Your recent repair? 2013 - 2020

[Walt34]

My sense of adventure in these matters having been satisfied many times, especially in 20F temperatures, gave the truck to mechanics to take care of.

Yup, I'm done crawling around under vehicles too. I don't even change the oil anymore.

 

[Hermit]

Yup, I'm done crawling around under vehicles too. I don't even change the oil anymore.

I agree! I'm planning on a lift so I can scoot around under vehicles sitting on my butt! BTW - I haven't changed my own oil for over 20 years. On my Jeep, I can get it done at the dealer for about $20 and I don't have to hassle with the used oil.

 

[aja8888]

I agree! I'm planning on a lift so I can scoot around under vehicles sitting on my butt! BTW - I haven't changed my own oil for over 20 years. On my Jeep, I can get it done at the dealer for about $20 and I don't have to hassle with the used oil.

If I was building a house a stick at a time on top of a mountain in a constant snowstorm, I wouldn't change my own oil either!

 

[RobbieB]

I change my own oil. The motorcycles and the car. Takes less time than going there and waiting.

Afterwards I go to the sushi bar and have a $40 lunch -

 

[Hermit]

If I was building a house a stick at a time on top of a mountain in a constant snowstorm, I wouldn't change my own oil either!

 

[travelover]

I change my own oil. The motorcycles and the car. Takes less time than going there and waiting.
........

Then who strips your drain plug?

 

[street]

I had a nail in my Honda car tire. I had it fixed for $20 but I took ire off and took it to them.

 

[travelover]

I had a nail in my Honda car tire. I had it fixed for $20 but I took tire off and took it to them.

Seriously? Did you pry it off with tire irons?

 

[JPatrick]

Window World replaced a very large window. Nice product and great installers, with one downside..They did the work with an outside temp of 33 degrees. And it wasn't a quick process.

 

[coveredbridge]

While sitting in the kitchen, I noticed the microwave oven clock went dim and then blank. thinking it was a fuse, I started to work on it when the coffee maker started acting up. I checked the undercounter lights and noticed they were flickering. everything on the same circuit. Went to the panel box and found the breaker for the circuit. It was buzzing faintly, so I figured it was bad. Fortunately, I had a replacement handy, and was able to avoid a trip to the hardware store. Turned the main off, swapped out the breaker, turned the main and breaker back on. repair complete.

 

[Sunset]

This is not a complete repair story, but a duh story.
So I have this nice antique wooden floor lamp which is missing the wiring and bulb socket stuff. I had an Ikea floor lamp and the bottom broke on it.

So I thought take apart the Ikea lamp and put the guts into the wooden one and have a nice antique looking lamp.
So there I am, take out the bulb unscrew the socket, pull out the wires a bit, while shoving them up from the bottom.
I work at it for about 5 minutes, twisting and pulling, trying not to damage the metal socket the light bulb screws into.

It was really stuck so I figure I need to use my tools and will bring it to the basement.
I pick up the wires and follow them all the way to the wall plug

I'm still amazed I didn't get a shock, I feel stupid lucky right now.

 

[Hermit]

T....
I pick up the wires and follow them all the way to the wall plug

I'm still amazed I didn't get a shock, I feel stupid lucky right now.

You certainly should!

Glad you didn't get hurt.

 

[Philliefan33]

Yesterday the (analog) clock / timer on our GE range started buzzing. Not as loud or the same sound as when the timer expires, but annoying. Wiggling things didn't make it stop.

I unplugged the range and took the back panel off to get a look. I thought I would either replace the clock or disconnect it. I plugged the range back in so I could pinpoint the noise and remove the offending part, but now it doesn't buzz. I left the range plugged in while doing a thorough cleaning behind the stove and along the sides (amazing how much gunk gets spilled between the stove and cabinets) but the noise never returned.

I put everything back together and pushed the range back in place. I don't know if I really fixed it or just scared it quiet, but DH thinks I'm a mechanical genius [emoji6]

 

[sengsational]

... was able to avoid a trip to the hardware store. Turned the main off, swapped out the breaker, turned the main and breaker back on. repair complete.

Nice!

I also had a "part" in my junk stash that, in my case, prevented an online order (we don't have anywhere to drive to in order to get a capacitor).

Fiddling around with cleaning the pots on my guitar, I broke the capacitor on the tone pot , but I had a 0.05uF cap in the electronic junk box. That justifies keeping that 97 pounds of electronic junk around "just in case".

 

[ls99]

Nice!

I also had a "part" in my junk stash that, in my case, prevented an online order (we don't have anywhere to drive to in order to get a capacitor).

Fiddling around with cleaning the pots on my guitar, I broke the capacitor on the tone pot , but I had a 0.05uF cap in the electronic junk box. That justifies keeping that 97 pounds of electronic junk around "just in case".

Absolutely correct. How is your stock of precision resistors?

I needed to modify the heater sensors on our new hot tub to work up to 115F. As some smart a$$ gummint functionary decided max temp on hot tubs to be 104F. That is barely lukewarm in 10F outdoors. Our tub is outside. A couple of 3.8K 1% resistors soldered in took care of the problem. A hot tub is supposed to be hot.

Also got a warranty replacement from napa for a purge valve for my truck. The previusly replaced one decided to stay open all the time giving the annoying check engine light and a hard start after fillup. Darn EPA crap

They can't figure out that one volcanic eruption nullifies all emission junk placed on cars for many years. And there is more than one large volcanic eruption per year somewhere. //rant off

 

[Hermit]

Absolutely correct. How is your stock of precision resistors?

I needed to modify the heater sensors on our new hot tub to work up to 115F. As some smart a$$ gummint functionary decided max temp on hot tubs to be 104F. That is barely lukewarm in 10F outdoors. Our tub is outside. A couple of 3.8K 1% resistors soldered in took care of the problem. A hot tub is supposed to be hot.

Also got a warranty replacement from napa for a purge valve for my truck. The previusly replaced one decided to stay open all the time giving the annoying check engine light and a hard start after fillup. Darn EPA crap

They can't figure out that one volcanic eruption nullifies all emission junk placed on cars for many years. And there is more than one large volcanic eruption per year somewhere. //rant off

I'm in agreement on the dislike of emission junk. Maybe we should both move to Mexico City...
Kinda reminds me of Denver in the 1980s.

 

[ls99]

I'm in agreement on the dislike of emission junk. Maybe we should both move to Mexico City...
Kinda reminds me of Denver in the 1980s.

Hehhheeh, I like city living as much as you do

 

[Texas Proud]

Had my upright freezer in the garage fixed...

We were putting the Christmas stuff in the attic and I noticed water around the freezer... (this was last Friday).... opened the door and stuff was getting thawed!!!

Called a number of places to come out and see it, but I got 'we cannot come out until Monday' or even later than that... I asked the firm that usually fixes my stuff if they had any suggestions... they gave me a name and he said he would be out right away...

While waiting for him..... the darn freezer started working again!!!! But, we decided to have him take a look... said there was a bad relay and changed it out for a 'better' one.... said he would not charge for a 'service call'... I am glad he did not as the total charge was $195!!!!

It took almost a full day to get back down to 0 degrees... but when I checked it after an hour it was 20, so I do not think I lost any food...

Still, the cost was worth it since I probably have over $1000 of food out there....

 

[ERD50]

...

I needed to modify the heater sensors on our new hot tub to work up to 115F. As some smart a$$ gummint functionary decided max temp on hot tubs to be 104F. That is barely lukewarm in 10F outdoors. Our tub is outside. A couple of 3.8K 1% resistors soldered in took care of the problem. A hot tub is supposed to be hot. ....

Reminds me of a recent repair I made. Toasters now come with electronic controls and an electromagnetic latch (I assume for safety, to release under a fault condition? I don't know?), so they aren't a simple thing anymore. On ours, after a year or so, we kept having to set the knob lighter and lighter, until it eventually was on the lowest setting and toast was still too dark.

I was able to find the thermistor that senses the temperature (indirectly, they just sense the heat from another resistor in that circuit), and found I could reduce the cycle time by paralleling a resistor across that thermistor. Played with values until I got our preferred toast level in the middle of the dial range, so more room for any future drift.

As to the EPA rant, I sure won't argue that the methods and priorities and costs of the EPA were far from optimal (being kind), but it's hard to argue with the results. Air and water much improved since the 70's. So many 'causes' get money thrown at them, and still get no results (or things get worse), I'm at least happy (glass half full), that we have made progress.

-ERD50

 

[John Galt III]

I have a dvd player that hooks into a vcr which has an output to a tv. Can't just hook the dvd player to the tv. Either the vcr or the dvd player, or both, are acting up. Occasional black screen, blurred screen, or it switches from dvd mode back to cable tv mode by itself. I have a spare vcr lying around. If the spare vcr fixes the problem, I'll be decluttering my place by one ancient VCR soon.

 

[Sunset]

I have a dvd player that hooks into a vcr which has an output to a tv. Can't just hook the dvd player to the tv. Either the vcr or the dvd player, or both, are acting up. Occasional black screen, blurred screen, or it switches from dvd mode back to cable tv mode by itself. I have a spare vcr lying around. If the spare vcr fixes the problem, I'll be decluttering my place by one ancient VCR soon.

Why can't you hook the dvd player to the tv ?

At Walmart a blue-ray player costs about $50 (and does dvd too).

 

[sengsational]

Absolutely correct. How is your stock of precision resistors?

Is the "Precision" or "precision" So named, apparently, because before that, musicians struggled with intonation since there were no frets.

 

[ERD50]

Is the "Precision" or "precision" So named, apparently, because before that, musicians struggled with intonation since there were no frets.

I bet that went over a lot of heads!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Precision_Bass


and something I didn't know until a few minutes ago:

https://www.vintageguitar.com/1782/audiovox-736/

-ERD50

 

[ls99]

Is the "Precision" or "precision" So named, apparently, because before that, musicians struggled with intonation since there were no frets.

Got me there. While I like music, my musician skills are rather barbaric. I can create many notes and rhytms with various implements, calling it music would be a long stretch. ERD50's reference nicely clarified the capitalized version.

Violin, cello and Double bass players seem to master the accuracy of notes. Incidentally Paul Simon's tunes played by an African (from Soweto??) band used bass guitars without frets.

In the case of resistors precision refers to the percent deviation from claimed values. Plus there is the temperature caused deviati0n.

Well, I am off to the skating rink to do some figures and glide about.

 

[Hermit]

As I reported a couple of days ago in "What did you do today?" the shifter in my truck quit working. Yesterday I crawled around under the truck and under the dash. Everything under the truck look fine. From research on the web, this is often caused by a couple for bolts coming loose. I checked those bolts and they were tight, but way too much play going from the bolts up to the shift lever. This was not good. If that was the problem, it would mean dropping the steering column. The last time I messed with a steering column it was not pretty. I couldn't get the truck in park to start it, so I put the 4WD transfer case in neutral and jumped the starter solenoid to get it started then jammed it in gear and drove it in to the local mechanic. Just as I suspected, he is looking for a steering column in the wrecking yards. This is not going to be cheap, but it will get fixed. More later.