Stijn!!

[Porsche-poor]

Morning all. Yep just a away to make money.

[GH85Carrera]

We had our PCA board meeting again last night. One of the things that PCA national is pushing for is to revise by-laws of the regions. Several board members had once seen a copy on paper. I said I can email a copy this is on my phone right now. So I sent it to several of them. I helped write them, and they were last amended in 1994. Our current president was 2 years old back then.

Then they were asking about the club charter. Wait, I have a scan of that as well. I used to have the original analog one issued by the state in 1967, but PCA national insisted they wanted to store all original copies. So I scanned it, and mailed the original. I mentioned I have the club corporate seal as well. All the other long time officers have cleaned out closets and brought the stuff to me. I have been on the board at every single possible position and chairmanships at least once since 1981 and I have seen many changes in the board over the years.

Mostly I sit quietly, I am done with working hard at a volunteer position. I have been treasurer for 14 years, and it is an easy job with my computer, and QuickBooks. The same software I use for my company files. That is enough work to keep me busy on the board. I let them run the club they way they want, I just write the checks as instructed.

[GH85Carrera]

We met a couple last night for dinner at a restaurant on Rt-66 in Arcadia, OK. Just across the street from the round barn and the tag agency where we got our real IDs.

The other couple live fairly close by on their 40 acre ranch. He was talking about the wild hogs in the area, and how they keep tearing up the fences down near the creek. The ground is soft from the water of the creek, and they can push the posts over. He shoots and kills the wild pigs and just lets the buzzards, crows and coyotes feast. The pigs get up in the hay field and just tear up the ground. He keeps killing and they keep coming back.

[Porsche-poor]

Morning all. Not sure he will win that battle.

[GH85Carrera]

If he does not take them out they will get to be a huge problem. He is just thinning the herd. One of the neighbors does nothing at all, but the rest of the people in the area do their part to cull them. The pigs will eat everything, and the deer and native wildlife will starve.

[Porsche-poor]

I'm not saying he shouldn't I just don't think one person is going to be enough.

[Noah930]

I am never going to buy a BMW. OK, I never was anyway. But this week has solidified it. Heck, I won't even buy one for one of my kids, because I'll still have to deal with this type of ridiculousness.

My parents have an X1. After 6 years, the battery finally died on it. Holy smokes: it's nearly impossible to replace just the battery.

First, you can't even see the battery. It's tucked under plastic panels and splash guards and whatnot in the engine bay, kinda in front of the driver. OK, some indy mechanic posted a Youtube video on how it's done. Not difficult, just tedious. No way my parents could do it, but we're a hardier (and cheaper) bunch here on Pelican, so it seems pretty straightforward, even if you have to take out the air box to slide out the battery. PITA, but definitely shade-tree DIYable. On the way home after work, I can swing by Costco for a new battery, grab a toolbox from home to take over to my parents' house, and swap that thing out.

But then, you have to sync the battery with the car's computer?! I'm sure there must be some sort of proprietary BMW software to do it--I probably can't just plug in my OBDII reader to clear any codes. Grrr. And so, that $185 battery from Costco jumped to $500 when done at the stealer.

Made me wonder how much that software costs.

This is why I love having old cars.

[GH85Carrera]

One reason I bought the Autel OBD2 system for my wife's Macan is the battery. I can plug it it, and just read the specs of the battery, and how good or bad it is. It is 7 years old now, so soon it will have to be replaced.

To change the rear brake pads requires the OBD2 Autel to tell it the car to put it into brake pad removal mode. It had an automatic hill hold, so it will never roll backwards on a hill, and an electronic parking brake.

[Noah930]

Does it matter which Autel unit? I see their stuff runs from $20 to $3000.

Would this have worked to register a new battery? https://store.autel.com/collections/car-battery-tester/products/autel-maxibas-bt608

[GH85Carrera]

Mine is the Autel MaxiCheck MX808. It has pretty much all the cars made from Mercedes Maybach to Dawoo and everything in between, and no maximum number of VINs to use it with.

With her Macan, I just plug it it, and it automatically reads the VIN and talks to the car. I have only used it to reset the oil change warning so far, and read the battery status. It has one year of free software updates. Since I don't expect to buy any new cars anytime soon, I will not renew the license and just stay with the cars it has.

It is just a tablet based computer, and runs the software and they include the cables and a neat little carrying case.

https://autel.com/us/product/maxicheck-mx808/

[GH85Carrera]

I got the laundry room faucet replaced.



It has one large nut on the bottom to tighten up, and it comes with a special tool - socket gizmo to tighten it down. Like any nut, the "bolt" or the faucet itself needs someone to hold it in place and the nut is tightened to keep it from rotating. I asked the plumbing foreman to assist by holding the faucet in position.

In the box photos and the instructions it shows the handle on the side. She held it in place with the handle forward, which is where she wanted it. I can't care less, and it works fine in that position. The head swings out of the way for a bucket to be place under the faucet and swung back to fill the bucket. The soap dispenser has a 20 oz reservoir so lots of soap can go in. The head of the faucet pull off and is a sprayer.

Overall a decent piece for the laundry room. There is a full size washer and dryer, and built in ironing board, and lots of cabinet space in the room. It does have a door to the outside, and the doggie door is cut into that door so they can come and go as needed.

Last night as I went to bed, my neck muscles were screaming like a F1 driver after a two hour race. No doubt cornering and braking at 5G with a helmet on your head is about the same as holding your head up while laying on your back for an hour as you R&R a faucet. Only I don't get the big paychecks.

[Porsche-poor]

Morning all. Always fun playing under the sink.

[flipper35]

Fixing a leaking p trap is ok. Faucet? Nothing but pain.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Porsche-poor

Morning all. Always fun playing under the sink.

Overall it was not a bad project. Just one trip needed to the big box store. The old faucet had longer hot and cold connections so I needed longer hoses. I had to get a 16 inch and a 20 inch hose and they were perfect length. It was funny, they had 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 then it jumped to 30, 40 and longer hoses. It was really nice that the shut off valves actually shut off the water, and did not leak at all. When I turned them back on, water flowed, and no leaks. I almost (not at all) felt cheated with things going as expected.

Long long ago in a galaxy far far away, when I was young and dating young ladies, one girlfriend asked if I could repair a faucet. What should have been a 5 minute replacement of a washer turned into a weekend long project. Shut off the water at the meter, replace two valves, new sink and faucet and cabinet project. She paid for the parts, and I was rewarded with non fungible services. I learned to play ignorance on all plumbing issues if it was not an relationship with certain benefits.

[Porsche-poor]

I have one bathroom faucet that drips. I have replaced the plastic valve in the handle but it still drips.

[GH85Carrera]

Many faucets of today are just so crappy, it is best to replace them to fix a leak.

I learned a lot about plumbing from my old first house. It was built in the early 1950s and not one thing was standard to the parts of the 1980s. The bathtub had two separate handles, one hot and one cold and they were about 18 inches apart. There was no replacement part without replacing the cast iron bathtub and shower.

I had to cut a hunk of wall plaster wall out, to have access to the back of the tub, to remove the faucet, and I took it to a place that specialized in faucets. His first comment was wow, I haven't seen one of these in 30 years! He disabled it, replaced some rubber washers, soled me some spares, and put it back together. I had to buy some sheetrock to seal up the hole I made. It totally fixed the leaking handles.

In the kitchen the sink connected to a lead drain pipe. Try to find connections for a lead pipe. Good luck. I sure did not want to rip out a cabinet and wall to get to the lead drain, so I figured out a connector, and it was just a drain, so I left it in place.

[Porsche-poor]

Morning all. How's things?

[GH85Carrera]

Staying busy here.

Last summer one of our guests from Kansas parked in the parking area of the driveway, over near the fence at the far west stockade fence. For whatever reason he did not put the SUV in park, and it crept forward, and bent over the sprinkler head riser. I straightened it as best I could, but it was not happy.

There is a 24 inch strip of a garden that is one of many areas my wife has claimed as a garden area that I used to have to mow. It used to have a two pop up spray heads to water the grass. With her plants that are several feet tall, I had to change to a 24 inch tall riser to put the spray head high enough to get the water spread out.

I started digging to find the connection and remembered I never make things quick and easy. The connection was a PVC threaded coupling two feet down and I had to dig a hole to get to it. Of course at the bottom of a two foot hole, no wrench or pliers had room to get any torque to remove the coupling. I had to go to my plumbing tool box and get a faucet wrench that is designed to work on areas like that. Once I got the old fitting off, it filled with mud and dirt.

I had to screw the new riser to the coupling, and then remove the spray head. I fired up the sprinkler section, and that blasted a fountain of water out of the riser, and cleaned out the mud. Attach the head, and try to not get soaked as I adjusted the head to spray the right areas.

Golly it was fun.

[Porsche-poor]

To cold here to play water games. Not freezing but no thanks.

[GH85Carrera]

It was 66 degrees and sunny yesterday, and low winds. Very nice no jacket weather.

We have winter come back next week. Dang it.