Your recent repair? 2013 - 2020

[ERD50]

The washer resevoir cap on my newly aquired Honda CR-V was in rough shape. Instead of traveling to the dealer for that headache, I decided to make one out of sch 40 PVC pipe. After cutting a 3" section lengthwise, I heated and flattened the piece, then turned it on my lathe for a snap-on fit. I find PVC to be a very versatile material for these kind of projects.

Wow, that is some impressive craftsmanship - never saw such a fancy WW fluid cap!

I probably would have used a plastic bag and a rubber band. No points for style though!

-ERD50

 

[bjorn2bwild]

Wow, that is some impressive craftsmanship - never saw such a fancy WW fluid cap!

I probably would have used a plastic bag and a rubber band. No points for style though!

-ERD50

Thanks -
I wish the previous owner would have thought of that solution. Enough debris had blown through the cap into the reservoir to support quite the algae bloom. The entire line to the rear washer nozzle was clogged and the front just barely worked. After spending an hour flushing the system, I opted for a more permanent fix. I tend to keep cars a long time.

 

[M Paquette]

Christmas tree lights... And many words were said which cannot be found in Christmas carols...

But, they are all lit now. I declared victory and moved on to the traditional victory celebration of a turkey sandwich.

 

[ls99]

Last week my car would crank but no start. Today after getting home decided to figure out the problem, Had spark. There are a few causes of no strart, so next check for fuel, cracked the fuel hose fitting at the regulator high pressure side, no fuel squirt after sitting for a week. THere should have been some pressure, as the system runs around 50 psi.

Diagnosis, leaky pressure regulator. Just happen to have one left over from from my 88 jag for which I got it as that one had over 200K miles and it would leak down after a month of being parked. But sold that, without ever changing it.

The 95 Jag uses the same fuel pressure regulator. 10 minutes to replace it. Key on/off for three cycles to pressurize the fuel system, Turn key to start, engine fired up and ran smoothly. Test drive with a few cycles of WOT. Not a hiccup.

All is well in the automotive division.

 

[Dave_S]

Fixed the window regulator in the tailgate of my '90 Suburban snowplow rig. It had an electrical problem and the rollers in the track were wasted. Took a couple of hours and about $15 for parts and working like new again. I totally enjoy that kind of stuff.

 

[BruceinGa]

One of the 4' fluorescent fixtures stopped working a couple of months ago. I decided to troubleshoot it. I found the problem was the connection inside the wire nut. I guess when the electrician installed it there was enough contact that it worked for three years. Problem fixed at zero cost.

 

[travelover]

I finished my radon mitigation fan installation. Total cost was about $250 vs a typical installation cost of around $1200. It is not technically difficult, but requires some grunt work making a hole in the basement floor and routing a 4" PVC pipe up the wall, into the garage and out the garage roof. I'm hoping that it will reduce the basement humidity somewhat as a trade off to the continuous 75 watt electricity cost.

 

[ls99]

Cold weather seems to bring automotive hassles this year. My beater 98 pickup threw a check engine light. Hooked up my scangauge, code P0507. The GM manual says high idle condition. It was not really noticeable. Spec 700 +/_ 25 RPM. Actual 780.

Cleaned Idle air control motor, passages, throottle plate of intake of EGR crud and grime. Cleared code and extinguished the light. So far so good.

Next

 

[rockymountainhigh]

Samsung French door refrigerator. The arm that turns off the ice maker when the tray was full broke a year ago but I could not find just the arm had to purchase the whole ice maker - $99, so I just manually turned off the icemaker when full but occasionally had an over flowing tray. A few weeks ago I tried to find the arm again and did, approx. $1.90 for the arm and $7 for shipping, bought two arms just in case. Easy fix.

 

[John Galt III]

Removed and inspected the cartridge inside the shower handle, to make sure it wasn't stuck, like the cartridge in the kitchen faucet is. Lubed it with plumber's grease, replaced it. The grease should prevent it from seizing up later.

 

[samclem]

I finished my radon mitigation fan installation. Total cost was about $250 vs a typical installation cost of around $1200. It is not technically difficult, but requires some grunt work making a hole in the basement floor and routing a 4" PVC pipe up the wall, into the garage and out the garage roof. I'm hoping that it will reduce the basement humidity somewhat as a trade off to the continuous 75 watt electricity cost.

I've been thinking about doing the same. We're at approx 6 pC/l now (so, at the "should do something" borderline). First I'm sealing joints, sealing the block walls, and adding a porcelain tile floor over the slab. Did you find gravel under your basement slab? Our house was built in the late 1950s, I'm concerned there's no gravel or it is all silted up by now and I'll have trouble getting good pressure reduction across the whole 1600 sq ft basement.

 

[NW-Bound]

We just repainted the exterior of our home. Used good Dunn-Edwards paint, of course. Cost was $3400.

No, the paint was not that expensive. The above included labor costs. No, I did not do it myself. You want me to kill myself painting a 2-story home?

 

[travelover]

I've been thinking about doing the same. We're at approx 6 pC/l now (so, at the "should do something" borderline). First I'm sealing joints, sealing the block walls, and adding a porcelain tile floor over the slab. Did you find gravel under your basement slab? Our house was built in the late 1950s, I'm concerned there's no gravel or it is all silted up by now and I'll have trouble getting good pressure reduction across the whole 1600 sq ft basement.

My 90 day measurement came back at about 5, but test was at DW's request. You know what that means - get crackin'.

Soil under slab is kind of a fine powdery yellowish brown - not exactly sand nor clay. I did not encounter any gravel when I took out the recommended 10 gallons of dirt. The anecdotal stories that I was able to find on the web seemed to have high success regardless of soil. Some systems are just tapped into a sump hole cover or the foundation perimeter tiling.

 

[Spudd]

Recently while out for a walk, we found a sink by the side of the road that someone was throwing away (presumably renovating their bathroom). The faucet was a lot nicer than the faucet we had in our basement bathroom, so we took it home. This weekend we installed it successfully, and it makes the bathroom look a whole lot nicer!

 

[REWahoo]

The washer resevoir cap on my newly aquired Honda CR-V was in rough shape. Instead of traveling to the dealer for that headache, I decided to make one out of sch 40 PVC pipe. After cutting a 3" section lengthwise, I heated and flattened the piece, then turned it on my lathe for a snap-on fit. I find PVC to be a very versatile material for these kind of projects.

Another Honda washer reservoir repair here. DW hit a feral hog a few weeks ago. The damage to her Honda Pilot was cosmetic only - a few scratches to the paint on the corner of her front passenger side bumper, or so I thought. Turns out the impact resulted in a small half-inch tear to the bottom corner of the wiper fluid tank.

Once I figured out what the problem was I cleaned the area around the tear and stuck a piece of Eternabond over it. So far, so good...

 

[Donzo]

Garage door opener quit. Took it apart and found the worm gear drive ate the gear:



Ordered this repair kit:

41A2817 LM Chamberlain Craftsman Liftmaster Garage Door Opener Gear Kit 41C4220A | eBay

$20 repair saved from buying a $200 opener. Nice polyethylene gear set from China in most garage door units. After a few years, the lithium grease dries out and one day it's all over for the gear. Nice..get used to Chinese low quality parts.

Thanks for this post! My garage opener stopped working a while back and I was looking at new openers - I read this post went to the garage - mine is a liftmaster also - opened the side panel and the worm gear had eaten the drive gear just like yours......ordered from the link you provided and $20 bucks later the door opens great!
This thread just "paid for itself!".

 

[Htown Harry]

DW hit a feral hog a few weeks ago. The damage to her Honda Pilot was cosmetic only...

Will there be a recipe post in the bacon thread?

 

[REWahoo]

Will there be a recipe post in the bacon thread?

Yep, watch for it: "Ranch Road Pulled Pork"

 

[RockyMtn]

New pool filter at the Az pad. $750.00. Last one was 23 years old. Guess can't whine too much about that.

 

[NW-Bound]

Will there be a recipe post in the bacon thread?

Here's a picture of that hog on the Web. It even made the news. Lots of bacon!

 

[MRG]

Here's a picture of that hog on the Web. It even made the news. Lots of bacon!

Think I dated that!
MRG

 

[aja8888]

Thanks for this post! My garage opener stopped working a while back and I was looking at new openers - I read this post went to the garage - mine is a liftmaster also - opened the side panel and the worm gear had eaten the drive gear just like yours......ordered from the link you provided and $20 bucks later the door opens great!
This thread just "paid for itself!".

Nice job! Once you start researching these residential garage door openers you find out the gear drive parts and motor is pretty much the same as in a host of openers (Chamberlain, Lift master, Sears, etc, etc.).

I bought an extra drive gear since the price was right ($8) and if it goes again, I am good. The actual worm gear seems to not fail as soon (or if my daughter's goes, we have the gear). These things fail when the lithium grease dries out over a period of years.

 

[John Galt III]

Pushed in the "on" button on the computer this am, and it felt weak. And the computer did not come on.

Spent a few hours hooking up old computers and trying to get them to log onto my isp, but no luck. Finally took a look behind the "on" button on the dead pc, and found a loose strand of wire harness behind the "ON" button. This strand has a switch on it, and when I press the switch the computer comes on and works !!! Panic over. But time to check out new pc's, perhaps.

 

[rbmrtn]

Thanks for this post! My garage opener stopped working a while back and I was looking at new openers - I read this post went to the garage - mine is a liftmaster also - opened the side panel and the worm gear had eaten the drive gear just like yours......ordered from the link you provided and $20 bucks later the door opens great!
This thread just "paid for itself!".

OMG. That looks like the same piece of crap GM uses in their retractable headlight motors. Dealership wanted around $350 to replace the motor, replace the motor yourself for ~$125 or take the motor apart, replace the plastic gear for ~$4... It's such a common problem there is metal replacement gear for it

4th Generation Headlight Fix

 

[aja8888]

OMG. That looks like the same piece of crap GM uses in their retractable headlight motors. Dealership wanted around $350 to replace the motor, replace the motor yourself for ~$125 or take the motor apart, replace the plastic gear for ~$4... It's such a common problem there is metal replacement gear for it

4th Generation Headlight Fix

I looked around but could not find a metal worm/gear replacement. You know, Chinese junk here and low dollar garage door openers......