So what are you working on that’s NOT your DSM?

[stealthee]

Yesterday I decided I was going to get my yard mowed. That was, until I saw this mess...

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I haven't ran my chainsaw since last year, so it took a few minutes to get it running in the first place, then I got to work. It was hot so had to stop and take a break, and it just happened I had ran out of fuel when I shut the saw down, and I didn't realize it, so I had some delays in getting restarted. Anyway after 3 hours I ran out of steam and I was down to this.

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My plan was to come straight home finish cutting it up and get the mowing done, however I worked late, then my brother called. He said he was headed to my aunt's to use the press to do a wheel bearing and I asked why go there when he could use my press. He forgot I acquired one. Anyway he was at my house when I got home. We pushed the Talon out, did the bearing , cleaned up, pushed the Talon back in, and then got back to the giant branch that fell.

About an hour later after starting, deciding to change the chain, and finishing up I wanted to mow before it stormed. Another 45 minutes to an hour later and I was done.

All clean.

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I tried counting the rings. It was difficult to say to least. The part that broke off could have been anywhere from 35-70 years old.

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

I've had many obstacles, but I'm finally ready to finish up the 22RE project. I left the block and head with a machine shop for 2 months and received incomplete work after calling a million times. I had to use a second machine shop to get the head shaved down and I honed the block myself. But alas, it's time for a fresh coat of paint, thorough cleaning and then dropping in a fresh rotating assembly. I'm ready to get these parts out of my way and running again.

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[stealthee]

I used the long weekend to get some stuff knocked out.

When I came home Thursday I started burning the pile I had started from the big limb that fell. I spent most of the evening tending the fire.

Friday my I took my nephew to my cousin's so he could ride with them to a family event a few hours away. When I got back to my place I started working on his car. He has a Lancer GTS, much like mine, but his is an 08 and an automatic. Anyway, I removed his rear bumper cover to attack a failed license plate light. I put some OEM style LED lights in and had to do some wiring repair in the process. After I got that fixed up I started on his rear brakes.

I replaced the rear calipers, along with the pads. I had to "repurpose" some rotors I had here. They were in far better shape than what was on his car. I tried adjusting his parking brake as well, but he has almost no parking brake shoe left, so he'll have to replace those if he wants it to work.

Yesterday, my buddy brought his car over so I could do an oil change. Went to lunch after that, then spent some time cleaning out my nephew's car for him.

When I got up this morning I had two goals. Both were working on my Lancer. The first was to swap the front lower control arms. That honestly went way better than I thought it would. Only had to break out the cheater pipe for one bolt. Got them swapped and cleaned up and painted the rotor hats, as well as the calipers while it was apart.

The second goal was to fix my power steering leak. For something so simple it turned into a much larger project than the control arms was. After a lot of cursing, some burns on the exhaust, and getting coated in ATF I think I got the power steering leak fixed.

Got everything cleaned up and put back together, then I went to my brother's to help him diagnose an ABS wiring issue on his Durango.

I stopped and picked up a 6 pack on the way there as a "treat", and I somehow killed the sixer in about 2 hours. We got the ABS issue sorted and he no longer has an active ABS light.

I'm burning a day of PTO tomorrow and my new 10" screen radio for the Lancer should be here so that is the goal for tomorrow.

 

[Stapl3]

Spent the last few days having my way with the exhaust on the Grand Am. This pretty much ended my idea of doing a remote turbo so a DIY blower setup may be in the cards.

I removed the stock cat, resonator, and muffler. I have replaced these with a variety of 5 different mufflers in the interest of each one catching a different sound wave. The flowmaster I had laying around, the other 4 mufflers I bought totaled about 165 bucks and I think I can sell the stock cat for maybe near that... ultimately I could be under 100 bucks on the whole thing.

I must say the engineers that designed the stock muffler are wizards as the car was dead silent on this small weird thing. The two rear mufflers I added in it's place couldn't do what it did.

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Sounds pretty amazing for what it is. Quiet during cruise and idle with a slight hint of something isn't stock. When I go WOT it opens up. Sounds clean and strong.

 

[TerminalTalon]

The dealership sent us 4 of the wrong racks and finally figured out it was the expensive one(active steering). Now the only issue was that the other dealership that took this in on trade screwed the engine mount job up (4.4V8 TT) and the rack just wouldn’t align. There are a bunch of angles that need to be met for all the fancy stuff and what I concluded was
The guy either moved the alignment sleeve for center
The steering shaft bolt faces up into a turbo so rotated the shaft, didn’t know which way he rotated, put it all together tried to turn and broke something internal.
This thing wheels straight was at like 2:30 with all the lights. I would rotate one angle to zero then the other to zero. Put it together and it would still be at 2:30. It was a weird one but hey whatever the price difference is between our $200+ dealership hour around here at 8.5 hr and a new $6-8k rack I’ll take a used rack and some goofball that just wants the knowledge and experience.

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[Ludachris]

The dealership sent us 4 of the wrong racks and finally figured out it was the expensive one(active steering). Now the only issue was that the other dealership that took this in on trade screwed the engine mount job up (4.4V8 TT) and the rack just wouldn’t align. There are a bunch of angles that need to be met for all the fancy stuff and what I concluded was
The guy either moved the alignment sleeve for center
The steering shaft bolt faces up into a turbo so rotated the shaft, didn’t know which way he rotated, put it all together tried to turn and broke something internal.
This thing wheels straight was at like 2:30 with all the lights. I would rotate one angle to zero then the other to zero. Put it together and it would still be at 2:30. It was a weird one but hey whatever the price difference is between our $200+ dealership hour around here at 8.5 hr and a new $6-8k rack I’ll take a used rack and some goofball that just wants the knowledge and experience.

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Damn, I need a lift.

And the fluid/filter change didn't fix the harsh shifts by the way. Now I have to decide what to do next. I've read that replacing the PCM (ECU) can fix this issue, or reprogramming the one that's in there now. I guess I'll have to see if a local wrecking yard has one I can pick up. Hate throwing money at it without knowing what the issue really is. I just hope it isn't anything major.

Took the Corolla into a mechanic I know. They diagnosed a sticking solenoid in the valve body, which isn’t uncommon for this mileage. I have a few options - replace the solenoid (or all of them while it’s opened up) and hope nothing else fails soon after in this 160k mile transmission. I can go with a used 45k mile replacement I found with a 1 year warranty for $1600, or a reman unit for $2500-3k. I’m leaning towards getting the used one but not the idea of doing the work to swap it. And paying someone to do it is not in the budget right now - well, neither is the trans itself, but hey.

 

[Disturbed ACR]

Changed the alternator on our 2003 mini cooper. Requires pulling apart the front end to get a single bolt on the bottom. Germans!

 

[stealthee]

Changed the alternator on our 2003 mini cooper. Requires pulling apart the front end to get a single bolt on the bottom. Germans!

The Mini is an English car. Same same though

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

I'm really into exhaust work. I love watching my friend bend and flare pipe. All I'm good at is measuring and welding though. I'd probably screw up if I had my hands on those machines. If I had 20 grand laying around though, I'd be doing it. I do a good job at knowing what parts to order, what size pipe and angles to bend. I just lack all the equipment and skills to do it alone. Maybe one day.

 

[Mahreeoh17]

Had some extra cash from some side work, decided I wanted to start getting more active with my son. Picked up a used lowrider bike, and then built it up into a nice cruiser. Was a fun project for sure, gets lots of compliments when I'm riding around, plus I lost 10lbs so far.

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[Disturbed ACR]

The Mini is an English car. Same same though

Old school yes. 2003+ made by BMW. most things are not too bad.

 

[Canadian_CD9A]

Put the first 100 km on my Neon’s new engine today, mostly doing 90-110-90 km/h cycles on the highway. I’ll dump the oil tomorrow and put another 200 easy km on another jug of conventional, change the oil again, then to 8,000 RPM it goes. Some issues fixed, many remain. Looks good from 10 feet though.

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[Bigbeanbird]

Had some extra cash from some side work, decided I wanted to start getting more active with my son. Picked up a used lowrider bike, and then built it up into a nice cruiser. Was a fun project for sure, gets lots of compliments when I'm riding around, plus I lost 10lbs so far.

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That’s cool man.. I remember those cruising around.. I had a schwinn 5 speed called the Apple crate, springer front end, shocks on the banana seat, drum brakes in the front, disc in the rear.. was neat but WAAAAAYYY too heavy for this kid.. I was into jumping over kids on my schwinn standard sting ray

Put the first 100 km on my Neon’s new engine today, mostly doing 90-110-90 km/h cycles on the highway. I’ll dump the oil tomorrow and put another 200 easy km on another jug of conventional, change the oil again, then to 8,000 RPM it goes. Some issues fixed, many remain. Looks good from 10 feet though.

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My buddy used to tell me I had the best looking car on the side of the road…

 

[pauleyman]

Can't remember what I've shared....but my middle stepson had a wreck a few weeks ago. He's fine...totalled the didge minivan. Hated that van anyway. Well we replaced it with a 1 owner 2015 Ford escape with the 1.6 ecoboost. Now what I wanna know is what ***hole put the oil filter where it is?? Somebody in here owns one or has worked on one. What have I gotten myself into?

 

[Bigbeanbird]

Can't remember what I've shared....but my middle stepson had a wreck a few weeks ago. He's fine...totalled the didge minivan. Hated that van anyway. Well we replaced it with a 1 owner 2015 Ford escape with the 1.6 ecoboost. Now what I wanna know is what ***hole put the oil filter where it is?? Somebody in here owns one or has worked on one. What have I gotten myself into?

, haven’t seen one yet but thanks for the heads up..!!!

 

[Capt Obvious]

My pool remodel is finally coming to an end. All the repair work and prep is done, now I just need to spray 12 gallons of Sherwin Williams Macropoxy and 10 gallons of Sherloxane. Then I need to retile the waterline. I want my summer back.

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[1990TSIAWDTALON]

I'm helping my son restore the AC on his 1987 Honda Accord Hatchback. We couldn't find a proper condenser to save our lives but ONE from Rock Auto came in and actually had the correct size fittings, although it is a newer style, serpentine, condenser so a few minor radiator support parts had to be cut for a proper fit. No harm, no foul. Waiting on 4 dam bolts that hold the compressor to its brackets.
@BLACK'98DSM , do you have any Honda parts or know where we can get those compressor bolts? The PO had used 4 bolts and a prybar to tighten the last belt. , no adjustment for it.

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

Marty, if you can check the thread pitch and let me know, I'm sure I have some. I removed the compressor from my 93 Accord and those bolts may work. I also saved bolts from compressors on 1g and 2g dsms. I'm sure I have something that works in my bolts organizer. Just need to know the pitch and approximate length if you can get it.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Thanks Solomon, I knew you tinkered with Honda's so it didn't hurt to ask. I'll see if Trevor has a pictorial of the bolts. He has a "friend" that was going to send them to him but we've waited almost 2 weeks so IDK if they are ever coming.
Appreciate ya!!!

 

[DreamChaser7]

Can't remember what I've shared....but my middle stepson had a wreck a few weeks ago. He's fine...totalled the didge minivan. Hated that van anyway. Well we replaced it with a 1 owner 2015 Ford escape with the 1.6 ecoboost. Now what I wanna know is what ***hole put the oil filter where it is?? Somebody in here owns one or has worked on one. What have I gotten myself into?

My F150 was stupid too. Cussed Ford engineers every time I did an oil change!

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

You mean Oil and FILTER change

 

[Bigbeanbird]

My pool remodel is finally coming to an end. All the repair work and prep is done, now I just need to spray 12 gallons of Sherwin Williams Macropoxy and 10 gallons of Sherloxane. Then I need to retile the waterline. I want my summer back.

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Very nice, I’m still in the planning stage.. looking for an efficient way to get a hole dug.. looks like red clay and big rocks right now, maybe dynamite..?? Maybe big compressor and air hammers..?? Go find a big gopher to move some soil..??

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Hey, I'd GLADLY ship you my dam GOFERS that are in my yard. I think maybe I should hire Bill Murray....

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

I'll take a Bill Murray as a trade for some compressor bolts. I'll bet there's a ghost that needs busting that keeps losing my 10mm sockets

 

[stealthee]

I worked on (and fixed) my washing machine.

I'm a little "odd" I am very keen to differences in sound. I was sitting here and the washer was running and I was like "That sounds different"

I walked in and sure enough something didn't sound right while it was (trying to) agitate. I basically already knew the problem, because its not the first time this has happened.

Basically there is a shift actuator that goes bad on this about twice a year at random times. To verify for sure it was that, and not an issue with the actual agitator, I tricked the washer into thinking the lid was closed and watched it and sure enough it just wasn't moving right.

Well, being I know this is a thing that goes bad randomly, I always keep a new one on hand. I let the washer finish, emptied it, pulled it out and tilted it backwards, changed the actuator, put it back on its feet, slid it back to the wall, ran it through a calibration mode, then put it in a manual mode to put it to agitate, and fixed.

Took a total of 15 minutes. I already ordered another shift actuator to have on hand. $40.

A lot of other people would have just went and replaced their washer thinking it was bad. I'll spend $80 and 30 minutes a year keeping mine running instead. I've probably changed this thing 15 times now. The washer is every bit of 10 years old.

Even my dryer I have had over 12 years now. I put a heating element in it. A thermostat, and a timer in that time. Sure beats the price of a new one.