OT: Fixing things yourself

[Kevin G.]

Good stuff here...
I have a similar story, (always finding a way to keep what I have going...salvaging good parts out of old stuff, etc...) It seems that Nobody really bothers to help themselves understand anything any more..."It just works" mentality.



"Can you make it GO?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeFoG...eature=related


(reminds me of today's society)

...

[michiganpat]

I'm a mechanical engineer by trade, so mechanical stuff I'm willing to dive right in. I do pretty much all our home maintainence and car maintainence/buggering...I've built a couple cars. that said, when our garage door spring broke, and we decided to just replace the whole 18 year old garage door (rollers and hinges were going out, panels had stress cracks, etc), I contracted it out. I didn't have the time to do it, or the desire with disposing of a 16' steel garage door.

...I'm somewhat nervous digging into electrons, but have done some electronic repair. crossover stuff doesn't scare me, you can be a very ham-fisted solderer and still get good results. simple stuff like bulb replacement on a couple vintage Marantz 22xx receivers, contact/control cleaning on them, replacing the battery and hard drive on my 4th gen Ipod, etc. Our TV recently started having issues, and after investigating on the internet, I'm pretty sure the flyback transformer is going bad. it's a 32" RCA CRT and is 12 years old. we bought a 40" LCD flat panel to replace it, but I think I'm going to attempt to repair it, because 1) I have yet to see a flat panel (Plasma, LCD, LED, etc) that has a nicer picture than this CRT to me, and 2) I want to see if I can do it.....wish me luck, and I hope I don't electrocute myself

[michiganpat]

Sounds like a bearing or u joint possibly.

.

noise while turning, I'd be looking at the CV joints in the half shaft

[Ron_E]

Replacing a headlight bulb in a 04 Corolla could be a daunting task if you listen to this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe3xFXx4gWM

However, I simply went ahead and removed the old bulb and put in the new one all in less than 5 minutes.

If you follow on-line instructions you would have to remove the battery or even remove the front bumper cover

One of my young Sudanese refugee friends likes to work on cars. He often comes over to borrow tools since he's a high school kid who doesn't have any. Only after he had removed the front bumper and the entire headlight assembly did he ask for help replacing the bulb. I struggled to get the old bulb out and there just seemed to be no way to install the new one. There was a rubber gasket surrounding the socket and the bulb holder just didn't fit with the rubber surround interfering with the side of the housing. In the end I figured out that before he removed the headlight assembly he'd screwed the aiming adjustment screws all the way to the end of their travel and that shifted the bulb holder so there was the clearance problem. It would have been a 2 minute job from inside the engine compartment had he asked first.

Ron

[richjura]

noise while turning, I'd be looking at the CV joints in the half shaft

Wouldn't matter to me, once apart it would be wheel bearings and a half-shaft, maybe even sway bar links and bushings. Hate taking things apart twice, especially if the dealer took it apart the first time. That's just me though.

Rich

[tobis]

I just want to put in a good word for Milwaukee.
As I was taking apart my electric screwdriver I could feel the effort that was put in to designing for maintainability.
It made me like them.

On the other hand, when I try to work on my truck, it's like I can feel the contempt Dodge had for me when they made some of the design choices.

[monoiz15]

Well whenever something goes wrong with my car, I do the best I can to fix it myself just because that's usually ALWAYS better than taking it somewhere. I've changed an upper radiator hose, a power window regulator, and the header panel on my '99 Grand Am (RIP). I like the opportunity to learn something, its fun! America has become a nation where people can pay for everything they need, and only actually apply their natural abilities if they have been able to find a way to make money off it. I don't want to live like that.

The other thing that comes to mind is that when I was 17 I had this friend who was homeless who lived at a non-profit computer refurbishing place to be donated to low-income families around the area because it was really just a house and he did most of the work. The rest of the organization were some senior volunteers who were taking Pentium IIs and individually installing Windows 98 on them. This was about 2008. My friend and I kept all the working parts organized and threw them together, had a master machine and cloned the hard drives by making the computers have *** basically (the dells used by schools and businesses, GX270s mainly that fold open like a bun. Just reach the second hard driver cable over and you don't even have to take anything out. As a team we would put out 70-80 in about two hours.

We were also the only people in the world authorized to take computer scraps from the local dump (very wealthy area), they have a swat team there and if you got caught unauthorized its a $10,000 fine. So we put together some stuff on the side to start making some money. We did pretty well for a good while, but none of the money was saved. Then it all fell apart because our friend from the dump who was helping us out a little ended up demanding a cut and coming onto me (40 year old metalhead) and my friends girlfriend went crazy and we were using her paypal. She basically robbed us and cut up $1000 worth of electronics (which we spent the next week splicing power supplies and replacing cables ). And then the place relocated and everything changed, but we had a goood run there. I love fixing things myself. I also hate the idea of someone else fixing something of mine without me knowing how they are doing it.

[sonex]

I'm a pipefitter welder by trade and constantly being sent to fix industrial equipment that I have never seen before and almost always find a way to repair the equipment. Our consumer goods for the non professional users are so disposable many times its not worth fixing. The old stuff from the early 80's and back were built to be serviced, I have just finished recapping a 1978 onkyo tx-2500mk2 receiver and it was a piece of cake. I opened up my 2011 denon receiver to just blow out the dust and I would never be able to repair anything the memory chips,dacs,and other components would make it to difficult to diagnose any issues. There is far to much stuff nowadays that is designed around computers and software to make them non-consumer serviceable.

[weinstro]

Due to many disappointments with hired professional help, I generally only hire the pros for "interesting" problems, or when the investment in required tools is an effective barrier. Interesting in this case meaning that I can't figure what's going on.

Examples of things I've fixed vs hired:
- Computer repair, including laptop (DIY)
- Timing chain replacement on FWD (DIY)
- stereo equipment repair (DIY)
- bad LAN wiring in house (DIY)
- loose neutral wiring causing mysterious partial power losses (DIY)
- washing machine bearing repair (DIY)
- chimney sweeping (hired help)
- bird barriers on roof (hired help)
- fuel injector balancing (hired help)
- car not starting, attributed to bad injector job above (hired help)

Regards,

Rob

[Kanata_diy'er]

Interesting thoughts and experiences discussed in this thread. I recently read an interesting book on this very topic which some of you may find interesting. The title is "Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work", written by Matthew Crawford. It's an excellent, slightly philosophical discussion of the demise of practical, hands-on skills in our society. (As a Canadian, I'd like to say we're doing better at the self-suffiency thing than other nations, but sadly, we're not.)

SteveH

[Paul Carmody]

Interesting thoughts and experiences discussed in this thread. I recently read an interesting book on this very topic which some of you may find interesting. The title is "Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work", written by Matthew Crawford. It's an excellent, slightly philosophical discussion of the demise of practical, hands-on skills in our society. (As a Canadian, I'd like to say we're doing better at the self-suffiency thing than other nations, but sadly, we're not.)

SteveH

Sounds interesting. I've been having a lot of thoughts on this over the last few days, working on projects in the garage and around the house. Lately, when I'm confronted with a choice of ways of doing things (say, use a router vs. a chisel), I have chosen the slower, more manual-labor one, simply because it makes me feel like I'm more a part of what I'm doing. And by making that choice to--for lack of a better phrase--"take the long road," I know it's so at odds with our industrial society, always looking for ways to shave cost and time from a process.

[donc]

my wife thinks i can fix any and everything, so when someting breaks i turn to google,
1) rusted &leaking pipes in the attic-it's like plumbing goes in first and then they build the house around it ,you can not just take out the bad section and replace with new ,you have to cut out the bad section ,piece together new pieces of different lenghts that will come up to required lenght minus the thickness of a union that must be used in the center of your new section to bring it all together
2)sheetrock replacement=due to water damage caused by pipes in attick , went to hd's website to learn how to do this ,i learned on my own that you can not put in a fullsheet (overhead ofcourse ) by yourself
3)starter rebuild on firebird=contacts,brushes,bushings,brake cleaner and a selenoid (?) ,came up to 20 bucks or so , counter man (notice i did not say parts man ) asked " why don't you just buy a rebuilt starter ?", i told him" i will swap you my bag of goodies for a rebuilt starter?", he said he could not do that ,point made
4)diswasher would not flushout dirty water= googled and replaced a cheap part on the back and bottom of pump
5)food disposal=replaced unit ,did not knock out plug for dishwasher ??????
6)bulb on toshiba dlp TV=googled how to and where to buy bulb ,it's amazing the price differences on bulbs, mine was new and sealed in toshiba bow ,got 5 more years out of tv
7)icemaker noise in fridge=googled,ice build up on fan, fan itting tip of ice,dis-assemble ,break out ice,re=assemble
8)washing machine agitator
9)dryer=two different repairs=heating element and some sensor
10) A/C ducting =replaced leaking/collapsed/noninsulated wrong size
i'm sure there are more but these are recent and things that i had no idea how to do and involved researching and just jumping in there and DIY !
donc

[Dabspok]

I just want to put in a good word for Milwaukee.
As I was taking apart my electric screwdriver I could feel the effort that was put in to designing for maintainability.
It made me like them.

On the other hand, when I try to work on my truck, it's like I can feel the contempt Dodge had for me when they made some of the design choices.

Having helped my brother replace the dash cap in his 2000 dodge 1500...I feel your pain. I was a mechanic in the late 80's and have seen many cars get worse and worse to work on.

[ROTECH]

my wife thinks i can fix any and everything, so when someting breaks i turn to google,
1) rusted &leaking pipes in the attic-it's like plumbing goes in first and then they build the house around it ,you can not just take out the bad section and replace with new ,you have to cut out the bad section ,piece together new pieces of different lenghts that will come up to required lenght minus the thickness of a union that must be used in the center of your new section to bring it all together
2)sheetrock replacement=due to water damage caused by pipes in attick , went to hd's website to learn how to do this ,i learned on my own that you can not put in a fullsheet (overhead ofcourse ) by yourself
3)starter rebuild on firebird=contacts,brushes,bushings,brake cleaner and a selenoid (?) ,came up to 20 bucks or so , counter man (notice i did not say parts man ) asked " why don't you just buy a rebuilt starter ?", i told him" i will swap you my bag of goodies for a rebuilt starter?", he said he could not do that ,point made
4)diswasher would not flushout dirty water= googled and replaced a cheap part on the back and bottom of pump
5)food disposal=replaced unit ,did not knock out plug for dishwasher ??????
6)bulb on toshiba dlp TV=googled how to and where to buy bulb ,it's amazing the price differences on bulbs, mine was new and sealed in toshiba bow ,got 5 more years out of tv
7)icemaker noise in fridge=googled,ice build up on fan, fan itting tip of ice,dis-assemble ,break out ice,re=assemble
8)washing machine agitator
9)dryer=two different repairs=heating element and some sensor
10) A/C ducting =replaced leaking/collapsed/noninsulated wrong size
i'm sure there are more but these are recent and things that i had no idea how to do and involved researching and just jumping in there and DIY !
donc

Don,
Great post. Makes me feel lazy. But I also see that you have been bit by the Toshiba DLP bulb burnout huh?!?!? I loved my 46'' Tosh DLP. Still maintain that it had the best picture I have ever seen below $5000. Darn thing should have, it was $2400 in 2005. Like I said, I LOVED that TV. Now it needs its 3rd $229 bulb and I decided I couldnt justify it again. The TV now sits in the storage room, waiting until I find the bulb for like $50 or so.

[weinstro]

noise while turning, I'd be looking at the CV joints in the half shaft

Just replace the entire half shaft with a rebuilt one or a NOS from eBay

[awwnuts]

Your Subie has a bad wheel bearing. Super common problem. Applying the brakes increases the combination thrust/radial load on the (tapered) bearing and pulls the steering wheel. It's a similar effect to driving into a pothole which will turn the wheel.

[awwnuts]

I fix everything whether I have done it before or not. I've only recently relented on car repairs as my time is much more valuable now than before. As such, even writing this post cost me 38 cents.

[lucasa.miller]

I've actually fixed an Xbox with a RROD that was given to me. It was a launch Xbox. I bought a new Lan Li case for the Xbox and installed the RROD Xbox in there. The problem is that one of the Xbox fans was clogged with dust and stopped spinning. After I installed it in the Lan Li case, I hit it with a heat gun and it must have remelted some solder and now it works great. The Lan Li case also has a 120mm fan vs. the launch Xbox's dual tiny fans, they were maybe 50mm?

My biggest fix was my $1500 Samsung TV. It stopped working and I opened it up. 2 of the capacitors were blown, tops open, leaking fluid. I went to Radio Shack and for $3 in parts it was working great, still has been for over a year.

I have a car from 1992 that is still alive due to the internet. If I have a problem with it, I just Google it and usually someone else had the same problem and the fix.