New Washer&Dryer after 40 Years

Maytag Washer

In 1961, we lived in a clapboard farm house at the intersection of Liberty and Zeeb Roads. Our washer and dryer were housed in an unheated shed room attached to the kitchen. Exposed to the elements, they took a beating. In 1963, we bought our house on Patricia Court. The washer and dryer moved with us but the winters had taken their toll and the washer died. On 1966 June 9, we bought a new Maytag washer for $208 from Big George's. We bought a Frigidaire dryer too but I can't find the purchase records to date it. These two moved with us to Brainard Ave, Glendaloch Circle, and Deerview Drive, and served us well for 40 years.

Frigidaire Dryer

The dryer became quirky in recent years. The program selector dial didn't always make contact and the wrong program might run. The timer no longer shut off the heavy duty program automatically and had to be set for the approximate minutes the load should take to dry and reset for more minutes if the load didn't dry. But, it worked.

LG Tromm Washer and Dryer

January 15, Jeanne noticed a classified ad for an LG Tromm set, brand new and unused, at half price. I'll not get into the details of how this worked out here, suffice to say we jumped at it. Eric and Brian had both bought LG Tromm sets and are totally satisfied with them so we rode on their research. We selected this washer and this dryer with pedestals all white (cheapest). Delivered and installed Monday. Here they are. The dryer arrived with controls on bottom. I had to swap controls to top and did that while delivery men were trying to retrieve a power cord retainer screw they dropped inside cabinet. Installation in laundry closet is tighter than removed units. Power cord too short to plug in while dryer is in hallway out of closet. Will try to swap for longer cord at HD. Dryer vent routing similar difficulty. Gotta connect vent while dryer is out of closet, then back dryer in. Accordian vent pipe can prevent backing dryer in if not routed exactly right.

Not yet washed and dried a load of clothes. Gotta read the manual first and make sure I don't use too much HE detergent.

We ride Maizey in RWC Spinning Session

RWC Spinning Session leader Amy Slater invited participants to bring bicycles and training stands to Tuesday's session. I attend regularly, once/week, but Jeanne doesn't. I informed her of this opportunity to do something new and to "show off" by riding Maizey. She accepted. Amy brought her bike and trainer and we were the only others to accept her offer.

Riding Maizey on a training stand, especially our stand which does not have wide stanchions to support it, was very problematic. I constantly felt the steed was leaning, that we were in danger of falling over, and I had to lean to the opposite side. I finally decided the rear wheel had too much freedom to move sideways on the roller. I could honk on the handlebars and bring the frame back vertical. I could do this quite strenuously without feeling unstable

Because of that problem, I was chary of standing when Amy directed us "up" out of the saddle. After I got a handle on verticality, I found I could stand up without exacerbating that problem. Even so I didn't stand much or for long and Jeanne didn't stand at all. We don't stand much on the roads either.

We were out of communication as, with Amy's custom CD playing loudly through speakers, I could not talk over it loud enough for Jeanne to hear me. We had a mechanical problem, the chain moved off the smallest cog into the gap between the cog and dropout and locked. We couldn't talk about it. I grabbed a paper towel to handle the chain back onto the cog and we got "rolling" again.

In the car after the session, we agreed there is far too much overhead in racking and unracking Maizey to do this weekly but it was fun to do it this one time.

Trooper to get (another) New Tranny

First a little history.

1990 Sep 15, I bought a 1987 Isuzu Trooper, 53,000 miles. '87 Trooper transmission has a flaw: the 5th gear shaft turns in a bearing, the shaft is not properly heat treated and wears in the bearing, it doesn't last long. 1994 Mar 18, W. W. Transmission removed the transmission and sent it to Charlotte rebuild shop. 1994 Sep 20, WWT removed it again and sent it to Charlotte to be re-rebuilt at shop's expense. 1995 Dec 27, during travel to AA MI for The Holidays, the tranny emitted its death growl for the third time. I bought a tranny at Cherry Auto Parts in Toledo OH and Continental Transmission in AA installed it.

Back in Raleigh, I pounded on WWT's door! What the @#$% is going on with these transmissions? WWT explained the shaft problem to me. My solution, and it succeeded for a decade, don't use 5th gear.

Fast forward to 2006. The synchronizers started to fail, 3rd was first to go. Oh, oh. Then 2nd, then 4th. After most of 2006 timing my shift to slide through failed synchs, 4th started popping out of gear under any torque. Worn teeth springing apart. I fashioned a bungie cord to hold the shift lever in 4th. Hey, what the hey! Use 5th! The tranny is failing, so what am I saving 5th for anymore?

Dec 12, I paid a visit to Creech Import Repair and talked to Stan about installing a newer model tranny in my 1987, one without the flaw. Stan said flaw was fixed in 1988, same transmission is used 1988-1991, but body style changed in 1992 and so did transmission. He consulted with mech buddy about the task and concluded he could do it. Go find a tranny. But, while I'm at it, also need the tranny supporting frame cross-member, two driveshafts, and two shifters.

Stan clued me in to web Car Parts search. How great is this? DIY snooping in junk yards without getting greasy? I located two candidates: $500 for tranny and $200 for other parts at Salem Auto Sales and $550 for tranny and $350 for other parts at Johnston County Auto Salvage. Naturally, I chose the yard with a website. Such as it is, I must add.

In spite of Manual/Auto being a checkbox entered on the parts search, when I arrived at SAS Tuesday morning to fetch my tranny, there on the pallet was an Auto. What the hey! Owner Gino and salesman Alex didn't exactly panic but they scurried about to find a manual tranny. First attempt was a vehicle with wide tires extending outside fender wells. NO, thank you! Don't want no stinkin' tranny that's been stressed by this sorta crap. Second attempt was a vehicle collided square front on, both fenders and hood smashed. Engine and tranny had both been extracted. Problem here was the extra parts I needed. Gino, not being a man to refund a credit card charge already in his account, he and his crew rounded up the other necessary parts and loaded them in the Trooper.

Back in Raleigh, I changed into riding kit, loaded my 'dale into the Trooper, and took the whole smash to Stan Creech. Stan is a quiet man but he got quieter than usual. I'm a bit unsure if Stan doubted I'd follow through on my threat to keep this Trooper running for another decade, ~4000 miles/year for 10 years is all I seek. Anyway, he accepted the challenge, I hopped on my 'dale, and rode home.

We'll be away for a week. I'll follow up on this story when I have the Trooper in hand once again.

WaterFurnace Needs Increased Flow

Our geothermal WaterFurnace's "water flow" LED has been illuminating. I know, based on prior testing , that our well pump produces slightly more than the max 5 GPM the WF requires on its high level, i.e., pump fills a 5 gallon pail in 55 seconds. But, if other water uses such as filling the washing machine and a shower, occur while the WF is running on high, we lack sufficient water flow.

I won a well pump on eBay. Our current 1/2 HP 7 GPM WP was installed in 2002 when initial WP, circa 1983, was pipped by lightning. The WP I won is 1 HP 7 GPM with 10 GPM max depending on head in well, no question it is much heavier. Arrived yesterday very late in day, UPS drivers workin' overtime, too late to schedule wellman to swap it in. Must wait until Monday.

This is not to be aother FE DIY project although, with enough help, I could pull the pump hand-over-hand. Wellman has a motorized device that does it much easier. But, even if I pulled the existing pump, no way wiould I intend to screw up the wiring and the attachment of the new WP to the pipe. In addition to more HP, new WP has bigger outlet and that must be stepped down to pipe.

There's a ring on each WP to attach a cable and neither the initial or the existing WP has had a cable attached, the pipe has been the lone attachment. Since we'll have a bigger exposure to the more powerful WP torquing itself off the connection to the pipe, it will be cabled. I'd feel real stupid to end up with it at the bottom of our 250' drilling.

I'll continue this post when the wellman visits.

Homicide Spurs Memory Test

Not in our neighborhood and with Lake Wheeler in between, nonetheless this recent unsolved homicide has us a bit jittery. We're lowering the garage door more often even when we're both home. The route from our location to the homicide location.

The brain works in mysterious ways. For no reason other than having this homicide on my brain, an event from 55 years ago crept into my conscious a few weeks ago. Hazy at first, it became clearer but still clouded. Here's a query I sent to a HS bud:

> When we were in HS, a guy murdered a nurse, maybe more than one,
> in Ypsi. IIRC, he was a thespian and some of us had had some
> sorta contact with him before the murder(s). Can you recall his name?

My buddy replied: John Norman Collins. Collins was a serial murderer in Ann Arbor in 1967-9, 15 years later than the perp I sought. I replied:

> All I can dredge up from my memory is that his first name was Bill
> and his last name was something like Curry but this could be all wrong.

Sitting at the dining room table last eve, "Moorey" phonetically popped into my brain. I jumped to Google and, as I typed the query, I typed Morey, backspaced and inserted a second o, clicked search. No hit. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, maybe brain was correct, removed that second o, clicked search, and bingo.

So ya wanna recess a Medicine Cabinet

Our home was built in 1983 with no medicine cabinets. Until ~2 years ago, we had drugs and medicines stored all over in no particular order in drawers and cabinets in our bath, the guest bath, the powder room, and the kitchen. These represented a threat to visiting grandchildren. Thus, the initial installation of medicine cabinets occurred. I bought four Keystone ASB-1526 (discontinued, this is current similar model), two for our bath and two for the guest bath, and kept an eye out for an antique cabinet for the power room, haven't yet found one. I recessed two in our bath and one in the guest bath sans problems but the fourth was not so easy. On the wall opposing the shower in tub/toilet room, the shower pipe encroached in the recess. I abandoned recessing it and mounted the unit flush on the wall. The medcab came with "decorative" mirrors to install on its exposed sides when mounted flush and I did that.

In November, Jeanne fired up a project to remove the awful wallpaper and paint the guest bath. Dissatisfied with the mirrors on the flush mounted medcab, she asked if I could remove them. Rerouting the pipe in wall so the unit could be recessed was a pending challenge that I accepted.

Not thinking about project documentation when I started, I didn't capture a proper "before" picture, this was taken after work was underway. Here you see the shower pipe encroaching in the recess, also the electrical wiring that encroaches UR corner. I've cut and removed the section of the stud that intruded.

Also, at the top, was a horizontal 2x4 on the near side that supported the shower head fitting, right where the wiring shows, I've removed that. The shower head fitting is too low, encroaches in the recess, so will be moved 3" higher.

Unseen is a 2nd horizontal 2x4 higher up with a hole the wiring passes through, restricting moving the wiring out of the way. Not much access to that 2x4 but I had to remove it and cut to the hole to free the wiring so it will curve out of the way.

To cut the feed pipe in the restricted 3.5" space within the wall, I bought a mini tube cutter #24475 which made cutting the 1/2" pipe in the space possible.

Looking into the LR corner of the recess, the feed pipe enters the opening at the bottom, is cut below the recess, elbow to the R, short pipe, elbow up, long pipe up the R side. Damn leadless solder! Solder didn't flow into one of those elbows and I feared that it would leak. Disassembled it and soldered it with lead solder, after all, it's only a shower feed, no one's gonna drink water from it. Short 2x4 pieces are Liquid Nailed in spots at sides where the medcab screws to them, the one shown here and in the next pic are relieved around the new pipe location.


Looking into the UR corner of the recess, feed pipe up R side, elbow L, short pipe, shower head fitting higher. Also shown are the "worms" that extrude through the wet plaster mesh. I had to chisel these off the mesh until they were relieved sufficiently to allow the medcab to seat into the recess. This took ~2 hours of hammer and chisel work. Unshown are two 2X4 stubs Liquid Nailed on the L side of the recess.

Here's the final result, the medcab installed in its recess. I can't explain the gold color of the pic, something due to a flawed camera color setting, and it doesn't show the mirror well because it's reflecting the newly painted back wall.

One working camera from two non-working cameras

On Friday, Nov 10, I led a Veterans' Day celebratory bicycle ride, you can read about it here. I snapped the picture shown with my "trusty" Kyocera Finecam SL400R. Two days later, it wouldn't power-on correctly, its LCD screen was plain white and showed no image. Upon examination, I noticed the crack on the left side of the LCD bezel (Click this picture to enlarge it to see the crack). Experimenting, I could press on the crack and the LCD might spring to life but no way could the camera be used in that manner.

The Kyocera Finecam SL400R has features like no other small point&shoot mini-camera. After mine (to keep the cameras separately identified, call it #1) fxed, I dearly wanted to repair it. I checked Kyocera's customer service, wanted $165 + parts + labor + S&H for repair. Out of the question! That would sum to far more that I paid for it originally.

So next thought was to replace it. No longer being in Kyocera's product line, used units were my only hope. I won two on eBay, #2 for $129 and #3 $98 inc S&H. I should've been satisfied, no? A camera FOR REPAIR offered on eBay had me itching. That cam won't power on, my cam #1 has defective LCD. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Could I cobble one good cam together from two that don't work for different reasons?

Well, the first step was to see if I could disassemble #1. It wasn't easy and I had to manufacture a tool, just modified a mini-screwdriver I had, to reach a screw in a smaller access hole. Amazing, simply amazing, the huge amount of tiny componentry stuffed in the cam body. You can't knock the Koreans for cleverness.

In ~2 hours, I had #1 in pieces without damaging the unit further, one of which is the defective LCD screen. I sniped that cam for REPAIR on eBay up to $47, =$60 inc S&H. If I could win it, we'd see if DIY Eddy could put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Oops, I have to disassemble another cam first without breaking anything before reassembling anything.

I did win it! $36 + $13 S&H. Immediately upon its arrival, I stopped whatever I was doing and commenced disassembly, took about 45 minutes knowing exactly how to do it.

During disassembly of #4, I think I discovered why it wouldn't power on. See attached pic. At the top are three battery contacts. Don't ask me why it needs three instead of two, I dunno. The L contact is properly formed, the R two are bent away from the battery (upward in pic). When the battery is inserted, the L contact acts as a spring and springs the battery away (downward) such that the R two contacts don't make circuits.

In its state of disassembly where I discovered the bent battery contacts, I had two choices: 1) continue on plan to extract the part I needed, or B) straighten the bent contacts and reassemble it to see if my conjecture were correct. I chose 1, not having sufficient confidence that I'd diagnosed this correctly. I continued with my project to cobble the LCD from #4 into #1 replacing its cracked LCD. This worked and resulted in #1 being restored to full functionality. I'll never know if bending the R two contacts would also have worked.

Let there be Light!

Several years ago, having tired of reaching to switch on garage overhead lights when entering the garage, I installed a motion sensor and wired it to the two fixtures. In retrospect, I've learned I chose the wrong model, a Regent Cooper Lighting MS35, which is limited to 150 Watts and has been switching 240 Watts, four 60 Watt bulbs in the fixtures. Time or the excess wattage took its toll and the unit ceased to function.

Last week, I chose a Regent Cooper Lighting MS240 which is limited to 300 Watts as a replacement. I installed it and connected it to the fixtures. Drat! It didn't function. I fooled with all the connections and sensor settings, nada. I thought it to be DOA. I took it down and wired it up in a test bed configuration to control a house floor lamp. It worked perfectly. I tested it for hours, walking past the sensor, and it switched on the floor lamp every time and switched it back off after 4 minutes. OK, so not DOA. I reinstalled it in the garage and it's worked perfectly ever since. Go figure!

Straightening the Fence

Several years ago, during an ice storm, a Yellow Pine shed a few large branches that fell on the fence. Taking further advantage of Stuart's visit, we straightened the fence.

I fabricated a tool with a fulcrum and lever that seats in the bottom of the fence and stretches the top upward, still requires as much force as we can exert and some kicking into place of severely bent sections. The tool underwent one revision during our work and I plan to increase the leverage a fraction.