Continuing Thread: What Are You Fix-It'ing Today?

[GH85Carrera]

I replaced the O2 sensor on the El Camino. The old one was in there as a leftover from before I replaced the 305 with a 350, 87,000 miles ago. I figured it would not last much longer, so I had one in stock, ready to replace the old one.

I took it for a test drive, and all is well. No more Check Engine Soon light. I had to dig out my OBD1 reader (yea, OBD1 not 2) and tell it the system was a 1990 Vin H to read the code properly. I adapted a more modern throttle body fuel injection system many years ago as I hated the Rochester computer controlled carb that was on it from the factory.

Now days there are multiple all in one easy conversion kits to convert to FI. Not back in the olden days when I was ready to have a car that ran like it should.

It was an easy R&R of the sensor.

[Baz]

My Sun Joe electric power washer sprung a leak in the hose on Friday.

Bought it 6 years ago, so not bad as it has served me well over the years with zero issues.

Replacement generic hose ordered Friday and arrived Saturday. Issue resolved for $30 and a little elbow grease. The old hose was kinda stuck in both ends so had to work it a bit with vise grips and some WD40.

BTW, this power washer only cost $123 when I bought it. They are now going for $294!

Great investment at the time!

I use quick connects on all my hoses so attaching my water hose to it is a breeze. Wand stays attached all the time. So just unwind the cord and plug it in and go!

[A930Rocket]

The power door lock didn’t work on the passenger side of my 911. I pulled the door card and the rod with the plastic part, between the actuator and the door lock was broken.

Looking for just the female threaded plastic part now.

[rsrguy]

It's taken a long time to get everything in the fuse to this point...

[GH85Carrera]

I had a "10 minute" project, and I feel strange to report it only took 10 minutes!!!!

The idle on my El Camino has been really low, and it almost dies when the AC compressor kicks on.

Pull of the air cleaner, two Torx screws and the simple connector, the idle control valve is in my hand. Whip ot the Dremel, and a little grinding with a long skinny grinding wheel to give the switch a little more adjustment swing, put it back in place, fire up the engine, and the idle is from 550 RPM to 800 RPM or so. I go for a test drive, and all is prefect. The 5 mile test drive took longer than the adjustment.

[Monkey Wrench]

i started fixing the brakes in my volvo 740, bought new rotors from the rock place, paid npre for slotted ones wiht some coating thinking ok Il get "good ones"
thse don't just drop over the studs they have bearing races.

I had to reuse the grease seal near the backing plate . but the bore in the calliper was to loose so I had to shim it with sheet aluminum.

I wondered, should I trust the races that come wiht the hub? on the first side I just left well enough alone when I did the second side I drifted them out to install the better quality ones that came with my locally sourced (not chinese) bearings.

wow they were dirty behind the races,, ok I cleaned that up but my new races pretty much fell in there, I put some red locktite hoping that's enough to stop the race from spinning.

upon putting on the grease cap over the castillated nut, same thing it fit so loose it woud just fall out.. so I made a shim to hold the grease cap in. the things werent very accurate at all.

I rebuilt one calliper with a kit , the seal tucks into a slot in the piston bore, It took me a whille ot figure out I had to put the piston seal in and then stretch the bootoover the piston and get it seated in the groove then pushing the piston in locks it in place..
ok fine..

I got to the other side and found it has a different seal no greoove, it looked like a factory had bored out the area of this slot and pressed in a different seal with L shaped metal imbedded in the seal , well I dont have any seal like that so I was oficially stuck, I oprdered a new calliper.

in the midst of all this Im driving my 88 ford van and it blew a waterpump, It got a ride home on a flatdeck,

gee I had replaced it a few years ago, and it wasnt; even really dirty yet but didnt last. at this point I have two cars down..


I had one more trusty and worn old 1989 volvo that should work I bled the brakes and got it on the road, it riuns okj, the check engine light is on and it flickers, maybe its a issue with the alternator. most of the paint fell off, it looks like somehting from a mad max movie but I kind of like it, I rebuilt that engine and its tight and smooth and works well despite it's very aged and worn looks.

ill continue with the volvo 740 brakes today, I had to go to work for a break ;-) I keep going bcak to that, Im changing the brake flexible hoses, yesterday I tried using a torch to heat the line up to get one to break free, I know I should have opened the bleeder, it actually blew the hose right out of the crimp connector and started spurting farts of burning brake fluid out, but it was hot and I dont need the line which is why I was not too worried about heating the hose fitting .. Im on the back now and Ill do the parking brake shoes too.

im itching to get into my 944 but sometimes bad luck comes in threes and you just need ot keep going with whats on the table otherwise it becomes a mind boggling mess of jobs.

I got a new waterpump for my 88 ford van van so that's next after my88 volvo 740 wagon has new brake discs, and good pads and lines.
its a bit of a sickness I have 6 cars and one on the road working and they all have proper ashtrays and Ive never owned a car new enough to not have an ashtray or to have luxuries like antilock brakes or airbags, or cup holders , I fix my own stuff, yes I'M that stubborn. maybe cheap is the word. Tight as a rusty screw maybe? ;-)

this 740 has I think is ATE, could be bendix? two piston floating callipers, I hate them I love the volvo 240 where the girling ones have opposing pistons and no floating , the ones in my wagon went rattly as the bore the pin slides on wore out , so I changed them only just 15 years ago ;-) seems like last year..

its a hole in the calliper casting. it goes oval. Im not sure even the rebuilt one is good,, its just not a great desoign. If I was more fussy Id try to ream it and make a larger pin.

having the rotors run on the bearings does elliminate runout caused by crap between so it is argualbly better , just a lot more work to change than ones that just drop over the wheel studs.

whell now thay are togeteher I turn the front rotors and Im not detecting runout they kinds scrape the pads but Ive never pressurized it , they turn free enough that it seems normal. I think despoite the poor machining tolerances they were actually true to the bearing races, the bearing races were a pretty loose fit.


im planning to ad a spare battery to my van so it can charge and not discharge like campers and boats do, so I bought a battery isolator.. I bought a battery box from the rock place, it came it was too small, ordered a larger one, it came but no lid.. so I used the complaint form,

yesterday I get home I have another.. Now I have two larger battery boxes byut again still ,
the lid was missing..

I think their system credited me the cost ... should I oreder yet another? I actually don't mind the free battery boxes, Ill use them as tool boxes or something. I bet if I order it a third time Il get another again, with no lid lol ;-) maybe they are truning out of immigrants to work packing boxes and short staffed? thye might be afraid to come to work? who knows.. it might be a robot making the same mistake repetitively too.

I though I had a great deal ordering some thick wire on amazon to comnect my batteries, it came and it was so light,in weight I mean.. I looked on the package , its copper coated aluminyum wire. what would I use that for? I sent it back , painless it was. drop it at my postal outlet, now its probably on a skid of other defective junk someone will bid on

I got a brake vacuum bleeder kit a few days ago wasn't great quality, it came same day, I did find it easier than my other ways of bleeding brakes myself. my old way was with a vacuum generator mounted on a pressure cooker, the vacuum generator runs off compressor air and it makes a vacuum in the pot then I connect that to the bleeder. the thing I dont like, its quite loud and so is my compressor, so Im trying it this way.
at first I found it very slow , I was pumpung it up so it had vacuum and opening the bleeded and the flow was miniscule but it worked.. I found if I open the bleeded about 3 flats and just pump it pulls a lot more fluid faster, I can taper down as I finsih up.. Im was concerned the loose bleededr nipple might be a source of air so I put a little grease around the nipple threads.

I figure as long as I do maintain a vacuum, if the threads leak, its just filling the gun with more air , it probably won't backtrack into the calliper.

if I had a helper to pump the pedal I would t ever open a bleeder 3 flats, 1 is enough to let it out but I guess with vacuum it neeeds a larger opening to bleed.

if you are shoppong maybe if you pay a bit more they are better, its probably sufficient for me. Ive wanted a vacuum pumper thing for a while so I figuere I have enough brake jobs on my platter to get one.

[URY914]

I have a house built in 1955 and at the front and back doors, I have soffits that are covered with tongue and groove 6" pine boards. The boards are original 1955 material and are dried out and beginning to split and buckle and the nails are badly rusted to the point of failing. Last week one a board about 4’ long actually fell out. This gave me the opportunity to remove a few of the boards and look at the “attic” space above the kitchen. My roof has about a 2 in 12 pitch and my so called “attic” has only about 18” between the top of the ceiling joists and the bottom of the roof joists at the highest point. I was able to look above kitchen ceiling, and I have virtually no insulation of any kind. This was not a big surprise and is what I expected. The mystery is when I removed the soffit boards there was small rock pebbles, a lot of pebbles that fell out of the soffits. See the pictures. I can’t figure out where they would have come from. They are completely random and not like they were grouped together by some animal. When I would pry a board down about 50 of these rocks would come raining down too. The mystery is where did they come from and if the original builder put them there, why would they do that? Any ideas?

[Baz]

Maybe part of your roof was flat at one time and these are left over from a tar & gravel roof (?)

[A930Rocket]

^^^As I read your post, I was thinking they were going to be the grains from the shingles, but after seeing your pictures, that idea is out the window.

Strange that size rock could get up there.

[URY914]

Originally Posted by Baz

Maybe part of your roof was flat at one time and these are left over from a tar & gravel roof (?)

Nope. It's all a pitched roof.

[GH85Carrera]

Instead of a post in the general forum, I figured I would ask the brain trust of you handymen.


Our house was built 30 years ago. The sillcocks are original to the house. As that they are in a brick facade house, I would have to chisel out mortar, and fight with that to replace them, entirely. See the bottom photo. The seal on the end shuts off the water when we are done using it, and it works fine.


This is the problem as I see it. The faucet shuts off just fine if we are done, but while in use it leaks from the weep hole in the shaft of the faucet. I shut off the water, and removed the entire shaft, repacked the packing gland, and cleaned out the vacuum breaker.

I think our issue is the little chewed up washer that is between the square piece, and the end piece. I can't find anyway to to get the little flat washer replaced, and it looks like there is another seal behind the square part.


This is the vacuum breaker.

I have no idea what brand it is, or I would just buy an entire sillcock and just replace the guts.

So any ideas on how it can be replaced?

[afterburn 549]

Taking the axles out from under the Dodge one ton and installing Ford's (I think is a better idea)

Dodge axles use a vacuum poc to pull the 4WD in. It will always, and always, fail when it is needed the most!!
It about 3 Grand conversion dependent on what kit one gets sucked into buying, to fix this, for a one ton.
That's the EZ way.
SOOOooo I decided to change the gear ratio too from 4.10 to about 3.50
I bought two Ford axles with 3.55 gearing.
This takes care of the ratio problem and hub problem all in one horseshoe throw! As Ford uses regular turn-in hubs!
As of right now, I do not know why everyone else does not do it this way.??
Maybe I am missing something?
Would not be the first time.
Yes, drive shafts may need adjusting, but with 270 long, hard towing miles, that's OK.
It will be odds and ends for sure. (stuff that my wheelhouse is full up with )

[rsrguy]

Guys... anyone know what happened with bugstrider? He seems Mia. Hope he's ok

[Baz]

Originally Posted by rsrguy

Guys... anyone know what happened with bugstrider? He seems Mia. Hope he's ok

He comes and goes, so wouldn't worry too much, Guy.

But yeah - hope he's doing well. Always been one of the best dudes here!

[stealthn]

My list is growing:

- Cayman door handle is lose
- Macan needs new front rotors and pads
- Macan need front camera re-wired.

Hoping to make videos of all once the rain lets up.

[rsrguy]

Starting to fab from scratch the gear leg to wheel pant fairings as well as the gear legg to fuse pieces tomorrow. As well as installing the port side covering of the pa12 tomorrow. Lots to get done.

[A930Rocket]

After selling the E46, I was able to get rid of a lot of stuff in the garage, with the car. I added (2) 6’ wire shelves when I got home from work today. Now, I just need to organize the rest of the garage….. 🤪

I’d like to also, make all of the shelving uniform.

I borrowed the engine hoist, thinking I was going to replace the engine in the E46, but never did. I need to take it back to my buddies house and free up some space.

[rsrguy]

A place for everything.

[GH85Carrera]

The ceiling fan in my office gets a lot of use in the summer days. The other day it was time to turn on the house AC, and I turned on my ceiling fan. On low, it was OK, but the medium setting and it started making a horrid noise. Crap.

I ran it on low that afternoon, and a screw literally fell out. Oh boy. So I decided to investigate it today. The screws on the blades themself were fine. The loose parts were screws that the factory starts assembly with attaching the metal blade holders in place. There is zero access without a complete, take it down, and strip it down.

The light kit has to come off first. They are held in place with a ring that tightens onto threads on the bulb holders.



This is the outer threads of ceramic composition, and the ring that goes on is ceramic as well.



The ring goes way up inside the decorative glass shade. My large human hands have little chance of getting it apart, much less back together. I had to make a tool from PVC to grab the ring and remove it, and to re-install it.

That was not the hard part yet!



The metal cover to make the small motor look "pretty" has to come apart. It is a total monkey puzzle to get it back together, but that is later. I finally had access the to screws, and tightened them up, and reinstalled the screw that fell out. It took both hands and a headlamp to get it back together.

Another simple 10 minute task made into a four hour, almost impossible to do, by some engineer. Between the ceramic ring in an crazy tight area, and the no access to the screws is something that designer deserves a hard kick between his legs, even two kicks! If thay had used a drop of Locktight blue, all would have been fine.

I to use a slew of various screwdrivers, Phillips, slotted, and some Torx just to get the dang screws tight.

If any other ceiling fan in our house has the noisy issue (we have 6 of them in the house, and two on the back porch) it will go in the trash, and I will just go get a new fan. I have two old ceiling fans in my garage that I was gifted for removing them and installing new one at a relatives house. They work great.

What a boondoggle.

Oh yea, I had to dig the aluminum ladder from the storage shed, to be able to reach the mount point. And the credenza of my office desk sticks out under the fan, so I was working at my arm's length to R&R the fan from the ceiling. And the credenze has a glass top, so I could not stand on it, just reach around it.

[rsrguy]

Managed to get the epoxy on the comanche fuse today.