Your recent repair? - 2021 to ?

[Souschef]

Boy, that pic brings back memories of our RF labs back in the 70's and on. HP equipment all over the place, sig gens, spectrum analyzers, etc.

-ERD50

This is a photo of me at Point Barrow Alaska calibrating equipment at a DEW line installation.

 

[freedomatlast]

Draft Inducer on the gas furnace was continuously cycling.....5 seconds on, 2 seconds off, and the furnace wasn't firing. Checked the draft with a Manometer. It showed 1.5 in. Wc and the pressure switch only required 0.4 in. Wc to activate. So that meant the exhaust was clear with no obstructions. Next I confirmed, that the pressure switch was closing and that I had continuity when the pressure switch closed, and it did. Had to be a bad control board. Ordered and replaced the control board and it runs like new. Not sure which component failed on the board, but the board around two resistors looks like it was getting extremely hot. The traces on the back of the board also look discolored in the same area. Pic attached....

 

[Sunset]

Draft Inducer on the gas furnace was continuously cycling.....5 seconds on, 2 seconds off, and the furnace wasn't firing. Checked the draft with a Manometer. It showed 1.5 in. Wc and the pressure switch only required 0.4 in. Wc to activate. So that meant the exhaust was clear with no obstructions. Next I confirmed, that the pressure switch was closing and that I had continuity when the pressure switch closed, and it did. Had to be a bad control board. Ordered and replaced the control board and it runs like new. Not sure which component failed on the board, but the board around two resistors looks like it was getting extremely hot. The traces on the back of the board also look discolored in the same area. Pic attached....

That is some pretty good diagnostic work.
The c2 and R11 certainly look over-heated.

 

[Kroeran]

Mice chewing dishwasher drain hose

Third round with the mice. I managed to seal off the dishwasher chamber, where they had chewed twice, but the drain hose passes through a section that I have not been able to seal off from their access.

Identified the part and the local shop that had one. 75 cents China price, $85 dollars appliance parts shop price.

Wrapped the hose in dense mesh metal chicken wire like fabric.

 

[Ronstar]

I installed a heater in my Polaris Ranger. Had to install heater, ducts, and tap into coolant lines. Had to drain the coolant and refill after the install. But the vehicle overheated after a few minutes of running. Info online indicated that I could have air in the coolant lines. I found a screw in the engine near the radiator hose connection. Turned it- sure enough it was the bleeding screw for the coolant system. Released the air, added more coolant and it now runs fine without overheating.

 

[John Galt III]

Third round with the mice. I managed to seal off the dishwasher chamber, where they had chewed twice, but the drain hose passes through a section that I have not been able to seal off from their access.

Identified the part and the local shop that had one. 75 cents China price, $85 dollars appliance parts shop price.

Wrapped the hose in dense mesh metal chicken wire like fabric.

75 cents for Chinese made part. $85 for same part at local store. Wow. I assume you ordered the Chinese part? LOL.

 

[Walt34]

Identified the part and the local shop that had one. 75 cents China price, $85 dollars appliance parts shop price.

And there's a very good chance the part is the exact same thing from both sources.

The shop owner must be sending twins to MIT. Yeah, that must be it.

 

[JoeWras]

It's a shame you went from a nice patch to a whole in the wall!

Easier access to the insulation.

I need to learn how to sequence pictures on this forum better.

 

[JoeWras]

Man, that old HP equipment was gorgeous. No wonder so many of my EE college friends wanted to work there.

By the time I graduated (mid 80s), all our equipment at megacorp was digital.

Well, I shouldn't say "all." Us newbies would be perplexed at a result, and our excellent senior engineer would reach behind the cabinet and pull out some old analog measurement device to help us out. He always found the solution while we scratched our heads at what he was doing.

 

[NW-Bound]

This is a photo of me at Point Barrow Alaska calibrating equipment at a DEW line installation.

1962!

I was not old enough to start playing with vacuum tubes. Not until 1967.

 

[NW-Bound]

Speaking of water leaks, I came home from a month-long Europe trip, opened my mail the next day and saw a water bill of $275. The previous month was $100.

Just the morning before leaving, I saw a puddle of water at the base of an outdoor faucet. However, there was not time to do anything about it.

During my absence, two more leaks developed. One of the toilets developed a weird failure where the overflow tube in the tank got a crack, and lost water through that. And then, one of the garden sprinkler valves failed to close completely, causing a small leak.

These three small leaks added up to mucho water loss over a month.

The cut-off date of the water bill was before I came home and fixed the leaks. The next bill will still be high, just don't know how high.

 

[Sunset]

Speaking of water leaks, I came home from a month-long Europe trip, opened my mail the next day and saw a water bill of $275. The previous month was $100.

Just the morning before leaving, I saw a puddle of water at the base of an outdoor faucet. However, there was not time to do anything about it.

During my absence, two more leaks developed. One of the toilets developed a weird failure where the overflow tube in the tank got a crack, and lost water through that. And then, one of the garden sprinkler valves failed to close completely, causing a small leak.

These three small leaks added up to mucho water loss over a month.

When we travel, I turn off the house water. Since we had a gusher leak one time, I'd rather plants/grass die than the house flood.

 

[finnski1]

When we travel, I turn off the house water. Since we had a gusher leak one time, I'd rather plants/grass die than the house flood.

Me too. One valve, shut the whole house down.

 

[braumeister]

You don't even have to be on a trip to run into this.

We recently had a leak between the water meter and the house that apparently occurred shortly after a quarterly meter reading. No evidence of the leak outside at all. Only learned of it from a letter the water company sent me after the next meter reading that showed about 13,000 gallons more than usual had been used.

Speaking of water leaks, I came home from a month-long Europe trip, opened my mail the next day and saw a water bill of $275. The previous month was $100.

Just the morning before leaving, I saw a puddle of water at the base of an outdoor faucet. However, there was not time to do anything about it.

During my absence, two more leaks developed. One of the toilets developed a weird failure where the overflow tube in the tank got a crack, and lost water through that. And then, one of the garden sprinkler valves failed to close completely, causing a small leak.

These three small leaks added up to mucho water loss over a month.

The cut-off date of the water bill was before I came home and fixed the leaks. The next bill will still be high, just don't know how high.

 

[Sunset]

You don't even have to be on a trip to run into this.

We recently had a leak between the water meter and the house that apparently occurred shortly after a quarterly meter reading. No evidence of the leak outside at all. Only learned of it from a letter the water company sent me after the next meter reading that showed about 13,000 gallons more than usual had been used.

I've never had a house where the water meter is outside. In the old days it was a real pain as I had to read the meter and phone in the value, and once or twice a year let in a worker to read it (they didn't trust people). Now it's done by a cell phone device connection so no intrusions.

 

[braumeister]

I've never had a house where the water meter is outside.

Around here it's almost always out near the curb, far from the house. Buried in a well in the ground.

 

[Major Tom]

Speaking of water leaks, I came home from a month-long Europe trip, opened my mail the next day and saw a water bill of $275. The previous month was $100.

Just the morning before leaving, I saw a puddle of water at the base of an outdoor faucet. However, there was not time to do anything about it.

During my absence, two more leaks developed. One of the toilets developed a weird failure where the overflow tube in the tank got a crack, and lost water through that. And then, one of the garden sprinkler valves failed to close completely, causing a small leak.

These three small leaks added up to mucho water loss over a month.

The cut-off date of the water bill was before I came home and fixed the leaks. The next bill will still be high, just don't know how high.

A similar thing happened to me during my house-owning days about 25 years ago. It was my first house. I hadn't owned it for long, and was still very inexperienced about how "houses worked". I just wasn't terribly aware of all the things that could go wrong, so wasn't used to keeping an eye out for possible issues. I had noticed a strange "rushing" sound coming from the back yard. Seeing as I was still getting used to all the new sounds in the house and neighborhood (wildlife, etc) I put it to the back of my mind, and figured out that I'd probably find out what it was at some point.

A few weeks later, a representative from the Department of Water and Power came to the door to notify me that they had noticed much higher than normal water usage on my account. Had I experienced any problems that would explain the discrepancy? I answered in the negative, though I was starting to suspect what the rushing sound might be. The rep said that they would consider making an adjustment to the bill, based on my response, and left. I went into the back yard, and discovered the source of the rushing sound. I had a garden hose with an attachment on the end. Pull the trigger, and water comes out. I had left the faucet on (silly me), leaving the trigger to control the water flow. Something in the hose attachment had failed (I forget the details now), and water at full pressure had been gushing out for weeks. I hadn't noticed it when looking out the back windows, as the house was built on a hillside, and the sloping ground was covered in ivy. The ground underneath the ivy must have been completely waterlogged!

I called DWP, explained that it was my fault, and paid the very large water bill. It didn't feel right to let them make the adjustment to the bill for a mistake that I had made. This is how young and slightly foolish people (like I was) learn.

 

[JoeWras]

Just make sure your whole house shutoff valve is good quality and really works.

I've got a story.

I turned off my ancient whole house gate valve, gave the toilet one last flush and left for a two week vacation.

The valve leaked really slowly, maybe a gallon a day. Over this time, the toilet tank was slowly filling with this leak. Well, it filled up so slowly that my float valve malfunctioned. Apparently that old float valve needed a good "snap" from the pressure. Unbeknownst to me, the overflow in the tank was about 1mm higher than the flush handle hole. So for about 10 days, water was coming out of the toilet handle hole, just missing the overflow.

It was not a major leak, only 10 gal or so, but it was a real mess none the less.

Once I figured out what was going on, I repaired it by:
1) Cutting the overflow to be below the handle hole.
2) Replacing the float valve
3) Replacing the whole house gate valve with a modern ball valve, which is better for shut-offs anyway.

 

[aja8888]

Speaking of water leaks, I came home from a month-long Europe trip, opened my mail the next day and saw a water bill of $275. The previous month was $100.

Just the morning before leaving, I saw a puddle of water at the base of an outdoor faucet. However, there was not time to do anything about it.

During my absence, two more leaks developed. One of the toilets developed a weird failure where the overflow tube in the tank got a crack, and lost water through that. And then, one of the garden sprinkler valves failed to close completely, causing a small leak.

These three small leaks added up to mucho water loss over a month.

The cut-off date of the water bill was before I came home and fixed the leaks. The next bill will still be high, just don't know how high.

Our water supplier has upgraded all the water use metering equipment and constantly monitors usage via microwave towers. I had a small toilet flapper leak (bypass the flap) last year and they sent me an email saying our water system has a leak somewhere. I found the bad flapper and fixed it.

My neighbor recently had an outside faucet start dripping when they were out of town on vacation. They notified him of the leak and he called me. I went over in his back yard and saw the faucet drip. I tightened the valve packing and all was good.

Good stuff!

 

[grasshopper]

The pressure switch on my well malfunctioned and filled the pressure tank to 120 lbs instead of 50 lbs. I haven't found any leaks or valve problems but only time will tell.

 

[REWahoo]

While this is more of a modification than a repair, I decided to post it here. However, I did consider posing it in the "Pet Peeves" thread since it definitely qualifies.

Situation: Due to GM's misguided effort to save a buck or two, my new Chevrolet Bolt EUV has a totally stupid yet legal brake light system.

There are 7 red lens lights on the rear of the car:

- a small brake/turn signal light located low on each side, below the level of the lift gate.
- a large tail light (actually two lights, one on the lift gate and one on the car body) located on each side, at the mid point.
- a "third brake light", located above the rear window.

One would expect the two (actually four) prominent lights located at the mid-point would be the brake lights. That's what drivers would be watching if they were behind an EUV in stop and go traffic. But no, they aren't brake lights. They are running lights that illuminate only if the headlights or parking lights are on, they do not illuminate when the brakes are applied. The lower photo below shows the location of the rear lights and the three lights that illuminate when the brake pedal is pressed.

While this configuration does meet federal regulations it is clearly a poor design, one that will almost certainly lead to increased chances for rear end collisions. On an EUV owner's forum, many report being told by other drivers that their brake light weren't working. One reported being pulled over and issued a warning for inoperative brake lights.

Lots of discussion on the EUV forums about what to do about the situation beyond complaining to the NTSB. The location of the wiring to the existing brake lights makes it very difficult to tap into them to link them to the large mid-point lights. Some owners added a rapid flash device to the 3rd brake light, which is an improvement, but not a solution.

I don't want to bore you further by getting down into the weeds too far about the idiosyncrasies of how the lights are wired, and why that prevented the end result of the modification being ideal, so I'll just describe the modification.

Since no wiring diagram is available to the general public (at least none I could find), I held a probe and test session with a voltmeter and the wiring bundle leading from the car to the lift gate. I located the three wires powering the 3rd brake light and the left and right running lights. I tapped into the 3rd brake light wire and connected a diode, then to the diode I attached a wire to each of the running lights. Now when the third brake light illuminates, the left and right running lights also illuminate as shown in the top photo below.

The diode prevents the flow of current the opposite direction, so the third brake light does not come on when the headlights are on and the running lights illuminate. The downside of this mod is when the headlights are on the running lights are on, so the only lights illuminated when braking are the original three. The end result isn't ideal but I'm not concerned since we do very little driving at night so the headlights aren't used that often.

Really frustrating that I felt it necessary to do this on a new car because GM thought saving a few bucks was more important than reducing the chance of a rear end collision.

On a more positive note, everything else about the car has been great!

 

[kgtest]

Accidentally turned the gas off instead of the waterline when I was blowing out my irrigation system for the winter last week. Couldn't get the pilot re-lit on the water heater so I started taking the burner out to see if it was a dirty ignitor... bent the small gas line that the pilot light is connected to... and couldn't get the fitting to go back in.

$250 replacement burner and I was back in business. Had to very carefully connect that pilot light gas line because the threads were almost cross-threaded...well maybe they were, but I managed to get it all back together and working without any leaks. Stupid me, had I just held the pilot light gas for about 2 minutes and then tried to ignite, it would have lit and I would have avoided that repair. Oh well, lesson learned.

 

[JoeWras]

While this is more of a modification than a repair, I decided to post it here. However, I did consider posing it in the "Pet Peeves" thread since it definitely qualifies.

Situation: Due to GM's misguided effort to save a buck or two, my new Chevrolet Bolt EUV has a totally stupid yet legal brake light system.

That's... insane. One would not expect looking that low for brake lights. Even though you explained it, I still feel like the brake lights aren't working on the bottom picture.

Nice fix!

 

[NW-Bound]

When we travel, I turn off the house water. Since we had a gusher leak one time, I'd rather plants/grass die than the house flood.

Me too. One valve, shut the whole house down.

My mother-in-law lives with us. My wife arranged for her siblings to take turn looking after her. My sister-in-law had to come from San Diego.

Even without anyone living at home, my wife would not let her plants die. I do have separate shutoff valves for interior and exterior water lines.

I always shut down the water at my high-country boondocks home. Freezing is always a danger.

You don't even have to be on a trip to run into this.

We recently had a leak between the water meter and the house that apparently occurred shortly after a quarterly meter reading. No evidence of the leak outside at all. Only learned of it from a letter the water company sent me after the next meter reading that showed about 13,000 gallons more than usual had been used.

When I told my neighbor of my $275 water bill, he said he had a bad leak, costing him $500. It was on a sprinkler circuit, I believe.

 

[38Chevy454]

My pressure washer Honda 5 hp engine was running poor and then wouldn't start. Hard to pull and backfiring out the carburetor. I took off the valve cover and found a broken exhaust rocker. A little searching and apparently this is a fairly common problem. Bought a new rocker on Amazon for $8. Waiting for the replacement part, but here is picture of the cracked broken part.

Wonder how many other Honda powered equipment were scrapped because of this problem? Not a tough repair, if you have some mechanical skills can save yourself some money.