What are you working on today?

2017 Sienna: replaced front struts. I couldn't find much other than KYB so did that.

I wasn't entirely comfortable with how much I had to compress the springs to get enough thread to reassemble, but got it and not dead.
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Put the upper arms on the strut mount.
Was replacing the mount so was being lazy -- no need to back it off.

Also these Sienna mounts sit at a considerable angle. When I tried on the mount it would tweak enough that I couldn't get the nut out, even if I attempted to adjust the arms to account for the angle. The clearance around the flange of the nut is oddly small and it basically has to stay in the "neutral" position for the nut to come out.

This was one time I wished I'd just ordered quick struts. The threaded shaft has a machined flat that keys into the mount and that creates a lot more friction to drive it out. Anyway, it was all a giant time suck but that could still be my incompetence.
 
Have you tried the upper spring seat? Grapping the spring on the upper is generally not recommended with a Branick.
I wasn't able to find enough clearance (Z space) between the rotating mount and the spring seat to fit all three arms. I actually tried two on the seat and one on the spring, but that was clearly a bad idea.

Again, I'm sure experienced Toy techs have a better method and I was overlooking something.
 
Well, in the past two weeks on my 98 Legacy, I have replaced both front CV axles, which actually wasn't a bad job other than getting the right spot to remove and install the roll pin. Of course on Friday, I start to get a weird wheel speed vibration from the passenger rear. Jacked up the passenger rear and thankfully, its not the wheel bearing, but the tire is out of round. When I did the 2 inch lift on this back in March, I found a set of four 16 inch wheels with 215/65/R16 tires on them that had probably 35% tread life on them, so I kind of knew I was on borrowed time with them, but I expected a flat tire first, not out of round due to steel belt seperation. So, tommorrow, I'll go see if I can find a cheap set of tires to throw on till the fall when I can find some winter tires...
 
First OCI on the neighbors '25 Kicks, with the prehistoric 2.0 MR20 engine with ~7,000 miles
It's from when Nissan was offering two years free maintenance, but they couldn't be bothered to bring it in
More business for me 🤷‍♂️

13 bolts and 5 clips to remove the splash shield 🤔🤨😒🙄
An electric ratchet and my just found clip remover tool will speed this up next time around
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It reminds me of an '07 Sentra I used to service
Logical oil filter and drain plug placement
It got a Pronto NS-1 filter and Edge EP 0w20
Oh, and for those who weren't sure, factory Nissan crush washer placement is notch towards drain plug
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This is the second Nissan product on the trot that I've seen that are new/low ish mileage that has a suspicious looking rear main leak?
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Cabin filter is typical Nissan stupidity, side loading where you have to scrunch it half height to fit the HVAC case aperture
But it's placement is improved
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Top off the washer fluid, vacuum/wash the cowl out, send it down the road
 
I wasn't able to find enough clearance (Z space) between the rotating mount and the spring seat to fit all three arms. I actually tried two on the seat and one on the spring, but that was clearly a bad idea.

Again, I'm sure experienced Toy techs have a better method and I was overlooking something.
I usually grab them on the upper strut mount but it still feels sketchy on a Branick.

If you want a real scary one, try doing a Sequoia front spring on a Branick.
 
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Not a car. Worked on scrapping a well-used Specialized Tricross with some terminal frame damage. It was a first generation gravel bike, but suffered from brake rotor rub that led to a microcrack in a chain stay. Also saw a cracked dropout opposite of the non-driveside. It served me faithfully but I want to ride the dirt roads here(that can be done on “gravel” bikes).

Its replacement is in the foreground. I’ll build it up as a Jerry-rigged 1x10. I’m moving over the existing Shimano 10-speed Ultegra/105 x700 series gruppo but will upgrade it to SRAM Rival 1x12 wireless shifting. Spray painted over the stickers on the old bike before scrapping it.
 
Had an old corded electric weedeater for probably over 20 years that is old and tired. I started looking for a gas powered trimmer and picked up a free Shindaiwa off FB marketplace. Was told it was grandpa's old trimmer that's been sitting for a while. When I picked it up, the pull cord had compression, the head barely turned, and the engine was caked with grease and grime. Air filter foam disintegrated when I touched it. It had a Champion CJ8 spark plug. When I first got home I squirted some fuel into the carb throat and it ran briefly; a good sign! The fuel bulb was actually intact. I took things apart and cleaned out the tank and put fresh fuel but could not get to start even though it primed.

Did some research and it seems this Shindaiwa is a T230X from around 2007-2008 with an S230 EPA engine from probably the tail end of Shindaiwa production before their merger with Echo. It has a Walbro WYL-26A rotating barrel carb so I ordered a generic K20-WYL carb repair kit. Finally got a chance yesterday to tear down the carb. I recently rebuilt two ZAMA RB- K75/70 carbs from Echo SRM-210 trimmers and found those carbs were pretty simple to rebuild. This Walbro WYL carb is differently designed than the Zama. The carb separates into 3 sections: main body, fuel pump/metering, and the priming chamber. I used the 2 diaphrams and 3 gaskets from the kit, the new o-ring to the air cleaner/carb, new fuel inlet needle, and fuel screen. I soaked the main carb body in B-12 and carefully sprayed out the passages of the pump body with carb cleaner. Put everything back together and initially I was unsuccessful with getting it to run. After I squirted some fresh fuel into the throat and a few pulls, the engine finally fired and amazingly continued running! It was smoking a bit running the cheap Powercare 50:1 canned fuel from Home Cheapo. Switched over to E0 with Echo Red Armor oil 50:1 and it barely smokes and screams on WOT. My next task is to swap out the aluminum trimmer head. One difference is the Shindaiwa uses a female thread on the gearbox whereas the Echos have a male threaded gearbox output.

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Had an old corded electric weedeater for probably over 20 years that is old and tired. I started looking for a gas powered trimmer and picked up a free Shindaiwa off FB marketplace. Was told it was grandpa's old trimmer that's been sitting for a while. When I picked it up, the pull cord had compression, the head barely turned, and the engine was caked with grease and grime. Air filter foam disintegrated when I touched it. It had a Champion CJ8 spark plug. When I first got home I squirted some fuel into the carb throat and it ran briefly; a good sign! The fuel bulb was actually intact. I took things apart and cleaned out the tank and put fresh fuel but could not get to start even though it primed.

Did some research and it seems this Shindaiwa is a T230X from around 2007-2008 with an S230 EPA engine from probably the tail end of Shindaiwa production before their merger with Echo. It has a Walbro WYL-26A rotating barrel carb so I ordered a generic K20-WYL carb repair kit. Finally got a chance yesterday to tear down the carb. I recently rebuilt two ZAMA RB- K75/70 carbs from Echo SRM-210 trimmers and found those carbs were pretty simple to rebuild. This Walbro WYL carb is differently designed than the Zama. The carb separates into 3 sections: main body, fuel pump/metering, and the priming chamber. I used the 2 diaphrams and 3 gaskets from the kit, the new o-ring to the air cleaner/carb, new fuel inlet needle, and fuel screen. I soaked the main carb body in B-12 and carefully sprayed out the passages of the pump body with carb cleaner. Put everything back together and initially I was unsuccessful with getting it to run. After I squirted some fresh fuel into the throat and a few pulls, the engine finally fired and amazingly continued running! It was smoking a bit running the cheap Powercare 50:1 canned fuel from Home Cheapo. Switched over to E0 with Echo Red Armor oil 50:1 and it barely smokes and screams on WOT. My next task is to swap out the aluminum trimmer head. One difference is the Shindaiwa uses a female thread on the gearbox whereas the Echos have a male threaded gearbox output.

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Shindaiwa stuff was always tops in reliability and disability. Echo bought them out at one point and they seemed to mostly disappear from our area for a long time.
 
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