What Did You Do In The Garage Today?

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Replaced the 5yr old anode in my Rheem 9yr warranty gas water heater, 27mm impact socket fits perfectly with air impact tire gun. No torquing the water heater or pipes.

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Wired in a recessed male to feed power into a dedicated duplex receptacle when power is out and I run the small 2KW Generac Inverter generator.

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Both of our vehicles (‘03 Ram & ‘05 Pilot) have really cruddy headlights. Decided instead of trying to polish them I’d just replace the assemblies.

Had them for a month or so and decided today was the day to swap hers out. Each headlight is held on at four points. Wouldn’t you know it, three can be reached simply by popping the hood. The fourth, as my luck would have it, requires removed the front end.

Here’s a random collection of pics...

View attachment 177494 View attachment 177495 View attachment 177496 View attachment 177497


Probably attempt mine Mon or Tue next week.
So...on 12/24/19 I said I’d probably attempt mine the following Mon or Tue. Well, Saturday June 20th was the day. :oops:

These were much easier. Three 10mm bolts on each side, plus a plastic screw. Just had to pop the hood, not remove anything else.

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Wasted 10+ minutes because I didn’t notice they’d supplied a new female piece that fits into a hole in the frame. It came already attached to the male piece on the assembly. So I couldn’t figure out why the headlight wouldn’t go all the way in. Gave up on one side and attempted the other, only to find the same issue. Then I looked closer and fixed the problem. :mad:
 
Took the top off and went for country cruise.
 
New fan clutch really improved the a/c performance. No more delay in cold air, its cold as soon as you turn the a/c on now.

Now i want to see towing temps, that was the real reason for the upgrade, 210 coolant and 220 oil temps and barely a peep out of the old fan.
 
Weekend before last, I changed the oil/filter. Then pulled the carpet out of the car, hosed it down, and scrubbed it with a brush and some Dawn dishsoap, twice.

And then the weather rained for a week.

Because why wouldn't it?

Carpet sat in a buddy's garage with a fan blowing across it for two days to help dry the nap out a lot.

Put it back in during a light drizzle. Then baked the bejeebers out of the car every day the sun even hinted at being out.

Found about $300 in change during this, re-routed the wires for my power inverter I put in the car so they're not visible any more. And found a plastic cover under the carpet which snaps into place over one of the seat brackets. No idea how it got where it was. Found a missing drill bit and a couple odd screws.

Odometer is about 6,000 miles away from reading "2BOOBS" (280085), at which point I hope to heck I don't forget to take a picture of it, just to see my wife's eye's roll!
 
Replaced the 5yr old anode in my Rheem 9yr warranty gas water heater, 27mm impact socket fits perfectly with air impact tire gun. No torquing the water heater or pipes.

View attachment 223579

Wired in a recessed male to feed power into a dedicated duplex receptacle when power is out and I run the small 2KW Generac Inverter generator.

View attachment 223580


Is that normal to replace them that often?
 
Performed cataract surgery on my '99 Taurus Wagon. Installed new TYC headlights from Rock Auto. They come with new halogen bulbs installed.
Going to clean the turn signal lens tomorrow.

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Performed cataract surgery on my '99 Taurus Wagon. Installed new TYP headlights from Rock Auto. They come with new halogen bulbs installed.
Going to clean the turn signal lens tomorrow.

View attachment 225735

I've been wanting to do this with my car, ever since the accident a few years ago where the passenger side light was replaced with a new one, making my car look lopsided with one cloudy light on one side.
 
Does a junkyard trip count?

I decided to got to 109 this morning in search of a steering wheel for the MR2.
I had them look up early 00s corollas (they had none), toyota Matrix, and celicas.
They had two Matrix
Both wheels were the rubber coating and completely screwed up/not worth buying.

But then I found a Pontiac Vibe, which is the same as the Matrix...and realized i forgot a T30 torx bit.
30 minutes later (15 each way home) Im back at the Pontiac to remove the wheel. Holy crap, I dont know what I was thinking, as it looks slightly better than the others. Dangit.

MOre walking around and I found a mid90s corolla that had a better looking wheel than I was hoping to find, theyre called the red-stitch betcause, well, the leather cover has red stitching.
Yanked the airbag.
Then I found another in a random camry.
Ended up with two wheels and one airbag. Ill try to flip the second wheel for a small profit to offset my wheel cost

Overall I spent 85, I think I can sell the spare wheel for about 65ish. So that'd be nice.
 
Oh, got some little switch blank inserts and ones that hold coins, I will see if they fit.
And I found about 3 bucks in quarters and dimes. and (2) 38 special cartridges (the gun, not the band lol)
 
I'm working on some parts for some thangs when I get free time. Here's the indicator setup that I'm using until I get a DRO installed. Mitutoyo indicators, mag bases, and a 1-2-3 block with magnet bars. Other than the magnets catching a butt load of swarf it's been working out fine.
TOfMR8M.jpg

CHRIS
 
My garage project this weekend was wrapping up trailer hitch installations on a new (to me) farm truck.

A couple of months ago I purchased a Class 7 tractor to use for my farm. It's an '06 Sterling with a Detroit Series 60 12.7 liter engine (455 hp / 1440 ft. lbs of torque) and was bought new by Conway Transportation.

My long term plan is to build a steel flat bed for it with several tool boxes, but before I get to that point I need to be able to use it for towing various farm trailers.

Recently I fabricated and installed a gooseneck hitch for it, and also a Reese type receiver hitch on the back.

Knowing that it was not a good idea to weld directly to a modern truck frame, the gooseneck hitch was designed to be a bolt in. I started with a generic kit from B&W Turnover Ball hitches, and went from there. The B&W kit consisted of a 1/2" steel top plate with a ball socket welded into it. The bottom side of the plate had four 1/2" gussets welded to it.

My plan was to weld this 1/2" plate to a 1" x 8" steel plate that I had laying around in the scrap pile. The 1" plate had been a support plate on a large forklift mast, and had a bend in it on each side. First thing was to cut the plate to length and remove the bends, drill each end of the plate for 5/8" mounting bolts and torch a hole in the middle for the ball socket.

We also had to remove the 1/2" gussets from the ball socket, and replaced them with some angle iron gussets - effectively doubling the support. Here is the plate after drilling mounting holes and oxy-propane cutting the hole for the ball socket. Also shown is the B&W plate/socket with the gussets removed.


Before weldingC.jpg


Next up was to weld the 1/2" plate to the 1" plate and install the new angle iron gussets. All of the welding processes utilized Lincoln Ultracore 71c dual shield wire in .045 with pure CO2 gas.

Clamped for tacking

Clamped for tackingC.jpg



First pass

First pass on top plateC.jpg

Second and third passes.

Top plate triple pass weld 2C.jpg

Next up was to install the new gussets to the receiver socket and 1" plate.


Bottom gussets weldedC.jpg

My design is based upon bolting 1/2" thick x 6" angle iron to the frame rails, and then the 1" plate with the gooseneck receiver bolts to the angle. I removed three of the factory bolts that hold the 5th wheel and shock mounts to the frame, and replaced them with grade 8 bolts and steel locknuts. I had to drill an additional mounting hole through the frame for the angle irons so that I would have four bolts holding it on each side. Note - the bolts in the photo were for mock up. Final bolts were longer and had lock nuts installed.


Side mounting plate C.jpg

Here is the finished product.

Completed hitch with trailer attachedC.jpg



And the truck with one of the farm trailers attached.


Virginia TripC.jpg

As part of the process I had to relocate the control valve for the air suspension. The new position required a significantly shorter connecting rod, so rather than make it fixed I opted to machine a turnbuckle so that I could adjust the suspension height.


Machining turnbuckleC.jpg


Drilling the frame for the relocated suspension control valve bracket, and additional hole for the hitch bracket was not exactly a fun thing to do, but went faster than I expected.

turnbuckle installedC.jpg

Once the truck was back in service I removed the rear cross member and fabricated a Reese style insert hitch for it, also using the 1/2" x 6" angle for mounting brackets.


The trailer pulls well, and I am not worried about the hitch coming apart. Next up in terms of major projects is to have the clutch replaced in the truck and an engine problem diagnosed. It goes in to Piedmont Truck Center in Greensboro tomorrow night for troubleshooting and repair. Once I get it back I'll start moving forward with the flat bed project.
 
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Does a junkyard trip count?

I decided to got to 109 this morning in search of a steering wheel for the MR2.
I had them look up early 00s corollas (they had none), toyota Matrix, and celicas.
They had two Matrix
Both wheels were the rubber coating and completely screwed up/not worth buying.

But then I found a Pontiac Vibe, which is the same as the Matrix...and realized i forgot a T30 torx bit.
30 minutes later (15 each way home) Im back at the Pontiac to remove the wheel. Holy crap, I dont know what I was thinking, as it looks slightly better than the others. Dangit.

MOre walking around and I found a mid90s corolla that had a better looking wheel than I was hoping to find, theyre called the red-stitch betcause, well, the leather cover has red stitching.
Yanked the airbag.
Then I found another in a random camry.
Ended up with two wheels and one airbag. Ill try to flip the second wheel for a small profit to offset my wheel cost

Overall I spent 85, I think I can sell the spare wheel for about 65ish. So that'd be nice.

So that worked out for me.
 
Bought a 18v ryobi tire inflator, didnt do it "in" the garage, but it's car related
 
Been searching on-line for an a/c compressor clutch kit for my Nissan Murano.
It's only natural that your a/c components are gonna fail just as the summer is set to begin.
Doh!!!!
 
Tried to put the bar and chain on a refurbished ryobi chainsaw. that chain brake though...
Couldn't get the cover back on because the metal strap that locks the pulley is too tight, and the spring that holds it all together is WAY too strong. I don't want to cut off a few coils, but...
 
It's 4am and Im giddy about going to the junkyard.
There's one in WS that opens at 9, I'll likely be the first in the door. And then, likely, driving to Greensboro after that.
Ive found a niche market and hoping to get more stuff to sell.

Now to sort out some boxes to put everything in!
 
I likes me some Rock Auto.

I had to replace the A/C blower on my car a few weeks ago. A new one runs about $150 or more at the parts store. Comes with the blower and the plastic mounting bracket for my car. I only need the blower. Rock auto had the blower as low as $29.

The only difference is I need to remove three extra screws to replace the blower in the plastic bracket. Time to swap out? 15 minutes, start to finish.

The $120 I didn't spend went to my pocket as a reward!
 
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