Replaced the lower ball joints, replaced the sway bar end links and sanded the rotors to remove the pad buildup, on the 14 F150 today. Took about 5 1/2 hours total, so not too bad. Cooler temps in the mid 80s made a big difference 🥶 than last time I was in there. I about died that day in the 90s. 🥵

Edit. I got a price from a place that has done some work on my truck recently and they wanted $975 with an alignment. New ball joints and end links were $110 on Amazon. I did not move anything, that would necessitate an alignment

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Nice work, brother Rocket!

Love the yellow caliper hangers!

Curious - did you watch some YT videos ahead of time to brush up on the procedures?

^^^ I did watch a couple of YouTube videos, but I also went through this, when I installed the spindle lift several months back, so I had some background. I should’ve replaced the lower ball joints while I was there.

Nice job!!!!

Did that job years ago on the ol 95 K1500. A big job solo and not all that fun. It’s doable, just a PITA!

Bravo!! [emoji1376][emoji1376][emoji1376][emoji1376][emoji1376][emoji1376]


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Today's handyman deck gate project. Fabricated two deck gates for new client and got one installed today, Deck and railing posts severely out of plumb requiring alot of shimming.

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Retirement side hustle going well. Currently juggling 6 jobs. All referrals. Keeps me busy!

Bush cutter started rattling this morning as I was discouraging weed growth in one of the pastures. I broke for lunch and thought i'd call it a day, due to the heat and check out the source of the rattle later. After lunch, the Missus started in on another small pasture and I thought, " That doesn't sound good, at all. "
As she came out of the field, I could see one of the blades had been close to parting company with the rest of the machine.
The nut on the pivot bolt had backed off and the threads were buggered up, but 15 minutes with a three cornered file rendered it usable once again. The small registering shoulder which keeps the pivot from turning in the bar was worn off, but some carefully placed weld addressed that. I had it back together in about an hour. It works and doesn't rattle.
I have to remember to check those bolts from time to time.

Best
Les

The spring after we moved to this property I was clearing some brush and came across this pile of parts that had been a park bench. The wood was well rotted, but the cast iron appeared to have been powder coated and wasn't badly rusted. Whatever the finish, it was still mostly intact. I hosed the mud and crap off of the parts and set them out to dry, then stashed them in my barn for further attention - someday.


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Fast forward 5 years - it's either do something with the parts or throw them out. I chose do something. This is what I had to work with - 4 pieces of cast iron that were in really good shape plus three 48" long slats and a little mystery piece of wood. The purpose of cast iron and the long pieces of wood were obvious, but the the little piece of wood went - ?? But a least now I knew how long the seat pieces should be. As it turns out an extra half inch would have made the project a lot easier.

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My son is a fine furniture builder and a few years ago he "outgrew" this basic planer and gave it to me. I used it to plane down the flooring to the thickness I needed for the bench project. There was some oak flooring in the attic of my barn, left over from when the house was built. The wood was crap, with splits, knots, and of course I had to rip off the tongues and groves. It was nominally 6" but with machining off the tongues and groves and the kerf from ripping it down it came out to the exact width of the original seat slats - 2 3/4". I mapped out a way to get seven 48" pieces of 3/4" wood out of the 6 eight foot long scraps.

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After cutting the slats to thickness and cutting them to length I ran them through my router with a round over bit to - well, "round over" the edges. I finished the wood by brushing on four coats of clear gloss spar varnish.

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At first I thought about stainless steel carriage bolts, then flat head bolts, then oval head bolts. In the end I chose these cool internal hex stainless steel 1/4 - 20 round head bolts to hold it all together.

Spent so much time moving over the last month... lots of work at the hangar but not anything noteworthy enough for pics. The regulator went out on the cap so I pulled it and the alternator for testing.... cleaned up the alt and ordered a new regulator. On the pa12 project I set up the fairings to align the backer/mounting plates.... it's now time to do some simple fab work.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1719158201.jpg
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Oops forgot to mention, (probably still in denial)the original fuse was damaged by a hangar tenant.... he closed the hangar door on it. We found a replacement so now we're swapping everything over to the replacement fuse.


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That turned out very nicely. Looks comfortable for sitting under a shade tree. Nice work.

Installing pantry cabinets in an alcove in my kitchen.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1719165218.jpg
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I still need to add trim to the top of the face frame, install doors and slides and shelves, and decide on/apply a finish. Wife is out of town and I lack authority to make the finish decision, said authority having not been delegated to me :-(

Still wavering between paint (white? blue?) and stain (honey-toned).

It was a right b!t*h to get the three carcasses in place and level, as the space was very tight, the subfloor not flat, and the cabinets not designed with separate bases for leveling. The carcasses are 3/4” ply and very heavy. There’s a bunch of shims under there. The carcasses are screwed to each other and to the header, and now are level and rock-solid. The wall on the right is very not-straight, being over 1” off vertical from bottom to top. I cut the face frame at the necessary angle and will eventually caulk the remaining gap. The slight mis-matches between some pieces of the face frame are irritating but I can sand them down and I think after stain or paint, I won’t notice them.

Yesterday, I changed the oil in the F150 and polished out some small brown spots on the hood. I don’t know what it was, but it took about three hours to get them all.

I've been chasing a "wobble" noise coming from the driver's side front end on the RX350 for a while now. I replaced the driver's side axle because it had been slinging grease from the boot nearest the transmission, so I replaced it, thinking that was the cause of the noise. Nope. The wheel bearing had originally passed the shake test, as that was the first thing I checked, and I thought, okay, it must be the wheel bearing after all. So, I ordered a steering knuckle complete with bearing and hub and replaced the ball joint as well, all to no avail as the noise remained. I noticed that the caliper slider pins were stuck pretty well, and the rotor had a slight lip on the edge, so yesterday, I had both front rotors "turned" and I cleaned and re-greased the slider pins with synthetic grease. Again, to no avail as the noise remained.
Well, when removing the passenger side rotor, I noticed that the axle boot nearest the hub was completely torn all the way around, and there was a lot of grease build-up, so, ah ha!!! Could this be the source of the wobble sort of grinding noise that I am hearing even though it is on the passenger side??? I don't know, but I will find out. I have a new axle for the passenger side arriving in a few days, so today, I removed the old axle. What a mess!!! I went ahead and removed the entire steering knuckle so I could clean everything really well. I will also replace the ball joint on that side and have everything ready, so all I will have to do is install the new axle when it arrives.
Oh yeah, I broke my 1/2 drive Craftsman breaker bar trying to break the axle nut loose. I borrowed a 3/4 inch drive breaker bar and 30mm socket from my brother-in-law's toolbox and used a huge cheater pipe to break the nut loose. Funny, that pipe used to be part of a clothesline and is very light. I found it under my storage building a couple of years ago, and it makes a great cheater pipe for sure. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...bf6276490e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e9fbe92fb9.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...530e4f7eff.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...30d742db43.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...1860bc2f32.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9194f5c145.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e532b681ec.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...1183922337.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c3d68e2f87.jpg

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Slowly getting doors installed.

Nice work, jyl!

Replaced the anode in our water heater today. The old one looked like a toothpick.

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Doors finally done, they need magnets for positive closure, and pulls, but that’s later, now to slides and pullout shelves.

Pruned Cabbage Palms today at one of my accounts. I do this once a year right after they produce their flower stalks. I did 15 and have 7 more to do.

This is called a "hurricane cut" - one that only leaves the newest shoot plus one or two more fronds.

I use two different size extension ladders plus a Milwaukee M18 cordless Hackzall with a 12" carbide pruning blade and a Kebtek cordless pruner.

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I have a Linn Classik cd player that died a few months back. Found online that the power section is very sensitive to having proper voltage. Swapped out the two caps in that section and the unit is back up running. Thought I might have to do the surface mount caps too but not going to worry about those just yet. Thankfully my neighbor is a guru with this stuff and helped to get the job done and the caps in his parts supply.

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

The 95 GMC K1500 continues to vex me. “Because” anything is possible…at this bloody point. I swapped out the plug wires (warranty) and a new new fuel filter. Pulled the O2 sensor to open up the line pre Cat, and attempted to start.

No Go!!!

Oh yeah, checked all known grounds too, strong and secure.
Battery to engine
Battery to fender
Head to firewall
Frame
Filler sleeve to frame
Rear light/loom to frame

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So it's cranking OK, but no spark?
Or no fuel?

Sorry I have nothing to offer, Trevor, except my empathy. If you were here, you could have Ivan look at it and I bet he'd figure it out!

Unrelated....today in Mom's neighborhood.....another faulty fuel pump left another truck owner stranded. I stopped to talk with him and he had a plan. This was on his GMC, but he' done the work on his Silverado.

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Yep. '90s GM. I lost my truck when the mechanic who replaced the fuel pump was rushing to bleed the system, got gas all over the place and burned down his garage with my truck in it.
Made the front page of the provincial paper 20 years ago.

Best
Les

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

It’s getting fuel and spark…[emoji2371]

I did replace the coil unit for good measure and got it idling, crapily but it did idle. Could get the rpm’s up to 2500-3000, the first time since April. There is something underlying but when I let it go to idle, it barely can.

I shot some temps on the cat, and although I could not see it with the naked eye, the camera picked up a high heat band.

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Video picked up the red high heat area that was not viable to the naked eye.

Everything done:

New fuel filter
Rebuilt TBI with new injectors
New M.A.P. Sensor
New I.A.C.V.
New T.P.S.
New ignition control module on distributor
New plugs
New cap
New rotor
New wires
New O2 sensor
New EGR valve
New EGR solenoid
New coil


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Oh dang Les, sorry to hear that.


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

Thanks Baz, I truly appreciate that.

Hopefully I can figure it out. It’s always been a reliable truck, this the first time of ownership it has me perplexed. [emoji2371]


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Going to try the O2 sensor trick before having it towed to a muffler shop for a pre n post pressure check on the cat. Two seasoned mechanics have said it sounds like a partially plugged catalytic converter.

Timing could not be any worse for not having a running truck. Had a woodland fire kick off due to a complete moron F-in around with a turkey fryer (allegedly). It is only a couple miles away and our son fell in the eminent evac area, by getting a warning. It was fast moving, rugged terrain and headed right for us.

He is all hooked up ready to punch out. If it reached us, the truck is out go-to for hooking up a small utility trailer and such. Now it gets real, in getting it up and running.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...eecf221e08.jpg
They hit it hard from above including a DC-10 and we passed this big boy headed up the hill.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a5e4c51619.jpg



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Twenty years later, we can look back and laugh. There were no injuries. The owner/mechanic was insured and rebuilt. The laughable part was the insurer, who sent out an appraiser and received a repert of a total loss, demanded the keys before they would hand over the cheque. When they asked where the other set of keys were, we assured them they were somewhere in the burned out hulk which used to be my truck.:rolleyes:

Best
Les

Damn! With that fire that close I’d hacksaw the cat off and GTFO! This is scary.

Sawzall is ready and primed


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I was going to say it sounds and looks like a plugged cat.
With everything else you've changed I bet it runs like a scalded cat once you replace that cat. It's the only thing left really.

Cut the cat and fire it up!!!

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Update: forgot about posting this the other day. The Corolla is all finished, just needs a tag and insurance now. Details, details!!! [emoji23]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...7116833224.jpg

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[emoji817]


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Yeah, I had a cat internally collapse on my S600, and it would run on only 6 of 12 cyls. Misfire codes everywhere. Luckily the generic cats these days are relatively inexpensive.

Nice work! Looks like a new car.

Thanks, I was glad to get it finished. It isn't perfect, but Hannah is happy with it and glad to have her car back in working order.

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Apparently July 4 is “Leaky Fluids Day” in Bavaria. Replaced the coolant reservoir and upper radiator hose on my X3, then fixed a leaky hose from the windshield washer tank. I’ll join the chorus of old people that grouse about how half the work these days is removing plastic to get to the parts you want to fix. $80 in parts to do a job with a $1500 quote at a local shop, and most of their time would have been unscrewing covers above and below.

Check your timing before you cut it off, timing being wayyyy off can cause the extra-hot cat...

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

Well fellas,

It’s real now… cut the cat off the truck and no go. If it burns along with the house, so be it.

Family and animals have been evacuated, I’m remaining just to monitor any embers that may land. I’ve got a clear escape route and certain credentials “might” allow leniency.

If this place goes up, Mrs Bugs n I are out of the state….
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