MOTHERS DAY WEEKEND - FIXING THINGS AND THEY WORKED
Yesterday, (Mother’s day) We arrived home from church about 12:30PM, and I already had a large pot of pre-seasoned cajun shrimp boil on the stove and set to about 200° so that it would not take long to bring to a boil - to make cajun shrimp, corn on the cob and potatoes. LOML is from New Orleans, so REAL cajun spiciness is a must. This is what LOML wanted for mother’s day. We entered the house and it was mildly warm with outside temps at 88° at that time. Inside it was approaching 80°. The Air Conditioning was blowing warm air. I hurried outside and noticed that the fan for the outside unit was not turning. I cut the AirCon off and with a push stick turned the fan blade. It was stuck. Looking down inside, I could see something unusual. The wires for the fan motor were not in the holder and the fan had grabbed them and stuck. The motor was HOT.
I took the top off and the side off, re-tied the wires back to the original line holder (and tied them better, IMO), Sprayed a healthy dose of WD-40 all over the motor, put the top back on and gave it a try. Worked great. Put the side panel back on and went to make the Cajun Shrimp - which was already cooking the potatoes and corn. Took about 15 minutes to fix the AC. That AC unit is about 25 years old. We had it serviced (checkup) two years ago and the service guy said it was in remarkably good condition for its age and did not need any freon/gas. When dad had it installed, he had a roof hangover built to cover it at about 9 ft up. This has kept all but blowing rain off of it for the whole time. The roof cover is high enough that there is not any back pressure on the blower to decrease its efficiency. The AC unit is is the shade from about 10 AM and past.
WIRED, PART 2:
I am not a big fan of TV programs and never have been, but do watch some and a few sports things, mostly to be with LOML or family. (I usually read at this time.) Saturday evening, I saw a reference to a TV series called SEALS or something like that. I asked LOML and she didn’t know about it so she searched through XFinity(Comcast) and found that the series (year) 1 was available to watch (free). We watched about 3 episodes Saturday night.
Sunday NIGHT, we are watching one of the SEALS series and suddenly the TV and a couple of lights went out with a pop. A circuit breaker POPPED OFF. I checked the circuit breaker and turned it back on, it tripped again immediately, and LOML said the outlet behind my chair popped too. I unplugged a light and my computer charger cord. Then turned the circuit breaker back on, and the wall mounted TV came back on. Everything is OK now, so I guessed we had an overload for some reason, or a weak / old circuit breaker. I plugged my computer charger cord back in and a few small sparks flew, plus the breaker tripped again.
I pulled my white charger cord and saw the problem - between the wall plug and the small brick- there was a flat spot with black on it. The cord had worked its way under my rocker-recliner feet and shorted everything out. LOML still think it is the outlet!
Changing a FLAT TIRE.
ON top of all of this (Sunday afternoon), my 80 year old assistant (secretary) at the office where I work - had taken her sister to the Memphis airport and was on the way home about 5 pm when she had a blowout on her SUV. (Tire was low, she could feel it and she was slowing down when it blew out). I live about 30 miles from the airport, she lives about 75 miles. The blowout occurred out in the country about 5 miles away from where I live, so she called me. I put my good HF aluminum floor jack and 4 way lug wrench and went help. Took about 10 minutes from start to finish. She had a REAL tire as a spare, so she made it home safely.
Some days, you just have to get the “cart out of the ditch”. Overall, I enjoy this kind of troubleshooting and fixing. LOML was pleased that she has someone that can do these type of things.
MORE FIXINGS THIS WEEKEND - LAWNMOWERS:
A week ago, I tore up my 18 year old Craftsman LT1000 mower deck. Specifically one of the cast aluminum spindle assemblies broke. Order a new set last week and they came in last Thursday. (I broke one about 5 years ago and the new set that was ordered from eBay did ok, but there was some issues with it (loose fitting bearings) PLUS I bought one of the cheaper sets at that time. This time I ordered from Amazon and paid almost double. After replacing the new ones, I tried it out and it ran like a new mower. SMOOTH - like new. Watch out in getting the cheapest parts! I found out the difference in good parts vs just ok parts. I think part of it was a set of good well balanced blades.
THEN there was my 5 year old Husqvarna 21” trim mower. Started spitting and sputtering Saturday morning, run 5 minutes and cut off It was acting like a cheap dollar store Murray mower! Re-crank and the same thing. I checked the electrical and spark plug too. Spark Plug was clean as it could be, almost like new (and 5 years old). No water in the fuel tank. Then noticed a well concealed fuel float /water trap that I had not seen before. Drained water out and runs like new again.
OTHER THINGS I fixed this past week:
I have a Northern Tool 16 gallon Sprayer mounted on my lawn tractor. The handle apparently split from water in it during our cold freeze in January. I bought a universal replacement handle/wan from HD. As you know, it isn't always easy to use "universal" parts on specific brands. Well, the threads were OK but the tightening left a lot to be desired as seating wasn't tight as it should be. I pulled out my HF box of assorted "O" rings and used two (in different places) and it fit like a glove and worked well. Sprayed the yard for ticks and fleas, then sprayed my fruit trees, and cleaned that out and sprayed RoundUp along the fence edging.
ITS TIME FOR ME TO BECOME AN OFFICIAL HANDYMAN!
Yesterday, (Mother’s day) We arrived home from church about 12:30PM, and I already had a large pot of pre-seasoned cajun shrimp boil on the stove and set to about 200° so that it would not take long to bring to a boil - to make cajun shrimp, corn on the cob and potatoes. LOML is from New Orleans, so REAL cajun spiciness is a must. This is what LOML wanted for mother’s day. We entered the house and it was mildly warm with outside temps at 88° at that time. Inside it was approaching 80°. The Air Conditioning was blowing warm air. I hurried outside and noticed that the fan for the outside unit was not turning. I cut the AirCon off and with a push stick turned the fan blade. It was stuck. Looking down inside, I could see something unusual. The wires for the fan motor were not in the holder and the fan had grabbed them and stuck. The motor was HOT.
I took the top off and the side off, re-tied the wires back to the original line holder (and tied them better, IMO), Sprayed a healthy dose of WD-40 all over the motor, put the top back on and gave it a try. Worked great. Put the side panel back on and went to make the Cajun Shrimp - which was already cooking the potatoes and corn. Took about 15 minutes to fix the AC. That AC unit is about 25 years old. We had it serviced (checkup) two years ago and the service guy said it was in remarkably good condition for its age and did not need any freon/gas. When dad had it installed, he had a roof hangover built to cover it at about 9 ft up. This has kept all but blowing rain off of it for the whole time. The roof cover is high enough that there is not any back pressure on the blower to decrease its efficiency. The AC unit is is the shade from about 10 AM and past.
WIRED, PART 2:
I am not a big fan of TV programs and never have been, but do watch some and a few sports things, mostly to be with LOML or family. (I usually read at this time.) Saturday evening, I saw a reference to a TV series called SEALS or something like that. I asked LOML and she didn’t know about it so she searched through XFinity(Comcast) and found that the series (year) 1 was available to watch (free). We watched about 3 episodes Saturday night.
Sunday NIGHT, we are watching one of the SEALS series and suddenly the TV and a couple of lights went out with a pop. A circuit breaker POPPED OFF. I checked the circuit breaker and turned it back on, it tripped again immediately, and LOML said the outlet behind my chair popped too. I unplugged a light and my computer charger cord. Then turned the circuit breaker back on, and the wall mounted TV came back on. Everything is OK now, so I guessed we had an overload for some reason, or a weak / old circuit breaker. I plugged my computer charger cord back in and a few small sparks flew, plus the breaker tripped again.
I pulled my white charger cord and saw the problem - between the wall plug and the small brick- there was a flat spot with black on it. The cord had worked its way under my rocker-recliner feet and shorted everything out. LOML still think it is the outlet!
Changing a FLAT TIRE.
ON top of all of this (Sunday afternoon), my 80 year old assistant (secretary) at the office where I work - had taken her sister to the Memphis airport and was on the way home about 5 pm when she had a blowout on her SUV. (Tire was low, she could feel it and she was slowing down when it blew out). I live about 30 miles from the airport, she lives about 75 miles. The blowout occurred out in the country about 5 miles away from where I live, so she called me. I put my good HF aluminum floor jack and 4 way lug wrench and went help. Took about 10 minutes from start to finish. She had a REAL tire as a spare, so she made it home safely.
Some days, you just have to get the “cart out of the ditch”. Overall, I enjoy this kind of troubleshooting and fixing. LOML was pleased that she has someone that can do these type of things.
MORE FIXINGS THIS WEEKEND - LAWNMOWERS:
A week ago, I tore up my 18 year old Craftsman LT1000 mower deck. Specifically one of the cast aluminum spindle assemblies broke. Order a new set last week and they came in last Thursday. (I broke one about 5 years ago and the new set that was ordered from eBay did ok, but there was some issues with it (loose fitting bearings) PLUS I bought one of the cheaper sets at that time. This time I ordered from Amazon and paid almost double. After replacing the new ones, I tried it out and it ran like a new mower. SMOOTH - like new. Watch out in getting the cheapest parts! I found out the difference in good parts vs just ok parts. I think part of it was a set of good well balanced blades.
THEN there was my 5 year old Husqvarna 21” trim mower. Started spitting and sputtering Saturday morning, run 5 minutes and cut off It was acting like a cheap dollar store Murray mower! Re-crank and the same thing. I checked the electrical and spark plug too. Spark Plug was clean as it could be, almost like new (and 5 years old). No water in the fuel tank. Then noticed a well concealed fuel float /water trap that I had not seen before. Drained water out and runs like new again.
OTHER THINGS I fixed this past week:
I have a Northern Tool 16 gallon Sprayer mounted on my lawn tractor. The handle apparently split from water in it during our cold freeze in January. I bought a universal replacement handle/wan from HD. As you know, it isn't always easy to use "universal" parts on specific brands. Well, the threads were OK but the tightening left a lot to be desired as seating wasn't tight as it should be. I pulled out my HF box of assorted "O" rings and used two (in different places) and it fit like a glove and worked well. Sprayed the yard for ticks and fleas, then sprayed my fruit trees, and cleaned that out and sprayed RoundUp along the fence edging.
ITS TIME FOR ME TO BECOME AN OFFICIAL HANDYMAN!
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