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| Author |
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| 25 new of 848 responses total. |
gull
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response 791 of 848:
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Sep 2 15:54 UTC 2003 |
A couple weeks ago I adjusted the injector pump timing on the engine of
my 1982 diesel Vanagon. It had never really been set properly after
putting the new cylinder head and timing gasket on, since I didn't have
the right tool. I'd just eyeballed the initial timing marks to get it
"close enough."
Setting the pump timing on this engine is very, very different from
doing ignition timing on a gasoline engine. It's done with the engine
off, by turning the engine over by hand and measuring how far a plunger
inside the pump has moved at TDC with a dial gauge. The actual
adjustment is made by loosening the pump mounting bolts and rotating it
slightly to either advance or retard the timing.
After adjusting the timing, which was too far advanced, performance on
the road seems basically unaffected but the engine is noticably smoother
when idling after it's warmed up. It's still not exactly silky (this
*is* a diesel, after all) but it no longer causes loose objects inside
the van to rattle.
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rcurl
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response 792 of 848:
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Sep 8 16:13 UTC 2003 |
Fixed an electric kettle that was leaking at the juncture of the lid and
the body: heated it to ca. 200 F and ran mixed two-part epoxy into the
crevice between the lid and the body. Also fixed its safety thermostat
which was interrupting power before the water came to a boil - adjusted
the little screw to set it to a higher temperature.
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rcurl
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response 793 of 848:
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Oct 8 03:18 UTC 2003 |
I stood by and watched while a furnace repairman tore our furnace apart,
cleaned it out of junk, replaced some bad parts, and put it back together
again. I performed my part flawlessly, even including some running and
fetching, but especially writing a big-time check afterward.
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gelinas
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response 794 of 848:
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Oct 8 04:08 UTC 2003 |
I'll probably be doing something similar on Thursday. If it is what I think
it is, a failed igniter, the check shouldn't be _too_ big, though. (I've
already removed the front panels.)
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rcurl
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response 795 of 848:
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Oct 8 05:53 UTC 2003 |
(I also had done something in advance: proven that the problem was not the
thermostat. But I was wrong in thinking it might have been the printed
circuit board.)
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rcurl
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response 796 of 848:
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Oct 12 17:07 UTC 2003 |
My HP 932 printer got me into a tussle with it after I refilled the
cartridges and then tried to test-print. I got funny grinding noises and
then all the (3) lights flashing together rapidly. I fiddled with the
paper and the "back door" (to look for jammed paper) and the buttons;
reset the printer by disconnecting power; and after much trying this and
that with no success got desperate enough that I dared to pull the
cartridge out of its corner. That really sent it crazy, with the cartridge
carrier slamming to the left.
So, thinking I had broken the printer anyway, I poked around with other
things. I eventually found that there is a tab that keeps the carriage in
its rest position on the right, and that I could push that back with a
screwdriver, letting me pull out the carriage again, but this time I
noticed it didn't slide very smoothly. So I oiled the rod on which the
carriage slides (with clock oil). At first the carriage would still go to
the right and lock itself into place, but finally I released it and pulled
it all the way over to the left. Miraculously, that solved everything: it
started up obediently, returned to its rest position, no lights flashed,
and it printed just fine! And I had thought I had destroyed it.
I at least discovered you can be a lot rougher than I would have thought
with a printer's (or, at least, this printer's) mechanism without causing
irreparable harm.
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scott
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response 797 of 848:
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Oct 15 23:07 UTC 2003 |
Fixed the electric lawnmower, after the blade started getting loose. I found
that it wasn't a simple matter of tightening the bolt; after a couple tries
with big washers I finally discovered that the armature in the motor was out
of position, and clearly the blade mounting depended on it somehow. So, I
took the motor out and pulled it apart - a relatively simple job involving
only a couple of long bolts. This mower clearly had a very mass-produced
motor in it. Anyway, when I got the armature out it was obvious that a
slip-ring on the bottom side had slipped out of its groove, allowed the
armature to drop. As I sat there looking at the slip-ring, I asked myself
"what did I do last time I had to deal with a slip-ring (aka a lock-ring or
a retaining ring - essentially a washer with a cut and a couple of holes to
allow a special pair of pliers to open it up and slip it over a shaft) and
didn't have the right tool?", and the answer this time was "I should have gone
and bought the right @#$@#$ tool". So I headed over the hardware store,
bought the cheapest pair of slip-ring pliers they had (actually a set of
made-in-China pliers), came back, and finally had the right tool for the job.
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gull
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response 798 of 848:
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Oct 16 14:19 UTC 2003 |
I sometimes call those snap rings Jesus Clips because of what happens
when I try to install them.
*ping* "Jesus Christ!"
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scott
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response 799 of 848:
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Oct 16 16:25 UTC 2003 |
Yes, "snap ring" is the term I was groping for when I wrote #797.
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rcurl
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response 800 of 848:
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Oct 20 19:29 UTC 2003 |
Re #793 and 795: it turned out that the furnace problem lies with a
secondary heat exchanger whose seals are failing because of a poor
sealant. The repairman suggested replacement of the exchange. The
exchanger itself has a liftime warranty so the cost would just be
labor - though a princely sum in itself. However the repairman
reassembled the unit without new sealants for covers and the inducer
fan, so now it is leaking condensate - and also again intermittently
cutting out - its original problem.
I'm a little annoyed that the repairman seemed to assume that I would
immediately go ahead with the replacement by his company (and that is why
he did not reseal the units correctly) but if their bid is the best, I'd
still use them. However it seems worthwhile to at least explore
alternative bids.
Therefore I would really appreciate comments on alternative furnace
companies in Ann Arbor, and especially any problems anyone has had with
such. My choice has to be from among those companies that advertise that
they deal with Bryant furnaces,
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gelinas
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response 801 of 848:
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Oct 21 03:59 UTC 2003 |
I've had good luck with Fuller, even though my furnace is a no-name, sold to
builders, model.
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scott
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response 802 of 848:
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Dec 23 03:00 UTC 2003 |
Finally got one of my "new" tube testers working properly. The culprit, aside
from needing a calibration, was that the plastic cover over the meter movement
was missing, and stuff had gotten into the movement. It took some careful
disassembly and cleaning, but it works fine now.
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gull
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response 803 of 848:
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Jan 22 19:14 UTC 2004 |
Yesterday evening I changed the windshield wiper motor on my '86 Volvo
240. It had started making a nasty grinding noise last weekend, and
yesterday morning it finally seized up completely. Fortunately I'd
already gotten a rebuilt one from Murray's, and I was able to borrow a
corner of the heated shop at work to do the job.
It went pretty quickly. It took about half an hour, a lot of which was
spent messing with the wiper position to get the linkage to line up with
the shaft on the new motor. (Yes, I parked the wipers and parked the
new motor, but the park positions of the old and new ones were just
enough different to make it require some fiddling.) Access to the motor
under the hood is easy, and access to the linkage is fairly good through
the glovebox opening. When you remove the glovebox the glovebox
interior lamp lights up, handily illuminating the work area. ;)
As a side benefit, a knocking noise the wipers used to make when they
switched direction at the far end of their travel has gone away. I'd
been assuming it was slop in the linkage, but it was apparently slop in
the old motor gearbox instead.
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gull
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response 804 of 848:
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Feb 23 05:24 UTC 2004 |
I installed the CD-MP3 player I'd taken out of the Honda into my Volvo
today. Installing it in the Honda had only taken about an hour, since I
had the right connector for the factory wiring harness. Unfortunately,
someone had already butchered the wiring harness on the Volvo, so I had
to spend a while figuring out what they'd done instead of just wiring up
an adapter and plugging it in.
While I was in there I also installed a small tachometer in one of the
2" gauge openings Volvo helpfully provided next to the instrument
cluster. I was able to locate and splice into the wire that was already
under the dash for the optional factory tach (which I don't have.)
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rcurl
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response 805 of 848:
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Mar 13 08:03 UTC 2004 |
Built a telephone pickup module. This is for two phones on one line, such
that when phone A is taken off hook phone B also goes off hook (or rather,
is already off hook, but is patched into the line).
It's in a small project box with a line loop relay and pickup DPST relay,
and three RJ11 jacks. I built the circuit on 0.1 inch perf board with
solder pads, and discovered that maybe I should learn to make printed
circuits instead and maybe have saved some time. I first designed the
circuit so no wires would cross (which I would have had to do anyway to
make a simple printed circuit), and then bent and stripped fourteen wires
to fit between terminals, and soldered them in. This required working
under a magnifying glass. It was pretty tedious and time consuming. But it
works!
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keesan
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response 806 of 848:
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Mar 15 03:51 UTC 2004 |
What do you want to use this for?
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rcurl
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response 807 of 848:
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Mar 15 07:08 UTC 2004 |
It's the only component I have had to design and wire up for a telephone
"infinity-transmitter" (sound monitoring) and X-10 remote control. This
will permit me to listen to sounds in my home by dialing in from any
phone, and also to activate X-10 modules when connected. A code will
trigger a speaking-thermometer, so I can hear the house and outdoor
temperature.
A kit is available for such a system (http://www.amazing1.com/surv.htm)
but I could save money by assembling it from available components.
I'll report if the system works when I get it together. 8^}
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gull
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response 808 of 848:
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Mar 23 23:07 UTC 2004 |
I took the luggage rack off my '86 Volvo 240 wagon because I could see
bubbled paint starting under part of it. (I can live with rusty
fenders, but I really don't want rust holes in my roof!) It turned out
to be held on with a dozen sheet metal screws. Once I saw that I
decided not to put it back on, since I couldn't imagine trusting it to
secure any kind of load. I sealed the screw holes with little blobs of
clear silicone. Eventually I'll have to go back and address the rust
that has started to form around them, in spite of the rubber gaskets
under the rack "feet". Found half a dozen other rust spots that were
festering under the rack's chrome rub strips, as well.
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gull
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response 809 of 848:
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Apr 10 02:52 UTC 2004 |
The temperature gauge on my Volvo 240 had been acting erratic, in ways
that clearly had nothing to do with what the engine was actually doing.
Sometimes it'd rise to 3/4 and then drop immediately back down,
sometimes it'd drop to the bottom of the scale (without any
corresponding drop in heater output).
I took the instrument cluster apart and tried cleaning the pins to what
Volvo calls the "temperature compensation board". That just made things
worse. I was about to replace the board ($38!) when I found
instructions online for how to bypass it. It seems this board wasn't
part of the cluster until after 1985, and it's just an averaging circuit
to slow down the gauge response and make it more idiot-light-like.
I soldered a jumper across two of the connection pins for the board, and
put the cluster back together without it. The gauge seems to be acting
how I'd expect it to now. It does seem slightly quicker to respond, but
not excessively so. Bimetallic gauges are not exactly known for their
lightning-quick response to begin with.
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scott
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response 810 of 848:
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Apr 15 19:51 UTC 2004 |
Last week I bought a new car antenna to replace the one that got torn off in
a carwash last year (my fault). Today I set about replacing it. The
directions in both manuals were encouragingly similar... but of course it
turned into an adventure, perhaps even a saga. The tricky part, where the
manuals said "pull cable connector into air intake and disconnect" didn't
mention that I had to track the connector down to a rather sturdy clamp behind
the hood release lever by the driver's left foot. I ended up cutting the
clamp off (heck, the car is 9 years old), tying a string to the cable, and
fishing it out. Finally I put the bulk of the cable where it belonged, behind
the instrument cluster.
The good news is also that I finally crawled under to look at the exhaust,
and despite the odd rattle it was a lot more solid than I'd expected.
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gull
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response 811 of 848:
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Jun 13 00:39 UTC 2004 |
I put an NMO antenna mount on the roof of my car. This is the first
time I've ever installed a permanent antenna mount instead of a magnetic
or gutter type mount.
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scott
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response 812 of 848:
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Jul 8 23:13 UTC 2004 |
In classic style, my iBook power supply went flaky a day after I ordered a
new battery. No charging, the box got hot, etc. Naturally, it's a weird
connector.
I did a Google search for "iBook power connector" and found a couple good
pages describing fixes. Apparently the connector has a bit of power-sensing
circuitry inside, so you have to have the right setup. One page listed a
replacement cable for a third-party adapter for $13. But I managed to find
the short in the wire, right by the connector where the cheesy strain relief
ends. With a bit of careful soldering and some heat-shrink tubing I'm back
on the road.
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scott
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response 813 of 848:
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Jul 26 16:08 UTC 2004 |
I built a stereo microphone, using electret condensor capsules, a bit of
electronics, and a lot of Dremel tool work:
http://www.scotthelmke.com/copper-stereo-finished.jpg
Sound is worthy of a mic costing quite a bit more than the $20 I spent on
parts.
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n8nxf
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response 814 of 848:
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Jul 29 15:10 UTC 2004 |
Nice job, Scott.
I fixed our stove. Took a new $40 pot and a new $2 triac in an otherwise $115
module. I'm also working on an old '65 Gravely 2-wheel trcator, taking parts
from a second unit as I need them. I will use it to mow trails, etc., inn
our 6 acres of woods and fields. I'm also working on an addition to our boat
rack so that we can store more canoes and kayaks. I've also been having fun
(ya gots to have some fun every now and than!) with a little R/C boat I picked
up cheap. That's it for this week!
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keesan
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response 815 of 848:
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Jul 29 16:26 UTC 2004 |
What kind of stove needs a $40 pot? We get our replacement parts for free
out of used stoves, but they are coil type. Jim also has a non-working
flat-top stove he would like to fix. He thinks it is a diode. It has been
in the basement for about 15 years so I forget what it does not do. Probably
does not heat at all. Electronic touch-pad controls.
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