a visit to the machine shop.....



 today was a field trip for me.....i was sent to the machine shop on my own with precise instructions to gather information and drop off some valves to be modified....we have some heads at this shop that we found through word of mouth....we have visited with Larry twice ( he is the owner of this shop since 1968.....and in this same location since 1972....he must be doing something right.....) after talking to him for a short while i realize that first, he is a nice guy and second he has alot of good information to pass along..... 



MADE IN U.S.A. Bridgeport Ct.  



.....his shop has all machines that are more than 30 years old...all made in the U.S.A.      Bridgeports aplenty.....none of this new CNC stuff that cant get out of its own way.... ridiculous $200,000.00 dollar machines that ruin perfectly good heads and blocks, because the blockheads running them think they are infallible........people thing that new and more expensive is better.........please...once you realize that slow and simple wins the race you will come out way ahead of the game.....dont be fooled by new, shiny stuff....it will suck you in with promises of better, faster, bigger...ect.....stick with the old stand- by that has been working for a long time...the grass isnt always greener on the other side......

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larrys automotive head area



summer off...slipping and sliding....

tal & kat next to the fix-it shop

i took the summer off unplanned, i had a class that started, june 27 thru sept 2..it is over so i am back blogging....

watch for new and unedited stories in the informal adventures of ronnie the repair guy...aka mr. fix-it....

he spent the summer on the slip n' slide with the kids!!!!

honda walk behind with bbc bearing...

One of our customers recently brought down a 1986 honda walk behind....this thing looks bullet-proof...but apparently it isn't stump-proof...his wife hit a stump with it ...bending the bearing, blade and all attached paraphinelia underneath...yet it still runs!!!!! Conundrum...blow it up for fun or give it to the metal guy down thw street to cut his 1/4 mile driveway going into his salvage yard...he wont care if the cut is a littlle crooked.... Mr. Fix-it with his crazy eyed intent to blow this baby up!!!!!I am trying to convince him to fix it.......... You see he always fixes things, he never gets to break things......stay tuned, I will let you know what happens!

possible sheared timing key

Mr. Fix-it's cousin brings a walk behind mower in every year for service..he requests the $50.00 SPECIAL.
I advised him we don't have a $50.00 SPECIAL and never did....he said " then how about the family discount?"... I advised him we learned along time ago not to give family any discount, as a matter of fact, we try to avoid doing any work for family unless it is absolutely necessary...several years ago it seemed we were working on family stuff at least 50% of our time. Its one thing to discount labor...but most friends and family can't even come up with the parts money.....

On to the fix of the day......

Cousin Joe is complaining the machine won't run, if you look at the picture , you probably realize that this is a "throw-away" lawnmower. But, with the "family discount" it is worth it for Cousin Joe to fix it.....He says he has already changed the oil and replaced the blade....when you see a new blade...what do you look for?     A SHEARED TIMING KEY! He probably hit something...root, stone, toy hidden in the tall grass.....Mr. Fix-it takes off the flywheel to investigate.....what does he find? A sheared timing key. 

He asked his cousin if he hit something with the machine....What do you think he said? Nnnnnoooooo, not me...... A customer will never admit to wrongdoing. 

Remember: The customer is always right! 

70's toro roto-tiller

in the shop right now we have a 1970's classic toro garden roto-thistiller. The tiller needs belts,2 idler pullies and a carburetor rebuild....the parts are NLA  ( no longer available). This customer really wants it fixed, it was passed to him from his father. I say its not worth it....but Mr. Fix-it being the nice guy that he is tells the customer he will see what he can do.

Mr. Fix-it crosses over an idler from Ariens that is identical another idler is made for a MTD,  they are virtually identical!
He also had th replace the diaphram in the carburetor...

This is definitely not going to be cost-efffective to fix, again, this proably should be a throw away....
I believe sentimental value will outweigh monetary value.

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Craftsman pressure washer

The repair today was once again fuel-related....are you all getting sick and tired of hearing that? Well, I have to tell you that is 90% of our business!..If customers started draining their fuel when the equipment wasn't going to be in use fot more than several weeks our business may be veeerrrrrryyyyyyy slow.

This is really a throw away pressure washer, and by that I mean this....If you have to pick it up, change carburetor and oil and air filter, you are pretty much exceeding the cost of replacing it.

This pressure washer is probably in the $200-$300.00 range. The cost of the complete carburetor is $50.00 ( there is no rebuild kit available, you cant even take it apart to rebuild it). the air cleaner , fuel shut-off and spark plug and oil rounds out the parts at about  $80-$90.....add in a few hours labor , depending on whose shop you bring it to...could be $40 - $80 per hour.......you have exceeded the cost of a new one.....

we are living in a throw-away society......remember drain your fuel...it will save you alot of aggravation and even more moola!

God Bless the USA

Please take a moment today to think of the men and women  who are currently serving in the military.Those who everyday put their lives on the line so that we may enjoy our freedom in the United States of America.  And please say a prayer for those soldiers who have died so that we may live securely and safely.
Thank you very much.

Memorial Day Weekend has come and we are still very busy....

Usually by this time in the season we are pretty much caught up in the shop on power equipment. I think due to this economy that people are finally digging out the lawnmowers and pressure washers and trying to start them that they are finding they wont start or run well.
Customers are trying not to spend any money so they are trying to fix stuff themselves...but find they cant....therefore, shop is still full of work.
This year we will be doing a staycation on the weekend.....

POWER EQUIPMENT SEASON....

in the midst of spring power equipment season...sorry to have missed several weeks.....unbelievably busy...i hope to remember some of what happened in the last few weeks and pass it along.....

spring is here!

emissions funny!

spring season...

the fix-it shop is loaded right now...we are up to 40 pieces of power equipment, i will post a pic tomorrow....

mill pond west tisbury mass. easter sunday

splitting wood on Easter Sunday in West Tisbury on Marthas Vineyard Island...

(john, ms. Fix-it and Eddie)

after pulling the wood-splitter from down the street with the incorrect size ball, Mr. Fix-it cleaned out the carburetor bowl we enjoyed splitting!!! There was a little good -natured arguing going on, but that was part of the fun..... 

fallout from picky thickets.....

Remember we were on Marthas Vineyard over Easter weekend...we were helping a friend cut some wood in the thicket, i came home with a special suprise! POISON IVY on my face, and Mr. Fix-it has it all over his forearms. Talk about adding insult to injury......

14 HP KICK BACK!!!!!

Check out this 48" encore. I was testing it out last night after Mr. Fix-it sharpened the blades and got it ready for the season. I bought it at the end of last season to try to cut down on cutting time this year... it has pistol grip controls...well, I stalled it. Mr. Fix-it asked me to start it. I usually pull the engine over t get it to the top of the compression stroke, It has a normal pull start, not a miten-grip...before I knew it the engine kicked back!!!!! OH MY GOD.....I was crying, I was yelling, I was rolling on the ground, I made up new swear words...I did not want to look at my hand, I was sure a bone was sticking out somewhere...I could not breathe, it felt like someone had kicked me in the chest....I am still reeling from this incident because although my bone was not sticking through my skin...I damaged something, tore a muscle or something. I can't make a fist or put any pressure on it....I am sure it will get better. Mr. Fix-it has ordered a mitten grip and is considering getting me an electric start....what a girl!!!

log splitter repair on martha's vineyard...

We just returned from Marthas Vineyard Island, Mr. Fix-it and I went over to cut up a large limb for a friend of ours that had fallen on the state road.. When we arrived we found he had paid someone to drag it to his house and cut it into manageable pieces.  So our friend took advantage of our good nature and chainsaws and asked us to cut some stuff in his yard. Before we knew it we were in the picky thicket more than ten feet tall on someone else's property!.... then trying to get us to completely cut down a 50+ foot oak that had passed many years ago...we got alot of it down, but that large of a job we weren't prepared for.....finally a break for an ice-cold beverage.
We sit down to enjoy an Easter lunch to the omment of " i wish i knew you had a tow ball on your truck, i have been trying to get the guy down the street to delivet a log splitter for several months..."... in we are sucked.....
we go down the road a mile or two , find that the log splitter is 1 7/8" ball, we only have a 2" ball....hmmmmm, no tools ....what should we do? Of course who ends up sitting on the log splitter to hold it onto too big of a ball? yes, ms.fix-it.... we are making our final descent into the driveway with alot of looks from patrons from the local mercantile, Alleys General Store, and sitting in the Grange Hall is the local police...I tucked my head down and we kept going....no blue lights.....
We pull in and when we picked it up, Alan Whiting, yes the local famous painter, said it would only run on the pencil mark on the choke lever....of course, Mr. Fix-it immediately drops the bowl to a jellied- moldy mass of gasoline. He cleans out the bowl jet with a paper clip and the bowl, returns it to place with bowl gasket, all the while I am trying to hold fuel line from pouring gas with a pair of pliers made of mostly rust.....
it starts on the first pull, before we know it our friend had plopped the first piece of wood on the splitter and asks how do you use this thing?
well, 3 plus hours later and no four wheeling on chappaquiddick and no ice cold beverages we had a nice pile of split wood for our friend to keep his house warm next winter.....

What are friends for anyway? My stepdad Ed is on the left and our friend John is on the right. I will post more on this weekends exploits tomorrow.
  

Power Equipment season is ready to start....

Mr. Fix-its shop is turning the corner to spring....we are taking in garden tractors, walk behind mowers, trimmers etc...so far everything that is coming in is ethanol fuel related...the carburetors are ruined....i will get some photos....

VW Jetta

Mr. Fix-it is cleaning out the car corral.....

OBD gas leak codes

Common OBD Two Codes

Locking gas cap

One of the most common OBD two codes would be for the evaporative emissions system. These codes were designed by the manufacturer and mandated by clean air laws.

Basically this is that the fuel system on every automobile must be completely sealed. No longer are you allowed to vent fuel vapor into the atmosphere.

This means that a storage and burning system is necessary to properly handle the naturally occurring fuel vaporization process.

Depending on the year make and model of the vehicle the codes set will usually be in the P0400 range. These codes when set will help you determine what the problem with the system may be.

When the fuel vapor system is determined to be leaking the severity of the leak is measured. Individual codes may set for a small leak, a medium-sized leak, or even a large fuel vapor leak.

Also in the P0400 range of codes will be specific codes for the canister and purge valve functions of the evaporation emissions system. All of the failures in the P0400 range could be considered common OBD codes. Again depending on the year make and model of the vehicle. But I have seen failures in all parts of the evap at one time or another.

OBD two evap systems leaks

OBD two monitors the evaporative system by testing the ability of the fuel tank to hold pressure as well as purging the system to vent petroleum fumes from the charcoal canister storage device. The most common way that this pressure test is deployed is with a small pump.

In this type of system the powertrain control module tests the evaporative emissions system by energizing the pump. As pressure builds the cycling rate of the pump decreases. If there is no leakage in the system the pressure builds until the pump shuts off.

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If there is a leak pressure does not build up and the pump continues to run until the test cycle is completed. If no leaks are detected by this test cycle the powertrain control module will move on and test the purge cycle.

Some systems have purge flow sensors between the solenoid and the intake manifold. In this case the PCM monitors the signal from the sensor once per drive cycle to determine if there is vapor flow at the proper levels into the intake manifold.

Note that on some GM vehicles enhanced monitors can detect leaks and restrictions in the system as well.

In these types of enhanced systems a poor sealing fuel cap or one that is missing is capable of turning on the check engine light.

The common gas cap obd two code

I’ve put together a video that discusses these common OBD two codes. Since the fuel cap is often removed for re-fueling this has become known as the weakest link in the system. Even if the gas cap is properly reinstalled the sealing ring between the cap And the filler neck can become nicked or worn over time. This often shows up as an Evap system code for a small fuel vapor leak.

Gas Cap Code Video

Also keep in mind when you’re vehicle sets the gas cap Code the check engine light will remain on even if the problem is intermittent. It is necessary after the repair is completed to clear the codes and retest the system.

beach buggy as the winter car....

Ms. Fix-it to the very right, her twin sister next to her, and older sister to the left. Their father always had VW bugs to use on the National Seashore on the Cape Cod shore in the summertime.

Ms. Fix-it's father always had an old car to fix up....

Ms. Fix-its older sister in the forefront.

V dub on National Seashore in P Town in the 1960's....

On the dunes outside of P-town Massachusetts. In the distance the tallest stone structure in the country.

Driving in the dunes on the National Seashore in the 1960's...

The good old days, we just located these pictures.....

This VW was painted pink with a cool design on the roof...

Our beachwagon that went to Cape Cod every summer weekend, 1960's Ford wagon.

in the summer this v dub was a dune buggy on National Seashore on Cape Cod in the 1960's

Notice the rear tires, I think they were snows....

beach wagon when we were kids.....camping on Cape Cod

rebuilding engine on air compressor

removed all covers and engine

air compressor pump 

air compressor pump again....

regulator needs to be replaced

regulator housing

misc parts and covers

still waiting for several more parts.

rebuilt vise

how do you think it came out?

Sunoco Racing Fuel 110 Octane

I have posted several different topics about racing fuel , and the lack of Ethanol in the fuel. Which extends the life greatly.

I was recently in Worcester Massachusetts and happened to cut through Highland Street when I took a wrong turn. I pulled in to get a picture of the pump and octane rating to show you and also the price.  The sign said that they weren't getting another shipment until  April, hence, the lack of posted price per gallon.

Octane on lower left shows 110.....RACE FUELS posted across the top and notice to the right on the bottom shows leaded race fuel.

My guess is it will be at least $8.50 per gallon this year. Last year it was $8.25.....we will see come April.

Looking for a heavy -duty vise.

We bought a vise for the fix-it shop about 15 years ago. We recently added a metal rolling table to the shop. Mr. Fix-it is going to rebuild a tranny soon and we redid this table to put the tranny on to roll it outside and work in the warmth and the sun if it ever gets here.....


So Mr. Fix-it wants to take our current vise apart and repaint , clean, re-lube it and put it back together.

I did not get a chance to get before pictures, but here are a few dismantled and a first coat of Bill Hirsch HI TEMP and HI GLOSS paint.

We started our hunt last Friday for an additional vise....all except 2 companies are made overseas....We started looking at several stores that we drove by on our trip through the city.  Everything we found on-line and in-stores was made in Chine, India, Malaysia.  We found one or two vise companies that still make their products in the U.S.A
I have requested information from them, there were no clear enough pictures on-line to see the quality so I have requested catalogs, I will keep you posted on that project. Also, the cost of the vises made in Asia all ran below $100.00 . The ones available in the U.S.A. all run between $200-$400. The Asian vises did not have removable pipe clenching jaws all the American made ones did.

The picture to the left is the base and spacer ring. Mr. Fix-it is going to do 2 coats before he bolts it on the new rolling transmission table.

I will keep you posted on how the search goes for the new vise for the bench in the shop. I actually had to resort to looking for a good used vise, because the stuff made 10 or 15 years ago is twice as heavy and double the quality. I think I may have found one in Rhode Island. It may be worth the couple hour drive......

Wilton Grinding wheel.....

We bought this grinding wheel for Mr. Fix-its shop in 2002. Mr. Fix-it modified it right away to change one side to an eight inch braided wire wheel. We are getting ready for our lawnmower season in a couple of weeks and the eight inch wheel has been reduced to a six inch wheel over the last 7.5 years.  The picture below shows the worn wheel....we are going to replace it but we are going to recycle this used one to a friend or family member, it should still be useful to someone....

The wheel we have now was made in U.S.A. I am going to hunt around to see if I can find a replacement made in the U.S.A.  I will keep you posted.


As an asides:

My sister and I had a discussion the other day that has me thinking ,she knows that I blog about items made here and abroad and the quality of those items.....she now sells a product that has to be manufactured by hand by a person. She currently has someone in the U.S.A. handcrafting this item for her for $6.00 and the materials cost her $3.00...so for a total of $9.00 outlay she sells the item for $27.95. Making about $19.00 an item. She met a gentleman several weeks ago that has stuff produced in Bangladesh, he saw her item, and said to her " give me a sample and I will have it quoted for you...I can probably get them made for .40 cents a piece including material...."

How can you fight the thoughts of making so much more money per item? The lure of the dollar....that is why manufacturing is going down the tubes in the U.S.A. American workers want to make a high wage per hour and want all the benefits and don't want to work that hard....admit it, it is true.

What can we as people do about this?

Ethanol problems again.....

 problems again with leaving gas in a piece of equipment.....

this time it is a craftsman blower.....another name for equipment made by this manufacturer in this shop is "crapsman".......there is a chronic unavailability of parts and if the parts are available they are usually of low quality.....we ordered jackshafts for a craftsman riding lawnmower several years ago at 175$ apiece time two jackshafts and installed them, the customer took the machine home, driving the machine off of the trailer to start cutting his lawn they seized up....the customer brought it back to Mr. Fix-it, we dismantled it and found that there was no grease packed into either jackshaft from the factory.....they were sealed so there is no way we could have greased them if we tried........i am off on a tangent....back to the blower...............

This customer left gas in this trimmer.....it is 2 cycle gas.....i don't think it would have mattered either way, but the carburetor was compromised, the internal parts of the carburetor were damaged, the rubber parts and any aluminum was pitted by the chemical reaction.....which means a new carburetor.

So, we have a trimmer that costs $100.00 brand new.....Mr. Fix-it has put a $40.00 carburetor on it, changed a spark plug , and a few other basic stuff and thrown an hour at it anyway. Never mind the research to get the part number for the new carb and you basically have exceeded the cost for a brand new blower......

welcome to our "throw-away society"...

more humor......

funny one....

It was the first day of school and a new student, the son of a Japanese businessman, entered the fourth grade. The teacher greeted the class and said, "Let's begin by reviewing some American history. Who said "Give me Liberty, or give me death?"


She saw only a sea of blank faces, except for that of Toshiba, who had his hand up. "Patrick Henry, 1775," said the boy.

"Now," said the teacher, "Who said 'Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth?"

Again, no response except from Toshiba: "Abraham Lincoln, 1863."

The teacher snapped at the class, "You should be ashamed. Toshiba, who is new to our country, knows more about it than you do."

As she turned to write something on the blackboard, she heard a loud whisper: "Damned Japanese."

"Who said that?" she demanded.

Toshiba put his hand up. "Lee Iacocca, 1982," he said.

Grammas Bernina Sewing Machine

My grandmother is 92 going on 42....she is a ball of fire.....

She still works part-time and sews alot....she sews for a local pet supply store , usually cat nip toys....her latest product for them was red lobsters...the color sticks with Mr. Fix-it because when he finally convinced Gram she could trust him with her BERNINA, thats all he found loaded inside all the panels her removed to try and figure out why the needle was striking the base plate. There was so much residual red felt that it was forcing the needle forward striking the base plate...

Gram brought this same machine to the local Bernina dealer last year they charged her $162.00. It still did not work as she had hoped. It took the prospect of another large cleaning bill to convince her to let Mr. Fix-it look at it.....

Mr. Fix-it took all the access panels off the machine. He used air gently to blow all the fabric dust from all the dark corners he lubed what needed lubricating and put it all back together, noting that 2 bulbs were burned out. They are a special bulb, acquired from the dealer only...of course. We called the dealer , they are about 20 miles away. We went there, they could not locate them, and all their tech's were at sewing machine repair school in Kentucky (is there such a thing?)

It took us another trip several weeks later to secure these bulbs. We got her 2 extras also. Guess what they cost each?  $4.....OMG...

We are going over to Grammas later today to install them for her...Mr. Fix-it called her to let her know we would be over.....she said "It's about time!..."  and "am I going to owe you for the repair bill?"

This is a rare picture of smiling Gram and our niece, Tal.

Toyota Highlander front wheel bearing growling.....

Finally after the holidays and school vacations have passed we are finally to squeeze in what we anticipate to be a 2+ day job replacing the front wheel bearings on the 2003 Toyota Highlander we diagnosed over a month ago.....

The first thing to come off is the nut for the sway bar link......what do you think happens? Well, we are in the liquid calcium capital of the world....New England. They are rusted in place....we have to cut them off.....the truck came in on Thursday and we purchased all the parts we thought we would need, but there are going to be parts we could not anticipate such as these sway bar bolts. We have a very good rapport with out local Toyota dealer, so we get him on the telephone right away and let him know what we need and we will probably be calling him again before the day is out. 

Next the caliper bolts come out and it is tied off entirely to the inner fender liner , the ABS sensor is disconnected....and

Notice the bearing assembly to the right , only one side was growling, but a good rule of thumb is to replace both because just when one is done the other side will go bad, MURPHY'S LAW.

Mr. Fix-it uses the 20-ton press his grandfather built and his father painted in the 50's to push these rusted bad boys out and hones out the residual rust and starts re-assembly. Remember from an earlier post that we use anti-sieze in this shop religiously. So we paint it on and all is re-assembled. The only other victim in this scenario was the dust covers for the ABS tone ring. Apparently at the local dealer once they rip them off, they are very soft, almost aluminum -like and technicians cant be bothered to reinstall them ?^&*&...why not? I think they hope ABS sensor goes bad so they can get more work into their shops. It takes another minute or two to reinstall them and only a few dollars apiece to replace them.....we are not looking for any more in the shop right now, so we aren't going to try and create it.....

Putting this back together goes more smoothly than taking it apart. While the strut tower was out Mr. Fix-it also changed the castle nuts along with installing new stainless steel cotter pins so when the lower ball joints go bad, and they eventually will, he can get them out easily.  Because with it all together it would be almost impossible to get these rusted parts out....a little preparation ahead for a job that will probably be done down the road.

Toilet, Tenant, Time.... Too Much and Too little......

Too much to do and too little time to do it......

I went into the basement of one of our rental houses, a house Mr. fix-it and I also live in.....there is water coming through the floor and it sounds like the water is running......I am somewhat panicked. Since getting new tenants 1 year ago we have had to deal with an array of problems.....the tenants are very nice but a bit absent-minded.....

Last week I had to call them to tell tham that their bedroom window was open about 6 inches to the outside, it was in the single digits and snowing outside , it did not seem to bother them that it was freezing outside and all their heat was literally getting burned up and was flying out the window.....
In the summer they were running the two 5000 watt air conditioners in their windows while other windows in the apartment were wide open.....?*(&^^
Several weeks ago I went downstairs in the front hallway to get the mail, it was maybe 20 degrees in the hallway, the door to their apartment was wide open and noone was mailto:.....@#$%^&&&

I cannot figure them out, they are only in their early 60's??? Maybe pre-Alzheimers??? They make me somewhat nervous.

The latest escapade is the water coming through the floor.... I go upstairs and bang on the back door, I hear someone coming. The door is opened and I greet Mrs. Tenant and her 2 year old granddaughter.  I go right in to the bathroom, Mrs. Tenant says that the tiolet will flush but solids won't go down, they have to plunge constantly..... I take the tank cover off and look in, all looks okay, I get down on my hands and knees and start looking.....almost immediately I see something in the throat of the toilet. I reach in and pull out a clear plastic fork...the tines are facing out.  I fish it out and show it to Mrs. Tenant...she says" how did that get in there?"....I look at her and say " Maybe the 2 year old?" Mrs Tenant says "can't be..." .....I disagree.....i was young once I remember flushing alot of stuff down the toilet that did not belong in the toilet.

I tell Mrs. Tenant that I will check with her again tomorrow to see how it is flushing.....