What did you do today?

[C.J.]

Truck fixed.
Permanent fix after chasing my tail doing non related fixes for two years.
A huge weight.....

....no, a 500 lb gravity ball was lifted off my shoulders tonight.
This was the problem with my truck not starting last Friday night.
For two years I've had this randomly occuring problem. Erratic tachometer and extreme ignition miss.
Each time I think it's fixed, it reappears. Not one of my "fixes" was directly related to the actual cause.
This is my ECU connection. 🤬
I removed the ECU from my dash to install my heater core, but I never disconnected it. I just leaned it I against the passenger side vent while I spent the week working on the heater core and dashboard stuff.
Look at the dust. The existence of dust where that clip is, shows it was never fully snapped into position.
I've had the truck for over 10 years, so it's ALWAYS been this way, just getting worse and causing issues during the past two years .
My truck has always run weird, shifted weird, idled randomly high and low........
....I've never known what it's supposed to behave like, so I just assumed crappy was normal for these old S10 pickups.
It drops consistently to the same idle now. (Never did before)

The engine temperature is lower.
The automatic shifts, not up and down are cleaner,
There's nothing that isn't better.


This has been a nightmare, two years now and always wondering if the truck will start.
Up until last Friday, my odds were good. Well over 99 percent...........
.....but always on my mind was, what if"
Not no more. It is permanently FIXED.
Now...... I could be pissed, but boy did I learn more about my trucks wiring. I found some things that were going to stop me in my tracks, relatively soon meaning WINTER TIME. Not a time to be working on the truck.....in the rain ....along a dark road.
It's been an expensive few weeks.

All this time and it was a loose clip?? Ain’t that some shit. Glad you got it figured out.

 

[C.J.]

I have one of those gravity balls on my kitchen sink. It pulls the plug from my disposal weekly. Way annoying, but what happens when you install a R/O system under the sink. What's that saying..."10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag?"

Zip tie the cord up and out of the way so the gravity ball doesn’t hook it. Installing the faucet it is only half the job. The other half is testing it and making sure the damn thing functions properly and doesn’t get hung up during normal operation.

The house we’re renting has one of those faucets that wasn’t properly adjusted after installing it. You could only pull the hose out a couple inches. C’mon, man! There’s even a sticker on the hose that says ‘Install weight here’. Took me a couple minutes to get down there and move it. Now it works as it should, minus the fact that the hot and cold are hooked up backwards. I’ll get to that this week. Lucky for me there is space to get in there and work.

 

[havasu]

Truck fixed.
Permanent fix after chasing my tail doing non related fixes for two years.
A huge weight.....

....no, a 500 lb gravity ball was lifted off my shoulders tonight.
This was the problem with my truck not starting last Friday night.
For two years I've had this randomly occuring problem. Erratic tachometer and extreme ignition miss.
Each time I think it's fixed, it reappears. Not one of my "fixes" was directly related to the actual cause.
This is my ECU connection. 🤬
I removed the ECU from my dash to install my heater core, but I never disconnected it. I just leaned it I against the passenger side vent while I spent the week working on the heater core and dashboard stuff.
Look at the dust. The existence of dust where that clip is, shows it was never fully snapped into position.
I've had the truck for over 10 years, so it's ALWAYS been this way, just getting worse and causing issues during the past two years .
My truck has always run weird, shifted weird, idled randomly high and low........
....I've never known what it's supposed to behave like, so I just assumed crappy was normal for these old S10 pickups.
It drops consistently to the same idle now. (Never did before)

The engine temperature is lower.
The automatic shifts, not up and down are cleaner,
There's nothing that isn't better.


This has been a nightmare, two years now and always wondering if the truck will start.
Up until last Friday, my odds were good. Well over 99 percent...........
.....but always on my mind was, what if"
Not no more. It is permanently FIXED.
Now...... I could be pissed, but boy did I learn more about my trucks wiring. I found some things that were going to stop me in my tracks, relatively soon meaning WINTER TIME. Not a time to be working on the truck.....in the rain ....along a dark road.
It's been an expensive few weeks.

That is such a good feeling, isn't it?

 

[highup]

All this time and it was a loose clip?? Ain’t that some shit. Glad you got it figured out.

Taking it out for another cruise.
I still need to make a hanger for the inlet/outlet tubes on my heater core. That's where I was headed on Friday when the truck kicked the bucket. Needed some aluminum plates to carve into the right dimensions. Then I'll have heat in the cab instead of fogged up windows. I'm gaining big-time.

 

[highup]

That is such a good feeling, isn't it?

You know what's even better?
Discovering that the computer connection wasn't the problem, then finding the real cause.
When my truck died, a week ago, I was heading to the industrial supply place to buy a small sheet of aluminum to fabricate a perch, or hanger for the inlet and outlet tubes of my new heater core.
After thinking I finally found and fixed the culprit, that computer cable, I reinstalled the computer up under the dash.
NOW, it was time to head back over and get that aluminum.
I drove over there, six miles away and found a perfect scrap.. 3" X 30"..... $2. Perfect thickness and no cutting charge. 👍 It was 4:58, closing time. As they closed the big shop door, I started my truck...... And it began stumbling again. 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
It kept running as long as my foot was 1/2 way to the floor.
It died again in town 2 1/2 miles from home.
I folded the carpet back from the firewall, removed the computer from its position up in the dash and laid it on the floor.
The truck restarted and ran beautifully.
Once home, engine idling, I started gently tugging on each individual wire at the plug connection looking for the loose one. Nothing changed at all. I wiggled wires up under the dash... Nothing.
I folded the carpet back against the firewall and the engine immediately started missing, so I folded it back onto the floor.
I grabbed the wire bundle and held it steady, then twisted the computer left, right, up down..... The engine never missed a beat. 🤔
Ok, once again, I folded the carpet back into place against the firewall and the missing instantly reappeared. 🤔
There is a big, fat grommet where this bundle of 25 or 30 wires from the computer pass through the firewall. The hole in the metal firewall over time, had worn all the way through the grommet and was grounding a wire. 😳 That was my problem.
With the computer on the floor, there was no tension on the grommet and no shorting.
The wire bundle and grommet moved slightly as the computer was pushed up under the dash, so only with the computer in place did this short happen.
So yes, the plug not being connected may have contributed to the transmission shifts and idle speed never being consistent, but the misfires ant erratic tachometer was because of this short.
This grommet, on the lower side has become soft and sticky, almost like roofing sealant. The top half is still solid. I want to wipe off the goo and determine if the wire is good enough to be left alone, then devise a way to build up with some heater hose, or other stuff to shield and protect the wire. I'm hoping it's only a bared wire, not worn 1/2 way through.
Yes, its been a long way there, a long way....

 

[MSLI]

Hey Everybody Yeah ! It’s a long long way for Randy to get to where he’s going and you gotta keep on trying, keep on trying Yeah e Yeah 😜…. I love that band and that song may be my favorite 🤩

Thanks for sharing that repair story man, you have terrific observation talent and tenacity and I’m so glad the long long way just got shorter.

 

[MSLI]

Hey guys and gals, all these years on flooring forums and I never placed a Tag on any posts except for today, in the
‘ Carpet Topic ‘ …. Who feels like sharing their knowledge on the subject of creating a good tag. Thx !

 

[C.J.]

Been doin countertops the past couple days, nothing but fun. Set the top yesterday so today I can route the sink. It’s always a messy task with all those light, fluffy, static clingy bits of countertop chaff that comes flying off the router. I decided to hook up my dust collector to the sink drain. Now that thing sucks some air. I coupled that with a piece of wood to cover the majority of the sink so as to increase the suction around the router as I trimmed the sink. It wasn’t 100% but I’d say it was a thousand times better than without it. I’ll definitely be doing that again. I’ll have to fab up an adapter for a 4” hose connector to a sink drain.

I’ve started using an air palm sander to sand my tops. What a difference that makes. There’s no going back now. The downside is it has no dust collection. I can see I’m going to have to make a downdraft sanding table cus the air sander is here to stay.

Don’t worry about the stove, that’s a used one the customer picked up. He’s thinking a towel hung over the handle will hide that😁

 

[highup]

Hey Everybody Yeah ! It’s a long long way for Randy to get to where he’s going and you gotta keep on trying, keep on trying Yeah e Yeah 😜…. I love that band and that song may be my favorite 🤩

Thanks for sharing that repair story man, you have terrific observation talent and tenacity and I’m so glad the long long way just got shorter.

Thank you. I hate losing. When something isn't working, my mind goes into overdrive. I need to know stuff. I need to understand how things function. I always have since my earliest memory.
Computers, fuel injection and "sensors" scare the daylights out of me.
I grew up knowing points, condensers, carburetors, brakes, and wheel bearings.... the old school stuff, the basic nuts and bolts that make cars function.
I knew the basics relatively well.
The experiences I've gone through on "newer", meaning 1988 technology 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Has humbled me as of late.
Plugs, wires, starters, wheel bearings.... Same -o, same-o.

Electrons are different.

As frustrated as I've been over the last year and a half, dealing with, then thinking I had conquered this issue time after time........... then having it come back and bite my ass.....
I can't begin to convey the frustration..... It's over the top.
Worst part I suppose, is the truck is OBDI, a rather archaic system to get engine codes from. I'm these first generation of vehicles with computers, problems in the engine were recorded. To retrieve the code number for the problem, you did a DSP h and dance, then waited for the check engine light to blink you some diagnosis in Morse code. Ok for a few things, but there is a very limited number of things it can tell you.
OBD2 computers reported a tremendous amount of information to better diagnose a problem.
It might tell you that the #4 spark plug misfired 1689 times ina period of time. OBD1 didn't even know it misfired once.
Anyway, I never got a code for my issue, so it was pretty much search and destroy.... all on me.
in the end.... It's fixed now.

The computer plug being not fully engaged, probably caused idle and throttle issues, shifting and issues with my ignition timing, causing the engine to run on the hot side all the time.... Like the radiator was too small.
This misfire tho.... Definately because of a shorted wire to the firewall.
The large, thick grommet that protected 30 or so wires in a bundle going through the firewall had worn and deteriorated over the past 36 years.... I'm not kidding! ...no joke! 😁
It had softened on the lower side, skid down a little year after year into the protective grommet wore barely through and allowed a wire to ground it ..........occasionally. "occasionally" was the monkey on my back.
Here was my permanent fix today.
I shaped a semicircular piece of aluminum plate to fit a groove in the grommet. The interior portion was fine.
The engine misfired when the grommet was too low and bottomed out on the actual wire harness.
The cure?
Slide it back up into position and make it stay where it's supposed to be. Here's the position it's been in for years now. You can see through the gap into the engine compartment. The close up is where it's supposed to be located.

 

[highup]

Here's my fix. A bracket to hold it in the upper position. Just a piece of aluminum plate, a couple of sheet metal screws and a 6" piece of fuel line as a spacer and gasket to align my plate parallel with the groove in the grommet and the firewall.

I'm givin' myself a gold star on this one. Turned out sweet. A couple hours involved making it, including a trip to the hardware store.
I'm done.
I'm finished.
I quit!!!
.........and I centered the steering wheel afterwards.

 

[highup]

Dashboard is even happy now.

 

[highup]

Pardon my French, but WTF 😳

 

[highup]

15 minutes before my electrical nightmare last week, I was heading to the steel supply place to get a scrap of sheet aluminum to fabricate a new hanger to support the inlet and outlet tubes on my new heater core.
The factory support didn't come close to fitting the new tube locations. Many patterns later, I came up with this.
You can't just have metal to metal contact, so I was thinking heater hose as a grommett material to insulate the bracket from the core tubes..... Then I wa these pipe lugs.
......inside diameters was perfect?
The outside diameter snapped into my bracket perfectly. The inside diameter of these plastic plugs fit perfectly to the outside diameter of the plugs.
I googled the plug manufacturer and there are rated 175f maximum.
......I'm redefining "perfectly"

I'm getting there. I want heat this winter. Last year was MISERABLE.