Clinic scales often are set to automatically subtract a certain amount from the reading to allow for clothes etc. Since 5lbs is about 2.26kg, my guess is that’s a 5lb weight. 
For a more accurate measure on any scale that’s meant for larger values than what you’re weighing, just weigh yourself first, then pick the item up while on the scale and do the math.
Well yeh. Thats what I did.
Best guess - stylised 2kgs, plus dodgy iron foundry.
Another look, definitely a 5, so I guess you are right. (plus dodgy iron foundry) though I’d have thought the Chinese characters would have contra-indicated export to the US. China officially went metric in 1930, Imperial Japan in 1886, but US occupation probably put things back a bit, with " English units continue to be employed in aviation,munitions and various sports, including golf and baseball." (Wickipedia)
If I’d had a marker pen handy, just marking off a bucket at 5L would have been better, avoiding all that cultural baggage, heavy but of uncertain weight.
Have you found the torque spec for the thing yet?
I’m not sure the type of torque wrench matters… You just need to torque it to spec.
Well, the type of torque wrench matters quite a lot, if torque matters, because AFAIK no commercially available torque wrench will fit the cam sprocket bolt when the engine is in the car, hence the DIY lashup. Didn’t we already cover this?
(The home made torquing thing seems to work pretty well, so much so that if I didn’t already have one I doubt I would buy a torque wrench.)
Re torque specification, the Skywing is a Taiwan-only car, so of course undocumented, at least in English.
Its allegedly (I say allegedly because thats what the handbook that came with the car says, but its for a Daihatsu Saphir, which I’ve never heard of but assume is the same thing) got a CB22 engine, which I can’t find specs for.
I have workshop manuals for the CB20 and the CB23, which are mostly the same except where they are dramatically different, as for the crankshaft bolt.
I’m assuming CB23 specs apply, which is 40Nm for the cam sprocket bolt.
Thats why I used 40Nm in the above calculations. A guess, really, but the best I can do ATPIT.
Lashings of lashings. Attempting to hold the cam sprocket while I torque it.
Still shifted, but didn’t jam so firmly as when following the “Use a screwdriver, because we believe in miracles” directions in the manual, so could be forced back, hopefully without having damaged valves.
…A Wizard Wheese.Torqueing thing getting set. The tether was a bit of rope that was to hand and didn’t really have to be that hefty.
…and A Rotten Show, Think they sold me the wrong cambelt. I can get the original back on, but the new one doesn’t look physically possible. Some of that could be wear, but I doubt it all is.
CnC, Japanese original *to me, anyway) is on the outside
Sad but true
Got towed, so it’ll be taking its shiny new cam belt to the crusher.
If I’d had some warning I could possibly have rented some off-road space, but they’ll likely have damaged it in removal, since the engine mountings and exhaust manifold were detached, so that’ll be that.
They got some tools which I’ll try and get back if they havn’t already disappeared (bureau is closed tomorrow for some unknown reason according to the cops) but otherwise the end of an error.
For illegal parking? After all that drama?
I just hope they carted away your wakizashi too because we wouldn’t want you to do anything rash now.
Was it from the motorcycle parking spaces under the bridge you got ticketed for previously? Someone may have reported it as scrap/abandoned although you usually get a big sticker some time in advance warning you.
Was legally parked, except that it was way overdue for inspection so the reg had probably expired, which would make it illegal to be parked on a public road.
There may be rules against working on a car on the street too, though they wouldn’t be invoked very often in Taiwan, where there is no DIY.
I’d guess someone wanted the parking space, or just disapproved.
Happened in the UK too, only quicker, and the cops did give some warning there, at least when it happened to me.
It’s just a shame you didn’t have a film crew following you the whole way since March when this sojourn started. Crossthreaded would have been the perfect allegory for expat life in Asia. Even the ending would have been perfect. It would have been a shot of the car being towed away as you arrive in your skivvies too late to stop it, your voice intoning in voiceover as the rear of the car disappears in the distance: “Old expats never die. They just get towed away.”
I thought it’s like Halo, Spartans never die, they just go missing in action…
Its nothing like halo… Thats not even relevant to expats in Taiwan, nor is it a good allegory.
