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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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#9,182 ·
What did I work on "today", well it was yesterday now.

Soooooooooo, the door bell hasn't been working for a while, yesterday I jumped into getting this very simple contraption ding dongging again. I went up in the attic with my volt tester and found exactly what I thought I was going to, that the transformer wasn't putting out any power. Being both front and rear bells stopped ding dongging at the same time, this was a no brainer. I pulled back the tape off the wire going to the transformer and sure thing, 116 volts, but nothing coming out of the transformer. Off to Dale for a new one.

New transformer installed. Still nothing! WTH? Upon a little more checking, I found that it had the 116 volt at the old connection but not at the new connection to the transformer, there it had ZIP! You see, I cut the old leads from the old transformer to splice in the new one, so this meant the whole time there was nothing wrong with the transformer, it was the lead to the house wiring that was bad! GRRRRRR

I figure I will leave the new transformer being it's installed. I repair the lead, ok, 116 volt at the connection, STILL NO POWER coming from the transformer! WTH? I mean, come on now, WTH?

Could it be bad? I hook up the old one, STILL NOTHING! WTH?

Back to Dale with both new and old transformers. The guy goes back into the bowels of the ship to test it, comes back to me to tell me the new transformer was bad! But the old one is fine! WTH?

He brought me back in there to show me and yep, the old transformer is showing 24 volts.........seems I was testing that on DC thinking like it was a battery being it's such low volts, I don't know, I am a moron.

I came back, installed the OLD transformer and WHAM, DING DONG, DING DONG. The problem all the while was the broken lead going to the original transformer that I could have done in minutes. But check out the luck, the new transformer was bad! If I had been testing it on AC I would have figured that out when I tested the old transformer after fixing the wire, but I didn't think to hook it back to the door bell, I mean come on, I am head tech in THREE STOOGES HOME REPAIR, I have the volt meter to tell me if it's good.........the DING DONG I heard at the end was the door bell calling me names.

Brian
 
#9,183 ·
What did I work on "today", well it was yesterday now.

Soooooooooo, the door bell hasn't been working for a while, yesterday I jumped into getting this very simple contraption ding dongging again. I went up in the attic with my volt tester and found exactly what I thought I was going to, that the transformer wasn't putting out any power. Being both front and rear bells stopped ding dongging at the same time, this was a no brainer. I pulled back the tape off the wire going to the transformer and sure thing, 116 volts, but nothing coming out of the transformer. Off to Dale for a new one.

New transformer installed. Still nothing! WTH? Upon a little more checking, I found that it had the 116 volt at the old connection but not at the new connection to the transformer, there it had ZIP! You see, I cut the old leads from the old transformer to splice in the new one, so this meant the whole time there was nothing wrong with the transformer, it was the lead to the house wiring that was bad! GRRRRRR

I figure I will leave the new transformer being it's installed. I repair the lead, ok, 116 volt at the connection, STILL NO POWER coming from the transformer! WTH? I mean, come on now, WTH?

Could it be bad? I hook up the old one, STILL NOTHING! WTH?

Back to Dale with both new and old transformers. The guy goes back into the bowels of the ship to test it, comes back to me to tell me the new transformer was bad! But the old one is fine! WTH?

He brought me back in there to show me and yep, the old transformer is showing 24 volts.........seems I was testing that on DC thinking like it was a battery being it's such low volts, I don't know, I am a moron.

I came back, installed the OLD transformer and WHAM, DING DONG, DING DONG. The problem all the while was the broken lead going to the original transformer that I could have done in minutes. But check out the luck, the new transformer was bad! If I had been testing it on AC I would have figured that out when I tested the old transformer after fixing the wire, but I didn't think to hook it back to the door bell, I mean come on, I am head tech in THREE STOOGES HOME REPAIR, I have the volt meter to tell me if it's good.........the DING DONG I heard at the end was the door bell calling me names.

Brian
I don't know about the rest of these guys but the last thing I expected when I logged in this afternoon was to read about your ding dong. :drunk:

John
 
#9,185 ·
with a newborn baby (3 weeks) I knew I had to stop working in the garage and dedicate lots of time to my daughter who got all the attention and nurture from her mother stripped away cause she had to tend to the newborn. I knew this would affect my princess so I made an effort to fill the gaps so to speak. I can get back to metal shaping later. So today we went to the waterpark down the street. Perfect 100 degree weather. It's been a month since I last took her there and since then she has grown tall enough to go down the kiddie water slides. Man, that girl was in heaven. It was like she totally forgot I was there or had so much fun she didn't care to look over her shoulders for daddy's approval. She was totally into it. What a fun day. When I walked thru the front door she was in my arms sound asleep and bushed. Another awesome weekend with the princess.
 
#9,192 ·
Congratulations to him and you guys also. Seems you have raised a fine young man.:thumbup:

John
My wife has gone to a number of "card" parties with some of the neighbor ladies and invited them out of courtesy. I was skeptical that they would come, since it seems like an obligation to give money to a person they barely know. I was shocked that every one came and brought their husbands. I was also very impressed that my son was attentive of people arriving and met them individually and thanked them for coming !! I heard from more than one couple what a nice, personable son we had raised. I gotta say, I have regrets that I wasn't around more for his younger years so I can't take much credit for his personality, but we don't smoke or drink and that has had a huge influence on him and the friends he chose. He has not gotten involved with drugs or drinking and I doubt will ever try smoking. I am very proud of who he has developed into and he swears he will stay on the straight and narrow path thru college. We shall see, I'm sure it will be more tempting since he won't have to come home and have us watching his behavior after time with friends.
 
#9,193 ·
I wouldn't worry too much. He might run a little wilder for a year or so but his core values will still be there.

My daughter partied a little too much her first year at college but she settled down and was on the dean's list her last few years. She always made us proud and continues to do so.

John
 
#9,194 ·
Well, Marge looks (and more importantly drives) MUCH different!



Her old tires were like these nurses shoes.



Now, with the MUCH wider (like twice as wide, no kidding!) tires and the white wheels.



Her tires are now more like these, with a little pump fat going on.



And holy crap does she drive better! I should have done this long ago, she is a completely different car! And check this out, I took her out on the freeway and went CRAZY! I brought her up to a blistering 65 mph and she was smooth sailing!

Brian
 
#9,195 ·
Today, July 1 is Canada Day (Sorta like July 4 in the US of A)

Celebrate independence and formation of the country, and is Nat'l holiday

Spent the day installing more insulation in the shop and hanging more ceiling lights. I'd hate to think of how THAT would be if I didn't have a forklift & a man cage on it.

It was plus 38* C (100*F) outside and WAY hotter than that up at the ceiling level in the shop. I am just wiped out
 
#9,197 ·
Well, Marge looks (and more importantly drives) MUCH different!

Her old tires were like these nurses shoes.



Now, with the MUCH wider (like twice as wide, no kidding!) tires and the white wheels.




And holy crap does she drive better! I should have done this long ago, she is a completely different car! And check this out, I took her out on the freeway and went CRAZY! I brought her up to a blistering 65 mph and she was smooth sailing!

Brian
Best be puttin' McGard locking nuts on the wheels. Someone else be wantin' those for their car...:cool:

I'm certain Marge would rather be compared to the slender leg model than the chubby one too.
 
#9,199 ·
Best be puttin' McGard locking nuts on the wheels. Someone else be wantin' those for their car...:cool:

I'm certain Marge would rather be compared to the slender leg model than the chubby one too.
I can just see a half dozen wheel thieves sitting on the curb looking at Marge and saying to each other, " Yeah, but what will they fit?"

BB :thumbup::thumbup:
 
#9,200 ·
The shop that did the tires for me specialize in late model performance cars. They have stuff like this over there all the time.



The entire building is full of rims and tires for this sort of car. You can imagine how funny Marge's four and a half inch wide rims looked sitting there. And right in the middle of the project they ran out of the few steel wheel weights they had and had to go get more.

The owner is restoring a vintage 1984 BMW 320i and he talks about it like I talked about my truck in 1975, it's hilarious! But talk about nice young men, they are awesome and went WAY out of the their way helping me.

This is the guy, they do a lot of internet sales, you may find a good price there, keep the link, they are real good people. WHEELDUDE.COM

Brian
 
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