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We needed a new starter on the family car

Good morning folks. Happy New Year! The family car broke down. Luckily this time, it is just a starter motor. Earlier this week, the family car had difficulty starting for my wife on her way to work. We knew this was coming as it has been slowly degrading for the last several months. This was one of my first repairs as a teenager and this is also a golden opportunity to allow our budding mechanic to take on a bit of a larger job.

The Parts needed

The good news is that this job only required one replacement part. The starter Motor itself is not super cheap, but, by doing the work ourselves, we did save some money. Prices ranged anywhere from thirty-five dollars to seven hundred. I did a bit of searching and comparing between the factory sources and the local parts chains and came up with a good number that was still under a hundred bucks and managed to provide us with a factory branded starter. Keep in mind, this car has over two hundred thousand miles and I am a total believer in the parts that have proven to last that long. I certainly could have purchased a rebuild or an off brand to save even more. I have done this before when the wallet made steeper demands on what I could afford. The real truth is even in those situations, I rarely had to replace the off branded parts a second time. I also have had to replace faulty factory parts to find a good one. No one is exempt from this stuff. It truly can be a gamble each time.

The Prep

I spent yesterday after work cleaning out a space to put the car in the garage in case the weather did not cooperate. It is December for crying out loud. That being said, I am liking this spring weather in the winter. Whoever is tracking this sort of thing, please put me down officially to keep the nice weather all through the winter. I will certainly accept a longer riding season and fully plan to get the bike out on January 1 to honor an old friend and ride in the New Year as long as it is not raining. Yes, I have done this in 12 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. It is important. I may only go around the block, but, I do what I can to get out. Down to the work. We jacked the car up and slid some ramps under the tires for safety.

The Work

We watched a quick refresher video online to show us a few tricks that were very helpful. The video covered the wrench sizes we used so we had them staged and ready. Next, I had my daughter pull out the creeper for the old man to slide around under the car, and off we went. Each time we take a car adventure, I have her do as much as possible and only assist when some ancient wisdom is needed or if some brute force is required to crack things loose. Today was no different. As she grows, the bolts come loose easier for her. I only had to assist with the larger bolts that hold the starter to the engine. Personally, I am glad that this car had the starter in such a place where we did not have to remove the exhaust pipes to access it. She disconnected all of the wires, kept track of all of the nuts and bolts, and was able to remove the bad part with ease.

The new starter

After we had the old part out, we inspected it to assure we had the right size replacement and all looked good. I was very proud that she remembered to simply reverse the order and the new starter went in quickly and trouble free. The very last 10mm bolt gave us a bit of heartburn, but, I will accept that any day. Let’s get it started! Once we felt comfortable that we were done, we reconnected the battery and gave it a good few starts to make certain that the new part is working better than the old one. Of course, it did. I feel like this is a great way to spend time learning together and accomplishing something positive as a family and for the family. Time well spent ending out 2021. Have a great New Year celebration!

The Problem:

So I just had the engine replaced in my little Hyundai. It is a fun little car, but, like any other machine it breaks. Luckily I have a couple kids willing to help their old man find and fix little problems. In this case, I had been told a couple times from concerned drivers that my backup lights were always on. I did some searching and found that this is not too difficult for regular folks to tackle.

The other problem:

The other problem is mostly unrelated, but, I have a platform and will certainly use it. To fix the car issue, I was going to order the part online for half the price of what is available locally. The problem was that my credit card company turned off my card with no warning the day before black Friday. UGH! This has happened before. I simply call the number on the card and they typically tell me that it was due to the company blocking unusual purchases due to security. That is easy enough to navigate. This time, they informed me that they turned it off to give me an upgrade. Some upgrade. I cannot use my card to order anything online until the new wiz-bang card arrives. Long story short, they open each call with how much they appreciate my business for several decades, but in this case, I just have to wait. No offers to fix the issue or make up in any way them kicking me in the financial gut a couple weeks before Christmas. Tomorrow, I will be looking for a new company. In talking to one of the help desk people, I was told the new card should have been here early last week. It is totally still not here.

The Fix:

On this car, in order to get a wrench on the switch, we had to remove the air box and some hoses. no big deal, they were all 10mm so we did not even have to change sockets. We did run into a problem with having the right size socket. The new switch was a 15/16 size and my set stops short of this. I looked through some boxes of stuff that was left to me. I found a box end wrench, but the engine bay was exactly too small to allow that wrench to fit and turn. In other words, the wrench fit onto the switch, but I could not move it left or right. Well, off to the local parts shop. We found exactly what we needed for an excellent price. The short journey home had a couple nice slug bug exchanges and a couple laughs. We got home, removed the old part and installed the new one. Testing was simple and we found that our work was effective. Backup Lights restored!

Know How

We switched over to the old pickup truck because this summer was a hot one! My power windows have been quitting on us one by one. We fixed the power windows today and had a good time together. The only money we spent was on the magnetic tool we needed to fish out the bolt I dropped into the door. Ugh. Having been a repairman for 25 years, I can say with authority that the skill of seeing how things work can set you apart from the modern swaptronics person. Of course swaptronics is the practice of replacing related parts until success is achieved. This can get pricey.

The process

We removed the inside door carpets and then the inner plastic to show us where the motors were. After that I was supposed to be able to drill some dimples out to expose the bolts that held the motors in place. FAILURE! Not sure if I used the wrong bit, or just pushed it too hard, but, SNAP! The drill bit broke and I had about 5 more holes to make. This was only a temporary set back. I switched to the Rotary tool and cutting wheels. I did go through several cutting discs, but, those are really cheap and it made short work of it. Next, we found the right size sockets and removed the bolts. After dropping the first one into the door, I got wise and wrapped some wire around the rest of them as I took them out to prevent further drops.

Rebuilding the motors

Once we got the motors out, we had to pull off the cover plate. Once that was removed, we saw why the windows don’t work. The motors were filled with all kinds of broken bits. These were the remnants of the old nylon spacers that fit in between the spindle and the gears so the motor could move the windows. Many years ago, I worked in a test lab for just such a motor, so, I knew some tricks. All we needed were some items similar in size that were round-ish that could hold up to the pressure. No big deal. After searching in my bins, I found 6 nuts that would do nicely. Cleaning the debris out was simple enough. Then, we removed the little snap rings and this allowed for the spindle to be raised up enough to insert the nuts into the spaces. 3 per motor. I think even 1 per motor would have been okay, but hey, they were free and why not just add them all in.

Reassembly

Once we put everything back together, it was now a matter of reassembling the whole thing. I tried to take the easy road and simply replace the bolt I dropped, but no dice there. None of the local hardware stores could figure out what the size was. A visit to the big box commercial fastener store, they were able to determine the size, but, they would not sell me less than 100 bolts and then refused to take my cash. TERRIBLE! No wonder they are closing stores permanently. Anyway, I bought a magnetic goose neck tool to retrieve the lost bolt and was able to get everything working again without having to buy new motors.

Greetings! Some families play games and get ice cream. We do that stuff too, but we also get greasy together. To go back in time a bit, we were planning on leaving town and hours before leaving, an ignition coil blew on the family car. I know it’s not the bug. Having been planning this trip for 12 months, it is disheartening when the only car we have that will make the trip starts in with the problems. While I was at work, my beautiful wife took the car to have the codes read. Of course, they were vague at best, but this has happened before and I suspected it was a coil based on how it felt.

Keep up with the basics

During the process, we also found it was time to do the spark plugs. We already dropped the kids off at the grandparent’s house, so I was on my own. I only had 1 coil to test with, so as I changed the spark plugs, I swapped coils one at a time until the car ran good again. Success! We were off and running with new plugs and a new coil.

Success was short lived

We got about half way to our destination and the familiar feeling of misfires comes back to haunt us. Luckily, we passed by a big box auto parts store that offers free code scans. This time, the code was more specific to the cylinder that had the misfire (since the plugs were new and the other coil is now fixed). Armed with this information, we knew exactly which coil to replace. Alas, the store did not have any in stock, and neither did the one in the city we were visiting. No problem, we could make it the last few miles and order one in. Sure enough, they were able to ship next day to the store closer to us. So we got breakfast the next morning and borrowed a 10mm socket and wrench from the store and in 15 min all was right with the world. Or, at least the car.

More to the story

Included in the scan, we saw some more codes. The ABS speed sensors on both sides in the front, needed replaced. Having never done these before, I decided to wait until after we returned home to get into that job. I did this mainly to spend some grime time with the kids. I ordered a set of sensors online. They beat the box stores by half the price, so yeah. They sensors arrived on Saturday, and we all dressed for getting greasy. I had one kid do the right side (all by her lonesome and she completed the job easily and correctly), and me and the other kid did the left. Just in time for dinner, the car was shifting a bit better, but we still had the check engine light. Today after work, I pulled the battery and reset the codes. All clear, and a big thanks to my little pit crew!

Plastic Carburetor? Whats next?

I know this is not a Volkswagen post. Boop! My Site! In all fun, we have not done much on the bug due to time constraints and Injuries. Don’t worry, everyone is fine and on the mend. We will get back to the bug soon enough. We visited a Volkswagen bug car show last weekend. This got the juices flowing again and had a wonderful time as a family. One of the cool things was watching my kids inspecting each car for the elusive “Auto-stick”. Ours has this type of transmission, and we found none at the show that was an Auto-Stick.

We worked on the Lawn Mowers today

I picked up a mower for nothing in a shed find that looked as though it had never been used. The previous owner confirmed that she moved on to an electric model for ease of use and that the one in the shed indeed had been used maybe 5 or 6 times, but that it had been several years since then. I threw it in the truck and took it home. I found a kit on the big auction site that included a carburetor, air filter, and spark plug for 10 bucks. It also had a few other bits and parts for tune ups.

First time failure

A few weeks ago when I was bored, I pulled out the mower and swapped the carburetor and plug. I had done this on an older sears mower and had immediate and excellent success. The difference was that the sears model had a tried and true metal carburetor on it and those things are pretty durable. With the plastic model, the mower did start up pretty well on the first pull. I did not notice a problem until a few more weeks later when I tried to start it up and had no success.

New is not always CLEAN!

After waking up and having breakfast, I talked to our budding mechanic and we got together on fixing the mower. Last night, by myself, I spent some time on the spark plug as it was a very generic plug and the spark was a but dimmer than I would like. Easy enough, I found another one from a reliable brand and eliminated it from the possible causes of failure. Big tip in repair work is never assume. Guilty as charged. I totally made the assumption that a new carburetor would be clean and free from debris. Sometimes I think the extra money for products goes for cleaning services and better storage facilities. Maybe not. This time, me and the 2 kids focused on the carburetor because last night I found that I can get the mower to fire using ether, but it would not keep running.

Down to business

Each kid took turns removing pieces until we had everything out and ready to inspect. Sure as God made apple butter, that new carburetor was full of varnish and about a quarter teaspoon (a lot for a small device) of dirt and grime. To be utterly fair, this could have been dirty gas, or the carburetor may have indeed come with a side of goo. That is not important.

The road to success

Totally relying on our learned skills from the Volkswagen, we disassembled the plastic carburetor and immediately both kids recognized the clogs and grit. After a couple near empty cans of cleaner, we got it all clean and reassembled. With fluid shooting out in all the right directions and from all of the right holes now, the mower then started and stayed running. There must have been a tiny bit of residual goo in there because we still had to spray some cleaner in the throat and pump the bulb to get the last of the junk out. A cap full of stabilizer and a 5 min run, now it starts on the first pull and stays running. We shall see about next time. I am still not super convinced about the plastic carburetor. Time will tell.

I recently had a wonderful opportunity to play some music for a local Theater production. It was my honor to be the “Voice of Otis” . A dear friend of mine contacted me to fill in for this role and we had a great time working together again. Together, we explored new talents, and reminisced back to old times. Forging new art to support local performers and artists is now one my favorite memories. I never met the cast, crew, or writer, but, I still feel like I had a small part in this story. This production will be put on by Dayton Playhouse thru July 25th. Tickets can be purchased here. https://daytonplayhouse.thundertix.com/events/187414. Please enjoy the hard work and artistry of some of Dayton’s best.

Excellent Musicians

The music of the show had some excellent talent. Mr Kareem Powell (another dear friend) and Mr Adam Ben Ezra did amazing work for this show as well. Seek them out and Enjoy their works because they are AWESOME!

Kind words from the Writer

The writer gave us all some wonderful comments related to the music of the show. It is always nice to read a heartfelt comment that makes you fell good. What a pleasure to work with local artists and make some art together.

Welcome!

Good afternoon! It is good to be back in the nice weather and out working on the old beetle again. Before winter put our fun on ice, we were at a point where we needed to replace the fuel pump. Last week, we did just that. I prepped the student with some time before so she could be ready to take this on.

The Pump!

The fuel pump that was in there still kind of worked, but, one of the nozzles was squirting gas out last season, so it was time to replace the Classic Beetle Fuel Pump. Initially we thought is was going to be more difficult. What a pleasant surprise. Only needed to remove the distributor and we were able to leave the carburetor alone. Once the distributor was out of the way, we had a clear shot at the bolts holing the pump on. Removal was a snap. The old gasket came off nice and easy and the we had the grease and new parts all laid out and ready to go. We did get it all back together with ease but then ran into the issue with the ignition switch.

Next Project.

Looks like we can turn the key, but the connection is not always made so the starter motor wont engage. I would much rater start with replacing the switch than trying to do the starter itself. twelve bucks seems more livable than a couple hundred, not to mention, the starter is well hidden in this car. The replacement has arrived. It won’t be long before you see another post. This time we get to remove the steering wheel! Gotta check to make sure I have all of the tools we need for this one. I might just need to go buy a steering wheel puller.

https://dwits.biz

Greetings!

Now that Spring is settling in, it is time to get back to working on the cars. Sadly, this is not a beetle post. We had a pressing issue with the front suspension on the family Kia. You could say our Soul was wobbly/Noisy when driving on bumpy roads. Who would have thought that this could be fixed with around $85 and a little elbow grease.

Well, I assumed that this would be an easier job than it was.

After all, you can see in the picture that there are only 2 connections on each part. FYI, these do not come with replacement nuts, so plan ahead. I did not. It added time to the job. Me and the budding mechanic went out and jacked up the car. We then stabilized it with chocks and went right to work. She is growing in her skills and I did not need to coach at all.

Things seemed to be going well.

Then it came time to remove the top nut. Work, work, work. Lots of movement was happening, but no progress was being made. We found that we needed an extra wrench to get it to move. That got it almost off, when the nut just would not move any more. Vice grips did not help either. This only made things worse. I called my brother and he came to our rescue in short order. I love that guy.

He has a bit of a drive to get to us, so we continued with the lower connections and got those off without any difficulty. This allowed us to reuse the nuts for the bottom, but we still needed to solve the problem with the top connections, and we found that both sides had the same issue. The bottom connections were problem free, but the tops were not coming off. By the time we got to this point, My Brother arrived and gave us some needed company and different perspective.

The Adventure to the stores

We decided that instead of fighting with this for too long. We visited the local hardware store and get new nuts after using my grinder to cut off the old ones. 2 or 3 stores later, we had new hardware in hand and headed home to finish the job. I set my daughter on the path of installing the new link while my brother and I worked on cutting the other side. She did an excellent job. We finished cutting and then stepped aside so she could install the driver’s side link. We all 3 double checked the tightness on the connections for safety and then put the wheels back on and lowered the car. The test drive was nice and quiet. No more wibbly wobbly bumpity bumps.

Now, for the rest of the story.

In the winter, the rear brakes needed done and the local repair shop way overcharged us to fix them (still kind of worth it since I did not have to do it in the winter, but it stung). The informed us that we needed all new shocks and struts in the front and rear. I assume new links would have been part of the total repair, but the cost would have been far higher (guessing around $1100 to $1500). We decided to try it out and learn together with my daughter, and this time, it worked out and we got away with a nice day together learning a good skill and only spending about $85. What a great experience, I am so proud of what we accomplished, and thankful for people in my life that came to our rescue.

Good Afternoon,

I hope all is well with you and yours. My daughter and I decided to try our hand at making some soap. This was from a mail in kit that was gifted to her for school. We spent the afternoon reading the instructions and working through the process of making a small amount of home made soap. As always, she picked out a very cool design and we sailed through the process with the greatest of ease. There are some more options in the kit that we will be doing at some point. I have also purchased some ingredients to make some Shaving soap for me. That project will be a bit more involved. I am so proud that we can do stuff together and have fun. Have a great day.

Good evening. This will be a short one and a lot less soap boxy than the last one. By the by, the famous roadside company still has not paid me back for my battery though. So, back to business. My boy has added Mario brothers to his repertoire of games he likes to play. One of the characters in the game is the hammer brothers. They typically appear in pairs, but can be alone from time to time. We did a little research and it looked pretty simple. This is what we came up with. I had some scrap 4×4 from another project and a dowel pin that we cut to size. He got to learn how to size a hole to fit the dowel and how to cut an angle with a miter saw and some basic staining. It has been fun to watch him carry it around. Another thing that he and I have been working on is some gamer play through videos. We (mostly I) worked out the tech and he is working on the gaming and commentary. Once we get some stuff down, I will put something up for the world to see. Who knows how long that will be. But it will be his own brand of fun.