Since this forum is dead, I came up with this idea... could be kind of fun. A journal of sorts since my short term memory is shot, so I'll be able to look back at what I've done months down the road and amuse myself. Also, for others to post what they've been up to, and ask questions if need be. Today I did a water pump, lower and upper intake manifold gaskets on a 2005 Grand Caravan with a 3.8L. Customer's van, I've done work on it before but always basic stuff (belt tensioner, struts, brakes). Never got to rip into one of these motors until today. I have to say that this motor is probably the easiest (aside from Honda B/D series) thing I've ever had to do intake gaskets on. All 10mm bolts, for the upper plastic intake and the lower aluminum plenum. Had both the intakes off in probably a half hour. The water pump was a little more of a pain, but still not bad in the least. Had to disconnect the passenger side motor mount in order to drop the motor down to get the pump out, since you don't have much (hardly any as a matter of fact) space to work with. Everything is back together, minus putting the serpentine belt back on, and changing the oil, adding/bleeding the coolant. It got dark on me so I'll have to finish it up tomorrow, but pretty much all done. Yesterday I did a tune up (just plugs actually) on a '02 F150 with the Triton 5.4. Another customer's vehicle, the dealer wanted $500 to do the plugs, so I did them for $150. Looks like a pain in the ass when you just look it over, but when you start getting into it, it's not bad. Individual coils on each plug, each held down by one 7mm bolt. Had to remove the power steering bracket to get cylinder 1, and had to pull out the fuel rail on each side in order to get the plugs out, since the rail runs over them. You don't have to remove the rail, just take the bolts out, pop the injectors up and move it out of the way. Also disconnect a few vaccum lines, no big deal. Was proud of myself since it was finished in an hour and a half, and the book time is 2.2. So, use this thread as your automotive journal if you like. What did you work on today?
well yesterday i recorded bass, guitar and vocals for a song i wrote (titled save my soul) today i recorded a guitar solo and additional vocals for the song and mixed it, i also started tracking on another song (tight me up tightly) just guitar and vocals so far and, i started tracking vocals and guitar for another song(she says) and i am re recording vocals on a another song(trigger) because i never liked the way they worked out the first time i always like to work on multiple songs at once because listening to the same thing over and over for hours can drive you crazy and can fatigue you ears i broke up with the girl i have been seeing for the last couple of months and now i have all this time on my hands and enjoying every second of it and the freedom to not have to be expected to see her every night, my creativity have been freed
Nothing today. Last week I did a brake flush, diff fluid drain/refill and coolant flush for a friend. Took about 90 minutes by myself and an easy $100.
i recorded my daughter who is 5, singing kids songs along with my guitar, she is to noisy to get any thing else done today she has a good voice for such a little shit
Good replies so far, I especially like mistawiskas' response. I put the belt on the van and started it up today. Ran it for a little bit, bled the cooling system. Started up and ran great, no check engine light. Returned it to the customer and collected my money. Aside from that, didn't do much except for watch The Wire. I'm going out of town for the weekend to visit a friend, so won't be working on much until Sunday night or Monday. Have a guy with a '04 Ram 1500 that has a CEL and needs some work done (not sure what yet) to pass emissions. Lurker, what the hell do you mean by brake flush? You bled all 4 until all the old fluid was gone?
I've got an ongoing project I'm working on. I bought a condo back in November and have been chipping away at the renos every since (on weekends and after work) So far: -removed the old carpet/lino, cabinets, appliances, baseboard heaters,mouldings, doors and basically whatever else there was -primed and painted all the walls and ceiling. -tiled the kitchen/entryway and laundry area (ready to order/install cabinets/countertop) -halfway done installing the new hardwoods in the living room and bedroom Once that's done I'll install new mouldings. And after that I'll start in on the bathroom. I've never done most of this stuff before (tiling, cabinets) but finishing my buddies basement last summer without any trouble made me confident I could handle anything if I took my time and researched the process. There's a knack to any job, but I figure my not being "on the clock" helps make up for my lack of experience. I'm pleased with all the results so far. Anyone have experience removing bathtubs? I'm not concerned about banging up the walls (they're coming down anyways), I just wonder about how to go about detaching the drain pipe from the tub. Not sure how that works yet.
Of course. You gotta do it right. The shit you can't see is the stuff that needs changing the most. I use a power bleeder (air compressor) and a reservoir extentsion that keeps the master cylinder full.. Really quick job. I take my time so it looks really serious and stuff.... LOL At the end I made him back up in 6 inch increments and pump the brake 3 full times over and over. 3/4 times and I was like... (ITS GOOD!) He feels like he did something. He's happy. Haha To the rest of you, no I wasn't ripping him off. I was giving him shit but not ripping him off. Look up what the work I did costs in a shop and he's easily paying 25%. Besides, I do it right. I wasn't in it for the money but he damn well better pay my bar tab.
I assembled and installed my bench grain mill, and tested it on some feed corn. Cleaned it up and got it ready for my brew this weekend. Unpacked and placed into storage my brew supplies for the next 3-4 months: 50 pounds of dry malt extract, 12 pounds of dark liquid malt extract, 20 pounds of whole crystal malt, 6 pounds of whole roasted malt, 6 pounds of whole chocolate malt, 10 pounds of honey, a few pounds of hops, yeast, steeping bags, etc. And I cleaned my two Roombas.
One thing that irritates me the most is when customers of mine will call and say "my brakes are fucked up". I ask what the problem is and I get "the pedal goes to the floor". I tell them to not drive it if at all possible, and if they have to move it or whatever to MAKE SURE the fluid stays full, or at least present in the reservoir. Then when I get there to pick the car up or inspect, the fucker is bone dry. Good job dipshit, now chances are you're going to need a master on top of your busted brake line/blown wheel cylinder/whatever.
^^^ As frustrating as the idiots are, we owe them a debt of gratitude. If they all knew what we knew, and did what we did, they wouldn't desperately need and PAY us. We've built careers on the stupidity of others.
Yeah, on the 08 Tacoma, if the master sucks air, you need to go to the dealership to have them "purge" a solenoid because air got stuck in it. Over the counter Snap-On/OTC-Genysis, etc, wont do it. It takes the Toyota software. True. I like knowing what people don't give a fuck about until it impacts their life abruptly. That shit costs extra.
Since I haven't done much today yet, so well go off yesterday. Got to work at about 7:30. We had roofers scheduled Thursday for a job to install (6) roof curbs, well we got the structural plans late Wednesday night that included adding c6x13 c-channel underneath the curb, which we didn't have. Our normal steel supplier was out of stock so i went to the backup, he had it but couldn't get it pulled until the end of the day, which wasn't acceptable. I finally found the steel and could get it picked in two hours. As my guy was picking it up, my foreman called and said he needed 20 more feet, of coarse the steel yard couldn't pick it right then, i had to wait another two hours. The roofers ended up going home and are back today. More or less it was a giant pain in the ass. After that, I had to get to a job meeting for a retirement community were building out. Of coarse I was late, but my boss was there on time. At the end of the meeting they informed us we were awarded the job for the next wing, which is about 140,000 and were supposed to start a week from Monday. So now I have to get my drawing done, submitted to the state and permits pulled, which isn't going to happen in a week, I'm planing on coming in Saturday to do the drawing. After that meeting I had to run about 45 minutes to the other side of town. We did a small 8,000 job to a high end home in Hartland. The job was for a 14x14 sunroom addition, we were last there on black Friday, and havent heard anything yet. Well turns out the GC bid the job for 83,000, got paid 81,000 and it's only roughed out with a roof and siding. no interior finish is done, I haven't been paid and another sub hasn't been paid (about 15,000 worth). So i had to meet with the new GC so he could straiten out this mess, we are going to be removing all the work we just did, to reconfigure it. shot the shit with him for a while, then had to head to down town milwaukee. On my way to Milwaukee, had to stop at the shop to pick up my back flow preventer test kit. had to haul ass to Milwaukee, i was meeting my crane guy as were replacing two 15 ton rooftop units on a 7 story building next wednesday and i needed him to figure out the logistics of the crane. Met with him for about a half an hour, looks like well need a 70 ton crane to set these two units. After that I ran up to the north side to repair and retest a back flow preventer that had failed it's yearly testing last week. rebuild it and retested it. we were at about 2pm now, headed back to the shop, stopped for some lunch. back at the shop i worked on some bids until my boss returned then we went over all our current jobs, made a list and are talking about hiring another employee. I ended up getting out of here about 6:45. When I got home, sat on my ass for about a half an hour and went to the gym around 8, worked out with my old lady for about an hour, went home and went to bed. That's what I did yesterday
Worked on a Stihl MS460 today, landscaper dropped it from a tree, cracking the cylinder jug and continued to use it, destroying the piston. $500 repair for a $1000 chainsaw. /IMG]
Dang Miller, those kinds of stories make me glad to not be building any more. There are things I do not miss about the hasasles. i've been doing small remodels and rental maintanence lately. yesterday i retrofitted new windows into an old duplex made of blocks. Challenging for sure, but short on hassles concerning reliance on other people. When the economy went south, rental building owners took to defering maintanence and repairs, or opted to do the repairs as cheaply as possible by themselves. Now the shit is hitting the fan and the mickey-mousing and lack of repairs has to be dealt with. There is no shortage of work to say the least. I stand in total amazement at some of the idiotic sollutions some of these land owners implemented.
Yea, property owners can be a huge hassle some times. we take care of about 15 different management companies. Most are really good, we do a lot of PM's and repairs. One is always cheap on me, nickle and dime everything. Had me bid the same VAV box 5 time, in two years to try and cheapen it up. It's a lousy $2400 job. finally they said OK the job is yours if you can do it for 1900. I laughed, held my ground and they gave me the go ahead. it's getting harder and harder to earn a buck
waiting on nandx from a friend to get started on this wild ass, overly complicated project, traded 2 left led rrod xbox for cologne, all it needed was the hsf vacuumed out. overheating error. i went ahead and did xclamp mod too. zephyr hdmi model. when i bought this car that hole was there in the middle console, i thought maybe it was a button option missing or a plastic cover for it was lost. crap and junk kept falling in there so i got tired.. looked in there with a flashlight and saw the traction control button had broken off and fell down in there. took it all out, cleaned it all up, and epoxied new screw mounts to remount the switch. whalah! years of annoyance, took only a 30min to fix. :\ Now i can turn off and on traction control. y(o_o)y
I have been pretty busy. Got the title work sorted out on our dump truck (1978 Chevy C50 with 12' dual piston dump bed), and we drove it around some on Wednesday. Got about 20 mins away to bid on a job, and the brakes started dragging. Drove the remaining distance home running 30mph (fastest I could run, wasn't worried about damaging the archaic super heavy duty brake drums and pads). Got home around 4pm, and started tearing into it. Smoke was rolling out of all 4 corners. Come to find out, no replacement master cylinder was offered. Tore the original apart, honed the cylinder, cleaned out all rust and sludge, and fluffed up the seals with new brake fluid. reassembled and reinstalled, and bled for the next 2 hours and still hadn't gotten a pedal. Left to get more brake fluid with 1" of fluid in the reservoir (and absolutely no firmness in pedal at all) and returned to 1/8" of fluid in reservoir and a perfect brake pedal. I guess it self bled? Frustrating, but we were ecstatic! Test drove, and all was well. Used the dump truck to haul a bunch of wood from a tree we felled (75' North American Pine). Worked flawless! At one point, was hauling. 2.5 tons of wood in bed plus towing the 6,000lb wood chipper. Was slow, but handled it without any problems! Finished up the job yesterday, and I have taken today off to recover and rest up for next week. ~Will Courtier~
Installing interior into my 912 - none of the new carpet pieces look exactly like the originals (which are all moldy and gross). It's tricky to figure out where they go, so I need to scope it out for a bit and test fit to a few places, plus I needed to get the order right when stacking/gluing together. Once I had that done, I usually had to trim and cut holes into the carpet. Then I was rubber cementing the carpet pieces in place. Have the rear seats etc., all done now. The front's going next. I'll take some photos when I work on it again
swapped out a screen on a ibook.. never ever ever again will i fucking do it ever!!! working on mac laptops get easier with each generation, but the ibook.. i cursed and cursed.. and once i was done, i was left with about 8 extra screws so being the perfectionist that i am i took it apart and had to figure out the screws.. and of course being a mac all the screws are different sizes and different heads.. and i'm thinking of quitting my job working at this damn computer store picked up a pos for 800$ (and yes its another old benz) [only reason i got it is cause the receipts, and i'm probably going to just use it for laundry/groceries/rainy days and even though its beat and needs work, its a good project, and you guys know me and old shitty benzes] needs work, but the last owner did some work (mickey mouse) and had some major stuff, gave me about $2000 in receipts but the owner before did provide $8000 in receipts of major work.. never again will i buy a car from the desert though as i have worked on rusted crap, but man sun baked is far worse... anyways got it smogged today even with a CEL. -got some old faded tints off -attempted to clean it a bit, but its in pretty bad shape.. so i'll have to work on it later (unless anyone has tips for working on baked plastic/leather) but i did find a condom under the transmission shifter gate hahaha and a bunch of bullets in the trunk under the spare also flipped a ps3 slim, made a easy $150 off it -btw torx my boss doesn't care if i give you the old systems btw haha they need work though so ill let you know if your still interested in a dos laptop or whatever -nidex has your short term mem gone to shit naturally or did you assist it somehow? just wondering if my memory will ever get better.. yes i fucked up way back then
i taught a DJ friend of mine how to master his edited beats on saturday, with compression or limiter, on an audio program i never used before called 'sony ACID' it was a really old version of ACID and the night before i watched some youtube video tutorials just so i knew how to navigate the program, well lets just say that i was not aware that he had not only a couple versions older but like an ancient version all my little studying went to hell because most of the videos i watched were of the newest release of sony ACID, a lot of features and appearance was all different, i face palmed, and will ask people not only what program they use, but what version they use now, lesson learned, and it was good to catch up with him and learn about the style of music i know the least about, he told me i should get in to it, i'll pass, i like playing a real instrument and using my own songs
working on getting my 92 (93, 94?) yamaha xt225 running again. pulled the tank & carb, tank is rusted. I got a tub big enough to fit it in and baking powder. Already have a few battery tenders, so now its time for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azDrhhmSAIk
I spent this past weekend working on my Stihl 066. The chainsaw is our trunk cutter, and has a 36" bar. Just to give you guys an idea of the brute force of this chainsaw, it has a motor size of somewhere near 92cc's, and is good for about 7hp. These chainsaws are generally up over $1,000 in good running condition. My partner was cutting the last part of a stump in my yard, and the saw died. Messed with it for a while that day, found out we had spark but was low on compression. Pulled it apart to find one of the two rings had stuck in the piston groove (saw had sat for a while before we bought it). No scoring of cylinder wall, and piston was still in good shape. Also found that the compression release (absolutely necessary for starting this saw). So, I picked up a new compression release and some new piston rings. Honed up the cylinder wall, put it all back together, and tossed in a new spark plug. Now the compression is insanely high (pain in the ass to pull over now). Took 5 pulls to prime it and make the saw sputter. On the sixth pull, she fired off and seems to be running pretty good. Still have some carb tuning left to do (little sluggish off idle), but will have that fixed in no time flat. Really been wanting to get this saw going again. Been lucky in the last few jobs, as we haven't needed it. But, this is an absolute lifesaver if we need it! ~Will Courtier~
went to the mechanic, got ripped off -___- got an oil change, serpentine belt, air filter, exhaust hangers done.. was $300.. i checked online after, he pretty much charged me dealership prices for parts or more i think even though his labor was advertised, went for a full inspection, compression, leakdown, and smoke machine for vacuum leaks, but he just did it with his eye.. guess ill diy everything else, and get it smoked, and tested for other stuff later, turns out my smog valve was bypassed, but it seems to smog fine *shrug*
