What are you working on today?

[meep]

Saturday morning workout at 0600. Came home and planted 2 flowering trees. The weather is so nice, and the ground still soft from rains, that I went back and bought 3 peach trees I’d wanted for 2 years. Brought them home and planted. That… seemed much harder than the first two. Then mowed the weeds to keep them level.

Read up on TGMO (Toyota genuine motor oil). Reads to be made by Exxon Mobil, and a synthetic. Other reads suggest it’s basically Mobil 1 synthetic with a heavier anti-wear additive package. We own 2 ‘yota’s, under warranty. Might run this stuff at least until warranty is out, it could be very good oil (though I’ve been 90 Pennzoil platinum since…. Mid 00s, and like it)

 

[Hermann]

Went to Discount Tire for the free Rotation and balancing. Made an appointment. The truck went right in. Total time less than 15 min.. Lugs were hand torqued. Watched the entire process from the window to the shop. It was being worked on by 3 to 4 people at once. Truck was in plain view.

 

[Rust_Belt_Pete]

Lower radiator hose rusted in half.

 

[barkingspider]

Replaced the lower control arms on the 05 Pontiac vibe w new beck arnley arms from summit racing. A couple bucks more than moogs and less expensive than crap mevotechs. I think dormans and delphi were about the same price as the moogs. The becks look good

Old:

New:

 

[The Critic]

Date on the oil filter is a very nice touch @The Critic

Unfortunately there is a story behind this. I took the car to the dealer for a software update. Coincidentally, I had just changed the engine oil and filter before bringing it in.

When I got the car back, there was a reminder sticker on the windshield, traces of oil on the splashshield and all service reminders were reset. I questioned the service writer and was told they didn’t change the oil and only placed the sticker on the windshield since there should always be one there.

Now I mark the filter to know if anyone has touched it.

 

[wander2039]

Started out the day running out to Cars and Coffee, that wind was cold and brutal. Just imagine a lifted Kia Rondo with a supercharger. For some reason those are more attractive than the fancy ones. There's a lifted Miata running around I'd hope would be there but nope.

More work on the generator. Fixed the pull string. Went to Menards and got a fuel line kit with spring clamps and a filter. Should of checked the tank before, more dirt than fuel in the tank. Unfortunately ran it about a hour before that so might clean the carb again.

Found the jumper wire for the Festiva fuel pump so pumped out most of the 5 year old fuel, 5 gallons-ish. Mixed it in the Escape and Dakota. Realized for some reason it didn't have a belt.. well it didn't have a alternator either. Don't remember pulling it but with some miracle found it in the shed along with the bolts, bigger miracle. Put that back in and cleaned the intake. I'll grab a new battery next time I'm down south, cheaper with taxes!

Drove the Dakota today 20 miles and no leaks.. hitting the ground anyways. Smelling coolant but as much as it shot out trying to bleed it's probably residual. It seems to have a intermittent miss now and not as much power, I need to find a dark spot to check for spark jumps.

 

[53' Stude]

Nothing too interesting— oil change w/o rotate. Told my sister to see me in 3k for her next service.

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View attachment 272053

What brand oil filter you use?

 

[D60]

Replaced the lower control arms on the 05 Pontiac vibe w new beck arnley arms from summit racing. A couple bucks more than moogs and less expensive than crap mevotechs. I think dormans and delphi were about the same price as the moogs. The becks look good

Old:
View attachment 272066

New:

View attachment 272068

B/A was part of the Apollo buyout and I had one of their CV boots last 8 mos on a Subaru.

Unfortunately, I've lost faith in them but you may very well have had old stock (hopefully)

 

[The Critic]

What brand oil filter you use?

Genuine Subaru

 

[Sedin26]

I found last week that I had a sticking caliper on the 2005 CR-V - right front. The pin was good but piston pretty much seized. Replaced that and the pads on both sides in the front. Raybestos Element3.

Flushed the fluid at all four calipers with the Speedi-Bleed.

322,622km on the CR-V.

 

[AutoMechanic]

Began removing the exhaust parts on dad’s Freightliner. Replacing muffler and the pipe at the top. The pipe on the top won’t be in till Monday though. Going to go ahead and get the muffler on tomorrow so less I have to do Monday after work. Good thing I used anti seize last time and it made all the bolts super easy to remove. I’ll be applying a fresh coat this time. Since the bolts are stainless I use nickel anti seize since the copper isn’t recommended for stainless and the silver stuff also has copper in the mixture it says. Luckily I keep all three on hand anyway so I have them all available. I normally don’t do anything on Sunday but I am making the exception since dad bought me Chipotle tonight for dinner like I asked for. But as soon as the baseball game comes on tomorrow I officially retire for the weekend lol.

 

[D60]

Wife's 2008 F150
-changed engine oil
-using a graduated bucket, drained a gallon from the 4R70 and refilled w Motorcraft Merc V. I was in a hurry and didn't want to deal with the ~4.5 qts a full drain usually produces. One gallon is clean and straightforward. Love the trans pan w drain plug!!

Then the 2019 Tiguan reappeared in my life for an oil change. I got to use my Assenmacher drain plug tool, but honestly it's annoying because it's almost too long and hits a crossmember:

These wonderful plastic plugs are supposed to be replaced every time (again, isn't Germany supposed to be super woke and worried about the environment??) and even on my commercial account O'Reilly gets me for $7.10 on the Dorman 090-090. I ordered one of the cheap no-name packs on Amazon where you can get the plugs for as low as $1 ea. No idea if they're junk but somehow I suspect they're the same as Dorman.

Paying $7 for a stupid plastic plug you're supposed to chuck in the trash every [insert OCI of your choice] seems stoopid, even if you are passing on the cost to your customer.

Now watch: I'll never see this Tiguan again

 

[wander2039]

Wife mentioned the headliner on the Escape was wet, I'm lucky that she tells me if she notices anything wrong with the vehicles. Good thing she did. About 10 years either someone knocked or shot out the very rear window. I got a used one and used windo-weld to reattach it, I didn't do a very good job but somehow it hung on that long. How it didn't fly off is surprising. I almost threw away that windo-weld couple weeks ago since I figured it was no good. Good thing I didn't since it was fine and I reattached the window again with what was left. Should be attached better this time.

Took apart the 9 gallon Dewalt shop vac, it was making a weird vibration. If you've never took a shop vac apart after a couple years and clean it I highly recommend it. Had a lot of junk on the fins and the sponge was caked, guess the filter was leaking some. Like brand new now. Used it to clean some more the farm Festiva before I put it back together some more. Close to making it a truck next week.

 

[Creekside]

Drove a few towns over to buy this little 30” Snapper for what I hope was a good price. It was a non runner but after about 30 minutes of electrical work it’s running good. So far I’ve dropped a new Ever Start battery in and ordered about $120 of mostly genuine Briggs parts on Amazon for it.

I wanted one of these because we are now maintaining a 1acre cemetery on a strictly volunteer basis. This will work great between the head stones as some of the rows are pretty narrow. Our land borders it on 3 sides and due to a large fencing project between us and the cemetery we discovered that the person most recently “managing” the place has died. There’s nobody to take over and they are out of funds to hire a lawn care company. We hope to turn things around and eventually line up some donations.

Between this little guy and my two 60” Deeres we should be able to keep it up without too much time involved. A local kid is willing to come run a weed eater when we mow so I’ll just pay him out of my own pocket.

 

[wtd]

Changed the oil in my 98 Chevy K1500. Truck just turned over 146,000 miles. I have been using Phillips 66 oils in this truck for quite a few years so I have been using Motorcraft 5w30 blend lately since I can get it at Walmart. Used the PF-52 AC-Delco filter.

 

[faltic]

Replacing a water pump on my Jaguar X-type... it’s a little whiny and gravelly, and it’s cheap and easy to replace. I got an AC Delco pump to go in it along with the proper pink coolant. Should be easy (probably jinxed it!)...

You know that's right LOL

 

[wander2039]

Drove a few towns over to buy this little 30” Snapper for what I hope was a good price. It was a non runner but after about 30 minutes of electrical work it’s running good. So far I’ve dropped a new Ever Start battery in and ordered about $120 of mostly genuine Briggs parts on Amazon for it.

I wanted one of these because we are now maintaining a 1acre cemetery on a strictly volunteer basis. This will work great between the head stones as some of the rows are pretty narrow. Our land borders it on 3 sides and due to a large fencing project between us and the cemetery we discovered that the person most recently “managing” the place has died. There’s nobody to take over and they are out of funds to hire a lawn care company. We hope to turn things around and eventually line up some donations.

Between this little guy and my two 60” Deeres we should be able to keep it up without too much time involved. A local kid is willing to come run a weed eater when we mow so I’ll just pay him out of my own pocket.
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Every summer for 8+ years I spent on the seat of a Snapper helping grandpa. A lot of memories.. don't know how good they were LOL. We scrapped all of ours a few years ago they were beat up pretty good. The oldest was a Comet from the 60's. I didn't want to scrap it but grandpa was persistent, he was really worried someone was going to get hurt on it.

 

[mattd]

Started measuring up the crank and inspecting the journals on the ISL. rod journals look and feel rough. Measures right in the middle of min/max spec (which is a half thousandth above minimum spec), and not out of round by more than a couple tenths. Right now decision is up to the powers that be whether it comes out of the truck completely. Definitely needs a good polish at minimum. also descaled (very long over due) and hit the chassis with some fluid film to slow down the rust. Found a broken u bolt along the way. Alignment dowel sheared on the differential.

 

[mattd]

Last few

 

[SupremePossum]

Got this cord reel from Costco for $49, pretty good deal. Its 14AWG with a triple tap end, 40ft of cord