That's cool. But how come they put the stalk in upside down?

My daughter's Aussie does this to me everyday as well. Walk time - now! They can be persistent. But best buddies ever!

Or turn it end for.end on a given surface. Any deviation of the bubble will be twice the actual error.

I've encountered misprinted tapes a few times....Never a Stanley and usually near the beginning of.the tape.

Fyi tapes are usually printed from a wheel. Look out further , maybe near 48", maybe further and you might find the misprint repeats down the tape. Inaccuracies in tapes also tend to be cyclical for this exact reason.

New tapes that can't be trusted are not something you want to find.

For interests sake, take a few tapes of different makes and line them up extended. Some are miles off.

Spent a lot of years in the driver's seat for many hours at a time. Took me awhile to learn this lesson but I too agree with you. Made a lot of my back/hip issues much less noticeable. Take your wallet out of your back pocket when driving any distance!

Problem is then I'm always searching for it.

Yes the second one comes apart as well. Make sure you are turning it the right way. It appears the nut is on the bottom and the threads on the top. If this is the case, you want to turn it to the left from your point of view.

You should be able to turn it by hand, but if not get a set of slip joint pliers to help.

Not sure they can be purchased yet, but magna is building drop in motorized axles for trucks that sound very interesting. Looks like it would be a great way to start. I imagine they're very expensive though....

https://www.motortrend.com/news/magna-ebeam-axle-ev-truck/

Yeah same here. Been using them forever and never had one clog up. Make sure it's for ferrous use if steel and for aluminum if aluminum.

Otherwise, toss it out and use a new one. They're cheap. Certainly cheap enough to not risk blowing one up.