Recent content by ron917

Originally Posted By: ron917 The factory Delco battery in my 2003 Pontiac Montana is still going strong. Build date on the van is June,2003. We bought it with 3 miles on the clock, it has 128k miles now. Still going! The Delco battery reached 10 years in service (136k miles) on July 5, 2013.

Thanks for the replies, all! I'll go with synthetic oil since it seems 5,000 miles is the minimum interval with the MM. Probably Mobil 1, since that is what everything else in my household uses. M1 is good stuff, easily available, and inexpensive at WalMart. Regarding spark plugs: I have found...

Vehicle: 2006 Honda Accord 4 cyl auto, just turned 100,000 miles We bought the Accord 2 months ago for my daughter. The maintenance minder triggered yesterday with B 14 and 15% oil life remaining. It wants oil, filter, tires rotated, spark plugs, valve lash check/adjust, and check/inspect a...

Originally Posted By: mechtech2 Why not switch sides? They will seat differently, and you can restake them? These axle nuts are not stake type nuts. They are sort of self locking, the type that have a fairly high prevailing torque - no nylon insert or thread locker, just a tight fit.

Originally Posted By: css9450 Did your new bearing come with a new nut? No, I had to order the nut as a separate part.

Success! The Montana has a new right front hub/bearing assembly. Thanks for the hints and tips. I re-used the bolts, cleaned them up with a wire brush and applied blue thread locker. The axle was stuck in the hub and put up a fight, but I prevailed in the end. I have an air hammer, hub puller...

Originally Posted By: tig1 How can a 2000 watt gen power all those items? It takes more than 2KW to start the average frig alone. My EU2000i can easily start my refrigerator and freezer on ECO mode. The lights dim for a split second, but otherwise no problem. With ECO mode off, the lights...

Stu_Rock, thanks for posting the part number. Google found some pictures, the bolts come with pre-applied thread locker. When I have encountered similar bolts in the past, I just cleaned them up and applied new thread locker. I'm going to re-use them as long as they are not damaged. I will wire...

Originally Posted By: ChrisJH While my generator cant really pay for itself, during Irene and now Sandy it sure made my life a whole lot easier. First hot shower with the power out made it all worth it to me. The hot shower was nice. Not having to discard the contents of my refrigerator and...

Originally Posted By: rjundi For myself a Rigid generator powered by Yahama is fine however its thirstier (5 gallons per day). However I found the cost difference(vs invertor $2000+) I could buy 500 gallons of gasoline which is 80-100 days. That will never happen over my lifetime unless...

Think about fuel. It takes a lot of fuel to run a big generator for a week or more. Remember that gasoline was difficult to get in many areas. How much fuel do you need to run for a week? How will you store it? Gasoline goes bad, so you need a plan to rotate your stock (use it in your vehicle...

2003 Pontiac Montana, 129K miles, right front wheel bearing has a lot of play and needs to be replaced. This is a hub & bearing unit that is replaced as a whole assembly, the bearings themselves are not servicable. The same or similar part is used on a gazillion GM vehicles. I will order a...

A wood stove is a perfect source of heat when the power is out. Mine heats the house more evenly when I run the blower (small generator works great for that), bit it works well enough without the blower. The fuel is easy to store and non hazardous unless a big pile of wood falls on you. And the...

Make sure that you can actually siphon gas from your vehicles before you really need to. My Outback and Montana have things that block a hose from reaching the gas tank through the filler neck. The hose goes in pretty far, a couple of feet, but something blocks it. I don't know if they are...

Originally Posted By: ethangsmith Wow! That's a lot of stuff to have on a 2000W generator! Adding that up, that seems like it would well exceed 2000W. I haven't added it up or measured it. All those chargers and the lights draw very little current, probably 250 watss total. The wood stove...