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Friday, September 29, 2017
You can't tell but sweat drips off the brim when I bend over after September #5kamonth
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Thursday, September 28, 2017
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Friday, September 22, 2017
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Saving Money, Accomplishing Work, and Learning Things
I finished a rear brake job on the BMW today. I’m a bit proud that I did this myself, without help. Hopefully things work ok and I’ll keep an eye on the car for a few weeks, but so far in a short test drive to the gas station and a trip to the gym, things seem to be fine. Nothing overheating, no pulling, no strange marks on the rotors.
A few months ago the Suburban needed brakes. Rear brakes, calipers, rotors, e-brake. The local shop I often go to wanted $1300 to do all that. It’s a lot of work, but I wasn’t sure how much. My wife’s helper said he could do it and used to be a mechanic and it wasn’t bad, so I priced parts. About $300 in parts.
What?!?!?!? $300 is way far from $1300.
I started investigating. I’d changed pads a long time ago as a college student when I was trying to save money and learn about cars, but never rotors. I wasn’t even sure how to change a rotor, much less a caliper. It sounds hard.
Thanks to YouTube I found it wasn’t hard. I pulled the parts off of the Suburban, took some down to the local O’Reilly, and purchased new ones. I wanted to get them from 1AAuto, whose videos helped, but they were out of stock. I’ll go there next time.
I watched the guy do the work and found it wasn’t hard. So when I had a $600 estimate to do the rear brakes (pads and rotors only) for the BMW, I decided to tackle things myself. I found a few videos on YouTube and one blog, ordered parts (around $250) and got ready. The parts were here for a week before I found time, but Monday afternoon I managed to get things going. I had to hit the auto parts store for a few things, and spent another $200, but it was a good learning experience. I managed to get one tire done and ready, but couldn’t loosen a couple lug nuts on the second.
I ran the car up to the local tire guy, going slow with one new set of pads. They used an impact wrench, but couldn’t remove the lug nuts. With a long breaker bar, they could get it off, but the nuts were a mess. I was thinking I’d have to find a way to get to the store, but they called a parts store and had some in about 25 minutes. I had to wait, but I didn’t have to chance a dicey drive.
I got home, and then started to take things apart. The cleaning of the calipers and carrier is slow, so I quit last night to hit the gym. This afternoon I got back to it. With things cleaned, I managed to get the rotors ready.
In a bit of a hurry, I didn’t take more shots since I had gloves on. However, I managed to grease things up and install the pads and rotors.
About a $450 job, so not a lot of savings here, but I learned a few things, and I’m ready to do brakes on the Prius, the Suburban, and Kendall’s Stratus when needed.
Monday, September 18, 2017
Friday, September 15, 2017
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Saturday, September 9, 2017
Friday, September 8, 2017
Long day nine meetings, demo practice, and some editing work. If only o could reach the phone from this position to order dinner
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Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Sunday, September 3, 2017
The Sun Basket this week. Cauliflower steaks with sweet potato hash and fried eggs
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Saturday, September 2, 2017
Chores, chores, chores
It’s a busy fall at the ranch. I went out to rework the front gate electric fence. Uma left yesterday, and the charger didn’t seem to be working. I think it was in too much shade when we just got it set before India, so I disconnected the charger, which wasn’t working, moved it on the other side of the fence in the sun, and let it charge.
After the gym, it was hot, so I reconnected things.
Now it’s grass time. I need to get the dog area clean, and do the front again with fertilizer as a last cut before winter. The front is growing somewhat crazy with sprinklers working well this year.
However, I wanted a little break, so I came inside and ordered brake parts for the BMW. After doing the parts and helping the guy do the Suburban, I don’t think I want to pay a local company $500-600 to do my brakes and rotors. Ordered parts for $210, and they’ll come while I’m traveling. Hopefully I can get things fixed then next week or the following one around Tia’s clinic. I’m down to about 500 miles on the warning sensor, so I need to get things done.
Tomorrow the plan is to get the mower tires off and the bead broken on one. If I can clean things up, hopefully it will seal and I can knock that off the list. I also need some time in Tia’s arena to clean up the edges more and get rid of weeds before her clinic. That won’t be fun with a 91F day planned, but I need to spend a couple hours at least getting things done.
Then it’s a week off, traveling, with lots and lots of meetings.
My wonderful daughter made me iced coffee so start the day with a little work. Thanks, @kendallaj26
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