Your recent repair? 2013 - 2020

[sengsational]

DW put the old ones in the paper for sale, already sold them...

I'm amazed anyone would want fluorescent tube fixtures nowadays...the moment one starts flickering, I buy LED tube replacements, cut out the ballast, and install the LED array. Cheap to buy, nice and bright, cheap to run, long life.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I'm amazed anyone would want fluorescent tube fixtures nowadays...the moment one starts flickering, I buy LED tube replacements, cut out the ballast, and install the LED array. Cheap to buy, nice and bright, cheap to run, long life.

Ditto! I have another one waiting for me to convert.

 

[JoeWras]

Speaking of attic fans. My 40 year old became a leaker. Cracked shroud, bad flashing nails, water pooling and splashing.

So, out it goes.

 

[Sunset]

Speaking of attic fans. My 40 year old became a leaker. Cracked shroud, bad flashing nails, water pooling and splashing.

So, out it goes.

So you reduced the attic ventilation instead of replacing the fan, I suppose you feel the ridge vent is good enough ?

How soon do you estimate you will re-shingling the roof, it's looking fairly old ?

 

[JoeWras]

So you reduced the attic ventilation instead of replacing the fan, I suppose you feel the ridge vent is good enough ?

How soon do you estimate you will re-shingling the roof, it's looking fairly old ?

I replaced the roof mount with a gable mount fan. Even then, the jury is out on power ventilation, but I have the option if wanted. The non-powered ventilation is good. We have gable and ridge venting. The original design was gable only, with inadequate soffit intake. Soffit intake has been expanded, and ridge venting added.

The roof is on its last legs. This was simply to get rid of the leaking. A new roof is in order within 3 years or so. I'll see how the attic does next summer and perhaps go back to a roof mounted ventilator if necessary. I've experimented through the years with blocking the gables and just using the ridge. Also with power ventilation or not. You will go crazy reading opinions on these subjects on the internet! Everyone has their own ideas from short circuit flows (gable next to ridge) to sucking the A/C out of the house (power venting). The one thing almost everyone agrees on is that inadequate soffit intake is a huge problem, and I had it until I solved it a few years ago.

 

[grasshopper]

When the assembly is cheaper than parts

Replaced the carb on my Honda Rancher quad. The needle and seat was sticking and the float bowl was overflowing. New needle and seat around $20 a new carb was $34 from Amazon. UTube DIY guy did the repair in 32 minutes, took me like 3 hours. Runs better than ever.

I always wondered why my garden cart tire says to use a hand air pump. My compressor fill hose got stuck on the valve and I could stop the air flow fast enough the tube and tire blew out. You live you learn.

 

[FreeBear]

Removed a leaky backflow preventer on my outdoor faucet. Had to drill out the locking set screw.

Thought about that so I stopped tightening the set screw!

 

[ls99]

Definitely getting lazy.
On the way home, stopped at Autozone, had them install winter windshield wipers on my Caddy. No extra charge. They got to dispose the old ones.

 

[Time2]

My wife out to start the truck yestarday, and came in and said the truck needs a new battery. "I didn't shut it off, because I don't think it will start again." Call me skeptical, we haven't had a hint of any problem.
So she wants me to take it to Sams and have the battery checked. I was a little disinterested, but wife says well I'm going are you? We start driving over and hmm, the voltmeter is not in it's normal position.
Now I start to wonder if we will even make it before we discharge the battery. I turn off the air conditioner and radio in an effort to have enough charge to make it there. I'm also concerned that the alternator is not charging enough to raise the voltage to where it should be. WE get there my wife orders a new battery and the the guy carries it out, the truck is still running, so he unhooks the battery and it quits. This made me and the battery guy, think bad alternator. He installs the new battery, it was 4 years 8 months old. And as always happens when the battery is disconnected the alarm system starts making a loud racket.
Being wise, I brought the repair book that I had written down the key turn sequence, to get the alarm to shut off. Well, the tech and myself tried the sequence dozens of times and it would not shut off. The tech gave up. We paid for the battery, walked home got another vehicle and rope, went back and towed the vehicle home.
I got on the internet and found an alternate way to shut off the alarm. It worked first time. So, with the alarm off the truck would turn over and started without a problem. Also the voltmeter was in it's normal position. It seems as though the only problem was a bad battery.

My wife was right, that happens a lot, darn it.

 

[Telly]

.....WE get there my wife orders a new battery and the the guy carries it out, the truck is still running, so he unhooks the battery and it quits. This made me and the battery guy, think bad alternator. He installs the new battery, it was 4 years 8 months old.......

Bolding by me. Don't do that!!!

Disconnecting the battery while the engine is running to check on the health of the alternator and overall charging system was a 1960s-era trick. The advent of expensive electronics in vehicles, and the increasing content of it over the years, makes that trick a very bad idea. The alternator puts out full-wave rectified 3-phase AC. All the electronics in the vehicle expect that the extremely low AC impedance of the battery will be there to integrate out the high AC ripple. Also, the battery absorbs transients. Disconnecting the battery on a running vehicle allows bad high peak AC ripple to hit all the electronics. The absorption of transients disappears also. Damage of semiconductors does not always result in failure immediately. Every factory-authorized shop manual will warn against doing it. Don't do it. This topic may appear on the Semester Final Exam, study up!

 

[Sunset]

...., the voltmeter is not in it's normal position.
.....

How old is this truck, as I recall voltmeters from long ago, and thought it a shame they became a light that went on when things were bad.

 

[JoeWras]

In short, the battery is an essential and required component of the electrical circuit and system.

Your technical description gave me nightmares back to engineering school. I suddenly had visions of circuit diagrams in my head.

Bolding by me. Don't do that!!!

Disconnecting the battery while the engine is running to check on the health of the alternator and overall charging system was a 1960s-era trick. The advent of expensive electronics in vehicles, and the increasing content of it over the years, makes that trick a very bad idea. The alternator puts out full-wave rectified 3-phase AC. All the electronics in the vehicle expect that the extremely low AC impedance of the battery will be there to integrate out the high AC ripple. Also, the battery absorbs transients. Disconnecting the battery on a running vehicle allows bad high peak AC ripple to hit all the electronics. The absorption of transients disappears also. Damage of semiconductors does not always result in failure immediately. Every factory-authorized shop manual will warn against doing it. Don't do it. This topic may appear on the Semester Final Exam, study up!

 

[ERD50]

so he unhooks the battery and it quits.

Bolding by me. Don't do that!!!...

Just in case the message got lost amid the (excellent) explanations. I agree. Don't do that!!!

-ERD50

 

[euro]

At 4 y 8 mo, it’s not that surprising the battery gave up its ghost. I have had to replace some of mine far earlier than that.

To the folks ringing the alarm bell about disconnecting the battery in a running car: thanks for that! My knowledge on that is indeed from back in the 60-ies and apparently, I never got the new memo on that.... I don’t usually encounter that issue, although I considered it as a fallback option when the ignition switch went bad in my 79’ 280ZX and the car sometimes kept running after turning and pulling the key! I have since replaced the ignition lock......

 

[John Galt III]

If the holes are not too big, another approach would be to prep the surface with a drill powered wire or abrasive wheel and Bondo. The fiberglass reinforced stuff is harder to work with but adds strength.

Current solution : The holes aren't too big yet. I scraped away at the dried up grass underneath the deck, with a screwdriver and got it pretty clean. Sprayed several spots of rusty metal, inside and outside, with something called Rust Reformer. Also, found an old tube of 'metal mender' I had been using on the exhaust on my 1988 Trans Am. The metal mender stuff was pretty thick by now, but I was able to squeeze the remains out of the tube and smear it nicely around the holes and cracks. It dried up nice and hard and I've mowed the lawn twice now with it. Interestingly, one of the holes I had planned to fill in appears to be machined there there on purpose, in a low spot, in a thick part of the metal, maybe a drainage hole? So I just sprayed it with the stuff, but left it open, so it can do whatever it was supposed to do, lol.

 

[JoeWras]

To the folks ringing the alarm bell about disconnecting the battery in a running car: thanks for that! My knowledge on that is indeed from back in the 60-ies and apparently, I never got the new memo on that....

Yeah, back when you had an alternator, a starter, a few incandescent lights and the coil/distributor.

Bullet proof! Of course, you changed starters every 30k for other reasons of reliability.

 

[Freedom56]

The weather has been lousy so far in South East Florida so I picked up some items from Home Depot and performed some improvements in our condo. I replaced the standard switch for the exhaust fan control in both bathrooms with programmable timer switches. I added to ceiling mounted LED lights in our kitchen and connected the wiring to the existing LED ceiling light that I installed when we bought the condo.

 

[Time2]

How old is this truck, as I recall voltmeters from long ago, and thought it a shame they became a light that went on when things were bad.

It's a 1998 Toyata T-100. It has an electric meter that indicates voltage but has no numbers on it. But in normal operation it reads just under 3/4 of full scale, on my way to get the battery it read very slightly under 1/2 scale.
Everything is working fine.

 

[ERD50]

It's a 1998 Toyata T-100. It has an electric meter that indicates voltage but has no numbers on it. But in normal operation it reads just under 3/4 of full scale, on my way to get the battery it read very slightly under 1/2 scale.
Everything is working fine.

Easy to add a meter to a car. Amazon has a number of them, some plug right into the cig lighter socket (accessory connector now a days?):

https://www.amazon.com/Zeltauto-Cig...+Gauges&qid=1603289998&sr=8-15&ts_id=15729811

https://www.amazon.com/Linkstyle-Vo...r+Gauges&qid=1603289998&sr=8-3&ts_id=15729811

I started a thread a while back that our car batteries were getting low due to short drives and long times sitting, I need to update that with some more info, but I'll just note now that it can take several hours for a battery to reach its 'resting voltage' which can be used to estimate the charge level. Just opening the door and triggering the dome lights can throw it off for a while. I may add one of these to each of our cars.

-ERD50

 

[Souschef]

A scheme I've used is to have a spare valve handy, and if a diaphragm or other part on top failed (other than an easy to replace solenoid), install the top half of the new valve onto the bottom of the old valve. This way, no need to touch any pipe connections. Works for every failure, except a cracked lower half, which I have not experienced.
All of my valves are distributed, no manifold, that is common around here.

Well, I tried to replace the solenoid, and it still did not help. DW (bless her) found an ad from our local paper for a sprinkler repairman. I called him and he showed up a half hour later. He took the valve apart, explaining everything to me, and discovered that a small screw had somehow gotten into the valve assembly.
He swapped assemblies, checked it out, and only charged $30! I am having his card framed in case I need him again

 

[jazz4cash]

I have a 22 yr old self propelled leaf shredder-vacuum with a Briggs and Stratton engine. This thing never ran well from day one. In a good year it might get used for 5 or 6 hours. Most years I never even try to get it started. I’m not good about getting the old fuel out between seasons. I’ve repaired it a few times....clean and reinstall carb, de rust timing marks, etc. This year I took the carb down and the float had a hole in it so I needed the float plus a gasket set that was gonna run $30 plus shipping. I really wanted the satisfaction of just fixing what was broken but Amazon has these amazing deals on cheap (Chinese?) carb kits that include the whole carb plus filters, fuel line, spark plug etc for $10-$20. Reading reviews I went for the $20 kit. Ordered Sat afternoon and it was delivered on Sunday. I put it on today and WOW! This machine runs better than new. Too bad I can’t get a replacement bag for less than $200.

 

[NW-Bound]

... I replaced the standard switch for the exhaust fan control in both bathrooms with programmable timer switches...

I did something similar, but used a PIR occupancy sensor switch, and set the time for about 10 minutes.

 

[homestead]

Fixed my iphone 6S Plus yesterday. It was discharging much faster than normal even when I wasn't using it.
I had replaced the battery earlier this summer and it worked much better. But several weeks later it started discharging much faster than normal.
None of the apps appeared to be the problem so I started suspecting the hardware. Tried lots of things and finally found a procedure online that fixed it.
Went to Settings/General/Reset and selected Reset Network Settings. Then you have to re-enter the wifi password.
Apparently the phone was in some kind of handshake loop with the wifi router and was draining the battery faster than normal.

 

[doneat54]

I'll spare you all the details (and cussing) but it these times that I question my adherence to "if I can do it, then I will."

Bought a 2002 Ford Taurus wagon last November for $1300 as a "dog" car (I hike with our two pups daily, pretty much), and something that got better mileage than my 16mpg truck. This as a stopgap to buy us a couple more years before we renew our daily drivers. With taxes, title, registration and a few parts including new headlights to replace the cloudy ones, I was up to just shy of $1900. I have since put over 12k mi on it, mostly driving to and from our second home in NH.


Recently it started making a lot of rolling noise from the left front wheel. "While driving" bearing noise test confirmed there was a bad bearing. $37 online order part, and yes there are several YouTube videos. And I had already bought ball joints ($10 each) even though I had no reason to believe the ones in there were bad.


2 days, lot's of cussing, torches and use of my 20 ton press to get the bearing/hub out of the knuckle (read: dissimilar metals issues) and today I hope to wrap it all up in a couple hours since "all the stuck stuff had been taken care of".

But it was not to be.

At first it went pretty good, I have ball joint press, lots of air tools, but then pushing the control arm down led to cussing, use of a long pry pipe, cussing, the pipe slipping with me pulling it down while sitting on the floor and smacking me in the head, LOUD cussing, "take a deep breath, let the engineer in you solve this...." finally notching the sub frame that limited the control arm downward travel a bit, and I got the new ball joint shank in the control arm. 3+ hours in.


Then....


I finally pretty much everything back in and tightened down, except the axle spindle nut which gets torqued to 184 foot lbs and is best done last with the wheel back on the car and the car on the ground. But there isn't a washer for that I can find. I look at the other side axle, yes, washer there. I scan the shop floor. Nada. Check my hardware storage drawers for something that might work. Nada. Decide to wash my hands, go inside and see if I can find something online. I find a to spec one for $3.19 at a nearby auto parts store, the website says they have it in stock and, despite being exhausted from getting up on and off the shop floor I bet 60+ times today, I decide to go the gym and play Racquetball after picking up that part. So I head to the AP store, and the guy looks it up and says he doesn't have one. I tell him the website says he should, and he says that the website "does that" sometimes, and shows parts that are in the warehouse. But he tells me that another store out near my gym (sort of) has 5 of them. Off I go. Put it in my phone GPS.8 miles as the crow flies, but um, 29 miles on the roads because "you can't get there (easy) from here (a river/bridge thing)....


So I make the stupid long drive in my 16 mpg truck, get there and the girl says "who said we had 5 of these?". I told her and she informs me that they have TWO stores in this town, the other one is 4 miles away, back in the direction I came.


So I do make I there and then head down to the gym, realizing that I spend 1.5 hours, drove almost 40 miles and probably burned $16 worth of gas... all for a $3.16 cent washer. (but it is really thick and a hardware store washer would not have done well under a nut torqued to 184 ft lbs.......)


So we'll see how tomorrow goes....

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I'll spare you all the details (and cussing) but it these times that I question my adherence to "if I can do it, then I will."

Bought a 2002 Ford Taurus wagon last November for $1300 as a "dog" car (I hike with our two pups daily, pretty much), and something that got better mileage than my 16mpg truck. This as a stopgap to buy us a couple more years before we renew our daily drivers. With taxes, title, registration and a few parts including new headlights to replace the cloudy ones, I was up to just shy of $1900. I have since put over 12k mi on it, mostly driving to and from our second home in NH.


Recently it started making a lot of rolling noise from the left front wheel. "While driving" bearing noise test confirmed there was a bad bearing. $37 online order part, and yes there are several YouTube videos. And I had already bought ball joints ($10 each) even though I had no reason to believe the ones in there were bad.


2 days, lot's of cussing, torches and use of my 20 ton press to get the bearing/hub out of the knuckle (read: dissimilar metals issues) and today I hope to wrap it all up in a couple hours since "all the stuck stuff had been taken care of".

But it was not to be.

At first it went pretty good, I have ball joint press, lots of air tools, but then pushing the control arm down led to cussing, use of a long pry pipe, cussing, the pipe slipping with me pulling it down while sitting on the floor and smacking me in the head, LOUD cussing, "take a deep breath, let the engineer in you solve this...." finally notching the sub frame that limited the control arm downward travel a bit, and I got the new ball joint shank in the control arm. 3+ hours in.


Then....


I finally pretty much everything back in and tightened down, except the axle spindle nut which gets torqued to 184 foot lbs and is best done last with the wheel back on the car and the car on the ground. But there isn't a washer for that I can find. I look at the other side axle, yes, washer there. I scan the shop floor. Nada. Check my hardware storage drawers for something that might work. Nada. Decide to wash my hands, go inside and see if I can find something online. I find a to spec one for $3.19 at a nearby auto parts store, the website says they have it in stock and, despite being exhausted from getting up on and off the shop floor I bet 60+ times today, I decide to go the gym and play Racquetball after picking up that part. So I head to the AP store, and the guy looks it up and says he doesn't have one. I tell him the website says he should, and he says that the website "does that" sometimes, and shows parts that are in the warehouse. But he tells me that another store out near my gym (sort of) has 5 of them. Off I go. Put it in my phone GPS.8 miles as the crow flies, but um, 29 miles on the roads because "you can't get there (easy) from here (a river/bridge thing)....


So I make the stupid long drive in my 16 mpg truck, get there and the girl says "who said we had 5 of these?". I told her and she informs me that they have TWO stores in this town, the other one is 4 miles away, back in the direction I came.


So I do make I there and then head down to the gym, realizing that I spend 1.5 hours, drove almost 40 miles and probably burned $16 worth of gas... all for a $3.16 cent washer. (but it is really thick and a hardware store washer would not have done well under a nut torqued to 184 ft lbs.......)


So we'll see how tomorrow goes....

Wow! I want to say "I have been there," but you went further "there" than I ever have! Sounds taxing!