CodeTalker here - welcome again to the Saturday Morning Home Repair Blog, where we talk about fixing things in and around our abodes, and the things we use and depend on. An ad hoc cadre of building professionals and gifted amateurs, we will attempt to answer questions that arise from readers, and offer encouragement and advice for those inclined to do things for themselves, if they can. We all do a lot of things, collectively, and can probably help out with insights from our vast experience. Sometimes, we just gab - or today only, you can wish this old geek a Happy Birthday, if you are so inclined.
(NOTE: We NEED diarists - HELP! See below for details...)Join the gabfest after the jump...
One thing I've learned over the years is how much learning affects my projects; that is, the more I know, the better the results. I have mentioned this before here - IMHO, the single best way to tackle something you've never done before is to research and make a plan before you start working. I started this habit young, and built a library of DIY books because I love reading, and that gave me a basis of how to use tools and materials - everything from woodworking to welding to electronics. (At least what passed for electronics when I was young, before the discovery of electricity...) Now this process also includes things like Googling the exact make/model/device, etc, seeing how others have tackled similar projects, finding parts lists, pictures - basically getting all the info I can before I tackle it. Trust me, with the Net this can work for virtually anything you want to make, fix or modify. Knowing what we are really up against before we start gives us our single best chance for successful outcomes. Having the skills to tackle a job is only half the task, knowing WHAT to do is the other half. exlrrp is a great example of this, as everyone who has followed his abortion of a house as he rebuilds teh stupid (and does it correctly) knows well. Or eeff - the most conscientious maker/builder/can-do person I've even run into, as we've all seen by his projects, planned well and executed better, with reliable results. (They are two solid examples of this; there are many more just as skilled here, I just haven't named them all, so don't roast me!)
Lately I haven't taken on projects that require physical labor since my broken body won't let me, but have concentrated on some things that must be done and don't require a lot of muscle - so I've been doing repairs on cars when I can get help - mine and my neighbor Bob's. He has a '92 Roadmaster, I have an '02 Monte. One problem he ran into is called "Twilight Monitor" or something like that - it turns the lights on automatically as it gets dark. His stopped working, but only for taillights - the headlights came on properly. I researched it and found that the control module had a weak point, one grounded solder joint on one leg of one relay - the one that controls the taillights - and sure enough when we pulled it, there was a cracked solder joint. A few seconds with a soldering pencil and it's working as designed again. Or his XM radio setup, which was wired by a big box store; it quit the other day, after we had worked on the twilight module. My tester gave odd readings, it seemed that sometimes it had power, sometimes it didn't, no rhyme or reason that we could find. We kept at it; the installer had simply wired a cigarette lighter adapter directly to the feed and ground wires with a twist 'n tape, the worst kind of electrical connection; we thought we had it, but when I metered the wires we got intermittent juice readings, and finally realized that their ground was to a metal plate under the dash that was fastened to another by screws, and then to another, then the body - and that we probably broke the ground connection somewhere, re-did the connections to the adapter properly, then pulled the ground wire and fastened it directly to a body screw, and now it works perfectly. It was a step-by-step analysis and diagnosis: test here and here, see what happens if we do this, ask what changed when we jumped this connection, and it led us to the real problem and a real solution.
My neighbor and I also tackled my Monte's dead A/C unit, something I had never tried on my own - although I do have a little prior experience with hotel and home air conditioning units. We replaced the compressor and then the condenser coil; having the right tools, kit, and procedures helped us get it working well the first time - my vents are discharging 48 degree air, yay! And again last week I tackled something I had never done, a "shift kit" in my automatic transmission, with 135,000 miles on it, which made it a sloppy shifter with jolting "clunks" as it shifted up and down. I've done many filter/fluid changes, but this also required removing the accumulator module, stripping and cleaning it, then reassembling it with all new heavy duty springs, spacers, etc. on the pistons. It worked like a new tranny right away, and brought back the quiet, smooth shifting it should have, for under $100 total vs the $500-$1500 most shops ask here for anything involving auto trans work. But it couldn't have happened without finding sites online where others told about their experiences, and even documented the entire process. I've become unafraid to tackle and then trust my life doing repairs like tires, brakes, suspension components, exhaust, radiator, and more, knowing that by doing it right I have as much chance of a good outcome as if I had taken it to a shop - maybe more, since I'm not on a schedule and don't rush, which gives me time to double and triple check my work. I have mentioned in the past rebuilding oil and gas furnaces, replacing parts in gas and electric water heaters and dryers - things that can hurt or kill if they malfunction, but if done correctly will work long and useful lives without further trouble. Like many of you, I never went to school for this, I had to learn on my own, by doing, which IMHO is the best form of learning.
I'd love to work on the hovel; the cellar stairs are more rickety, the bathroom needs a lot of work, the barn is still sagging - but I can't do those things without good help, which is hard to find. In my condition I can't throw lumber around, or anchor and cable the barn timbers to pull it back upright - hell, I can't even clean the damn thing out to GET to the timber frame, since my back is worse, my shoulder is getting torn up, and I'm just plain older and less capable... so I choose to apply my time and effort to the things I can handle, as long as someone else does the heavy lifting. It's not ideal, but being smart about our limitations is also a huge part of being successful in DIY projects, so for example I can build or fix a computer or flatscreen, but never had much luck with radios and TV's. I reworked my 12 string with a piezo pickup and it sounds great, but suck at doing plaster wall repair. I made and welded my own wrought iron railings, but do terrible work on sheet metal welding. (Yes, I hate admitting what I CAN'T do, but it's all part of the learning and knowing - and many of the things we learn about ourselves and what we can and can't do apply not just to the item at hand, but become skills we rely on when faced with other situations, especially ones we've never tried before. Mind you, I don't recommend poking around electrical panels without some instruction AND a buddy, but once you tuck a few successes under your belt you literally can tackle situations you never thought of doing, as long as you stick to your research and plan methodology. That's how I got from curious kid to competent handyman - step by step. All the great builders and fixers I've known are the same way - don't wade in until you know all you need to know and plan how to proceed, and when you do the skills you've honed over the years will fit nicely into place. Skills are cross-discipline, not just for limited applications. Tools have more than one use in most cases. There is always more than one approach to solving a problem. The most important tools we have are our eyes and our minds. Once you know how to do one thing you have a head start on doing many more things.
All of this has something to do with today, my 64th birthday. I don't mean to sound like I'm bragging about any of my own skills - this actually marks for me literal decades of learning how the most important piece of any DIY project, lifestyle, or handyman wannabe works - ourselves! Knowing what I need for a successful outcome has, over the years, increased the likelihood of successful repairs and projects I undertake. I know what information I want, what I like to know to be able to visualize the steps involved, what kind of parts/supplies I want to use - any of which can mean the difference between success or failure. And I stress - all of this happens BEFORE I begin a teardown, or lift the first piece of a project into place. I am not really anal about every little detail all the time, but I always research first, and often download manuals, parts lists/diagrams, take pictures of things as I take them apart, even write a plan of actions - if you don't already do at least some of this you'll be astounded at how much you can learn about things just via manuals, diagrams, and parts lists! In short, equipping ourselves with the right information and knowledge, plus the self-knowledge we gain doing this, can assure good, repeatable outcomes, even when we've never done a project before, even when our lives depend on it being correct the first time. My kids always said "my Daddy can fix anything" - of course I know better, but I do say "I'll try to fix it" to almost anything. That's what careful learning and planning can do, and it was the best thing I ever learned as a DIY'er, maybe even as a person; certainly it's right alongside my Rule of 3 - WHAT is the REAL problem? WHAT do we want the outcome to BE? HOW do we get THERE from HERE? Every old-timer I ever worked with had some variation of that mantra, and most were willing to teach the gawky kid how to do the job right, probably because my best skill is LISTENING. I hope you all get something out of this long-winded howto, and I hope you make it the central part of your approach, because it just works, and works well.
So the shop is open: chime in, add your own skill stories, poke fun at the old man, and please, please, sign up with Glen for coming SMHRB dates - we have run out of diarists and need you to carry SMHRB through the drought... Thanks John
(Note: We are under a severe storm/tornado watch as I post this, no promises that I'll be on top of it as it goes live in the morning, unless Dorothy and Toto intervene!)