What are you working on today?

[Kennedy01]

My job for yesterday didn't show, so instead I made up some hamburger patties and cut potatoes for fries for this evenings get together with a friend and his wife. He'll grill the burgers, I'll do the fries, and his wife is bringing homemade baked beans and banana pudding. Thank goodness for the gym

 

[Creekside]

Ran my cabover in a local parade today in a really small town of a few hundred people. They ended up with 86 entries. It was honestly a good break to reflect on things. The local churches provided hotdogs chips and a drink for a donation and a local band played in the park.

 

[cptbarkey]

Organized the garage somewhat today but mostly focused on the toolbox. Moved infrequently used tools to my overflow boxes. Now that I am looking, I see too many extensions, and too much in the pliers section.

 

[RAR]

Replaced the front brake pads and rotors on my mom’s 2019 Ram 1500 Classic. They were relatively clean, still had some pad left so they could have gone a bit longer.

Except it developed a front brake vibration on brake application, so warped (slightly) rotors.

The set I took off were factory original given the little rotor clip on one lug stud. These OEM pads and rotors lasted 74k miles.

New parts went on, cleaned and greased the sliding pins, and did a road test. All is well again. I installed aftermarket white box parts, and yes, they are unlikely to last as long… but I’ll change those out when the time comes too. No big deal.

Did an oil change as the oil life was at 11%. As usual with these Hemi trucks - oil spilled out of the filter onto the steering rack. So a mess to clean up. Installed a Denso filter I had leftover that fits this model, put in full synthetic from the Costco and reset the oil monitor.

It was hot and sticky so I cleaned up after that. Family will do holiday stuff this weekend vs. yesterday hence working on the truck.

 

[meep]

Full exterior detail on the F150 yesterday, this time with paste wax. What was I thinking? Goodness, even with the newer, easier to use waxes, this was an ordeal. I usually use the much-easier griots spray. Included the wheels. It’s probably been 4 years since it was paste waxed. Need to check the OLM today since I’m off - may get an oil change.

Learned how to adjust rotary sprinkler heads. Got busy in the yard!

 

[SwampSurvivor]

After work back to fighting with changing the steering box in the Jeep.

 

[D60]

Up until about 1a last night I was using the positioner to hide the fact I'm a mediocre welder. This is not some sort of false modesty -- on my best day I'm barely average but d#"# I love working with metal.

 

[BrianF]

Was cutting lawn and broke the deck height adjustment lever on my Craftsman ride on mower. Turned tight around the dump trailer and bent it. Bending it back and it snapped. OK so that needs to be welded.

Then cut some grass with the quad and rough cut mower. Got some nice sun burn.

Then took my Ram 3500 out for fuel and a test drive. Last week it derated on my wife and threw P0102 and P2281. Cleaned the MAF and its pins, reseated it and cleared the codes. Took it and the 6 horse out on the highway and did a thorough flogging, ensuring she was consistently in the boost. Ran like a top! No codes, no nothing. Just a pile of diesel power. I know those gassers make some decent power but sorry, just can't compare to a diesel.

 

[wander2039]

Cleaned a couple bath exhaust fans. Replaced a light with questionable wiring. Those were the easy ones.

Dads Chevy Spark had some grinding in the back. Thought blew some dirt in. Pulled off the drivers side everything ok and cleaned. Pulled of the passenger drum and yup the liner fell off the primary. Ugh i hate drums and don’t have the tools. OReillys had the shoes so I guess. Everything went back together painfully but looked right and the drum spun and brake seemed to work. Dad went to put back on the wheel and the drum won’t spin once its tightened down. I’m stumped! Going to check the emergency brake routing tomorrow and maybe switch sides on the drum. I don’t see where its rubbing so I’m stumped. Shoes are the same size as the old.

 

[Creekside]

Yesterday I knocked out another panel delivery towards St Louis. Drove up Thursday night to beat storms coming into our area and slept at a truck stop.

The Tri-pac surprised me Friday morning at the truck stop with a puddle of coolant on the ground. The Precooler had been seeping at the bottom hose Barb but it got worse while running for 12 hours. Today I ran to the local Thermo King dealer and got an updated precooler that stops the issue I was having with mine along with a new lower hose. The swap wasn’t too bad it only took about 30 minutes.

Something in the past had caused the pre cooler to swell where I couldn’t get it out of the housing anymore. Had to crush one row of fins to get it out. It was a cheap POS aftermarket one based on what numbers I could find. OEM was high at $325 but peace of mind in north losing all of your coolant in a parking lot in the middle of the night is worth more to me.

Also had some Schaeffer decals made using the files on their website while I was having some other vinyl work done. Put them on today for an upcoming truck show this week.

 

[RAR]

Prepped two salvage yard steering knuckles for placement on my nieces 2008 Town and Country. It needs new struts, tie rods and wheel bearings. I got the knuckles cheap so I’ll build them ahead of time so I can plug the new, cleaned up set and go.

Then I installed a replacement rear wiper motor and wiper arm on my mom’s 2015 Jeep Wrangler JK. The original motor failed so I ordered a new Mopar OEM assembly and OEM wiper arm with blade from RockAuto.

Install was complicated by the flat fasteners that go through the glass, and had to cut off the old wiper arm that corrosion welded itself to the old motor spindle. I got it in though and put a dab of anti seize on for future work.

New one works flawlessly and mom is happy.

 

[Kennedy01]

Yesterday I just did some cleaning around the house, laundry, and submitted some job applications online.

 

[zzyzzx]

2000 Camry 4 cylinder with 178K miles. Needs head gasket. Still taking it apart.

 

[D60]

Prepped two salvage yard steering knuckles for placement on my nieces 2008 Town and Country. It needs new struts, tie rods and wheel bearings. I got the knuckles cheap so I’ll build them ahead of time so I can plug the new, cleaned up set and go.

Then I installed a replacement rear wiper motor and wiper arm on my mom’s 2015 Jeep Wrangler JK. The original motor failed so I ordered a new Mopar OEM assembly and OEM wiper arm with blade from RockAuto.

Install was complicated by the flat fasteners that go through the glass, and had to cut off the old wiper arm that corrosion welded itself to the old motor spindle. I got it in though and put a dab of anti seize on for future work.

New one works flawlessly and mom is happy.

Ok at least there was some Wrangler maintenance in there so I'm less sad than usual.

As for the premise of the thread, I now have TWO (count 'em) KL Cherokees on deck for oil cooler replacement due to oil leaks/swimming pool on top of engine. A 2014 and a 2015! The plan is Dorman aluminum on both, although I can't believe I'm choosing to use Dorman anything.

I might be losing it. Next thing ya know I might want to drive a mini-van..... <----"I don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I really don't think he knows what he said either."

 

[wander2039]

Vehicle clean up day.. trash cleaned up, vacuumed and wiped down them down with Armour all. Truck got the big cleaning and everything taken out. Cleaned the oil out of the bed and all junk. Haven’t cleaned any vehicle to sell or trade in over 10 years.

 

[JustN89]

Adding sound deadening to the Elantra. I drive about 60 miles round trip to work and after 7 years, the road noise has gotten pretty bad. I took the door panels off and covered each fastener locating with padding, taped up connectors, and added sound deadening material to the inside of the doors. I moved to the trunk where there was next to zero sound deadening material and covered it as well. My back hurts, and it’s probably only a couple decibel difference at most, but some improvement and a reduction of rattling in the doors will make my commute a lot more enjoyable. It’s hard to hear my audiobooks over the road noise.

 

[meep]

Adding sound deadening to the Elantra. I drive about 60 miles round trip to work and after 7 years, the road noise has gotten pretty bad. I took the door panels off and covered each fastener locating with padding, taped up connectors, and added sound deadening material to the inside of the doors. I moved to the trunk where there was next to zero sound deadening material and covered it as well. My back hurts, and it’s probably only a couple decibel difference at most, but some improvement and a reduction of rattling in the doors will make my commute a lot more enjoyable. It’s hard to hear my audiobooks over the road noise.

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View attachment 229058

Hey let us know how this works out after you’ve had a few days to drive it?

 

[Elkins45]

This barely qualifies as “working on” but I found this aluminum toolbox that is a perfect fit between the strut towers of my Scion. I cut a couple of short sections of chain so I can padlock the handles to the cargo tie downs. One of the big downsides of a hatchback is the lack of locking storage. Hopefully this will stop smash & grab types, at least the ones who don’t travel with bolt cutters.

 

[cptbarkey]

All 15 posts are set, moved 12 bucket loads of gravel around the perimeter to spread with a box blade. Work on the roof will start right after.

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used a laser level to find the top post height, marked them all, set a declining slope between the three rows. The combination of the tractor, a pallet cage, and stairs made putting up 10 header boards pretty easy. The heat got the me about 2pm. Happy with progress.

 

[tbm3fan]

Did a front brake job on my wife's 2108 Mazda 3. Could have gone a little longer but what the heck it is my labor. Rears next with that PIA electronic parking brake that has to be disabled first. First major work, if that on the 3, at 95,000 miles.