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Started by grouch, July 18, 2017, 03:25:32 PM

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grouch

Not far from where I live, there's a big hole in the ground. People come from all over the world to look at it and walk around in it. Much of it was formed by just drops of water.

When troubles come drip, drip, drip, dripping in, I remind myself that beauty and wonder can come the same way.

Dishwasher was venting steam from the corner of the door up under the countertop. Countertop is formica on particle board. The particle board swelled, then crumbled as it dried out. So, I did lots of research, swallowed the sticker shock and doubled the amount to spend. Downloaded the installation guide; it says 3/8 inch male NPT elbow needed -- old dishwasher has that. No A/C on the truck, price includes delivery, so call 'em up. Delivery scheduled for next day.

Meanwhile, washer pees in the floor *after* every load. Back online, because manufacturers are completely obsessed with "hide-the-fastener". Ok the secret handshake is push the control console forward after removing some screws in the back, lift, let dangle by the wires while using a screwdriver to pry out spring clips to allow the cabinet to tilt forward and be removed. Got it. Drain pump is leaking around the seal where the shaft enters to turn it. Online -- out of stock, but replenished in a few days. Good. Put it back together with a very low catch pan under it until new pump arrives. Oops, forgot the hidden spring clips. Let it ride. Put it and the dryer back in place. Happy wife.

Wife not happy; now dryer refuses to work. Back online to find likely suspects. Already know the secret handshakes to open that cabinet because I've had to replace the heater element, the thermal fuse and had to clean out the scary amount of lint inside the cabinet. Belt is no longer a belt, it's a straight strap with ragged ends. But, all top 5 reasons for "dryer won't start" check out OK. Dryer still dead and now occupying a lot of the laundry area.

Dishwasher arrives. Absolutely no place to screw in a 3/8 inch male NPT elbow. Call Lowe's. Man says all the manufacturers switched to the garden hose type connector about 5 or 6 years ago. PDF instructions out of date. Nothing to do but make the trip I wanted to avoid.

Secondary car (I learned to have primary and secondary while my wife was teaching because she thought it was a major catastrophe and unforgiveable sin to miss work for less than death or complete disablement) starts overheating somewhere in the middle of Mammoth Cave Park. Heater on, temp comes down near normal. Press on regardless. 90s outside, parts of inside are over 100, I'm sure.

Traffic is stupid. Example: One guy in a pickup with a Hustler zero turn mower as far back on the oversized trailer as it will go keeps hitting the brakes at the base of every hill, slowing to 40, then accelerating like mad halfway up the hill to get up to park limit of 50 before the top. Once in the city (Glasgow), get red at each and every traffic light. Get to Lowe's, man says they don't have the dishwasher installation kit their website says they have, but he gets up and finds one anyway. I had walked past it twice without seeing it before asking him. Gotta say this about those folks -- I've never encountered one at that particular store who wasn't helpful and certainly never found one who wouldn't make an excellent effort to help.

Heater on the whole way home. It's an automatic but still has a tachometer. RPM is too high for 55 and varies with even little changes in terrain. Slipping transmission likely.

Back home, cutoff valve for dishwasher supply line is not compatible with any of the 3 adapters in the kit. But, old supply line will fit the new garden hose adapter in the kit, and there's just enough of the old line to reach the new input if I wait to make that connection after the dishwasher is fully under the counter. Sure, I can do that; there's almost 3 inches of finger space there. Hook it up; drip, drip, drip, grrr. New adapter is milled a little shallower at the compression fitting end than the old one. Trim the tube a little, reattach, no drip.

Check the car. Transmission fluid about 1-1/2 qts low. Never been as much as 1/2 qt low before, but been sitting for a while waiting for exhaust system just completed. Hurry and get new tires on primary car, which has been on jack stands while I fix its exhaust system because a pinhole leak ahead of the oxygen sensor caused the ECM to think it was running lean so it dumped lots of gas into the cylinders.

Back to the dryer. Don't like the new prices and sure don't like all the electronic gee-whizzery. Time to examine the schematic tucked into the control console. Trace one power line and aha! There's a "belt switch" not mentioned in any online troubleshooting guide I found. The belt normally lifts the idler wheel which closes that switch. No belt, no continuity, no motor, no heater. New belt less than $15. Ordered.

Ok. Now, take the primary car to haul the dog to the vet because one of his lower canines is pink. (Damage to the pulp). Except I must've forgotten to tighten one of the plugs in one of the extra O2 sensor holes (for various model differences) in the head pipe. About 4 miles into the trip, the exhaust suddenly sounds like an old tractor under full load. Back home and lick that calf over.

Waiting now to see if the refrigerator decides to start blowing flames or the A/C wants to spit ice cubes. Something has possessed my appliances this summer.
Find something to do that interests you.

Grizzly

And our women wonder why we grouch!!   :D
2011 - Logmaster LM-2 / Chinese wheel loader
Jonsered saws - 2149 - 111S - 90?
2000 Miners 3-31 Board Edger

Kbeitz

Sounds like an average homeowners day....
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

coxy

I think you gave me your luck but not with the appliances its with my equipment errr  >:(   >:(

grouch

Sorry coxy. Didn't mean to.

On the other hand, nothing broke today.  ;D
Find something to do that interests you.

Howdy

How wonderful to see someone else has more difficulties then me, thanks.  Loved reading your narrative and perseverance to solve the problems yourself rather than throw money at them.

Ox

I feel your pain, grouch.

All one can do in these situations is mutter, "Dam the bad luck" and keep yer head down and lips pursed and keep moving forward.  It sure can be maddening sometimes.  What makes it worse is when you don't have the money to fix anything.  Then things get testy...
K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
1989 GMC 3500 4x4 diesel dump and plow truck, 1964 Oliver 1600 Industrial with Parsons loader and backhoe, 1986 Zetor 5211, Cat's Claw sharpener, single tooth setter, homemade Linn Lumber 1900 style mill, old tools

grouch

Howdy,
I tried not to just throw money at the problems. Still took some, though. The old dishwasher was half the price of the new one, but new racks alone were going to be half that, so I just decided she'd put up with it long enough.

Ox,
Head down is right.
It's like fighting a grass fire in a field of fescue. You just go from one burning clump to the next beating the flames out and hope you're getting ahead of it.


Only folks that don't have problems are in the grave. I'd just prefer a little breathing room between those problems. ;)

Find something to do that interests you.

Kbeitz

Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

Crusarius

Grouch you are banned from the forum for 1 week. Or till you stop passing your bad luck to everyone else.

Get home tonight, planning on mowing lawn. Zero turn started right up. I was letting it idle to move some rocks and it dies. no big deal go to restart and crank forever because it seems to lose fuel prime when it does that. Pause for a bit to let starter chill then try to crank again and nothing. Even trying to jump it nothing happened. I think the starter froze up on it. which would explain why it seems to kill the battery so fast when it is cranking

grouch

Don't worry, Crusarius. When you get a new starter and a new battery, the tires will go flat and you won't have to be out mowing in the heat.



Unless, of course, your home air conditioner suddenly decides to be a heater.
Find something to do that interests you.

Crusarius

I mildly dislike you right now...

:)

Ox

K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
1989 GMC 3500 4x4 diesel dump and plow truck, 1964 Oliver 1600 Industrial with Parsons loader and backhoe, 1986 Zetor 5211, Cat's Claw sharpener, single tooth setter, homemade Linn Lumber 1900 style mill, old tools

GRANITEstateMP

grouch,

  I feel your pain.  I crossed 2 "house issue's" off my Honey Do List the other day.  At least one more was created while I was finishing those projects...  I say at least one because I'm sure there is another problem, I just haven't found it - YET!
Hakki Pilke 1x37
Kubota M6040
Load Trail 12ft Dump Trailer
2015 GMC 3500HD SRW
2016 Polaris 450HO
2016 Polaris 570
SureTrac 12ft Dump Trailer

coxy

Quote from: grouch on July 19, 2017, 10:11:45 PM
Don't worry, Crusarius. When you get a new starter and a new battery, the tires will go flat and you won't have to be out mowing in the heat.



Unless, of course, your home air conditioner suddenly decides to be a heater.
your just plain evil   :D :D :D 8)

grouch

Parts came in today. Should've had everything cleaned and ready to go back together, but I've been working on other stuff (backhoe).

I just thought I cleaned that dryer before. Took the drum out and the whole motor area was a big fuzzy lint ball! These things should have skeleton frameworks so you can get that stuff out easily. It's a serious fire hazard.

Got it cleaned and figured out the belt routing. It's a 5/16 inch wide, 5 rib, 4 groove belt that goes around the outside of the drum.

10 little sheet metal screws, 4 idlers, then reach around through a gap between the blower housing and the cabinet to feel for the belt, pull a loop over the motor pulley making sure the back side of the belt lifts the idler against a spring that must've come off a trampoline, and presto! Drum's in backwards. Belt rides about 3 inches too far toward the back.

Oh, these time-saving modern conveniences. I'm not going back to hauling wash water to and from an old wringer machine, not going back to helping hang out clothes, and I DanG sure ain't washin' no dishes!

I'm gonna eat before taking that thing back apart to correct my mistake.
Find something to do that interests you.

coxy

I'm with you on the washing clothes and I don't do dishes if I had to do them I would throw them away and buy new very time I ate or I would go out to eat every night  :)

Ox

...and presto!  the drum's in backwards.  :D

Lord, that just tickled me.  Are you sure we ain't relation somehow?  Need a new neighbor?  you crack me up and your story telling is perfect  :laugh:

K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
1989 GMC 3500 4x4 diesel dump and plow truck, 1964 Oliver 1600 Industrial with Parsons loader and backhoe, 1986 Zetor 5211, Cat's Claw sharpener, single tooth setter, homemade Linn Lumber 1900 style mill, old tools

grouch

Everything's working again and I'm a hero (at least until the next thing breaks).



Quote from: Kbeitz on July 19, 2017, 03:50:06 PM
I think we all have them days...

Yep. It's like a joke -- the funniest ones are those in which we see ourselves. Murphy's law smacks each of us. Ol Murphy just fired a machine gun at me this time.

You see the threads on here almost every day.
Like Peter Drouin -- has logs by the truckload coming to his normally stationary mill. Goes mobile with it one day to get some engine work done, and blows a tire which rips out a hose which takes out a fitting. Murphy started drooling as soon as Peter hitched up.

Or iffy leaving the metal detector on the garage wall, cuts walnut cookies, finds outdoor plumbing.
Find something to do that interests you.

grouch

Quote from: Ox on July 21, 2017, 02:40:02 PM
...and presto!  the drum's in backwards.  :D

Lord, that just tickled me.  Are you sure we ain't relation somehow?  Need a new neighbor?  you crack me up and your story telling is perfect  :laugh:

Ox, you just made my day! Thanks!

(I can laugh about it now, but I know those 2 screws I had left over from the dryer are just a warning of some future catastrophe in the making).
Find something to do that interests you.

Crusarius

I am sorry but I am laughing at all of this. thank you. I needed that. :)

I did manage to get the mower started and just finished mowing.

sandhills

Now now, how important could 2 screws be?  Besides I was always told every good mechanic had spare parts at the end of the job  :-X  :D.

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