What are you working on today?

Last Friday we got the front end work done on the neighbor's son's 04 Ram. He actually did most of the work after I removed the spindles and showed him how to use the ball joint press. While there, I noticed some play in the left front outer tie rod that I admittedly missed when inspecting the front end initially. We replaced that, and I also turned the front brake rotors while he worked on the ball joints and upper control arms, then of course replaced the brake pads.

This week at work has been finishing up an order of link bars, and modifying an order of hydro boost units. Should finish those today. Looking forward to being back on 5 8 hour shifts again next week, I'm beat. 😴
 
Replacing flexible brake lines on Tr6. I replaced the ones on there about 20 years ago w/ NOS OE and while they look fine, 20 years is enough. Coincidently, OE/OEM is NLA and Goodridge offers their Classic line which won't look out of place.

Ever just look and hold a new part and be a bit awed by the quality? Finish, thread cuts, details, etc.? Pricey, but I will pay for very nice parts...or maybe I have just become disillusioned by many replacement parts I see.

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Ended up having to redo the neighbor kid's blower motor.. the SKP motor lasted all of a week. When I went to order a warranty replacement, there was a listing for a Mando that was $10 more and I SWEAR wasn't listed when I ordered the SKP....

Anywho, I ordered the Mando and received an OEM Bosch in the box. Goes to show that HL Mando parts are truly OEM replacement units:

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Knocked that project out in a half hour, then moved on to installing some much needed headlight assemblies in our '06 Kia Spectra. I scored a set off the 'bay for $50, they go for $90/ea on RA (plus shipping). Even better, they're the "black chrome" bezel style from the Spectra5 hatchback, which I think looks perfect against the dark blue paint of our car:

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2013 Highlander: replaced rear liftgate motor. It would seem removing the rear interior quarter panel pieces is quite the job -- I stumbled on a TSB (LSC 80B) for servicing the 3rd row seatbelts (same spot, basically) and A LOT of stuff has to come out.

Thus, I opted to suck the top of the panel out of the way with a ratchet strap and replace it Operation-style. Took less than an hour and the ebay replacement worked perfectly.

Then, '92 GMT400 with self-inflicted wiring issues. They moved a trailer plug around and sent the tail light + to ground, and grounded the ground wire to an LED license plate lamp.

In their defense, GM's use of a deep brown for tail and black for ground sucks. Add years of dust and mud and it doesn't help ;)
 
Forcing myself to take a Saturday morning to maintain my own junk: oil change and tire rotation on our '19 JL.

Because no one knows what an oil change looks like:
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There was more paste on the Gold Plug than *I* think there should be at 60k, but yeah, the Pentastar is super mega awesome :rolleyes:
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Using one of my 8 million (approx) closeout filters:
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At 60k and most of that on 37s the front pads are at 6mm and rears are much more -- so much so that I didn't bother getting an exact number.
 
Just the usual garbage for this guy. Greased up both skid steers, knocked out the engine air and cabin filters. Tire pressure adjusted on the wheeled machine. If we don't do any fencing I need to adjust the brakes on the little 3 horse again. If time permits, i also need to mount a new rail on a friends rifle and get it and another rifle sighted in.
 
Spray foamed around all the potential mouse entry points and then washed the RV twice.. once with bleach and Dawn and then regular auto soap. I’m always amazed how well this 60 gallon bladder works, and with the pressure washer. Dakota rides real good when its full. Over 20 gallons left I think, for reference the blue jugs are 5 gallons. Now waiting to see if there’s a funeral next door, try not to work on the west side if theres one going on.
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Latest auction winnings, a 250 gallon tote with a few hoses, a lot of corrugated tin, and a 6 foot dirt bucket.

I will be able to enclose a bit of a pole barn.

The dirt bucket will be plasma cut with 2 inch slats, the cutouts turned upwards, and viola, a skeleton bucket. It will take a lot of welding, but I really enjoy it.

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2021 Toyota Tundra brushed to brushless blower motor conversion. Part number 87103-60560 for 2016-2021 Land Cruisers. Did a comparison with the old and new blower motor on noise and wind output from the vents via my long hair down dyno.

Old blower motor after removing the under dash panel.
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Brushless vs. brushed motor. The brushed motor has a slight high-pitched whine similar to brushed power tools. Yes I'm not that old yet.
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No difference in blower wheel size. Huge difference in motor hump size. There is a significant weight difference for weight reduction, bro.
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Up in the blower motor box, if you never seen the clean side of an installed cabin filter.
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New blower motor installed. Reconnect connecter which sits at a different angle but it'll fit.
Big difference in wind output and noise. The brushless motor had less drag when turning the blower wheel by hand and no brush motor whine.
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Tomioka said:
2021 Toyota Tundra brushed to brushless blower motor conversion. Part number 87103-60560 for 2016-2021 Land Cruisers. Did a comparison with the old and new blower motor on noise and wind output from the vents via my long hair down dyno.

Old blower motor after removing the under dash panel.
View attachment 299360

Brushless vs. brushed motor. The brushed motor has a slight high-pitched whine similar to brushed power tools. Yes I'm not that old yet.
View attachment 299361

No difference in blower wheel size. Huge difference in motor hump size. There is a significant weight difference for weight reduction, bro.
View attachment 299362

Up in the blower motor box, if you never seen the clean side of an installed cabin filter.
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New blower motor installed. Reconnect connecter which sits at a different angle but it'll fit.
Big difference in wind output and noise. The brushless motor had less drag when turning the blower wheel by hand and no brush motor whine.
View attachment 299364
Click to expand...

Interesting, I recently replaced the OEM Denso blower on our 2018 Sienna, it’s kinda embarrassing that the bearings were going out at only 54k. I replaced it with a lifetime warranty made in Canada unit from Autozone. It is arguably better than the Denso one, it behaves differently with spin up and down more pleasantly. Go figure.

Today was a riding mower diagnosis and repair-athon. The weather was extremely nice so worked outside most of the day.

2009 Craftsmen riding mower got a new blade after hitting a limestone rock.

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2016 JD X354 just can’t catch a break. It’s been out of service for about 6 weeks from also a limestone rock hit. The OEM spindle is ruined, will order another one soon.

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Installed a permanent start button in my Toro Workman. I believe a relay is bad, but this was basically the same repair.

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For the rest of the day did various tractor tasks, bulldozed several large trash shrubs away from oak trees.

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Awhile back I complained (profusely) about having to R&R the blower motor in my '11 SuperDuty. I purposely ordered a Motorcraft....and in a case of new-doesn't-mean-good, once installed it didn't work.

At the time I swapped the two screws with the worst access from the stupid Torx heads to 7mm hex head plasti-screws. WOW, huge upgrade and this made Round #2 much easier.

This time I tested the warranty blower motor before installing, and it worked. I then tested the first (bad) one, and it worked but felt like a washing machine out of balance. I rigged up a way to check runout on the face and found .105".
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I don't remember getting particularly rambunctious with the first one during installation, so I believe it came to me this way. Even if it didn't, it's a bit like a Rubik's Cube to get the blower in place, and I would argue the spindle has to be able to tolerate some tweaking from any technician during install. Again, I wasn't rough with it.

Back at the firewall 7mm hex head is soooo much better....
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.....BUT score one for my custom 7mm stubby flex ratcheting wrench I made up awhile back.
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It's a bird, it's a plane....no it's not even a PCM. This is just a BCM. With 7 connectors. From 2011. On a stripped down XLT rubber-floored F350. I know I'm a Luddite but we're getting stupid with modules for the sake of modules.
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ANYWAY, I finally have a functioning blower motor again. While it's bad in the summer, it'd be deadly in the winter -- no defrost = no bueno
 
Visiting my brother at his new place. He's not the handiest guy around. He's not dumb, just not interested in mechanical stuff.

Today we cleaned a massive amount of greasy lint from the coils of the fridge that came with the place. We diagnosed the water coming out from under it as the plugged coils and a missing drip tray. We also changed all the locks in the doors as the place didn't come with any keys. The previous owners never locked the doors as it's in the middle of nowhere.

After dinner we'll go out and use the OBDII scanner on one of his cars with a check engine light.

From his back deck.

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2015 Lexus GX460: what sort of fresh Hades is this? Apparently a radiator cap is unsightly, so we'll cover it with a huge one-piece radiator cover. Most of the push pins were already missing, no doubt due to others trying to cheat their way under there.

I can neither confirm or deny that my OMT may have solved this problem permanently ;)
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Got a call for a jerky 1-2 gear change on a L90H. Went to check the level and just happened to remove the filler cover and the tranny was overfilled with this liquid. Asked around at the site and someone had filled it with around 20L of washer fluid. Did two changes and it was still rough and when the lockup locks it jerks. Probably needs a rebuild.. only 5600 hours too.

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