Not yet, but I hope that will soon be the case. He knows how to jack up the car and change a tire.
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I wear the gloves because I have a desk job and my hands are not hard or calloused and I bleed very easily when I do jobs like this. Always bashing my knuckles against something. Also to keep them clean. But to be honest, I think it's mostly because I still have etched in my memory that scene from the opening credits of The Incredible Hulk when David Banner is changing a tire in the rain and the wrench slips and he bashes his knuckles against the pavement.

Ha Ha, I knew it was him.
Gloves are safety equipment, which always explains itself. ;)

Good job. I will be doing the brakes on my Avalanche soon, only all around since it is five years old now and they are the original pads. I am betting they are all worn since I am beginning to hear squealing.

I really hope I don't need special equipment to do them, like my Cougar needed.

Good job Glatt !!!
Betterer job that sonny Boy knows how to change a tire !!!!!

1 comment , as long as you were changeing wheel studs , why not do them All on that wheel , just my $.02

In hindsight, I wish I had changed them all, it was so easy.

If it ain't broke...

So, the bloke's back black brake block broke, eh?

great job glatt!

when you had to brace the rotor to pull the new studs in, why not put the transmission in park?

and Brian, all you need is the hex socket and you're good to go. but if you're going to replace the rotors i recommend repacking the bearings (see page 1 to do it neatly, ok, well....less messy.)

eta: and even better job teaching your son how to wrench early on. i grew up watching and helping my dad and it helped tremendously.

i have a bad vent solenoid on my chevy now....i almost tackled it last weekend. this sucker looks like a royal pain in the ass because it's so cumbersome. not big, just awkward. it's long and snaky.


anyone have experience doing this one? i've read on a few forums that you can remove the solenoid and blow it out with an air hose and have it work fine....i'm wondering if cleaning the filter at the top of the vent line would do it?

Oh THAT looks like a Major PITA !!!!!

Before you do that, do a little hooning through a field of clover or alfalfa. It won't make it easier but the crap falling in your face will taste better.;)

That's the nice thing about a truck though, you can just crawl under there.

*snicker*

I went down to check the property that I used to lease. They are logging it and will be through in 2 weeks. I might do another lease. While I was there I managed to hang up my Tracker on a log. I had Addie with me, so I taught her to drive a manual in 4L while I lifted the rear end. This will be an experience both of us will never forget. LOL. BTW, all pics are by Addie since she is the better photographer

Awesome! Go Addie! :)

5 years old and can work a manual in 1st gear, shoots a .22 rifle, and helps skin game. Now if I could only get the other 3 kids to......

wow! I'm impressed.

Way Cool BS !!!!

Man.

This is completely awesome!! I give you, and Addie, a standing ovation!

:notworthy

Thanks. She's my little buddy. I guess I get to spend more time with her because I'm older than I was with the other 3. Plus being gone on deployments starting with Desert Storm (5 total), made me miss a great deal of their lives.

I guess I'm trying to say I screwed up as a dad when I was younger and I've learned from my mistakes

Don't we all.

I've told my younger kids that they owe a debt to their oldest brother for breaking trail for them.

:)

so true

In the interest of full disclosure. The brakes seemed fine to me after pumping the pedals a lot to seat the calipers and going for a test drive, but when I gave the car to my wife, she thought the pedal was really soft and the brakes were bad. She had a scare when the car didn't stop the way she was expecting. I listened to her description of what happened, and realized the pedal was indeed pretty soft. My pumping them initially had masked the problem when I was testing the car.

Somehow I must have gotten air or contaminants in the line when I pushed the pistons back in with a C-clamp.

I've since read that it's better to bleed off the brake fluid when pushing the piston back in rather than pushing all the fluid back up to the master cylinder.

Anyway, that meant I needed to bleed the brakes to try to get the air out of the system. And I figured that as long as I was bleeding the brakes, I might as well put a lot of fluid in and basically flush them. So that's what I did over the weekend. Didn't take any pictures, because there's nothing to take a picture of. You just open a valve at the right rear wheel, have someone pump the brakes with the engine off, and then close the valve, and tell them to take their foot off the brake. Repeat about 8 times, and then add fluid to the master cylinder. Repeat that cycle for about 20 minutes until all new fluid is coming out at the RR wheel, and you don't see any bubbles in your bleeder tube. Then bleed the left rear wheel, and then right front wheel, and then left front wheel.

It's tedious and takes an hour and requires a helper. But the helper can go inside and watch the Giants beat the Redskins while you are putting the wheels back on and taking the next one off and getting your clear tube in place and inserted in your bottle. They only need to come out to pump the pedal for a few minutes at a time.

So add about $15 in brake fluid to the job. And $2 for a clear plastic tube. And I had to buy an offset wrench to reach the bleeder valve on the rear brakes, because the brake drum lip was in the way of my regular wrench, and the single wrench was sold out, so I had to buy a set for $22.

So add $40 to the job, but it also resulted in a brake line flush.

My wife is very pleased with the brakes now. And I'm glad she can stop the car when she needs to. :)

you da man

I wish I had your mechanical knowledge. I do well just to change the oil. Very impressive

Well, I'd never done it before. I read the shop manual and watched a few Youtube vids. I just have confidence and some tools.

congrats to both glatt and Big Sarge...well done!!!

i remember learning to drive with a korean war era weapons carrier (and our cj-5 jeep, hell i didn't care as long as i got to drive!) i was about 5 or 6 with my dad. that is something Addie will never forget! having dad teach her to drive!

Not necessarily you're fault, it could have already been contaminated. You were smart to push as much new fluid into the system as you could, fresh fluid never hurts. :thumb:

My Avalanche's brakes are now due for a pad change. The squealing is getting loud. After a mandatory dentist visit, I will be buying a set of extreme duty pads and getting to work.

a couple weeks ago i was sitting on the couch eating supper watching TV with Paul and i glance over at an electrical socket on the wall and notice a burn mark on it. Seen this sort of thing before (so i thought) no big deal right?

wrong.

I asked Paul if he knew anything about it to which he said "no" so i guess it was the maid that did it with the vacuum cleaner. (will make sense here in a little bit).

what really, REALLY, pisses me off is that nothing was said of the smoked outlet. i wasn't pissed until i went to replace the socket last saturday night. scorched doesn't even come close. destroyed does though.

When I opened up the junction box cover and saw the extent of the damage is when i got pissed. this could have caused a serious fire.

(going to be a two post thread here)

here is the outlet:

here's the problem, or a big part of it, aluminum wiring. The house was built back in the early 70's when aluminum was thought to be a better alternative to the more expensive copper wire. yeah it was cheaper, but it's got it's problems. heating and cooling caused the connections to over time come loose and short out. what else can add to that is ants or other electricity liking bugs making nests in the socket.

the overall cure is to rewire the entire house with copper. WAY too expensive.

there are several options to pig tail aluminum to copper. some ok, some good, some not so good.

so....... after some research i've ordered 50 Alumiconn connectors. they recommend using 3 per outlet (Hot, Neutral, Ground) but i don't see the point of using the one for the ground wire. i'm only concerned about load carrying conductors of which the ground isn't one of them under normal conditions (sans ground fault).

so anyway, i will be posting later this weekend or early next week showing installation of the Alumiconn pig tail system.

So lemme ask you: will you or will you not have to beat the maid?

Even though that's an old one, it still sounds vaguely dirty...

:lol2: good one!

Woah!

It will be interesting to see what you find at the rest of the outlets. Are you doing the junction boxes too?

Oh Your going to have FUUUUUNNN !!!

Wouldn't be easier to torch the house and start over with a new one?

right on! but moving our stuff out before we torch it would suck. me thinks it's easier to fix'em :D

glatt, yeah the connectors will fit in the j-boxes so there's no worries there. here's a vid:

OH! in the video i'm going to make....i will be working both hot and cold.....just to make things interesting....and perhaps funny. who knows! :eek: :D

Oh yeah let me whip out my TORQUE screw driver !!!!
Give me a friggen break ,
Like EVERY home owner has one of those !!!


I Cringed when Glatt ( Escuse me for this ) used a Hinge pin to remove those wheel studs , i was Screaming in my head " Dude I have a Punch for that !!"
Then i remembered that not every one has the tools I have ,
so carry one , Rant done with

having used a torque screwdriver at the panel shop for a while i've got a good idea how much to torque with out an actual driver. 10-15 inch lbs. isn't much at all...considering i used to torque some terminals to 50 in. lbs. plus

another wasted day

pic you took?

plthijinx - you are a man of many talents. i wish i had just a fraction of your skills

aww shucks sarge.....that's a compliment that i appreciate! and you as well sir, you have many as well!

He did one Hot later after a few more beers , i was on the phone with him , funny when he got bit a couple of times

I watched the whole video. 10 minutes for an outlet isn't too shabby, but it adds up when you have so many to do. Those connectors are pretty convenient though. You make it look easy.

Good work!

Thanks glatt....it is a pretty easy process. I did however find some pretty spooky situations. For example: loose connections, figured out some jackass reversed the hot and neutral wires the hard way (zap! Ouch!), and one blind cover that when i peeked inside for shits and giggles found an exposed wire splice.

We are ordering about 30 more connectors. The main goal this weekend was to do the outlets that have a constant load or a possible high amp load such as the vacuum cleaner.

How many amps does a pilot draw?

What's his Wattage?

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

Plt...that was awesome.

*snort*

Beer's an excellent conductor of electricity it would appear.

ps, glad you're ok.

Not exactly what I did today but something I saw. After I drop my wife of at the Shell Refinery here in Geelong, I go for a 2.8 km walk along a wildlife trail not far away. I like it because it is relatively quite and there are lots of Australian black swans and ducks and other birds on the water in the lagoon.

When I got back to my car there is a boat ramp near by and here is what I saw and it was not there when I drove by earlier to go for my walk. Seems like someone drove a pickup truck or Ute as they are called here, down the boat ramp into the lagoon. The wind is really whipping up today and the tide was coming in so much of it was going underwater. I was able to read USI on the back and a phone number so I called the number from my mobile.

"Hello, USI."
"Hi, are you missing a truck?"
"Yes, we had a truck stolen today. Have you seen it?"
"Yes, I see it right now. It is in the water at Limeburner's Lagoon near the Geelong Grammar School."
"In the lagoon?"
"Yes and the waves are up to the front windscreen with white caps breaking all around."
"Oh thank you, we had a truck stolen this morning. Where abouts is it?"
"Just past the boat ramp."
"Are you American?"
"Yes, I was just driving by and saw it and could read the phone number so I thought I'd give you a call."
"Ok, Thanks for calling us!"
"No worries!" I feel like such a local when I get to say that! :D

The Geelong Grammar School is one of the most prestigious in Australia, as I recall reading Prince Charles attended there for awhile as a lad. It had kids up to 18 or so who then go off to University, Wonder if it was a couple of them out for a joy ride?

that's my truck!!

Nu Uhhh , its a SHARK !!!

Uh Oh, now you're a suspect. :haha:

Ooh dear.

Good of you to call it in, but it'll be pretty much cactus inside.

I doubt the GGS boys would go joyriding in anything so plebian as a ute.

The buoy looks red.
So that owl and pussycat at least knew to stay to the right in their escape to sea.

Be on the lookout for some honey and maybe some money washing ashore.