What are you working on today?
- Thread starter Amkeer
- Start date
Started some preventative maintenance on my wife's 2020 Ram 1500 with 163,000km. It was bought used with some maintenance records. While records are nice, its almost meaningless as I like to get a real look at things.
I only had a couple hours today so I started up front. Bled the brakes, greased the slide pins, removed the rotors, pumped a little grease through the ABS port and used antiseize upon reinstallation.
Pulled some plugs, which look alright but will likely pop some new ones in at some point. Next week, I'll work on the rear brakes ans hopefully get the diffs serviced.
I only had a couple hours today so I started up front. Bled the brakes, greased the slide pins, removed the rotors, pumped a little grease through the ABS port and used antiseize upon reinstallation.
Pulled some plugs, which look alright but will likely pop some new ones in at some point. Next week, I'll work on the rear brakes ans hopefully get the diffs serviced.
Another Toro to rehab and a 6x4 Gator. Pollen everywhere.
The Gator has a nice yanmar engine that I hope runs. It needs more investigation, the fuel cap was missing for an unknown amount of time. It also has a CVT transmission which I find fascinating being paired with a small diesel. The rear 4 tires are chain driven together. The engineers must have had fun designing it.
The Toro does not need alot, tire repair, repaint, maintenance items. it came with a hydraulic cylinder plus lines that used to run an edger. I will reuse it to make a tractor grapple.
The Gator has a nice yanmar engine that I hope runs. It needs more investigation, the fuel cap was missing for an unknown amount of time. It also has a CVT transmission which I find fascinating being paired with a small diesel. The rear 4 tires are chain driven together. The engineers must have had fun designing it.
The Toro does not need alot, tire repair, repaint, maintenance items. it came with a hydraulic cylinder plus lines that used to run an edger. I will reuse it to make a tractor grapple.
Those little Yanmar's are tough engines, hopefully it's a good runner. Have you ever driven a diesel Gator? Be prepared, they're SLOOOWWW and take forever to reach what little speed they can muster. I want to say 11-15 MPH is about as good as you're going to get.
Nope, but have a Gator TS with a Kawasaki since new going on 1500 hours. Its also not fast with its CVT but its been extremely reliable. I think its top speed is the same, but have had no issues with it
Nope, but have a Gator TS with a Kawasaki since new going on 1500 hours. Its also not fast with its CVT but its been extremely reliable. I think its top speed is the same, but have had no issues with it
The TS is my absolute favorite of the lineup. It's a shame they never sold well, they're awesome little rigs. I think I've only seen two come through my dealer for service.
It's been a very busy 24 hours for me. Drained and refilled the coolant in my Camry yesterday. Last time I used Prestone Max Asian but my local AZ doesn't carry that any longer so I used Peak Asian. The used coolant looks brown/orange in the radiator cap and in the drain pan but it's a very pretty pink in my clear discard jug. That got me so motivated that I did an oil change and ATF change today. Oil only had 8,000 miles on it but since I was under the car on ramps for the ATF, I did the oil. The used oil looked fine and the ATF hadn't been drained in 110,000 miles. It looked a nice pink color.
Swapped over to the summer wheel/tire set this morning on my wife’s Acura. After torquing and set tire pressure, I found a sheetmetal screw in the tread. Pulled the wheel off and dropped it off at Big O. 0$ and five minutes later, I loaded the wheel back into my truck and then reinstalled the wheel.
I’ll be doing the 5k oil/filter change on my wife’s car this weekend.
I’ll be doing the 5k oil/filter change on my wife’s car this weekend.
The basket case '05 Ram was back for an oil change. Now somehow at 309k freedom on the Hemi.
He also brought his landscaping trailer where he had thoroughly destroyed the taillight. I had only one armored box so I used that and got medieval on it:
With a bit of rattle can action:
Here's stock on the other side, and note how the 14ga angle iron mount is also seriously tweaked. Carry On trailers from TSC are trash
He also brought his landscaping trailer where he had thoroughly destroyed the taillight. I had only one armored box so I used that and got medieval on it:
With a bit of rattle can action:
Here's stock on the other side, and note how the 14ga angle iron mount is also seriously tweaked. Carry On trailers from TSC are trash
4 loads of rock and ag lime hauled today before one of my drive tires let go. It was a 2019 casing and a 2024 cap so it wasn’t an age issue. Tire pressure was set two days ago and they were up by feel this morning. I made about a 3 hour round trip and picked up 8 brand new Mastertrack Mtrac open shoulder drive tires and 8 new valve stems as my tire guy wasn’t available until next week. Got 4 on tonight and will do the other 4 in the morning. Hopefully this will be the end of my weekly tire issues for a while.
3/26/26 - Wife's Rogue was due for an oil change and had noticed as time went on wasn't liking the way the vehicle rode and the brake pedal had a feeling that felt off to me. Sucked out somewhat around 4-1/4 Qts refilled with Kirkland Signature OW-20 FS and spun on an OE Mahle made Nissan filter for the VC-T engine. Started at the front pulled the wheels off pad life was good at 17,878 pulled out the slide pins grease was present but minimal lubricated the slide pins piston face and caliper fingers with Sil-Glyde. All put back and torqued to factory specifications. Now moving onward to the rear, 1st off PITA working with the bulkiness of the EPB in the way of caliper slide bolts. At least 2 of the 4 slide pins required a flat head screwdriver and some light tapping to extract them from the caliper bores. Yup you guessed it uneven pad wear 
again same as the fronts the rears really lacked lube. All greased and reassembled with the same treatment the fronts received. Road tested vehicle, WoW! No more weird pedal feel brakes did not squeal leaving the driveway this morning zero pulsations felt coming up on stopped highway traffic.
again same as the fronts the rears really lacked lube. All greased and reassembled with the same treatment the fronts received. Road tested vehicle, WoW! No more weird pedal feel brakes did not squeal leaving the driveway this morning zero pulsations felt coming up on stopped highway traffic.- Joined
- Oct 31, 2025
- Messages
- 138
OUCH! Why does it always seem to be one of the inner tire's that becomes the problem child first..... Heavy sigh......Maybe good old "Murphy" is a seriously disgruntled former heavy haul trucker? (THAT would explain some things)
All but one issue I've had lately was an inner tire. Had to patch one on Monday and got lucky that it was an outside tire. The inners would be the most "abused" tire due to axle flex. They will always carry a little more weight than the outers and that's why they generally wear a little faster too.
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2025
- Messages
- 138
Ahhh. THAT makes a lot of sense when you take the time to think about it. Well, just proves that you CAN teach an old "Codger" new tricks (my experience has mostly been with light and medium duty vehicles, and a short stint with military heavy-wheeled vehicles). Thank you.
2014 F350 crew cab: left rear window would go down but not up. They went full parts cannon and replaced the switch and then the motor but nothing.
First thing I did was wiggle the loom and it would briefly jump to life. "Well there's your problem lady."
First thing I did was wiggle the loom and it would briefly jump to life. "Well there's your problem lady."
Got the rest of the tires installed this morning and got a little bit of work done this afternoon. Cleaned up the wheels a little but they need to be polished.
Got both mowers running from the winter’s slumber, just put the battery in and refilled with gas easy peasy. One had a friend camping out. Still need to sharpen blades and change starter on one. I’m still amused the $150 rider is way better than the $350 I bought at the same time. Got the $150 for parts since it had a bad engine, it just had a bad carb and hydrolocking on gas. Fixed a 20 year old repricating saw, bolts fell out of the guide. Loctited the new ones in. Started working on the raised bed for potatoes before it fell apart.
Not today but on Wednesday I changed out the factory spark plugs in my 2020 F-150 2.7 Ecoboost. The worst part was getting the original plugs out. I used a 1/2" ratchet with 3/8" reducer, magnetic wobble socket, and assorted extensions. At one point, I thought that I would need my 1/2" Proto pull handle.
Yesterday, I sharpened 27 lawnmower blades. Today was rest.
Yesterday, I sharpened 27 lawnmower blades. Today was rest.