OT - What are you fixing right now?

Botch

WeberWho said:
I'm still out some cash if I had just sold my other mixer to the buyer but he gets his old family mixer back for his new place. So that's pretty cool. 

You’re good people, @WeberWho.

kl8ton

Well done @WeberWho

lousubcap

That is just going way above and beyond.  I hope the original buyer "buys" for your agreed price to "do the right thing" and is happy with the gift you provided.  Anything else is totally wrong.  

WeberWho

lousubcap said:

That is just going way above and beyond.  I hope the original buyer "buys" for your agreed price to "do the right thing" and is happy with the gift you provided.  Anything else is totally wrong.  

I'll be the first one to admit and I will even tell them that they can go somewhere else cheaper but you won't get the same quality of service. I'll spend the time and pick out every last piece of old grease that Kitchenaid uses and replace with a high end food safe synthetic grease. The one other guy locally I can almost guarantee won't send pictures of what they've cleaned and regreased on their mixers. All they do is take a minute or two and try to scoop up some of the old grease and plop on the new grease over the old worn down grease. I even had the other repair guys wife message me and asked if I could remove parts of my ad when I mentioned how crappy the grease that Kitchenaid uses in their mixers. She even tried to argue with me that the dinosaur Kitchenaid grease they use is better than my synthetic grease I use. It was laughable. Yes it cuts into my profits but I'd rather spend the extra money and put in quality grease into the mixers I work on. I also won't typically charge extra for the cost of parts or when I have to replace parts as I have to disassemble the mixer anyways to regrease it. So it usually works out good for a customer. I've only done 3-4 mixers that have been dropped off as I'd rather buy the Kitchenaid mixers on my own and flip it on my own time as it's just a hobby. I make this very clear to the customer that this is a hobby and not a profession. I told the owner of the mixer that it was going to be a few weeks of me working on it when time allowed with no guarantees with me getting it to work. He was more than happy for me to take a look at it and see what I could do with it. The buyer said he'd buy the mixer I was selling if I couldn't get his to work. So there wasn't any real pressure which makes it a little easier when working on it. I haven't yet met him other than messaging but he seems like a really good guy and was happy to pay what I was asking for the service. 

Buckwoody Egger

out with the old (1980s)



in with the original / ancient (1930s)



still work to do. one noteworthy motivator is this “looks like an egg table sear” that was part of the suboptimal hearth extension that the front of the insert sat on. the rear sat on fire bricks. the craft insert was a beast. with a rager fire and blower on it would put out some serious heat. 



and in other news does anything strike you as suboptimal about the compromised hot wire inside the compromised (no whack a mole insulator holes) weatherhead. this pic is after removal 

dbCooper

Blower wheel on my analog Maytag dryer is a plastic or nylon composition.  Blower motor shaft is "D" shaped and made of steel.  Every 5-7 years the shaft hole in wheel morphs to a "O" shape.  When the dryer sounds like there is a pair of shoes inside it's time for a new wheel.

Elijah

Guess where the misfire is

zaphod

what's that big pile of metal rubber pipes and stuff in your frunk?

Elijah

Just confirmed that the lawnmower I've used for 15 years is 35 years old. It threw belts and I'm going to have to break the engine loose to replace the drive belt. After a pretty good first pass of cleaning 

MaskedMarvel

zaphod said:

storage bins of Damocles. 

I’m way behind reading this thread, but I’m LMAOing. 

Canugghead

Elijah said:

Guess where the misfire is

@Elijah
Total rookie here, hope to learn something. All that grease is symptom of misfire? How do you fix it, valve adjustment? coil? new plug?

Reason I'm asking is I'm having fun with my 25 yo Honda minivan that should have been disposed of long ago. Engine started knocking badly couple of weeks ago. My mechanic who knows the history told me to take it to someone that specialises in engine work, guessing it would cost about $500-700. While looking around I got sucked into a fancy schmancy place for a 'free' 15-minute inspection and estimate, they told me 5 out of 6 cylinders are misfiring, along with whole bunch of other repair recommendations of course; they want $250 for further diagnosis and repair estimates.

I used to pamper the van when new, changed out the spark plugs in year 2 or 3 and kept the old plugs in the bin for 'emergency'.  After seeing your post I figured my OG plugs must be in better shape than what I had been using for 20+ years. Trust me, removing the six coil retaining bolts and the plugs without power tools (nod @GrateEggspectations) after all these years was interesting, working out many muscles that I didn't know about! These came out:

Anyhow, after swapping the plugs the engine knocks seem to have calmed down somewhat. Maybe it's all in my head, maybe it did help a bit, maybe both, who knows. Given the age, I have no intention of spending $$ on it, will probably just run it into the ground 

RRP

Compared to some of the repair tasks reported here then mine will sound like a puff piece! I just wanted to show even an 81 year old former bean counter can be up for a mechanical challenge.

Back in April my TORO self propelled mower chewed up and spit out the drive belt. Due to time commits I decided to have my dealer from whom I have purchased all my mowers, snowblowers, Stihl blowers and chainsaws from to come get it and fix it. When I called they told me 2 of their 3 mechanics had quit and the 3rd one already had vacation plans so they were SOL. Backlog was already 5 weeks out! 5 to 6 weeks in April in IL and no mower can not be! So I watched a couple YouTubes versions which were essentially useless for my model. So I bought the belt and tackled it myself. Four hours later: probably 2 hours longer than some people would have taken: it was done except for several adjustments to get that beast chomping clumps of IL grass like a hungry cow!

Elijah

@Canugghead

This was a 2011 Corolla with 256,000 miles. I'd say the oil caused the misfire. There's something broke that is letting oil in. I'd assume a gasket. If I were you I'd put some new spark plugs in it to see where it gets you. The cheapest ones down here would probably go for 80 bucks for a set of six. Mine was bogging down and made me wonder if I was going to get home, but it wasn't knocking. Is yours drivable?

Canugghead

@Elijah
Thanks for sharing. Actually I stand corrected, not knocking, more like rough idling, hard to describe (tells you how much I know about cars). It still drives well even before the spark plug swap. Matter of fact the AC is as cold as new, still on original freon with zero repair/refill. 

Our other car is a 2011 Corolla too, with only 79.8k miles (128.5k km). We don't drive much so the van is not really needed but great for hauling stuff. Said it before, it's saving us money because without it we'll lose our multi-vehicles insurance discount and the premium increase on the Corolla will be higher than what we're paying for the van. Not going to sweat/spend too much over it, will  most likely just donate it down the road.

lousubcap

@RRP - congrats on getting it done.  Your woodworking skills directly translated here.  Sad about your dealer and workers-seems to be closing in on epidemic status these days.  

MaskedMarvel

Canugghead said:

Elijah said:

Guess where the misfire is

@Elijah
Total rookie here, hope to learn something. All that grease is symptom of misfire? How do you fix it, valve adjustment? coil? new plug?

Reason I'm asking is I'm having fun with my 25 yo Honda minivan that should have been disposed of long ago. Engine started knocking badly couple of weeks ago. My mechanic who knows the history told me to take it to someone that specialises in engine work, guessing it would cost about $500-700. While looking around I got sucked into a fancy schmancy place for a 'free' 15-minute inspection and estimate, they told me 5 out of 6 cylinders are misfiring, along with whole bunch of other repair recommendations of course; they want $250 for further diagnosis and repair estimates.

I used to pamper the van when new, changed out the spark plugs in year 2 or 3 and kept the old plugs in the bin for 'emergency'.  After seeing your post I figured my OG plugs must be in better shape than what I had been using for 20+ years. Trust me, removing the six coil retaining bolts and the plugs without power tools (nod @GrateEggspectations) after all these years was interesting, working out many muscles that I didn't know about! These came out:

Anyhow, after swapping the plugs the engine knocks seem to have calmed down somewhat. Maybe it's all in my head, maybe it did help a bit, maybe both, who knows. Given the age, I have no intention of spending $$ on it, will probably just run it into the ground 

Spark plug wires are in the wrong order? Worth re-checking?

Elijah

And we're getting there

alaskanassasin

Nice opposed twin! 

Elijah

@alaskanassasin finally someone bit! I can't find anything on the motor or lawnmower. I'll watch several different YouTube videos to see which mix mine has. 35 years will do that. The manual I found has a part number for a oil filter in the drawings and bom, but never shows it. I have looked several times to find one hidden away somewhere but I think it just doesn't have one. I only have a picture of one side. 

Buckwoody Egger

the first link is asking about a close enough motor to yours where if you can’t see a 3” diameter filter then it isn’t there— and only would be if someone added oil filter kit.  

https://www.mytractorforum.com/threads/locating-oil-filter-on-briggs-stratton-18-5-hp-engine.138134/

pic of filter if you want to see if part # same 
https://www.repairclinic.com/ProductDetail/782000

WeberWho

Canugghead said:

@Elijah
Thanks for sharing. Actually I stand corrected, not knocking, more like rough idling, hard to describe (tells you how much I know about cars). It still drives well even before the spark plug swap. Matter of fact the AC is as cold as new, still on original freon with zero repair/refill. 

Our other car is a 2011 Corolla too, with only 79.8k miles (128.5k km). We don't drive much so the van is not really needed but great for hauling stuff. Said it before, it's saving us money because without it we'll lose our multi-vehicles insurance discount and the premium increase on the Corolla will be higher than what we're paying for the van. Not going to sweat/spend too much over it, will  most likely just donate it down the road.

Original spark plug wires? You could just have a bad wire. I'd test them and start there. I'd also check the distributor and see if you have a microscopic crack somewhere on it. 

alaskanassasin

@Elijah the oil filter kit was probably an option for heavier use engines or maybe higher brands end like Toro. 

alaskanassasin

Needless to say they don’t make them like they used to, that’s a cool motor. 2000 model by the code.

Canugghead

@MaskedMarvel The wires are oem custom fit and idiot-proof to avoid mix up, also never touched them in over two decades.
@WeberWho Thanks, sounds logical. Now I just need to get off my backside again.

Elijah

alaskanassasin said:

Needless to say they don’t make them like they used to, that’s a cool motor. 2000 model by the code.

I kind of wondered that due to the condition, but the friend I got it from 15 years ago swears it was 20 when I got it. 

Elijah

Getting there 

GrateEggspectations

Elijah said:

Getting there 

WeberWho

Going to be replacing the 80 gallon tank on my Dad's air compressor. Since we had the tank out of the closet in my Dad's shop we thought it might be a good time to go through the pump and replace gaskets and the valve plate. 

zaphod

just finished coding around a ... feature ... I found in iOS safari that appeared somewhere between 16 and 18.  New window creations via "target=" in a link do not consistently get a HTTP_REFERER environment variable. 

My C code, which generates XML code to be processed by my XSLT code to generate HTML kinda relied on that. oh well.

lousubcap

zaphod said:

just finished coding around a ... feature ... I found in iOS safari that appeared somewhere between 16 and 18.  New window creations via "target=" in a link do not consistently get a HTTP_REFERER environment variable. 

My C code, which generates XML code to be processed by my XSLT code to generate HTML kinda relied on that. oh well.

I can read the words but no chance of translating them.  I get the meaning of "oh, well."