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

[porsche930dude]

[john70t]

Whoah dang!
Take that outside in high winds with the air compressor and dental pick.
Start at the edges. Go slow. Always away from the source.
When you get down to metal start using oils.


I changed common truck oil today. Had to remove an air splitter and couple of badly-designed panels. Little pieces created to rot and fall off. Lifted OEM driver seat location but yet still no access to the mechanical necessities. Electronics located directly underneath the oil filter. Engineers need to die in a cauldron of fire. Slowly. Nothing further to report here.

[Evans, Marv]

I burned a ton of brush and limbs I cut and cleared day before yesterday - four large piles. I'm so glad to get that out of the way, so I can be on to something else I need to get done before the warmer weather arrives.

[mthomas58]

Originally Posted by mthomas58

Started phase two of the gutter guard project - the second story gutters. Its all about ladder safety. Even in my younger days I never felt comfortable transitioning from ladder to roof so I picked up a pair of Werner WalkThru's and they are game changers. Along with the standoff/stabilizer and tying off the lower rung to the deck post this set up is rock solid. I'll be able to install the gutter guards above the porch by standing on the lower roof but when I mover around the side I'll be on a ladder approx 20ft with a 28" extended standoff from the house to reach gutters. Not looking forward to that. And, I think I'm going to have to set up a plank from the lower roof section to a ladder support in order to reach the to corner guards

Got the gutter guard project done. Ladder set up to get the to the outside second story corner was a little scary!

[billybek]

Yesterday, swapped the wheel set on the one ton. I think those darn wheels weigh one ton....

Today I will try to get the damage done to the back yard by two border collies repaired. Top dress and re-seed. It will look the same next spring so I don't know why I bother.

[ZeroHecksGiven]

Originally Posted by billybek

Yesterday, swapped the wheel set on the one ton. I think those darn wheels weigh one ton....

Today I will try to get the damage done to the back yard by two border collies repaired. Top dress and re-seed. It will look the same next spring so I don't know why I bother.

My wife and I had pugs since we got married and then I decided I wanted an adventure dog and brought home a blue heeler. And, now I’m doing more yard work because of it. He doesn’t seem to be doing as much digging these days, but even just him playing fetch and running around hammers the lawn, lol. The things we do….

[Baz]

Originally Posted by ZeroHecksGiven

My wife and I had pugs since we got married and then I decided I wanted an adventure dog and brought home a blue heeler. And, now I’m doing more yard work because of it. He doesn’t seem to be doing as much digging these days, but even just him playing fetch and running around hammers the lawn, lol. The things we do….

My fav. breed - I miss mine terribly.....



They do more damage to stuff in year one. After that not so much.....

[Baz]

Helped a good friend who lives around the corner with some minor irrigation stuff.

Trying to find the other 2 valves on a 4 zone system. One 2 valve box was located. Other one was not. I have a locator but it just wasn't getting it done. Anywho, the valve that was stuck "on" is now working - so we bought some time. In the meantime I replaced his antique controller and repaired a small break.

[bugstrider]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

I burned a ton of brush and limbs I cut and cleared day before yesterday - four large piles. I'm so glad to get that out of the way, so I can be on to something else I need to get done before the warmer weather arrives.

Man do I need to do the same….. I think I missed the window this year. Either that, it was the eight day work week I was on during our freakishly cool weather last week…


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[bugstrider]

Hope this “Fix” will help a few folks.

Since I was a kid, my parents always had these brass hose nozzles on our hoses. They really work great, even with low water pressure and a true godsend when working a burn pile. The pinpoint water stream can reach out and touch things from a good distance. Just in case someone has a runner get away from the initial burn…

Anywhose, this particular nozzle has been in my possession since 1982ish and has seen decades of use. Last week I discovered that the rubber insert finally disintegrated and the nozzle was non-op and now a brass paperweight.



So on a whim, I reached out to the company and found out they will provide a free rubber insert and Stainless bearing for the cost of shipping. As long as you can provide proof of purchase. Since ours was so old and has been an awesome tool, I had zero reservations for purchasing a “3-pack” of parts for $4.95. I actually picked up two three packs since I will be replacing all of ours and my parents.

They include instructions on how to do the repair, which you don’t really need, and it takes a whole two minutes to do.




Ready to go for another few decades. They do recommend that when your done using the nozzle, open it up fully to relax the rubber insert, which is something we have always done. The kits should be compatible with all makes of nozzles like this seen for sale at all major box stores.

Cheers


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[rsrguy]

Ok... that's pretty cool... durability wise and that a ca based us company is still in buis and stepping up!

[rsrguy]

Making progress on reassembly. Need to have guide pins machined for the spar bolts and sent the fuel servo (throttle body) off for overhaul.

[john70t]

Have had 'smells' in the house for a while and was a little befuddled for a while trying to find the source.
Sometimes it was upstairs sometimes behind the sink. Sometimes in the bathroom. Sometimes in the bedroom space upstairs.
Round and round. Frustrating.

Possibilities:
1). Dead mice. Confirmed.
Saw a field mouse running from a hole under the bird feeder towards the house. They are definitely in the garage. Bird feeder close to the house is the source. Had some hawks hanging out on the backyard fence but my presence scared them away unfortunately.
Last winter late at night there was a sudden freaking pile of maggots at the base of the stairs center of house spewing out of the carpet and crawling everywhere. Totally bizarre. The ceiling above that floor section slightly is closed off.
No previous evidence before.
I already filled in all the visible rim joist openings with foam in the partially-finished basement. Due to the joists they could only enter under the decks front and back.

Today I crawled under there and filled a few small gaps. That sucked. Everything else next to those sides of the foundation-house was under 1/4".

2). Kitty poop box. Confirmed.
I am pretty regular with his cleaning schedule these days and mist it with 10% bleach spray. Same with pet hair.

3). A beautiful hand-me-down oriental carpet. Confirmed.
The room stank of nasty chemicals and there is a HVAC return vent in there. Another previous dog with kidney failure (possibly from foreign food) had peed on everything. Other carpets had to be thrown away it was so bad. They bombed that thing.

I took the risk of using straight water with the Bissel upholstery attachment, which uses little water, and noticed possible improvement when furnace is on.

4). Radon gas. Unknown.
I replaced the vent fan and leave it on.

5). Water leaks from bathrooms upstairs. Confirmed.
The toilet definitely had a leak but is located behind cabinets and some type of false wall when they added the second floor. Difficult spot to see and work with. The ex gf had hung several heavy ceramic planters from the ceiling of the first floor bathroom which fell and chipped the metal tub. The reason they fell was bad attachment hardware with the drywall getting wet from the leak.
A plumber was already out to reset the base gasket. The toilet itself is an old design, doesn't flush well, and the non-common parts hard to find. There is carpet up there (yes yes I know) so the footprint of any new toilet won't match. I will need to pull the toilet, redo the flooring, and get a new toilet installed.
The upstairs shower also has a leak still to be fixed. I previous ran some silicone sealer around the edges of what looked like a sketchy surface mounting seal but that did not fix it. It's in the pipe. Probably not glued. I used a saturation surface tester and confirmed drywall around the drain increased after usage.

6). Methane. Unknown.
Both shower and toilet upstairs have not been used in a while. Because of that, the water in the p-traps will evaporate and then sewer gasses can back-flow into the house. I add water occasionally and taped off the drains.

Sometimes the smell is sudden especially when it's windy and raining. I installed 4" vent rain caps to keep out mice/squirrels and checked the down pipe in the attic was glued. There is no longer easy trees to roof access for them just in case they crawl down and die somewhere in the plumbing, blocking things up.

7). Roof leaks. Unknown.
I went up on the 12yo roof and it looks visibly good. There is zero no visible evidence of water tracking in the attic ceiling. A flashlight while raining will show this. Some window drip edge trim was cut slightly short, but it's under an overhang and protected from direct water.

8). Condensation. Suspected.
There is an angled enclosed wall/ceiling in the kitchen which melts a foot-wide snow on the back porch. That means a source of heat loss.
An infrared thermometer is useful for finding these temperature differences in the cold winter and hot summer.

Any enclosed space not exposed to interior 'conditioned air' will develop condensation like a cold pop can on a warm day. That constant dripping will create mold conditions when it puddles into the wall. That is also on the project list for this year.

I had the attic ceiling spray-foamed with "open cell" foam instead of the more toxic "closed cell". That might have been a mistake. The interior attic ridge venting is like a tornado sometimes and there is very good air movement up there. But "open cell" supposedly retains and exchanges some water content instead of being a hard shield. It's possible that the upper surface of the ceiling drywall might have created that condition.

[oldE]

I am so f'ing cross with myself today. I had some folk coming to look at an old VW Golf Cabriolet I fixed up. The odometer had been slipping so this morning I pulled the cluster to address the problem,and created a new one. Apparently there is now a crack in one of the circuits on the printed wrap on the back of the cluster. It manifests itself by sounding the low oil alarm when the engine revs above 2500. Tonight I get to pull the cluster again and look for a hairline crack in a circuit.
At least I can do it without pulling the steering wheel. Small consolation.

Best
Les

[porsche930dude]

Customer brought me this scrub cadet. Yes I know they suck. It took alot of fiddling to get this one right again. Ended up replacing the drive belt , deck belt and fixed the starter drive and resealed the valve cover. In a round about way. I didnt expect to love it but its freakin awesome. Zero turn tractor who knew that was a thing. Turns on a dime and gives you 5 cents change. Bonus the two drive motors make traction awesome unlike an open diff. And the wide stance makes it great on side hills. Could use just a few more hp in the tall grass but thats expected from a krohler. I almost dont want to give it back.

[rsrguy]

Inching forward towards a flying bird. Had to have screw on guide pins made, they worked very well.
Gear is on and the plane is down and more easily moved about.

[bugstrider]

Originally Posted by rsrguy

Making progress on reassembly. Need to have guide pins machined for the spar bolts and sent the fuel servo (throttle body) off for overhaul.

That is so freaking bloody cool!!!!! Awesome find and yes, my jello-ness rages on, lol

Hope to look into a viable solution to the Allan fuel valve change-out on the VariEZ . I need to examine how much of a challenge it would be to remove the torque tube rather than machining a small extension for the valve.

I was able to get the new gasgolator put back on the mounting bracket.





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[bugstrider]

Originally Posted by john70t

Have had 'smells' in the house for a while and was a little befuddled for a while trying to find the source.
Sometimes it was upstairs sometimes behind the sink. Sometimes in the bathroom. Sometimes in the bedroom space upstairs.
Round and round. Frustrating.

Possibilities:
1). Dead mice. Confirmed.
Saw a field mouse running from a hole under the bird feeder towards the house. They are definitely in the garage. Bird feeder close to the house is the source. Had some hawks hanging out on the backyard fence but my presence scared them away unfortunately.
Last winter late at night there was a sudden freaking pile of maggots at the base of the stairs center of house spewing out of the carpet and crawling everywhere. Totally bizarre. The ceiling above that floor section slightly is closed off.
No previous evidence before.
I already filled in all the visible rim joist openings with foam in the partially-finished basement. Due to the joists they could only enter under the decks front and back.

Today I crawled under there and filled a few small gaps. That sucked. Everything else next to those sides of the foundation-house was under 1/4".

2). Kitty poop box. Confirmed.
I am pretty regular with his cleaning schedule these days and mist it with 10% bleach spray. Same with pet hair.

3). A beautiful hand-me-down oriental carpet. Confirmed.
The room stank of nasty chemicals and there is a HVAC return vent in there. Another previous dog with kidney failure (possibly from foreign food) had peed on everything. Other carpets had to be thrown away it was so bad. They bombed that thing.

I took the risk of using straight water with the Bissel upholstery attachment, which uses little water, and noticed possible improvement when furnace is on.

4). Radon gas. Unknown.
I replaced the vent fan and leave it on.

5). Water leaks from bathrooms upstairs. Confirmed.
The toilet definitely had a leak but is located behind cabinets and some type of false wall when they added the second floor. Difficult spot to see and work with. The ex gf had hung several heavy ceramic planters from the ceiling of the first floor bathroom which fell and chipped the metal tub. The reason they fell was bad attachment hardware with the drywall getting wet from the leak.
A plumber was already out to reset the base gasket. The toilet itself is an old design, doesn't flush well, and the non-common parts hard to find. There is carpet up there (yes yes I know) so the footprint of any new toilet won't match. I will need to pull the toilet, redo the flooring, and get a new toilet installed.
The upstairs shower also has a leak still to be fixed. I previous ran some silicone sealer around the edges of what looked like a sketchy surface mounting seal but that did not fix it. It's in the pipe. Probably not glued. I used a saturation surface tester and confirmed drywall around the drain increased after usage.

6). Methane. Unknown.
Both shower and toilet upstairs have not been used in a while. Because of that, the water in the p-traps will evaporate and then sewer gasses can back-flow into the house. I add water occasionally and taped off the drains.

Sometimes the smell is sudden especially when it's windy and raining. I installed 4" vent rain caps to keep out mice/squirrels and checked the down pipe in the attic was glued. There is no longer easy trees to roof access for them just in case they crawl down and die somewhere in the plumbing, blocking things up.

7). Roof leaks. Unknown.
I went up on the 12yo roof and it looks visibly good. There is zero no visible evidence of water tracking in the attic ceiling. A flashlight while raining will show this. Some window drip edge trim was cut slightly short, but it's under an overhang and protected from direct water.

8). Condensation. Suspected.
There is an angled enclosed wall/ceiling in the kitchen which melts a foot-wide snow on the back porch. That means a source of heat loss.
An infrared thermometer is useful for finding these temperature differences in the cold winter and hot summer.

Any enclosed space not exposed to interior 'conditioned air' will develop condensation like a cold pop can on a warm day. That constant dripping will create mold conditions when it puddles into the wall. That is also on the project list for this year.

I had the attic ceiling spray-foamed with "open cell" foam instead of the more toxic "closed cell". That might have been a mistake. The interior attic ridge venting is like a tornado sometimes and there is very good air movement up there. But "open cell" supposedly retains and exchanges some water content instead of being a hard shield. It's possible that the upper surface of the ceiling drywall might have created that condition.

Wow! I will never gripe about my projects again…….

That was a fart-ton of work and investigation to boot. Good luck with all of that.


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[rsrguy]

Originally Posted by bugstrider

That is so freaking bloody cool!!!!! Awesome find and yes, my jello-ness rages on, lol

Hope to look into a viable solution to the Allan fuel valve change-out on the VariEZ . I need to examine how much of a challenge it would be to remove the torque tube rather than machining a small extension ]

But hey that's what's cool about ex aviation!

[oldE]

Found the fault in the Golf instrument cluster. Just a bad connection in a tiny voltage limiter.
The good news is I can now pull or replace the cluster inside 15 minutes. Oh yeah.
The saga continues.
Best
Les