Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Most fuel injected cars prime the fuel system once the ignition is turned to position II, I've always given my cars a few seconds before engaging the starter for just this reason.

In fact, I once had a very strange problem with a Rover 45. If you jumped in first thing in the morning and turned the key, it would spin over fine but not actually start. Try again and it still wouldn't. Turning the ignition off for 15 seconds and then try again and it was fine. That 15 seconds wait caused the ECU to prime the fuel system again and it would then start. In the end a new battery sorted it

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Many years ago Vauxhall had an issue with failing fuel pumps on 2.0DTI diesel cars. The fuel pumps were fine but they were lubricated by the diesel fuel.

They would fail because car owners would just turn the key to start the car and not allow a few seconds for the pump to prime itself with diesel for lubrication.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I'm learning some useful motoring stuff here. Wonder how many 'breakdowns' have been caused by stuff as simple as this?

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

It's also good practice, especially if you have a turbo charged car, to allow the engine to idle for a few seconds before moving off or revving to allow the oil pressure and supply to get fully established to all working parts.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I also learned that you should not depress the accelerator pedal when starting an injected engine. This can cancel the "choke" and so you get an unstable start. This was a tiny comment in the manual on a page not relating to starting the car.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

To be honest most cars are pretty much idiot resistant by now. For example some cars will prime their fuel systems when the car is unlocked by the remote, so its ready to go even before the driver is.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Fixed our Roxyl 5.5.
Freed and trim issues.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Today's (temporary) fix was to the Focus' rear silencer. Somehow it had rotted away at the top, but a good dose of gun gum repair paste seems to have quietened it down. It'll keep until I can get around to getting a new part fitted.

Unfortunately though yesterday the windscreen decided to crack, I'm assuming due to the cold weather and the thermal shock of me using the heated windscreen feature.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Unfortunately with a modern car the screen is now a structural part of the vehicle and needs to be replaced properly to maintain the crash integrity of the car.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I'd hate to think how much some of these fancy panoramic screens cost to replace. :erm:

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

To be honest its not a big issue (£75 excess and finding time to sort it). Even if it was a metro style screen held in with a seal I'd still get it done by pros. Me and a mate tried to get the screen out of a Rover 45 once (a bonded in unit as you mentioned). It took the best part of an hour and we still managed to chip the edge. Once it was reinstalled it cracked within a very short time.

I just hope the insurance don't get sniffy about it being a heated screen unit and expect me to pay extra.

---------- Post added at 18:42 ---------- Previous post was at 18:33 ----------

I remember hearing once that one of the big Vauxhall panormaic jobs could cost over £1000 to replace.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

One of the stride rails of Osem Jnr # 2's cross trainer. He's a big lad and likes to 'ride' on one side only so a spot weld on the crank failed due to the excess weight. Luckily I was able to fix this using epoxy resin without disassembling the damned thing. If the fix doesn't last I'll drill the end of the crank shaft and insert a bolt which should prevent it coming loose again.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

If it's Autoglass doing the repair/replacement then watch them like a hawk.

My tale of woe with them

Dec 15th 2015 Screen got hit whilst driving down the M1 when I got to the hotel I phoned them and arranged for a replacement and said that it needed to be genuine BMW trims and screen used or they wouldn't fit and they would crease. Was advised by their advisor that this wasn't true (Despite me speaking to a friend who is a supercar dealer/mechanic)

Dec 18th - Autoglass come out and do the more horrific job trims not fitted correctly, trims creased at top. Sent them photos of the evidence they agreed to replace with genuine parts but next appt not available until the 26th December

26th Dec - Autoglass turn up geniuine BMW glass but with no rain sensor (first screen had rain sensor fitted as requred) and not BMW trims. Rebooked again

5th Jan - appt booked between 08:00 - 13:00 no one turned up, phoned twice to be told engineer was running late. on the third call was told glass damaged in transit. At this point I lost my temper. Rebooked again for appox. 10th January

10th - Technician turned up, with correct parts fitted windscreen correctly and trims however disconnected power and then airbag warning light came on due to power being disconnected technician denies all knowledge of this


Complained to Autoglass who agreed to refund the £75 excess. Then cost a further £30 to get the Airbag warning light cleared.

be very very careful with autoglass !!!

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Project 1 - Un blocked the u bend in the bathroom, god only knows how that much hair gets down there so quickly....

Project 2 - Replaced the scungy dripping tap in the kitchen with a nice new one from Aldi of all places. Came complete with flexies washers and was much easier to fit than the old style tap I ripped out. Less than an hour :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I'm not sure who my current insurers use, but my previous windscreen swap was done by a smaller local outfit and not autoglass/auto windscreens to a good standard. Hopefully my current insurers will use the same firm.

I'll also be making sure they bring a heated screen and not a plain one!

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Our washing machine. We woke to hear bleeping and found the washing machine wasn't draining and was full of dirty water. After using the emergency drain, inspecting the pump housing and impeller revealed the problem - one of the bathroom mats had shed tons of its latex backing and this was clogging everything up from the water outlet in the drum to the impeller. A lot of fiddling around with some 2.5mm copper wire allowed me to clear the small hose from the drum and of all the accumulated gunk then repeated rinse/drain cycles cleared the rest. It's purring now and so am I. Phew! :)

I'd woken up a bit fed up this morning but my little DIY challenge has taken my mind off all that and now the sun's out I'm going to sow some tomato seeds in my heated seed tray. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

It is recommended never to run a washing machine or tumble drier when you're sleeping.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Yes I know but we've been doing it for over 25 years without any problems and have numerous smoke detectors to alert us. We set the machine to come on about 6.00am so that it's finished when we 're up and ready. If anything goes wrong I'll very soon know about it.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

To be honest, if one goes boom, sleeping or not, there's not a lot you can do about it. Making sure you have smoke alarms fitted and working is the best policy.

Besides, my washing machine has a night mode, where you can postpone the main spin until the morning and runs quieter too so the manufacture not only knows that these devices are run at night but some have a special mode for it!

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Fitted a new battery to our smoke detector................OK but I am a mere female :D

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Rigged up the CFL lighting rig for this year's chilli grow. And no sawdust for the missus to gripe about. :D

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

There's nothing mere about you. ;O)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

My electric chainsaw. Been conifer pruning today and decided I needed the big guns. Having not used it for years it took me quite a while to find it buried under general detritus in the garage but eventually did, toped up the oil, connected it all up and then... Nothing! Checked the extension cable, RCD, fuse etc. and couldn't work it out. My voltage detector showed there was power but I couldn't get it to work. I was pulling what little hair I have out when I suddenly noticed the front hand guard/chain brake...

Suffice to say there was nothing wrong except that the chain brake was set as operational hence no power to the cutting chain... :doh:

Anyway I should have used it earlier because it cuts through conifer trunks and branches (6"-8" thick) like a hot knife through butter. I'm off out there again now to finish off.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Deep cleaned the dishwasher and cleared out the level sensor pipe. It's been taking on too much water so not cleaning well. Last time it happened it was this pipe getting grease in it.

Took the opportunity to scrub the entire interior, door and the filters as well.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

That sounds like a job you could get your partner to do in return for all the meals you cook. ;)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

He did offer to help but space in the utility room is limited and once I was into the job I just wanted to get it done.

He'll make up in other ways. ;)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Make sure he does! ;)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

The wife's new watch strap using my new pin remover. No more mucking about with small hammers and nails to out the link pins, a simple turn of a screw and out they pop. Job done and no possibility of and damage to the case or strap.

I also fixed one of Osem Jnr's watch bracelets which he'd managed to bend. The metal was easy to reshape and t just required fitting a new spring bar.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

There's been a few fixes done around the house recently...

First one was a new exhaust back box on the focus. I don't usually do exhausts but as this was "simple" I decided to have a look.

In the end it took a grinder and a chisel (and my father's help) to shift the old unit, luckily the new unit was a decent Bosal item so bolted straight up. Next time however the garage can do it!

The next repair was to a velux roof window following a strange incident just before christmas. A part of next door's chimney pot flew off in high wind and struck the glass about 2/3 the way up the pane. Somehow this managed to break the *inside* pane of the sealed double glazed unit, with but a scratch on the outside. Luckily this meant the window was still watertight and could wait until the weather improved.

Another lucky break (excuse the terrible pun) was that Velux sell the glass units separately and ordering a replacement is not difficult at all. I decided on an unit with a toughened outer pane and laminated inner, as the last one didn't have a laminated inner pane and it took me ages to clean up all the shattered glass.

So, the day came to fit said glass, and luckily the weather was good. The window came out fine and was quickly stripped down and rebuilt with the new glass. We then tried to put the window back in. After 30mins struggling we gave up, sat down and double checked everything against the bathroom Velux window (which hadn't been damaged).

It was then we found out that muggins here had re-assembled the window incorrectly by accidentally swapping over two cover plates that should have been on opposite sides. A quick swap job later and the window went straight in and seems to be nice and watertight.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

A bath tap suddenly decided it would not turn more than about a quarter turn. Dismantled and reassembled to make it work properly.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I've known that happen on some taps as the main washer and/or seat wears down. Eventually the "O" ring that seals the stem in the headstock pops out from its recess when the tap is fully closed and stops the tap opening properly.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

We bought a really decent color laser recently which we got cheap 2nd hand (about £50) only had two faults which was a dent in the transfer belt and a chunk taken out of the upper fuser roller.

Got a box of fusers (5 used for £40) with a view of making one good one but it seems they all work perfectly so that was a 5 minute replacement.

Also spotted a new original transfer belt for £70 posted so that was a 10min job. Though afterwards it was ghosting but a quick menu change where I upped the transfer voltage solved that issue.

Consumables were all 90% and not clones so fine for a few thousand pages.

So for £150 and a bit of work I've got a £500+ printer that is doing great for number plates, vinyl stickers and 37 pages per minute printing.

:D not fixed a laser since I worked in an IT workshop back in the late 90's, glad to see I haven't lost it :D

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Nice work Kymmy. :tu:

Fixed the zip on Osem Jnr's #2's school rucksack. He loves it so couldn't bear to chuck it away.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Not so much a fix, but a couple of upgrades have arrived for the focus

The first is a new stalk for controlling the windscreen wipers, but unlike the current one it has the option of varying the delay on the intermittent wiper setting. Not quite so handy now the weather's better, but brilliant when its "sort of" raining.

The second part is a new headlamp switch (the one mounted to the dash). The new one has a dimmer control for the instrument backlights. The current one doesn't.

Luckily on my MK1 focus both upgrades are basically plug-and-play, so its just a case of swapping my original parts for the new ones.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

A neighbour came to me with a halogen lamp (the type you can see on building sites). They wired it to a mains plug and found it didn't work.

I looked at it for 2 seconds and saw the info panel "110 volts".

I cut the plug off and handed it back. That fixed it.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

A leaky bath drain trap..

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

When they haven't been stolen?... :D

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I make no suggestion ;)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Osem Jnr's favourite leather wallet which had burst at the seam (due to coins not notes lol) and required re-stitching.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Fitted new battery (£1.60 delivered) to my Casio watch. Slight hitch in that after a while the analogue time stopped updating but after opening again, checking and closing the case now working fine. Maybe a bit of dust got in the mechanism.

Working on my Braun 1508 shaver at the moment. I thought the motor was failing, and have got a replacement, but the fault was a dry joint on the battery that has blown the built-in charger circuit. I've been able to find a schematic for it on the net and have replaced several faulty components but now have an order on Ebay for the main invertor transistor (BUD87) as that has gone too. Same device but in a slightly bigger package (BUX87) but will fit fine.

Got a pack of 5. If I'd only ordered one it will blow immediately*, 5 gives a sporting chance as I don't think I've tracked down all the faulty components yet.

* Sod's law.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

A damaged fence panel in the front garden. Bit of a bugger as the panel is 6' x 4' but the fence posts are set at 5'11", grrrr.....

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Nothing a sledge hammer can't fix. :D

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

lol

What I actually did was prise off the upright battens on one end of the panel and set them half an inch narrower. Didn't have to trim any wood at all luckily. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

A friend brought the woofer/amplifier part of his home cinema sound unit.

"It rattling" he said.

I found 4 bits of LEGO had been posted inside the speaker chamber. :rofl:

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

The stepover fence that holds back the lavender.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

One of our window vacs. Well when I say 'fixed'... reduced to a pile of components in search of a fix. It wasn't refusing to charge and turn of/off properly so I had a look inside. I have no idea what the problem is but found a nice looking cylindrical (18650) 3.7v li-ion battery inside and am wondering if I could use it for something else. It appears to be virtually identical to the cell inside the Karcher version of the machine so it could be a spare for that but what else could it easily be used for?

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Just stripped down my motorcycle forks after blowing a seal, now refitted and working great ;)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Be wary of where you source 18650 batteries, some have been found to be 3 Nimh cells in series with a lot lower capacity (and don't charge well on a Li-ion charger).

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Yes I know there are lots of fakes around. All I can tell you about his one is that it was supplied in a Window Vac sourced from Lidl a couple of years ago. It's not branded but the label is stamped as above. It's the same shape but a good deal thicker and longer than an AA battery and has wired connections to both ends terminating in a small connector so it wouldn't fit in any charger I have anyway. I was wondering if I might be able to work out a way to charge it and use it in some other application.

http://www.tenergy.com/30177

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

replaced screen and digitizer on friends Iphone 4s

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Its been a productive weekend of minor vehicle repairs this week.

First off was my sister's Octavia down in Cardiff. A while back the car needed a jump start to get it going, and considering the battery was still the original (and 10 years old) we decided to stuff a new one in. Luckily GSF have a discount most weekends an I got the battery and wipers for both my sister's and brother in law's cars (all branded) at a very good price.

I also grabbed a pair of anti roll bar droplinks for my focus. I'd found one was loose and rattling, and its as easy to do both as it is to do one, so I went about it and was done within a couple of hours and peace and quiet was restored. I then spent the afternoon polishing the old girl up

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Our Flymo lawn mower - well partly... The belt started to shred itself this afternoon so I stripped it down to see what would be involved in fixing it. It looks straightforward so I've ordered a new belt and hope to be able to cut the grass again next weekend.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

What you do in your private life is no concern of ours. :D

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Very happy with myself this morning.

Went to empty the dishwasher and found the power switch had broken from its internal mounting and fallen back inside the top of the door assembly. At first glance it looked like I'd have to dismantle the entire door but then I discovered the control panel at the top can be accessed by removing about 8 screws. After doing this the control panel fell away from the door and I could see the 2 plastic lugs securing the switch in place had broken. It's been a bit loose for a while so I knew something was up and guess after he first one broke, the second was bound to follow. Luckily the breaks were clean and the plastic used suitable to glue with my industrial strength superglue so I did just that. Whilst having a peak inside I could also see that the plastic opening mechanism had broken on one side where it pivots so I set about a quick fix using a hot nail to melt a whole in the plastic and secure it with a cable tie to allow the required movement but keep it in place. Screwed it all back together again and she's now purring away nicely. We'll need to treat the on/off switch with care but we don't leave the machine powered up unless it's in use so we may just leave it in the on position from now on and continue to use the machine using just the mains plug to switch the power on/off.

This was one of those rare jobs which looked at first as if it was going to be a real PITA but turned out to be much more straightforward than I could have wished. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

A blocked head on my Epson Printer!

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Well done. I use this utility:

http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml

It allows clean cycles of varying severity separately on black and colour carts plus many other useful tools. It seems to have only been developed \ tested up to XP but worth a look.

Here's the latest version with w10 support:

http://ssc-service-utility.en.lo4d.com/

Freeware.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Osem: The style of plastic switch you described is used commonly in industry, I had a similar switch on my Bosch grinder which I ended up replacing with one from Maplins.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

If I'd have thought about it Id have taken a picture to post here. :slaphead:

The assembly is very similar to that shown here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSO3nXetiOM

49 seconds in you can just see where the switch body is located by screws down into 2 quite flimsy plastic lugs formed as part of the plastic control panel cover. Anyway another nice simple fix which has saved me a few quid. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Looks like a unique replacement from dishwasher part stockist!

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Mended the steering wheel ring accelerator on our car (disabled persons hand control). As soon as the hand controls were switched on. The engine revs went up to 3000. Turned out to be the coupling from the ring to the potentiometer was loose and out of position.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Window catch spring failed, found a similar one in my box of bits.

Garden cupboard needed a couple of screws.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Ahh... You can have enough boxes of bits and pieces mate! :tu:

Anyway I've just taken apart the wife's Rio ultrasonic facial cleanser which started playing up. It'd charge up then run down within a few seconds or stop/start intermittently. I wondered if the battery pack might be at fault and sure enough it appears to be. There are 3 nimh AAA cells (600mah?) shrink wrapped up to form a 3.6v pack with black and red wires leading to soldered joints on the circuit board. There's some leakage apparent so one or other of the cells has failed. Not being too hot with a soldering iron I thought I might just cut the wires near the defective battery pack and then join a new battery pack to the existing wires. I've seen battery packs like these on Ebay for a few quid but is there anything I need to know when choosing the replacement or will any similar looking 3 AAA cell/3.6v pack do the job?

Oh, and is there an easy way to see whether the item is still otherwise OK before I go about ordering another battery pack? I have some 3.6v li-ion rechargeable AA batteries so could I test the unit very briefly using one of these and just clamping the red/black wires on the relevant terminals? No point wasting time/money if the product is broken now.

Cheers all.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Don't swap between types of batteries as often their rechargers operate differently, and you don't want to overheat a Li Ion battery!

You can buy cells with solder tags which makes them a lot easier to join together, just remember to join them together as per the original.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2016/04/17.jpg

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Just to echo what Taf said, just solder onto the tags not the battery.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Taf sorry if I wasn't clear but I wasn't intending to install/charge the li-ion battery within the unit, just test the unit momentarily using the pre-charged AA it to see if the thing still oscillates. Presumably the 3.6v would be fine for this.

As regards the battery shown, wouldn't it be easier to buy a 3 x AAA pack already assembled with read and black wires or am I missing something?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Motorola-M...MAAOSwgkRVSfk8

Cheers as always. :tu:

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Well I've found and ordered a replacement battery pack for the wife's ultrasonic facial cleanser so we'll have to wait and see if it does the trick.

In other news:

I managed to get my Flymo XLT3000 petrol strimmer operational today after a lot of mucking about yesterday. Not having used it for ages, I made up a new batch of fuel 40:1 petrol/2 stroke and tried to fire her up. No joy, not so much as a burble despite numerous attempts at the starting procedure. My right arm hanging off, I hunted around for information online and found a few DIY videos so decided to try cleaning the sparkplug today. The unit hasn't been used more than about 15 hours in the years since I bought it so the air filter was very clean and there were no other visible signs of problems. Took the plug out, gave it a wipe over and a quick wire brushing before putting it back in and trying again. It tried to start on about the 3 pull and then fired up properly after a couple more pulls. Got her nice and warm and then went out to the front garden to strim our lawn. It all seems to be working well now so I'm going to make sure I actually use the thing more often (it has brush cutter, hedge trimmer and chain saw attachments) and avoid storing it for any length of time with fuel in the tank.

Another fix chalked up. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Just be careful when you start to charge those batteries, they go with a loud bang if they are overcharged!

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

They're the same type and spec (AAA Nimh 600mah) as the original 3.6v pack so I'm not expecting a problem. Fingers crossed... ;)

I'll pop them in, reassemble the unit, pop it into the charging cradle and leave... :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Doh, I've just realised that by fixing our lawnmower and strimmer I now have few excuses not to be occupied... :doh:

:)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Well gentlemen, we have another fix. :D

Battery pack arrived today, terminal cut off, wires joined to those from circuit board and sealed nicely with heat shrink tubing. Bits carefully reassembled and then the big moment as I placed it into the charging cradle, heard a single beep and saw the red charging led flash. As I type the thing's charging away perfectly with no sign of any proble........................................

































































:D

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

The door of our Samsung washer-dryer was making a loud buzzing noise these past couple of weeks. I lightly touched the outer window and the buzzing stopped. So I tightened the screws on the inside of the door by 1/8 of a turn. No more noise. :tu:

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

My Garden Groom Pro hedge cutter. Dusted it off for the first time this year earlier and powered her up only to find it kept cutting out. After checking the plug and fiddling around with the power lead where it enters the back of the unit I could find no reason for it stopping and starting except that it only happened when the unit was moving. Then I had a bright idea to check if there was some sort of safety on/off switch located where the on board collection bin attaches to the underside of the unit and sure enough that's where the problem was. A fairly minor adjustment to the retaining clip stopped the bin moving around causing the switch to cycle on/off. I wonder how many people have sent theirs off for repairs or even binned them due to such a simple fault. Happy days. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

The missus complained that the paper shredder was dead. A quick check found the teeth clogged and that was causing the thermal cutout to operate even before it started turning. Plug out, dismantled and unclogged. Now back in operation.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Yes, had that problem many times in the past. Unfortunately, on a couple of occasions, I found some of the metal cutters had become badly distorted and I could find no way to dismantle the cutting head in order to repair them.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

'Fixed' one of the large hardwood windowboards in our lounge. It had become faded and watermarked and suffered from some rather curious sanding marks (slight parallel ridges about 3" apart) along its whole length which had become more visible over time so was looking pretty shocking all in all and had been bugging me. It's the first time I've used Danish oil and I must say I'm impressed with the finish and how easy it is to apply. Anyway, a morning sanding away and a quick treatment with Danish Oil has restored it to its original glory and won me a few much needed Brownie points... :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

My favourite Braun electric razor (1508) The battery was getting very low on capacity and then it suddenly stopped altogether and no charge/cord operation either. I had previously replaced the battery a few years ago and had modified the internal latch mechanism on the case for easy re-opening by fitting a much less agressive spring and drilling a tiny 1mm hole to that a paperclip can be used to operate the catch rather than forcing the case open at one end to be able to get a screwdriver onto it.

I found that one end of the battery had come unsoldered and that had blown the charging circuit. I needed to replace several transistors, a resistor and the indicator LED plus soldering* in a new freshly charged 2500mHr NiMh battery.

Works a treat now. :)

I had sourced another motor off ebay just in case as this had failed a few years ago and was replaced. It can go on the spares shelf for when it's needed.

*Not good for batteries but a very hot iron and quickly seems to get away with it.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Osem and Heero yuy clever or what? :clap:

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Now that's the sort of job I'd love to be able to do but I never got to grips with electronics, I'm more mechanical.

---------- Post added at 16:33 ---------- Previous post was at 16:32 ----------

You charmer you! ;)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

My grounding and effective apprenticeship was in electronics. When I no longer can fix something like this I'll retire my soldering iron. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

I hated having to wait up to 4 minutes for watering cans to fill, so I've just "fixed" that. A 6 litre toilet cistern on the garden wall fed from the outside tap. 2 second fills now. :D

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Some old wooden garden furniture I though I have to dispose of this year. However sanded, varnished a few new screws and voila !

Think I'll get Mrs K, to test it first though....

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Thats what I've started today. 15 year old table & 6 chairs. Sanded down one chair and half the table and applied Danish Oil. Run out of sandpaper and oil so I'm now waiting for ebay to deliver more :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

The venetian blind on our kitchen window. One of the cords had worn and broke suddenly so I had to take it down and replace it. Luckily the break was right at the bottom of the blind so I was able to reuse the old cord which is colour coded to match the slats.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

DVD RW drive on my PC, luckily I had a spare.

I put a disk in to burn yesterday and didn't notice a very thin spacer disk was stuck to it.

They separated when the drive spun up.... and bang went the laser holder.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

About to start on the CV joint on my old car... ruddy ball joints are a pain to separate, just broke a new £15.00 ball joint separator, oh well back to the 4ft scaffolding pole as a lever.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Once you get the separator (or lever) up to a decent torque try hitting the part the joint goes into with two hammers on opposite sides. Helps break the cold weld of the metal.

I've had a similar problem with the lower ball joint on the front of the Metro. This slides into the hub and is held with a pinch bolt. Over the years all the muck and bullets corrode the surfaces and the thing is a devil to get out. Needs a long lever inserted where it can get purchase and then some concentrated hammer work and penetrating oil.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

The wife's Lexon lcd watch. Took it to our usual guy who couldn't work out how to get the battery out and gave up. After about 30 mins of fiddling at home I eventually managed to remove it and replace it with the required CR2016 cell. Watch working nicely, Brownie points won... :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Solar rock light. Water had got into where the solar cell is and corroded away the connections. Fortunately I have a stock of higher power ones of roughly the same size so soldered in a new one and fixed it back with plenty of silicon sealant. Works a treat.

As time goes on I'll probably upgrade the rest of them as with the better cells and batteries they stay lit at full power all night.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Our mildew stained and part rotten Velux window frames. Well they've been in over 20 years and get the worst of the weather so I can't complain. It seems condensation was the main issue which caused quite a lot of black staining and small sections of one of the frames to rot away. Thankfully wood preserver treatment followed by careful filling using a 2 part pine coloured polyester based filler and sanding has done the trick. It's been a bit of a job but satisfying as working with wood usually is. Just another 2 large roof windows to go and I'm all done for a few years hopefully... :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Some jobs on my lad's bike: Stripped, cleaned and rebalanced carbs. New plugs and coil packs.

I need to check the plugs on my car this weekend which is a bit of a pain as to get anywhere near them you need to remove the washer bottle on one side and on the other side: the battery, air box and MAF sensor.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

The headphones socket on my Asus laptop. I lost all sound from the speakers yesterday but recalled that I'd briefly been using the headphones earlier in the day. I plugged them back in and the sound was fine so suspected something to do with the headphone socket and had a careful pock around with a piece of wire. Suddenly the sound came back. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Forgot to mention the Ikea rise and fall type cellular blind I fixed last week. I've never seen anything like the cord mechanism inside those damned things. It took ages to work out what the problem was even after I'd finally resorted to removing one of the other blinds and using that as a guide. Even so, trying to re-run the cord through the complex series of wheels/pulleys with so little room to play with was a real pain. I got there in the end after about 4 hours of fiddling.

Yesterday I fixed the power cable of my hedge trimmer which got snagged and tugged whilst I was cutting out hedges, causing a failed connection within the body of the trimmer. Luckily It was a simple case of opening it up and reinstating the wires in the terminal block. Looking at it, the cable clamp isn't all that secure so I reckon a lot of these machines fail for the same reason and probably get checked away by people who can't be bothered to open them up.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

iphone 4 (screen and battery) ipad 2 volume and digitizer and built from leftover parts ( bought Ariel wire and button flex ) a nokia lumia 625

i was board ( 4 weeks of chest infection and still ongoing :( )

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

A couple of the wife's summer dresses which need alterations. A few mins on the sewing machine sorted them out nicely.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Solar rock light. Thought it might be the switch but it turned out to be the control chip, corroded leg. Fortunately I have a supply of a similar type to that fitted. Few moments work with the soldering iron and solder sucker got the old one out. Fitted new IC (QX5252) and now works again. :)

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Hideous flaking paint on the front of the house. Cheapskate builder put a plywood panel under the bedroom bay window. The rest of the house is properly rendered but this was badly painted . One day Iwill pull off the fake Tudor beams and look under the bay window properly.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Garden shredder: Cutting knives were dull and not shredding properly. Replacement knives are not available as the unit has been out of production for some time

The small bolts holding them on were seized so I had to take off the knife carrier to be able to drill out the bolts (carefully to keep the threads in the carrier) Run a tap down the threads to clean them out. Then selected the best edge on the knives with least deep dings, they're double edged, and trued them up on my small sharpening station. Then honed them on the oil-stone until they cut paper.

Reassembled onto the carrier with new bolts and refitted to shredder. Works a treat now.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

Good job that man. Is it one of those impact shredders or the quieter crushing type? I have the latter and have noticed that the cutter adjustment is almost at its limit so am wondering if I'll be able to fix that when it ceases working properly. I bought it from Lidl years ago and can't imagine spares will be available.

Re: What have you fixed lately?
 

It has one moving part: The spinning disc knife carrier that is directly mounted on the motor shaft. The blades work against the bottom edges of the feed chute somewhat like a guillotine and it is VERY noisy especially when dealing with larger branches, it can handle up to 25mm, so I wear ear defenders.

Looks like this:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/at...4&d=1470567898

Mine looks a bit more "used".

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