Your recent repair? 2013 - 2020

[bjorn2bwild]

My 32 year old truck does not have built in cruise control, so I am dependent on after-market devices for that feature. Yeah, the Audiovox vacuum type were never powerful enough to handle a strong head wind or grade even if it was steady.
The newer Rostra devices using servo motors work as well as any factory installed ones I have used. With this truck, I'm usually not in a situation where ACC would be fully appreciated. The Rostra set up is perfect for cruising highway 50 basin and range country.

 

[sengsational]

Today's Fix Healed Itself

Yesterday the microwave oven fan started turning on when you opened the door. YIKES! I thought our bodies were getting cooked! But listening to it, it was obvious the low "hum" of the transformer was missing, so no power to the magnetron (you can run your microwave in "defrost mode" and hear the difference as it kicks the power on and off). A bit of googling and I knew I needed to check the door interlock switches.

But this AM I had scheduled a Craigslist buy, so went out for that, and the guy gave me a free microwave oven! Not good enough to replace the fancy over the range model, but good enough to replace the 1981 model in the garage (39 years old, still worked, but cooling fan no longer worked). Anyway, knowing I needed another door interlock switch, I decided to pull the ones from the 39 year old microwave (some things don't change).

After tossing the old garage microwave and placing the new little free one in it's place, I walked into the kitchen with a few of the little switches, and lo and behold, the kitchen microwave started working normally again!

PS: I just couldn't throw away this 25 minute timer with "alert": https://youtu.be/KQ4fWAIErrE It's a character flaw.

 

[Philliefan33]

My mountain bike had a spa day today. Cleaned, new chain, cables lubed, derailleur adjustment and brake adjustment. She will get dirty again tomorrow, but she looks nice today.

 

[2soon2tell]

Aja,

I still have a scar in my scalp from wrapping my DM's '61 Corvair Monza around a tree. I was 15 and not wearing a seat belt. DUMB
Corvair's of that era had major handling issues and would fishtail on a wet street without much warning.

Remember Ralph Nader's book on the Corvair "Unsafe at any Speed"

 

[aja8888]

Aja,

I still have a scar in my scalp from wrapping my DM's '61 Corvair Monza around a tree. I was 15 and not wearing a seat belt. DUMB
Corvair's of that era had major handling issues and would fishtail on a wet street without much warning.

Remember Ralph Nader's book on the Corvair "Unsafe at any Speed"

Yes, the book. Sorry about your head cut! I've never owned a Corvair but have owned a few VW's that were very loose on the road, but no books were written about them? It's widely know that the early Corvair had "handling problems" due to undersized tires, incorrect inflation, etc. The later models were fine. And GM sold near 2 million of them. Some of them must have been OK over that 9 year run of cars?

Hey, Toyota's suffered from unintended acceleration a few years ago. I could go on and on. Remember Ford Explorer and the Firestone tire issues? And recently the GM ignition switch failures causing many deaths? Etc.

 

[travelover]

.......... And GM sold near 2 million of them. Some of them must have been OK over that 9 year run of cars?...........

At least GM redeemed themselves as master engineers with the Vega.

 

[Chuckanut]

Your recent repair?

At least GM redeemed themselves as master engineers with the Vega. [emoji23]

Iirc, the replacement engine for the aluminum block was called The Iron Duke.

 

[Telly]

Aja,

I still have a scar in my scalp from wrapping my DM's '61 Corvair Monza around a tree. I was 15 and not wearing a seat belt. DUMB
Corvair's of that era had major handling issues and would fishtail on a wet street without much warning.

Remember Ralph Nader's book on the Corvair "Unsafe at any Speed"

Ah yes. The first 2 or 3 years of the Corvair used a swing-axle setup for the rear axles. With it's short axle half-shaft lengths, there was major camber change when going over bumps or turning. The rear drive axles and suspension were totally redesigned in, was it 1964? Don't remember. That fixed the extreme tire camber change issue. Still had the rear-engine tendency to oversteer, not a familiar feeling to Americans who were brought up on front-end-heavy cars that tend to understeer.

Ford trucks used swing axles in front successfully for many many years. The Twin I Beam for 2WD, the Twin Traction Beam for 4WD. Through model year 1996. I have a Twin Traction Beam with Quad shocks. Both of these swing axle setups reduced camber changes by having long axles that overlap each other, so the pivot point of the left axle is on the right side, the pivot point of the right axle is on the left side.

 

[John Galt III]

More of a safety issue IMO, getting a blowout going downhill at speed could lead to a crash, I'm with Euro, replace the tire already.

You can relax, Zinger. No steep hills. I'll keep riding it the way it is, which is how I like it.

 

[aja8888]

At least GM redeemed themselves as master engineers with the Vega.

Those were pretty nice little cars, except if it rained where you live, or God forbid, it snowed, the body turned into iron oxide in the blink of an eye!

I had a friend who bought a new one in bright yellow (this is Yellow). In one year it looked like it was living in a Leper colony. Ugh!

But the Iron Duke engine just kept banging on all four cylinders!

The Pinto of that era was exceptionally bad as it rusted at the same pace as the Vega, but it also came with an explosive gas tank! A ram into it's rear end made quick work of the car.

 

[5Miler]

Seems my air conditioner recovery was short lived (about a week) as Friday evening I noticed the 2nd floor unit was pumping out warm air again. Try as I might, i couldn't get the compressor to kick on. The compressor fan was running, had power to the commutator showing 24V from thermostat and 240 passing through to controller board. Changed out the dual run Capacitor to no avail so I gave up and placed a service call as it was getting too dark outside to continue. Next available appointment was Monday late afternoon.

Saturday morning I went out to put the original capacitor back in and button it up until the A/C tech arrived on Monday. True to form, I couldn't resist getting my meter back out and double checking everything. I had noticed that the LED indicating power to the compressor was not lighting the night before but I wasn't sure how the circuit went to latch the LED. It appeared to come right off the top of the commutator which had power so I did some continuity checks on all the wires. Everything looked good so I just gave up and put it all back together. Before I put the cover plate back on, I plugged in the main power cutout and don't you know, the compressor LED was on indicating power to the compressor. How could that be? I hit the commutator with my screwdriver to transfer power and the darn compressor kicked right in. I closed it up fast and it ran fine all weekend.

A/C Tech showed up as scheduled on Monday and listened to my explanation of the issue and said he was with me until the compressor light came on at the end. At least it wasn't just me. He spent an hour double checking and ensuring refrigerant levels and just letting it run in case of overheating of the compressor. Finally, as I feared, he admitted he had nothing. He waived the service fee in exchange for a contract to get me a couple of service checkups and discounts on parts. Net difference was only $40 so seemed better than paying for the service which did nothing. I remember back in my service tech days, I hated intermittent problems with a passion.

 

[sdtech]

My sister hit a pheasant on the interstate with a year old Vega. It went thought the front grill, the radiator came off and somehow parts thrashed around inside the engine compartment (maybe the pheasant was still alive?). Totaled the car.



I was a passenger in a hatchback Vega that got rear-ended pretty hard. The glass hatchback popped completely off. Both doors were jammed, but we were able to just crawl out the now glassless rear.

 

[aja8888]

My sister hit a pheasant on the interstate with a year old Vega. It went thought the front grill, the radiator came off and somehow parts thrashed around inside the engine compartment (maybe the pheasant was still alive?). Totaled the car.



I was a passenger in a hatchback Vega that got rear-ended pretty hard. The glass hatchback popped completely off. Both doors were jammed, but we were able to just crawl out the now glassless rear.

Sounds like your family had the "Vega Hex".

This is the one your sister should have bought - Cosworth Vega

 

[sengsational]

How about the "Astra"? The front looked like a Firebird, but it was a Vega.

But back to business...

I've got a cheap flat screen TV and it has always gone dark when the dehumidifier (on the same breaker) started up. So for a second or two, black, then everything normal. No big deal because it's rare that the dehumidifier kicks on during TV watching.


But now, it's blacking out very often. More often than any compressors in my entire house would be kicking in. So I tested the voltage and with several devices it's reading 121.6 to 121.8. Another thing is that I'm really far from the transformer; the diameter of the wire to my house (seen in the breaker box) is huge.

So what I'm wondering is if it's worth calling Duke Energy, or if that would be a waste of time. In theory, transformers can have multiple "taps", but if 121.6 is to spec, then I haven't got a leg to stand on. But there may be another test (other than voltage) that would better measure the problem I'm having. It seems the voltage gets pulled down briefly? I don't have (and never learned how to use) an oscilloscope.

 

[Boho]

...if 121.6 is to spec, then I haven't got a leg to stand on. But there may be another test (other than voltage) that would better measure the problem I'm having.

This is from a post in this thread on another forum.

In our case, the WAC exempts 5 of the 8 utilities from having to comply with the WAC rules [which set] the minimum voltage compliance standards: No frequency deviations from 60 Hz under normal conditions, voltage fluctuations of plus or minus 5% of the adopted voltage, and a total voltage variation from MIN to Max value may not exceed 8% of the standard adopted voltage...The 5 exempt utilities could have specifications that are more relaxed then the WAC requirements...If the 3 regulated utilities get too far out of tolerance, then a complaint can be filed with our UTC.

My answer to your question is, take a look at your State rules

 

[Telly]

But now, it's blacking out very often. More often than any compressors in my entire house would be kicking in. So I tested the voltage and with several devices it's reading 121.6 to 121.8. Another thing is that I'm really far from the transformer; the diameter of the wire to my house (seen in the breaker box) is huge.

So what I'm wondering is if it's worth calling Duke Energy, or if that would be a waste of time. In theory, transformers can have multiple "taps", but if 121.6 is to spec, then I haven't got a leg to stand on. But there may be another test (other than voltage) that would better measure the problem I'm having. It seems the voltage gets pulled down briefly? I don't have (and never learned how to use) an oscilloscope.

It could be the TV itself.

But yes, there is a simple instrument that your power company can use. It's so easy, even a caveman could use it! I had a problem that was getting worse... when heavy loads like A/C compressors or pool pump kicked on, lights were beginning to blip down just instantaneously deeper and deeper over time. The computer UPS would sometimes kick in momentarily.

I emailed an acquaintance at our electrical utility about it, they sent out a contractor that they use. I have overhead drop, and share a pole transformer with one neighbor. My drop wire from transformer secondary to mast head is 50' max. First, he pulled the meter out of the meter box, and noted how much effort it took to do so, and the condition of the meter and box prongs and receptacle. In our high-heat environment, meter box's receptacle that the prongs of the meter plug into can lose their springyness in time, causing a higher-resistance connection. Ours was fine.

Next, he took what I as an Engineer would call a fan-forced air-cooled dummy load with built-in simple digital voltmeter (bright LED display for day/night use), and clipped it across L1 to Neutral in the meter box. Then noted the voltage, then turned the dummy load ON. It is a very heavy load, and only uses it for a few seconds. While its ON, he notes the voltage with load. I did not find out what minimum voltage under load he was looking for. Then he moved it to across L2 to Neutral. One of them was lower than he expected, but not real bad.

He said that if he would have had a ladder with him, he could have checked the crimp splices from drop wire to mast wiring. So I pulled out a ladder of mine, so he could get on the roof, and I helped him get tools up there and down. He re-spliced all three connections, and in preparing to do so, the plastic insulation on one of the original splices, either L1 or L2, flaked off. It was cooked by heat. Not blistered, just the plasticizer baked out of it. The other two splices did not have that. The splices connect the aluminum drop's L1 and L2 to the copper mast to meter wiring, and the drop's neutral steel wire to copper.

The old splices were butt splices, wires placed end-to-end, so there was a limited crimping space for the connectors given length. The new splices are bypass-splices, so there is lots of crimping room with the wires side-by-side, a better connection. He said it was not uncommon to have splices age-out. So mission accomplished. No more problems.

 

[Time2]

But there may be another test (other than voltage) that would better measure the problem I'm having. It seems the voltage gets pulled down briefly? I don't have (and never learned how to use) an oscilloscope.

It may be hard to see without a scope, and you need to be careful when connecting a line operated scope to mains voltage, as in you will pop a circuit breaker if you don't riuin the scope.
An expanded range AC voltmeter may show the voltage variation. The scale is expanded so it only reads from, Example:

100 Vac to 130Vac. That way it is much easier to see smaller variations.

Something like this would be great.
110V to 120V, nice small range to see any variation.

https://tinyurl.com/y3amc9yn
However, I would not touch that one, as I don't think it works.


Here's a chart recorder that would be neat, but costs $99.
https://tinyurl.com/y2ethkhd

If you have any electronic building experience there is a circuit on page 3.
National Semiconductor DS005550 datasheet pdf

 

[sengsational]

It could be the TV itself.

Probably is overly sensitive, but it otherwise is ok, so was looking into something besides a replace.

Interesting narrative. Thanks for that. I think I'll make an inquiry. Maybe they'll bring one of the things you mention here...

Next, he took what I as an Engineer would call a fan-forced air-cooled dummy load with built-in simple digital voltmeter

...

Interesting equipment ideas. I'd probably use it just the once, though. A replacement TV would be pretty cheap, if it comes to that.

I figure I'll put in a call to the power company. I'll let you all know how that goes...maybe I'll hang around and ask about the state's regs.

 

[Time2]

I'll relate a story about a bad connection in my house wiring as a possible source of your problem.
I ran a business from home and had many chest freezers. One of the outlets where the chest freezers were, ran through my TV/computer area. One evening I smelled a burning smell, I sniffed around, got my wife involved but could not locate anything and it went away. The next night it happened again and we again started searching, at some point I reached behind the TV and touched the plug on the TV, it was very hot. Nothing was wrong with the TV plug it conducted heat from the outlet that had a bad connection.
Whenever a freezer kicked on the extra current through the poor connection caused it to heat up. as soon as the freezer turned off the heat dissipated. Anyway when I found that hot plug, I pulled a section of panelling off the wall. The outlet had been hot so many times it just crumbled into pieces and the wire itself was overheated for several inches away.
The poor connection was at the wire that lead away and to the freezers.
Is it possible the low voltage situation is only at that plug or just on the wire run? And some other load is causing the voltage drop to the TV through the poor connection. Food for thought.

 

[NateW]

Yes, the book. Sorry about your head cut! I've never owned a Corvair but have owned a few VW's that were very loose on the road, but no books were written about them? It's widely know that the early Corvair had "handling problems" due to undersized tires, incorrect inflation, etc. The later models were fine. And GM sold near 2 million of them. Some of them must have been OK over that 9 year run of cars?

Hey, Toyota's suffered from unintended acceleration a few years ago. I could go on and on. Remember Ford Explorer and the Firestone tire issues? And recently the GM ignition switch failures causing many deaths? Etc.

There was. In addition to authoring "Unsafe at Any Speed" (about the dangers of the Covair), Ralph Nader wrote a companion book "Small on Safety" about the dangers of the Volkswagen Beetle. I read the latter book sometime in the 1980s because I drove Beetles at the time. I pretty much agreed with a lot of what he wrote about: oversteer issues on pre-1968 models due to full swing axles in the rear (early Covairs had this shortcoming too). The rear outboard tire in a sharp turn would tend to fold in and the Bug would roll over (I knew a few people that rolled one, but luckily I never did). Low back seats (before '68) could cause neck injuries, front seats could detach from their tracks if the Bug was struck from the rear due in part to it's rigid frame, rigid steering column/shaft that could impale a driver in a collision, gas tank up front above your legs, next to the fuse box, etc.

The worst accident I ever had in a VW Beetle was in 1980 when driving my 1956 Bug I was restoring (first day on the road) just before midnight. I was on a slightly hilly divided highway with a grassy median, driving in the right lane. I was behind a really slow moving car. I decided to pass. I looked over my left shoulder, gave a signal (first year of turn signals in a Bug) and changed lanes and was struck in the left rear quarter panel by a county police cruiser. I looked to the left and saw to my horror a police cruiser bouncing across the median, spinning around, with dirt flying; the officer who's car I changed lanes into steered hard to the left and over steered and bounced across the median and ended up facing the wrong way in the opposing lanes. The first thought I had was "I just hit and wiped out a police cuiser and am going to jail". Two other police cruisers were following the first cruiser and one officer stopped and spoke to me and the other checked on his partner. I was uninjured. The Bug suffered a dented left rear quarter panel, half of the left rear fender was torn off and the left rear rim dented and the tire blown out. Other officer ok too. The officer that spoke with me said the accident was their fault because they were responding to a call without any lights on! No headlights! Wow, at night and at a high rate of speed. That was the story of my life. I uploaded a scan of the two pictures I took in 1980 of the damage. You can see the police cruiser blue paint transfer.

 

[Sunset]

...
I've got a cheap flat screen TV and it has always gone dark when the dehumidifier (on the same breaker) started up. So for a second or two, black, then everything normal. No big deal because it's rare that the dehumidifier kicks on during TV watching.
..

How about plugging the tv into a UPS power supply, to see if the voltage drop is enough to trigger the power supply to activate ?

 

[aja8888]

The worst accident I ever had in a VW Beetle was in 1980 when driving my 1956 Bug I was restoring (first day on the road) just before midnight. I was on a slightly hilly divided highway with a grassy median, driving in the right lane. I was behind a really slow moving car. I decided to pass. I looked over my left shoulder, gave a signal (first year of turn signals in a Bug) and changed lanes and was struck in the left rear quarter panel by a county police cruiser. I looked to the left and saw to my horror a police cruiser bouncing across the median, spinning around, with dirt flying; the officer who's car I changed lanes into steered hard to the left and over steered and bounced across the median and ended up facing the wrong way in the opposing lanes. The first thought I had was "I just hit and wiped out a police cuiser and am going to jail". Two other police cruisers were following the first cruiser and one officer stopped and spoke to me and the other checked on his partner. I was uninjured. The Bug suffered a dented left rear quarter panel, half of the left rear fender was torn off and the left rear rim dented and the tire blown out. Other officer ok too. The officer that spoke with me said the accident was their fault because they were responding to a call without any lights on! No headlights! Wow, at night and at a high rate of speed. That was the story of my life. I uploaded a scan of the two pictures I took in 1980 of the damage. You can see the police cruiser blue paint transfer.

Boy, you were lucky in that wreck. I had many Beetles (sold my last one in 2017) but never rolled any.

 

[John Galt III]

Gonna put my Sony dual cassette tape deck repair on hold. I'm at the point at which I need to detach connectors from the circuit board to move stuff out of the way. I cannot find any info on the internet about how one detaches these things without breaking something (and there are several different types of connectors). Well, actually I did find out that there are 2 kinds of ribbon connectors, one just pulls out and pushes back in, the other requires a clasp to be loosened first. I was able to get a ribbon connector off, and back in. But the other connectors, which are little boxes at the end of wires, elude me. Nothing on the internet other than 'disconnect the wire and proceed'. Nothing on HOW to disconnect it. On the Youtube videos it looks like you just pull the little boxes off, but they won't come off for me. Squeeze, twist, gently pry with flathead screwdriver. Nope, nothin'. So, taking a break from this frustrating task. Plenty of other stuff to do, lol. Thanks for listening.

 

[Souschef]

How about plugging the tv into a UPS power supply, to see if the voltage drop is enough to trigger the power supply to activate ?

I have the same problem when DW turns the ceiling fan on or off in our bedroom. My monitor goes blank for a second. I am not sure if it is voltage drop or EMI, but I live with it because it happens seldomly.
If I was really interested, I have a recording voltmeter I could hook up.

 

[NateW]

Boy, you were lucky in that wreck. I had many Beetles (sold my last one in 2017) but never rolled any.

Yes sir aja8888, I fully agree. If the police officer has not jerked his steering wheel hard left after I changed lanes into him, I probably would not be typing this now.

Now the worst accident I had was when I was about 20 years old. I was driving my parents 1968 (Ford) Ranch Wagon (because my Bug wouldn't start, lucky me) on the highway, right at 60 mph and a teenager who had his license for about a month pulled out about 30 feet in front of me to cross the highway (he had a stop sign). All I remember is beginning to lift my foot off of the accelerator as the Ranch Wagon hit the B-pillar the the teenager's dad's brand new Camero! I had a lap seatbelt on only (no shoulder harness, as it was a two-piece and cumbersom to use) and my head hit something (had a minor concussion). Both cars were totaled. Three teenagers were in the Camero and none were seriously hurt, if at all.