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The "What Did You Work On Today" thread

3M views 36K replies 388 participants last post by  cerial 
#1 ·
4 hour work day for me at the shop. Used the time to do a valve body swap on a '01 Jetta 1.8t auto .... I successfully installed a transbrake on the car .... that however wasn't my intention.

Its in 2 gears at once in park, all other gears (R/N/D/2/1) are forward gears.... they all seam to be first gear.

I have it torn back down most of the way. Tuesday I'll actually get the VB back out and see whats up.... but part of me wants to take it out for a test drive the way it is just for the fun of it.
 
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#16,461 ·
Ah, gotcha. Man thats a heckuva rig :cool:

I would hate to get it slideways and find out who "has" who there. Be careful among the nut jobs on the road. Especially those who will pass you on two lane then slow down to see it once they see it. :rolleyes:
 
#16,462 ·
It is quite wobbly when I get passed by a big rig. I had to get a friction type anti-sway bar for the hitch and my new load range D radial tires arrived today. The tires on it are load range C BIAS ply !
Good thing I have so much experience getting blown sideways in a semi. The drive today was with a 25 mph cross wind that had my full attention...:eek:
 
#16,465 ·
Uh, yeah, it wouldn't be fun trying to stop a 3,000# trailer on just the 3,000# car brakes...:eek:..:pain:
A few of the guys may not realize you have a background in trucking Mitch. I remember the first time I saw the picture of you in your pick up truck with your trailer behind it and I think the Chevelle on that. I think you were pulling it back from out west. The thing that got my attention was you were pulling all that in 6 inches of snow! Better you than me! :)

I set my convertible astric :)mwink:) member into the hardtop frame for the first time today. It is a little tight in the front and lacks about 3/8" going far enough forward. I will have to do a little fitting tomorrow before I start marking the holes.

John

 
#16,466 ·
Good one DBM! I thought later that you couldn't tighten it tight enough by hand to get a tie rod end off. :drunk:

The strap installer I knew, I can't believe as I stood there with my son looking at it I knew what it was and I have never seen one in my life, I was pretty proud of myself for figuring that one out. :rolleyes::thumbup:

What about this, it looks familiar but I can't remember.





Brian

That's a strap wrench used for tightening threaded pipe. It's missing the wide, flat belt that goes around the pipe.
 
#16,467 ·
We have FILLED three storage lockers from 15x15 to 20x15 and the house still has as much stuff in it as my house! It's truly mind blowing the amount of stuff she has saved.
It's wild beyond words.

Brian
Brian, back in 1999 my aunt passed away at the age of 97, and she had no children. My uncle had died in 1968, and my aunt never remarried. Myself, my brother, and my cousin and his wife all got together and drove the 5 hour drive to clean out her house.
When we walked into the house, there was a path from the front door to her bed. Another from the front door to the kitchen sink, and the rest of the house was full 6'-8' deep from the floor up! The basement also was full, but no paths! It simply filled from the far end, right up to the basement stairs!
She had saved every piece of mail she had gotten since my uncle died! We had my cousin's SUV with utility trailer, and my brother's pickup truck, plus utility trailer behind it. With the PU and two trailers we made 9 loads to the city dump! But the bad part was when we had the PU, and one trailer full of old mail, and my cousin had some paper money fall out of one of the junk mail envelopes! Everyone's stomach fell, as we realized the full truck, and partially full trailer needed to be emptied to look inside all the junk mail envelopes! We emptied the trailer first, and began transferring from truck to trailer as we searched each envelope. Then picked up the previous load and checked the envelopes as we loaded the truck again! By the time we got rid of all the envelopes, and trash, we found $2400 in small bills stuffed in various places!
The 4 of us spent three full days going through and hauling trash. Then we returned one trailer and rented a U Haul truck to load all the good stuff that we found mixed in with the junk. It appeared my aunt had actually only used half of her bed, as one half had stuff piled about 3 feet high, so only one side was open to sleep on.
My cousin was her investment broker, and when he read the will it stated that her home and 5 bungalows she rented would go to the church. Her investments were to be shared equally amongst her 38 nieces and nephews! Each of us got a check for a little over $5,500. My cousin said that regardless of what she had for bills, etc., she never missed sending him a check each month to go into her investment fund. He couldn't talk her into spending it on herself for a trip, or something.
 
#16,468 ·
Putz'd on the '38. Yesterday toward the end of my test run, the trailer brakes were applying themselves going down the road. I found the brake switch had worked loose and the pedal wasn't keeping the plunger pushed in. I adjusted that and tightened the nuts better. I bought 9/16's grade 8 bolts for the hitch mount at the rear of the body and installed them. I need to move the mirrors out and intended to use some extenders I have had on trucks in the past, but they don't exist anymore, so I made some out of aluminum angle.

When the trailer brakes were self applying, the right one wanted to lock up and the left didn't seem to do anything, so I moved that into the shop and pulled the drums for an inspection. Everything is good and I saw where the adjusters are manual. The right one was right on and the left was rather loose, so after tightening that up, they work great.
 
#16,469 ·
Brian, back in 1999 my aunt passed away at the age of 97, and she had no children. My uncle had died in 1968, and my aunt never remarried. Myself, my brother, and my cousin and his wife all got together and drove the 5 hour drive to clean out her house.
When we walked into the house, there was a path from the front door to her bed. Another from the front door to the kitchen sink, and the rest of the house was full 6'-8' deep from the floor up! The basement also was full, but no paths! It simply filled from the far end, right up to the basement stairs!
She had saved every piece of mail she had gotten since my uncle died! We had my cousin's SUV with utility trailer, and my brother's pickup truck, plus utility trailer behind it. With the PU and two trailers we made 9 loads to the city dump! But the bad part was when we had the PU, and one trailer full of old mail, and my cousin had some paper money fall out of one of the junk mail envelopes! Everyone's stomach fell, as we realized the full truck, and partially full trailer needed to be emptied to look inside all the junk mail envelopes! We emptied the trailer first, and began transferring from truck to trailer as we searched each envelope. Then picked up the previous load and checked the envelopes as we loaded the truck again! By the time we got rid of all the envelopes, and trash, we found $2400 in small bills stuffed in various places!
The 4 of us spent three full days going through and hauling trash. Then we returned one trailer and rented a U Haul truck to load all the good stuff that we found mixed in with the junk. It appeared my aunt had actually only used half of her bed, as one half had stuff piled about 3 feet high, so only one side was open to sleep on.
My cousin was her investment broker, and when he read the will it stated that her home and 5 bungalows she rented would go to the church. Her investments were to be shared equally amongst her 38 nieces and nephews! Each of us got a check for a little over $5,500. My cousin said that regardless of what she had for bills, etc., she never missed sending him a check each month to go into her investment fund. He couldn't talk her into spending it on herself for a trip, or something.
Wow, that's a hell of a story. When my father in law died, there was one sister (the one we just moved) who talked to him. I am not sure but understand him to have been a pretty bad dad and I have to imagine a REALLY bad dad as my wife is a living and breathing angel. If she didn't talk to him he must have been pretty bad. Well when he died we cleared out his apartment. It was FULL of boxes of crap, he had a reclining chair he slept in, and a tiny little table with one chair where he ate. That was it the rest was full of boxes and crap. We are talking one closets upper shelf was covered in pine cones! Well among all the crap I found an envelope with about $20k in it!

It's damn wild, I have to say I love "American Pickers" and couldn't watch it the other night when I turned it on, changed channels in seconds. :pain:

Brian
 
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#16,475 ·
I may have told you guys how I had no photos of my wife as a child, well two of them. And one of them was developed years later and is a mess. But we had none because her mom was a hoarder and if any existed they were in boxes somewhere in the house. There weren't any on the walls even!

We found in the last few trailer loads of stuff out of the house which were her moms that there are photos! OMG! A bunch of them! She can't believe it, a bunch shot in studios like Sears or something like that, that were never even put on the wall!

When I saw this one, I told her, this was worth all the headaches over the past weeks, this was worth it!

Brian
 

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#16,477 ·
Aw Geeze Bull - I thot it was just me who did stuff like that! Today's "Looney tunes adventure" involved bring in ten 5-gal jugs of water from Costco. My son & I got the first ones in - no issues. As I brought in the very last one, I dropped it. CRACK! SPLOOSH!

So - get out the wet & dry vac and now there is LARGE place in the family room carpet that is cleaner than the rest!

Guess who's gonna be call carpet cleaners tomorrow?
 
#16,478 ·
I finished all the lighting in the house along with switches and receptacles.

No broken wires...:thumbup:...everything works....well almost. I still need to install a light fixture and two ceiling fans that are on order. Did I just curse myself???

Next is flooring or phone and cable jacks and plates...hmm...which first??
 
#16,479 ·
I finished all the lighting in the house along with switches and receptacles.

No broken wires...:thumbup:...everything works....well almost. I still need to install a light fixture and two ceiling fans that are on order. Did I just curse myself???

Next is flooring or phone and cable jacks and plates...hmm...which first??
Gettin closer:thumbup:
Have you cobsidered going wirleless on the phone and TV
:confused:
 
#16,480 ·
I finished all the lighting in the house along with switches and receptacles.

No broken wires...:thumbup:...everything works....well almost. I still need to install a light fixture and two ceiling fans that are on order. Did I just curse myself???

Next is flooring or phone and cable jacks and plates...hmm...which first??
Jacks and plates sounds easier and less tracking of the construction process on the flooring.

Are the rooms final painted, or will you need to remove the plates again later ?
 
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