Merry Christmas 2018

Merry Christmas 2018

Winter is almost here and the rains have come. Most of the year seems to have been filled with good weather and lots of sunshine. We are happy campers. Speaking of camping we drove south in the motor home January 27th and returned home March 21. This year we plan to head south a week or so after our planned solar panel installation on January 8th . We look forward to our Winter excursions south to Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and maybe Texas this year.
The kids and grandkids are doing very well. Lots of fun and cheer. We enjoy having them close so they can just drop in at times.

May I tell you about my new hip installation on October 8th. All went really well even better than the other side. I am 90% back and getting better. Doctors are really good to us.
Have a Merry Christmas  and to all a good night.

Rules And Precepts At Harvard In 1636
2. Let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the maine end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal! life, John 17:3 and therefore to lay Christ in the bottome, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and Learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisedome, Let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seeke it of him Prov. 2, 3.

                                                                          Jim & Linda

Camping at Cape Disappointment

The upstairs Bathroom Faucet is dripping and under warranty

Our WaterRidge bathroom faucet from Costco we bought and installed in March of 2005. The faucet just recently began a slow drip. The faucet came with a lifetime warranty however the 800 number on the installation instructions was no longer was good. I went on line and found 866-789-2273 now works so explained the issue to WaterRidge and they kindly sent out two new cartridges. There were no instructions so I did install the cold cartridge in the hot side and vise a versa which made it so the water would not completely shutoff on the hot side. I then after looking closely noticed the original cartridges had a ‘C’ on one and a ‘H’ on the other. The new ones had a red dot on one and a blue dot on the other so installing the cartridge with the blue dot on the cold side, all worked as designed. Hopefully we can get 9 more years out of this configuration.

Viking Sewing machine will not run

The needle was hitting something solid when the machine was started. Apparently it was just out of timing. I found a great YouTube video explaining how to set the timing at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYJOou1EjWQ

Sure enough just as the video described I found it rather easy to set the timing. This machine had 3 lockdown screws for the timing but the shaft still turned out of position. I think sewing machines are an amazing technology and still do not actually understand how the thread loops so nicely and ties everything together so well. Regardless watching the video and setting the timing as described the machine now works, as new, once again.

               The needle is to be positioned at this point for the timing to be correct.

Just to the left of the nylon looking belt is a screw hole with the screw removed. There are 3 screws on the shaft at this point. So I loosened the screws and rotated the shaft until the needle did not hit any metal and retightened the 3 screws which secured the timing. 

                                                  Now it runs quite again.

Clothes Washing Machine Leak

Our 14 year old COSTCO Whirlpool clothes washer started leaking creating a small puddle this week. The washer is in the basement on a cement floor so the leak is inconsequential. You tube showed how to take the skin off the machine which is quite easy once you see the ‘trick‘. Found the water pump had a flat beach rock jammed through its side. Rather amazing really first that the rock made it into the washer. Then also after the impeller propelled the rock through the plastic case the pump only developed a very small leak and the rock did not cause a large crack. Even after all that the pump continued to work fine.
Ebay has the pump for sale at under $12 (including shipping) with over 600 sold and rated very high. I ordered the pump and it will take about 4 days to get.

Pump at bottom

Rock is 2 inches from center of pump at 1 o'clock

Here rock is at 7 o'clock from center. 

Setting up my 'new' used computer

This is my story about a new computer, well new to me anyway. A friend of mine passed away and willed me his HP computer and electronics stuff. Over many years he was a source of help, thoughtfulness and inspiration on my electronic issues. 
I received my old Dell Inspiration 518 Computer December 31, 2008. Today is June 9, 2018 making the computer almost 10 years old. Over the years the DVD drive failed and was replaced and the power supply failed and was replaced. The computer came with Vista operating system and over the years Microsoft has allowed free upgrades to its present Windows 10. When upgrading to Windows 10 my old sound driver was not accepted by Microsoft so I lost all audio for six months. In the meantime I loaded Linux Mint free operating system where the sound card worked fine. I really did not mind using Linux at all. Eventually I found a sound driver that I could use with Windows 10 so all functioned well once again.
My friend’s HP computer was purchased 6 years ago and is faster with 8 MB of installed memory compared to my old computer with just 4 MB. Also the hard drive is 1 TB which double the memory of my old computer. My old computer is almost full with pictures and home movies.
I did not know my friends Windows password so I entered the Safe Mode on his computer by depressing and holding the Shift key while restarting the computer. From this mode I selected the Reset option and the computer returns to the initial build configuration however retaining the upgrades including Windows 10. I then selected a new password. All the personnel files go away and any software added since purchase time go away. I then transferred all my personnel files, (documents, pictures, videos and music) to this computer. Then I went on-line and installed all my software programs I like, all free. ( Fotosizer, Audacity, InfranView, Movie Maker, Apache Open Office, Notepad++ and EML Viewer) I have an old disk of Works 9.0 from 2013 that I also installed. Works was a $10 program from Microsoft that was a fine alternate of Microsoft Office. No bells and whistles just simple word processing, spreadsheet and stuff. Very easy to use but not as powerful for sure. Since I use hotmail all email looks exactly the same along with face book. All my web sites show up in my favorites list. In the end all works normal except this computer is a lot faster. My old monitor and keyboard I continue to use as they are bigger and better.
Now to operate this new configuration for awhile and then maybe Reset my old computer for use by someone else.

(And this is the first item I have completed on this computer.) 

Repair a 10 year old Maytag dryer

I noticed a 10-year-old Maytag dryer was being given away and it had been on-line for several days without a response. So I picked it up with lots of help from the owner. He said they had not kept the vent clear and now the unit spins and all but does not heat. He said they replaced the heating element two years ago.

I was hoping the thermal fuse had blown but after disassembly and diagnosis, I found the heating coil had opened up. There was a lot of lint inside almost an inch covering the bottom, including the motor, the roller wheels holding the drum and also on the heating element case. The lint on the heating element case shows signs of smoldering.

I was able to find a new element for less than $20 on eBay which ships from California. P/n 3387747. Maytag model number MED9600SQ.

I cleaned everything real good even taking the drum roller wheels off and lubricating them with Tri - something or other. Now just wait for the new heating element to come in.

Found the light inside the drum was broken off so will get a replacement for that as well. If all works I will replace our 39-year-old green Maytag dryer even though it is working just fine.

Lint on the motor. 

See burnt lint which was sitting on heating element can.

 Lint on inside of vent tube inside dryer. 

Lint on drum rollers.

Bad heating element. The break is at the bottom left. 

See the breaks in the metal holding the element due to overheating. 

Washing Machine did not spin all the water out.

On one load 2 inches of water remained in tub after all the spin cycles. This is a Kirkland Signature Washing Machine made by Whirlpool. With a little internet research it seemed the clutch assembly is the likely culprit for this problem. Nice you tube video’s of the repair were available. I ordered a new clutch assembly of Ebay and received in in 3 days at a cost of $14 including shipping. I also ordered a motor to transmission coupler for $5 with shipping which also arrived in 3 days. The coupler appears to be in great shape so I did not replace. With the new clutch in the washer spun the clothes dry perfectly at least for this first load. We purchased this washer in 2004 and with the new clutch appears to be working like new. The Maytag “green“ Clothes Dryer was purchased in 1975 and also runs as if new; although the timer dial is out of align some due to an earlier repair. Linda has used it out of align easily for many years.

The old clutch, not totally worn out but failing sometimes, slowing the spin cycle. I found it not too hard to spin by hand. The new clutch was much stiffer. The pads appeared to be about half worn down.

The gear box is still looking new, almost. (13  years old.)

The motor and drum shaft still lock in great shape.

Some removed parts on top of our old perfect running green 1975 Maytag dryer.

New clutch installed.