Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Wavy tires?
Recently heard some "thud-thud-thud" noises coming from the rear tire of my 2006 Honda Civic. I immediately thought it was something embedded in the tread, hitting the road at regular intervals.
I put the car on jacks and took the wheel out. I've seen tire feathering, I've seen camber wear and the usual inflation related wear too. But wavy surface?!? There was no sign of "wear" where the area of the tire in question looks worn. Instead, the tire looks fine, just the surface isn't perfectly round.
Has anyone seen this??? The tire has been replaced since but I'm still not sure what happened.
I put the car on jacks and took the wheel out. I've seen tire feathering, I've seen camber wear and the usual inflation related wear too. But wavy surface?!? There was no sign of "wear" where the area of the tire in question looks worn. Instead, the tire looks fine, just the surface isn't perfectly round.
Has anyone seen this??? The tire has been replaced since but I'm still not sure what happened.
Toilet repairs anyone?
Repairs seem to be a common theme these days. While visiting my parent's place, I discovered that their toilet was leaking, actually more like splashing, water out from the top assembly while the toilet was refilling the tank.
My mom had an ingenious, temporary solution made of aluminum foil to create a shield to keep the water in the tank. While we could certainly live with this makeshift solution, I wanted to accommodate my parents with a real fix. Besides, the sight of the aluminum foil protruding from the top of the toilet ruins the decor of the bathroom. :)
Having never repaired anything in a toilet, I commenced twisting and pulling anything that looked like it would come off. At first try, I had no luck and was afraid I would crack something. See the picture below. I noticed that little red tab finally!!! What are tabs used for normally? Hmm... to keep something in place!!!
Slid it up and out... twisted the blue cap again and it budged slowly. NOTE: Before doing all this, it's a good idea to turn off the water supply so you don't get sprayed.
The plunger seemed fine but the o-ring was old and hard. It had lost its elasticity after many years of service and needed to be replaced. I strolled over to Home Depot, assuming that they carried everything and anything under the sun, just to be met with disappointment. They didn't carry whatever brand was in my parent's toilet.
I "could" have replaced the entire inside assembly ($40-$60) but that just seemed wrong. It's like replacing a completely functional car just because one of the tires went bad. Besides, my mom's aluminum foil was doing a fine job at curtailing the drizzling water.
I decided to take a closer look at this "top" assembly for any mention of a brand name or model number. 1B1 Master Mark III? Is that a model number or a brand? *confused*
Some searches on Google landed me on a couple of sites (www.plumbingsupply.com , www.homefixitparts.com). It appears that this part isn't common enough to be sold at your local store. I ventured over to http://www.homefixitparts.com and found a few options. I settled for the plunger/o-ring kit shown below (image from homefixitparts.com).
At this moment, I'm awaiting the delivery of the repair kit. I'll post back when I have attempted the repair.
-----------------
Apparently, there are others who had similar issues with this very brand of flush assemblies.
One that needed some cleaning:
http://www.macslab.com/charlies/BallcockRepair.html
Most suggestions all point to replacing the entire assembly:
Yahoo Answers
My mom had an ingenious, temporary solution made of aluminum foil to create a shield to keep the water in the tank. While we could certainly live with this makeshift solution, I wanted to accommodate my parents with a real fix. Besides, the sight of the aluminum foil protruding from the top of the toilet ruins the decor of the bathroom. :)
Having never repaired anything in a toilet, I commenced twisting and pulling anything that looked like it would come off. At first try, I had no luck and was afraid I would crack something. See the picture below. I noticed that little red tab finally!!! What are tabs used for normally? Hmm... to keep something in place!!!
Slid it up and out... twisted the blue cap again and it budged slowly. NOTE: Before doing all this, it's a good idea to turn off the water supply so you don't get sprayed.
The plunger seemed fine but the o-ring was old and hard. It had lost its elasticity after many years of service and needed to be replaced. I strolled over to Home Depot, assuming that they carried everything and anything under the sun, just to be met with disappointment. They didn't carry whatever brand was in my parent's toilet.
I "could" have replaced the entire inside assembly ($40-$60) but that just seemed wrong. It's like replacing a completely functional car just because one of the tires went bad. Besides, my mom's aluminum foil was doing a fine job at curtailing the drizzling water.
I decided to take a closer look at this "top" assembly for any mention of a brand name or model number. 1B1 Master Mark III? Is that a model number or a brand? *confused*
Some searches on Google landed me on a couple of sites (www.plumbingsupply.com , www.homefixitparts.com). It appears that this part isn't common enough to be sold at your local store. I ventured over to http://www.homefixitparts.com and found a few options. I settled for the plunger/o-ring kit shown below (image from homefixitparts.com).
At this moment, I'm awaiting the delivery of the repair kit. I'll post back when I have attempted the repair.
-----------------
Apparently, there are others who had similar issues with this very brand of flush assemblies.
One that needed some cleaning:
http://www.macslab.com/charlies/BallcockRepair.html
Most suggestions all point to replacing the entire assembly:
Yahoo Answers
Monday, February 14, 2011
2Wire and AT&T woes
About a year ago I decided to move to AT&T DSL service (without phone service). I don't have huge download requirements, so the DSL Direct Pro package with 3.0 Mbps speed was plenty for my web surfing, email, and occasional media downloads.
One uneventful day, I powered on the 2Wire 2701HG-B DSL Modem to discover a dead modem. Well, I later found out that it wasn't quite dead. The power light was red and the wireless light was green... both were on and steady. Aside from that, nothing was working!!!
I was close to buying another replacement from Craigslist but I thought I'd search a bit longer to see if there was something I overlooked. Well, this is where patience and a little bit of persistence pays off.
First, I found that the power supply is faulty on this unit. They usually die after several months to 2 years for the majority of units in use. Great! Replacement power supplies were available online from anywhere from $8 to $15 depending on where you found them. You could even find it on AT&T's online store http://www.att.com/equipment/accessory-details/?wtSlotClick=1-002RE7-0-1&WT.svl=calltoaction&q_categoryid=cat2020062&q_sku=sku3950283&q_manufacturer=&q_model=
This sounded like a great solution compared to buying another used unit for at least $30 bucks, especially when the modem itself was technically fine. I was a click away from buying the power supply when I saw in the corner of my eye something that read "1000uF"...
Capacitor??? I had a similar repair done for a BMW temperature control (BMW E36: Repairing the Climate Control Computer) before which also involved a capacitor. Capacitors seems to go out frequently in electronics. Whadya know?!?
Someone did the work of troubleshooting the actual root cause of this stupid issue that both AT&T and 2Wire apparently refuses to acknowledge and/or fix for their customers. Go figure.
Long story short, there is a 1000uF capacitor (show below) in the wall wart that has dried up and failed. Went to radio shack and bought a replacement, cracked open the wall wart, replaced the capacitor, and powered up the modem.
It's alive!!! Instead of buying a new modem for $80, or a used modem for $30+, or buying a replacement power supply for $10 (more with shipping), I spent $1.59 and a little bit of time.
Thanks to the community online that made this information possible, I was back online within a few hours and having saved a ton of money. What more can you ask for?
Here is a link to the original page discussing both the problem and the solution (2wire 2701HG-B power light red).
One uneventful day, I powered on the 2Wire 2701HG-B DSL Modem to discover a dead modem. Well, I later found out that it wasn't quite dead. The power light was red and the wireless light was green... both were on and steady. Aside from that, nothing was working!!!
I was close to buying another replacement from Craigslist but I thought I'd search a bit longer to see if there was something I overlooked. Well, this is where patience and a little bit of persistence pays off.
First, I found that the power supply is faulty on this unit. They usually die after several months to 2 years for the majority of units in use. Great! Replacement power supplies were available online from anywhere from $8 to $15 depending on where you found them. You could even find it on AT&T's online store http://www.att.com/equipment/accessory-details/?wtSlotClick=1-002RE7-0-1&WT.svl=calltoaction&q_categoryid=cat2020062&q_sku=sku3950283&q_manufacturer=&q_model=
This sounded like a great solution compared to buying another used unit for at least $30 bucks, especially when the modem itself was technically fine. I was a click away from buying the power supply when I saw in the corner of my eye something that read "1000uF"...
Capacitor??? I had a similar repair done for a BMW temperature control (BMW E36: Repairing the Climate Control Computer) before which also involved a capacitor. Capacitors seems to go out frequently in electronics. Whadya know?!?
Someone did the work of troubleshooting the actual root cause of this stupid issue that both AT&T and 2Wire apparently refuses to acknowledge and/or fix for their customers. Go figure.
Long story short, there is a 1000uF capacitor (show below) in the wall wart that has dried up and failed. Went to radio shack and bought a replacement, cracked open the wall wart, replaced the capacitor, and powered up the modem.
It's alive!!! Instead of buying a new modem for $80, or a used modem for $30+, or buying a replacement power supply for $10 (more with shipping), I spent $1.59 and a little bit of time.
Thanks to the community online that made this information possible, I was back online within a few hours and having saved a ton of money. What more can you ask for?
Here is a link to the original page discussing both the problem and the solution (2wire 2701HG-B power light red).
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