Somebody has to do it, and nobody else volunteers: the fixing saga

JLarson · Sep 16, 2021

Yeah they're just odd lol. I've taken roll scotchbrite and a flat file to a few and put bearings and seals from the local bearing house in em before with a good ol manual grease packing and off they went.

skyking1 · Sep 16, 2021

this trailer is getting the same treatment that both of my equipment trailers got. new skins repair the brakes a new pigtail seven wire a new breakaway switch. everything put in a junction box and tested for functionality.

skyking1 · Sep 17, 2021

one side done, tested and down on the new rubber. Just for kicks I tested the other side. One worked!
The other I fear the magnet is toast. I dropped off the tires for pickup Monday.

skyking1 · Nov 17, 2021

The alternator started singing on the Ford, No More Juice For You!
I had changed it out a year ago. Hmm. I get in there and find the Rube Goldberg adjuster had dis-assembled itself. It has a rod coupler in it, I don't know if it is standard that way but the jam nuts had worked loose. I re-cobbled it till I get better parts.

skyking1 · Nov 19, 2021

I remembered a thing from years ago. I was accompanying wife to a quilt show, and these guys were jump starting a '64 Ford with a Cherokee, unsuccessfully.
I told her I would be right in, and she just nodded. She knew who she was married to by now.
I walked over and they said we are charging the Ford battery back up for another go. I nodded, and offered to look at it. I had a rubber handled Kershaw pocket knife in my pocket.
I pulled a plug wire, stuck the knife blade in it and held it near a good ground. "crank it over" I said. No spark.
It was a 352 with the convenient front distributor. I used the Kershaw in my hand to flip the clips off the cap, pulled the cap. " crank it over"
Rotor spun, so that helps.
I pulled the rotor and looked down in there, and lo and behold, somebody had dropped a screw when changing out a condenser. It had grounded the plate.
Using the same kershaw knife, I fiddled the screw out of there up the inside of the distributor, over the edge and into the palm of my hand. I put the rotor back, the cap back, and said "start it".
It roared to life. I said "stick out your hand" dropped the screw in it, and just walked away. Elapsed time maybe 2 minutes.

skyking1 · Nov 25, 2021

skyking1 said:
Today I fired up the hyster forklift to set up my bucket for some big torch and hammer partying.
As I spotted it on top of the other bucket, I noticed that it really sounded like ass warmed over. Lots of bad rattling sounds coming from under my seat as it were.
The parts guy concurred that it was a bad sound. I grabbed a piece of pipe for a stethoscope but it was hardly needed. The bearings were out on the alternator. Once I took the belt off it was all rattly and bad.
It is a 4 banger chev like a Cavalier engine. It started coming out OK then the stud spun and the wire was way too tight to fight. I lopped it off and went to a real parts house, a auto parts with a machine shop and guys who know what they are doing.
The young guy looked up 1989 Cavalier at my suggestion but the picture was not quite right. The older fella holds it up and says "1991 pickup truck".
Bingo!
I got some #8 wire and connectors to extend it to a sane place to bolt on the wire, as it is tucked under the intake when installed.
That took all the fight out of it. I got it back together and tested good to go.

This was so much fun I got to do it again

The guys said it was making a horrible racket, and one of the guys was checking the pulley with a finger and ended up with the thread pattern burned on his fingertip for his troubles.
I took a look and no nut. The pulley was freewheeling on the alternator shaft and got really hot and all hogged out. The parts store said no problem, don't worry about the receipt and handed me another.

Willie B · Nov 25, 2021

ianjoub said:
I very purposefully do not return my shopping carts. I shop at Publix here in FL. They are more expensive than Walmart or Winn Dixie. I knowingly pay more money for the friendly faces and clean store. I leave my cart in the parking lot because it creates work for low paying positions that young people (high school kids) and old folks (should be retired but need income) can fill.

Yeah........I'm not buying that one. You're rationalizing.

ianjoub · Nov 25, 2021

Willie B said:
Yeah........I'm not buying that one. You're rationalizing.

:shrug: It is the reason I do what I do. One may or may not agree with my motive.

skyking1 · Nov 25, 2021

I don't fix shopping carts, I just steal another when a wheel seizes up. /s

JLarson · Nov 26, 2021

Nobody can do a decent alternator anymore, I put 3 on a yard forklift for one of our readymix places before we got a runner lol.

Truck Shop · Nov 27, 2021

skyking1 said:
I don't fix shopping carts, I just steal another when a wheel seizes up. /s

If a cart is having a issue-when I get to the checkout stand I mention to the cashier that it's pulling
hard to the right, they need to push it across the street to Les Schwab for a 4 wheel alignment.

Truck Shop · Nov 27, 2021

skyking1 said:
I remembered a thing from years ago. I was accompanying wife to a quilt show, and these guys were jump starting a '64 Ford with a Cherokee, unsuccessfully.
I told her I would be right in, and she just nodded. She knew who she was married to by now.
I walked over and they said we are charging the Ford battery back up for another go. I nodded, and offered to look at it. I had a rubber handled Kershaw pocket knife in my pocket.
I pulled a plug wire, stuck the knife blade in it and held it near a good ground. "crank it over" I said. No spark.
It was a 352 with the convenient front distributor. I used the Kershaw in my hand to flip the clips off the cap, pulled the cap. " crank it over"
Rotor spun, so that helps.
I pulled the rotor and looked down in there, and lo and behold, somebody had dropped a screw when changing out a condenser. It had grounded the plate.
Using the same kershaw knife, I fiddled the screw out of there up the inside of the distributor, over the edge and into the palm of my hand. I put the rotor back, the cap back, and said "start it".
It roared to life. I said "stick out your hand" dropped the screw in it, and just walked away. Elapsed time maybe 2 minutes.

A Dodge 360 that didn't run smooth and low on power that had just had a tune-up and back to same shop
three times, belonged to neighbor. I threw a timing light on it {my that's interesting}. The locking tang inside
rotor was off by roughly 20 degrees. Napa Echlin.

skyking1 · Nov 27, 2021

I still have my snap on timing light from the 70's in a toolbox drawer, but the dwell meter went missing a few decades ago and was not replaced nor missed.

skyking1 · Dec 7, 2021

remember that fargin hyster forklift I just put an alternator in? oh yeah I should have looked around in there a little more closely.
the bastige tossed all the fan bolts, sent the fan into the radiator and caused me a bunch more work. there's a radiator shop down the road that'll fix it, a new one's like 700 bones.

skyking1 · Dec 10, 2021

I got the radiator to the shop and he was skeptical, but willing to try. It tore out the first row of tubes about 5 tubes wide and made quite the mess, and is otherwise kinda falling apart as well.
The fan was bent and the aluminum extension was scrapped too. I have a parts guy on the hunt for those.
Yesterday I got more pal nuts and lock washers, and also a pair of new belts for the Ford/Cat 3406. It is re-Goldberged for now.
I started it up to look at how the belfts were running, and spotted the filter and hand pump assembly on the left front was barely on there.
I tightened that back up, and realized why it was probably shaken loose.

Confession time. I took the truck and excavator up hills in town, and got into a nasty wheel hop and shook the crap out of the old girl. Mea Culpa, and never again!
Usually I have a bed full of buckets and the hoe pack plus the tongue weight, but I was completely empty and it was not enough. I learned my lesson and if that loose adapter is all that is wrong I got lucky.

skyking1 · Mar 28, 2022

When the truck shop did the DOT inspection, they wrote up some things for me to fix. I think they have been under water on the schedule for months. I got to one Friday, leaking front axle oil bath cover.
I pulled both and re-sealed with ultra black, and installed the new plugs. The old ones were rock hard and I doubt it has been serviced in years.
I refilled and parked it and went away, and today I see no signs of wheel seal leak on the inside. That is bonus!!
I figured full of new grease might show a seal leak if it had one. I think I will write the date on the side of the housing with a fine paint pen for the next guy.

skyking1 · Jan 5, 2023

I had noticed some lackadaisical performance from the trailer brakes so I ran them up on a block and did an inspection. I had two broken wires on opposite corners. The connection were OK but the wire is embrittled, and my guess is I snagged it on some brush or whatnot wheeling it around on a rough jobsite.
I had my wife do the function checks for me and I put the spoon to the adjusters and gave everything a lookover.

92U 3406 · Jan 5, 2023

56wrench said:
I leave mine in the nearest cart corral. I don't appreciate random carts that may roll into the side of my vehicle during a breeze and cause damage. I expect others to voluntarily do the same. Its never their vehicle that gets damaged

That's why I park on the high side of the lot and far away from others.

Coaldust · Jan 6, 2023

“I was thinking about this a minute ago when I reached for the Cherry Bomb shop soap and found it had been empty for a while.”

Love that stuff! Sure doesn’t taste like Cherries, though.

skyking1 · Jan 6, 2023

I've never been able to taste the walnuts in there either.

Somebody has to do it, and nobody else volunteers: the fixing saga

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