 or less minutes probably) we had our master plan for the job. We would drive out to the area and drive up and down the road which split the patch into two sections. We figured if there was anyone on guard we would spot him for sure I guess. As I recall the moon was close to full and there was reasonable visibility into the patch even with the lights off. Of course there was also good visibility for someone to see a car driving up the road, turning around, and then repeating the trip from the other direction. Naturally that was not included in our long-term plan.

Anyway the all clear was given and the caper was on. I stopped the car and the guys hit the field in a sprint. All but Skeeter made it back and into the car. His door was open and he was starting to load a melon in when the shots were fired. I hit the gas and Skeeter grabbed on to the door and managed to get in the car. We could hear the rock salt (I guess it was) hitting the metal. It sounded like cannon balls to me and I could visualize the holes in the car. Fortunately for us the rock salt shot did not do any damage to the car or to us.

I can't recall for sure but this may have been our last watermelon heist.

Dad's Birthday--trips from long ago

If my Dad was living he would have been 103 July 14. My brother called me that day and we talked about when we were kids living in Louisiana. I am about 20 months older then he is.

One of his memories was going to Shreveport to eat Mexican food. This was always a treat. Dad was a big fan of Mexican food and even when he was in the last years of his life he liked to have a kind of burrito casserole that I prepared for him. He was known as Mollie to friends and relatives when much younger because he was always making hot tamales. Mom said she used to get a little disturbed at him for this since he would use up needed food items to make tamales.

My brother also remembered that we used to drive to an area near Shreveport (Greenwood I think) to swim in a large facility that would likely be a water park if it were around today. We both recalled it was large and fun. I think it was shut down due to some scare about polio.

My Dad liked to scare us by driving fast up hills on the unpaved roads we traveled. This was of course before seat belts and my brother and I would bounce up and down in the back seat almost hitting the roof when we topped over the hills. We thought it was fun!

In those days the little town where we lived was connected only by gravel roads to the outside world. And actually the paved roads were not very good. It used to be said that boundary line between Texas and Louisiana did not need to be marked because the highway always narrowed by two feet at the border. It was always dusty from traffic and it was a big day when the town people had the road through town oiled to lessen the dust. The road was eventually paved about the time we moved away to Texas.

I was thinking after my brother's call about another big event that took place in Shreveport and that was the Louisiana Hayride. We attended the "farewell" Hank Williams show when he was leaving the Hayride to join the Grand Ole Opry. I had to look up the date for that and it was June 3, 1949 so we would have been traveling in our 48 Frazer Manhattan my Dad had bought the previous summer. Adults had to pay 60 cents and kids 30 cents for admission according to the source I found. We left the show while Hank was still doing encores. We listened on the car radio as we drove. I remember the announcer saying something like "the next 30 minutes of the Lovesick Blues will be brought to you by...." Later in the summer we moved back to Texas.

Any trip out of our town was an adventure but these trips were special. The "biggest" trip ever was a family vacation to Colorado, but that's a story for another day.

Kaiser Frazer Monthly Bulletin List

I recently took the time to organize my collection of Kaiser Frazer Owners Club news bulletins. The bulletins have been issued monthly since 1962 and represent one of the most valuable benefits provided by the club to members. Each issue has information about local, regional, and national events for club members along with ads for parts, literature, and cars for sale or wanted. Over the years I have purchased both parts and literature from ads in the bulletins and I have also sold a number of items.

If you are interested in collecting the bulletins I have compiled a list starting with the first issue in 1962. Tom Wilson, who was then the Treasurer of the club, had the idea of printing a bulletin on a monthly basis for club members. Evidently ads had been part of the club magazine in the early stages and since all the magazines prior to this time had a designation of Volume 1 Tom chose to start with Volume 2 for the new publication. The first issue accordingly is denoted Volume 2, Number 1 and has the date 9-62.

I have created a pdf file that lists all issues through October 1998. I have noted the approximate times of editor changes and listed the editors. This file is available for download at my site.


If you find any errors please let me know.

KF Parts in 1976--cheap by today's prices

I have been sorting some old files here lately and one item I ran across is a listing of parts and prices from Buchinger's Kaiser-Frazer Parts dated 1976.

There are some interesting prices for sure! Here are a few examples.

100154 vent shades for 51-55 Kaiser 4 door $14.50 for the set

207844 outside door handles 51-55 Kaiser $7.50

214411 full disc wheel cover 51-54 Henry J, Darrin $6.50

216221 heater control valve 51-54 Kaiser $14.75

202297 drive shaft support insulator 47-50 Kaiser, 47-51 Frazer $0.45

213734 r tail light lens 52-54 Henry J $6.25

213735 l tail light lens 52-54 Henry J $6.25

208469 master cylinder 51-55 Kaiser $14.50

If you had been into KF at the time would you have stocked up on any items? I joined the club in 1981 and I recall buying parts at the first National I attended in Pigeon Forge, TN. Some of these I needed at the time but many just looked like items that would for sure be needed some time in the future. I bought some overdrive electrical components for next to nothing that came in handy and I likely have a few things left even today that I have yet to need. I remember finding a whole unopened box of the 202297 drive shaft insulators listed above at a swap meet in Decatur TX (I paid $5 for the full box.) before the St Louis National. I kept a few for my use and took the rest with me to sell at my vending space. John Parker I think was selling these at the time for around $2.00 each and a car requires 4. I priced them at $0.50 each and really hawked them. Most people did not even know what they were. Some bought a spare set after I explained the use. John came by and saw them and told me he would buy any I had left over and I ended up selling him quite a few at the end of the day.

Another comment about the Buchinger's list is the order blank stated not to send remittance with order and that a bill would be issued for parts and shipping after the order is sent out! How many vendors follow this practice today?

Really big Kaiser...

I have been sorting out my advertising collection. I ran across what may be the largest Kaiser ever built. As far as I know this was a one-off item. The idea was to pack more passengers into the box so-to-speak and of course sell some magnesium and aluminum as well.

Here is the text of the ad (published in MOTOR magazine, date unknown, on page 129):

This 60-foot super-deluxe articulated bus was built at the California magnesium plant of the Kaiser-directed Permanente Metals Corporation. Rolling on Timken Bearings in the wheels, steering pivot, steering gear, steering arm, differential and pinion--22 in all--this marvel of the highways was built especially for Santa Fe Trailways. This manufacturer, like other leaders in the automotive industry, knows the importance of adequate bearing protection. Be sure to look for the trade-mark "TIMKEN" on every bearing you use.

Motor Trend and the 1951 Henry J road test

Someone from the KFOCI called me the other night to talk about literature and told me something I was not aware of. In the November 1950 issue of Motor Trend magazine there was a road test of the new Henry J. Most have seen that issue and noted the cover picture is the Henry J. But he had come across another version of that issue with a completely different front cover--the cover on it was of some custom car. The issue was denoted as Edition C which he suggested might have been for California. It is not at all uncommon to have regional editions of magazines now but I had never realized it was done back as early as 1950. He said the contents appeared to be the same as far as he noticed.

The most important new car in America--Special Issue of the Quarterly

I seem to be stuck on Henry Js. I was looking for a list of Quarterly magazines that I had published and ran across the special issue I did on the Henry J way back in 1987 (Vol 23 No. 2). Almost the entire magazine was devoted to the Henry J. We even reprinted the issue of the Dealer News that was done on the new cars (Vol IV N0. 20, October 1, 1950). This was used by dealers as sales literature and had a high press run. That is the reason it is fairly easy to find today. All Henry J nuts should have a copy of it in their collection.

Quarterly magazine list...

There was a discussion of bulletins and magazines issued by the KFOCI on one of the chats recently. I have complete sets of each (some early issues of the magazine are copies). I will say more about the bulletins in a later blog.

When I first started editing the magazine I had no idea about what had been published before except for the few issues done by Jack Edward some time after I joined the club. I found a few issues here and there and eventually came up with a list of what had been published up to my time on the job. This is in the Collector's Corner article in Vol 23 No 2 for 1987. I compiled the list and sent it out to a large number of long-standing members for their comments. The list as published is complete to the publication date. You can extend it to the last edition I published as editor (Vol 37 No 2 2001) along with the calendar issues done by the Barkers. I am not sure about anything past that as there were many attempts by various volunteers to publish and I am not even sure I could lay my hands on those--they are around here somewhere I guess.

Where are these Henry Js flying to?

I found this picture on an old hard drive. I have no idea of the origin although it may have been saved from an ebay listing someone made. I am not sure what is going on in the pic other than the obvious fact that some 51 Henry Js are being loaded on a plane. The plate on the truck is from Florida and the truck is obviously from a K-F distributor. The cars have plates also as you can clearly see in the pic. The plane is from Pan American which flew a lot of international flights so the cars could have been exports. Any ideas?

Allstate Postcard--rare collectible

Do you want to look for a very rare K-F related collectible? Here is a good candidate for you. This is the postcard for the 1952 Allstate which is super rare. I never was able to find one in all my years of collecting although I have known several collectors that did have them. I can't remember now who sent me this picture of the card. I ran across it on an old hard drive I was digging through.

Ripley Make-A-Bed

Way back when I found a little sales folder for the Ripley Make-A-Bed which converted a 51 or later Kaiser into a bed by allowing the front seat to fold down. I mentioned it in my Editor's Pages in the KFOCI Quarterly back in 1987 (Vol 23 No 3) and asked if anyone had any information about the item. One of the Canadian members replied that indeed he had a 1953 Kaiser his dad bought new that was still fitted with the device. I published his letter and some photos showing the item in the Collector's Corner column in 1988 (Vol 24 No 1).

The folder is described on my literature site.

Recently I learned more about the origins of the bed device on ebay. A literature dealer listed an issue of the Dealer News that I had never seen and it had a feature on the availability of it from the K-F dealer who perfected it. I am quoting the article below to complete the story on the Make-A-Bed.

Twist of a Wrist Turns Kaiser Sedan Into Bed Compartment with
Dealer Ripley's 'Make-A-Bed' Device

Ithaca, N. Y.---Sleepy?
Just draw up a Kaiser and take a nap.

That's what scores of motorists are doing in Ithaca, thanks to the new patented "Make-A-Bed" device the Ripley Motor Co. is offering Kaiser customers as optional equipment.

With a twist of the wrist a Kaiser owner can convert his car interior into a bedroom--equipped with one of the softest beds made.

K-F Dealer M. H. Ripley inaugurated the "Make-A-Bed" feature to meet customer demand for a smartly styled, powerful automobile which could double for sleeping quarters on long trips.

The "Make-A-Bed" accessory, which fits any 1951 or 1952 Kaiser 4-door sedan, is installed in two hours and permits the car seats to be converted into a double bed in just 10 seconds.

A lever similar to the seat adjustment rod--well out of site--permits the back of the front seat to recline until it fits snugly with the rear seat.

The seat can also be adjusted in a reclining position.

Ripley is wholesaling the kits, priced either in single units or in lots of six, to other K-F dealers.

His address is 602 W. Seneca Street, Ithaca, N. Y.

The Dealer News appears to be the issue for September 30 1952. (I saved the pics from the ebay ad but neglected to note the date.)

Special last minute prep for judging...

Some have a regular routine when giving the car a last minute prep before judging. Steve Carey likes to touch up the paint on his Henry J radiator cap. He has the technique perfected--he deftly holds the open paint can and the radiator cap in one hand and uses the other hand to load the brush to apply paint. Oops! This picture was made by Tom Stradt showing Steve's back-up technique.

Thoughts from the days when Henry Js and Allstates were new

I noticed on one of the chat pages that there was at least 15 Henry J and Allstate models at the just completed KFOCI National in IL. These were the featured cars and the number that showed up is commendable.

I was reminded that I did see an Allstate on display back in 1952 or 1953 at the Sears store on Shepard Drive in Houston. Last time I checked some years ago this store was still in business. When I was a kid we used to go there at times to shop since it was only a short distance from our home in Conroe although it seemed much farther in those days. Now it is hard to tell the difference in Conroe and Houston. This store had a separate service station with an auto department and the car was there. I can't recall now anything about the color or what impact if any the car had on me. I must have been aware of the Henry J but I can't recall any that were sold by the KF dealer where my Dad purchased the 51 Kaiser. In fact I can't remember anyone having a Henry J (and certainly not an Allstate) at any time in the 50s or 60s.

I remember another experience I had at this store. I bought my first new car in Houston, a 1962 Volvo 544 Sport. I was about to get my MS degree at Sam Houston State in Huntsville TX that summer. I think I took delivery of the car in late Fall 1961 or in early part of 1962. At some point after this I had to be in Houston and stopped in the Sears store to look at some tools they had on sale. This was a deal like they run now in that one got a supply of tools in a box of some sort for a reasonable price. I think it was something like $19.95 for a set in a nice metal box. After looking at the display set I told a clerk I wanted one and he said fine. They had them wrapped and ready to go. However once I paid the clerk picked up a box and said "here this goes with the set." I noticed the wrapped package looked to be almost exactly the same shape as the box. Well when I got home and unwrapped the package it had all the tools in a metal box identical to the one he gave me as an "extra". I gave the extra box to my brother. I still have mine to this day. The box is a nice size for carrying a set of basic tools in the car.

The family KF cars...

In a previous post and in many other places I stated that my dad bought two KF products--a 1948 Frazer Manhattan and a 1951 Kaiser Special. I remember both these cars. The Frazer was a combination with a darker green on top and lighter green on bottom. The Kaiser was a very unadorned car with practically no chrome. Now I have a "faint" memory of an earlier Frazer that came before the Manhattan but always deferred to my dad who thought he only bought the 48 I remember.

Now my dad was a car man when he was young and traded often. He managed to keep some decent cars even during WW II. In the early postwar time he went though several cars--an early Studebaker based on the last prewar design that had paint that fell off in chucks from day one; a gunmetal gray Buick (my dad and his brothers got several cars in a deal with General Motors for lumber); and finally a Hudson of some sort.

I thought he next got an early Frazer that was in a light brown color but he did not think so.

Well I bring this up because I was going through some of my mom's photographs that I boxed up when she passed several years ago and ran across a couple of car pics.

The pic with my brother and me with mom and dad obviously shows the left side of the Manhattan. It has a processing date of January 1951 on the back. We moved back to Texas in the summer of 1949.

The other pic looks like a different car to me. It appears to be one color and the plate looks like one from Louisiana where we lived for several years before coming back to Texas. Also this looks like a plain Frazer to me.

What do you think?

Kaiser Frazer Owners Club, Int.

Any Kaiser-Frazer enthusiast should be a member of the Kaiser Frazer Owners Club, Int. (KFOCI) which was founded in 1959. The Club publishes a Monthly Bulletin which features information about meets and events at the local, regional and national level. The Bulletin also has ads for cars, parts, and literature. Members can run free ads of items for sale or wanted. In addition there is a magazine published four times a year with one issue being a pictorial calendar featuring the cars. The Club has a website that includes information on membership including a way to join online.

One unique benefit of membership is the Manufacturing Fund which has a one-time additional membership fee of $10. This fund makes available certain parts that have been produced based on demand by the membership.

I joined the Club in the early 80s and my first attendance at a meet was the National Convention in Pigeon Forge TN in the summer of 1984. I drove my 54 Kaiser Late Special to that meet. Tom Stradt and I just completed the installation of a Chevy V8 prior to the trip. I have attended all the Nationals since then except for a couple. I missed the meet in Goshen IN in 1995 due to the illness of my father and I missed last year's meet as a consequence of my own health issues. I am making plans to be in Hoffman Estates IL the first week in July at the Chicago Marriott Northwest for this year's convention.

The National meets are a great chance to see some really excellent examples of KF and Willys products. Usually Darrins, Kaiser and Frazer convertibles, Jeepsters, and sometimes factory specials and show cars turn out. Thursday is judging day and is the best time for a one-day visit since a few cars show up only on the judging day. This year the feature cars are the Henry J and Allstate so some really good examples of these should be present.

Another benefit is a number of vendors will be present with parts, literature and other KF items for sale.

You will have a chance to meet others who have interests similar to yours. In my case I still look forward to visiting with some that I met at the very first meet I attended. I see some of these only once a year at the Nationals. The sponsors of this year's National have a website with all the details of the events.

Kaiser-Frazer and Kaiser-Willys service bulletins

I started collecting service bulletins for Kaiser-Frazer products many years ago. In the first issue of the KFOCI Quarterly magazine that I edited in 1985 I published an article on service bulletins. I continued to add to my collection over the years. One goal I had was somehow making this material available to anyone interested in KF cars. I finally realized this goal recently. I was able to borrow copies of a few bulletins I had not been able to find and the complete collection consists of 418 bulletins from KF and 82 from Kaiser-Willys. There are 456 files for the KF bulletins because many revised bulletins are included along with the discontinued versions. All of these (538) were scanned and converted to pdf format resulting in 1173 pages in total.

I used the catalog feature available in the program Adobe Acrobat to make the bulletins searchable. The search function is built in to the free Adobe Reader versions 6 and above for the pc. The full Acrobat or the reader that includes search is required to search the files. The search is rather limited since it was not possible to convert the bulletins to text files with my limited resources--if I could have done that the cost would have been prohibitive. However the catalog feature does allow for search procedures that make it possible to fairly quickly find information without just browsing through 1173 pages!

I recorded four items for each bulletin in the collection. Each of these can be used as the basis for a search either alone or in combination. The four items use the names built in to the catalog feature:

TITLE--this is the actual title from the service bulletin
AUTHOR--I chose this field for the bulletin number
SUBJECT--the group assigned by the factory (with slight changes by me)
KEYWORDS--the year(s) for models covered (last two digits of years separated by space like 52 53)


There are 20 possible SUBJECT entries such as accessory, brakes, body, clutch etc. The factory assigned each bulletin to one of these groups.

If one wanted to search for bulletins on BRAKES the word brakes would be entered in the SUBJECT field of the search. It turns out there are 9 bulletins on brakes that were issued over the years. The search finds these and returns the results listed by titles. The full bulletins are easily displayed with a click of the mouse. With this small number one could quickly determine if any of them may have what was needed. But suppose one wanted just 1949 models coverage. If 49 is entered in the KEYWORDS field under the search for brakes the list produced is reduced to 2 titles. And the search can be made still more versatile. Suppose we are looking for any bulletins on brakes adjustment. One can search for words in the TITLE field. If adjustment is used as a word search in the TITLE field all the titles for brakes that include the word adjustment will display in the results box. There is just 1.

It takes a little time and practice to learn how to search but more detailed instructions are included on the CD with all the files. Of course one can simply read them in random or sequential order without using the search but the search is more fun!