Maintenance: Washing machine

Hey, does anybody out there think it's OK that this springy thingy rolled out from under the washing machine??

Anybody???

 

Oh crap! I was afraid of that. . .

 

OK I'm back; and according to the video by the guy from parts-are-us or something like that, (Point of interest, if you do a Goggle search on 'Roper washing machine springy thingy replacement' it actually works!!) this should be a fairly simple fix. (Oh damn, I never should have said that. . .)

 

First step is to remove the two screws on either side of that console that's sticking up there at the back of the washer. The screws are tucked away at the back below the red arrows.

 

 

 

Then pull the console towards you a half inch and tilt it back out of the way then unplug the door switch connector there at the end of the arrow.

 

 

 

 

When I tilted the console back I discovered an electrical/operational-sequence drawing folded up and tucked neatly away back there. Now that might not get you all a twitter but as an old electronics guy (And when I say old I mean the first thing the military trained me on was vacuum tubes. If you don't know what those are then you've never had the joy of owning a real radio that that took up a whole cabinet by itself or a15" black and white TV that weighed over 50 lbs. and you've never had the enlightening experience of getting zapped by the couple thousand volts at the cathode end of a hot vacuum tube, and I feel sorry for you. OK, looking at the little pinpoint greyish scars on my fingertips from getting zapped by miniature lightning bolts, maybe it's myself I feel sorry for. . .)

 

Anyway, as an old electronics guy finding diagrams like this is better than se---, better than chocolate icecre---, well at least better than a stick in the eye.

 

Now back to the task at hand.

 

 

Take a screw driver and pop loose the two clips that used to be here on either side, (In case you didn't get it, this is the part where you look at the red arrow in the photo above.) then go fetch your long grabby thing and retrieve the clip you managed to drop down there into the no-man's land behind the washer,

 

 

then grab the main cover, brace your foot against the bottom edge, tilt it towards you 30 or 40 degrees and lift it off.

 

When you finish setting the main cover aside and turn back to the washer you'll have a moment of horror at the crud that's collected in and around the thing over the past 12 or so years, so brace yourself.

 

 

 

 

Just like the guy on the video said, the errant spring belongs near the back left corner and goes from the bottom of the tub down to the frame. Also just like the guy from the video said, (I don't know his name but let's call him Bob from now on; it's shorter.) the hole in the frame may have rusted through, releasing the springy thingy in the first place, in that case it's OK to just use a nearby hole in a less rusted part of the frame.

 

Getting down on the ground, figuring out where the two ends of the spring belong and getting it back in place should take all of 15 or 20 seconds, but when you have to get back up again, go fetch some pliers to stretch the spring with, get back down on the floor, re-orient yourself to all the holes again, and then finally put the spring back; well - it takes a little longer.

 

 

 

 

Before following Bob's instructions on closing everything back up again, I took the time to do a bit of spring cleaning and got that ring around the top of the tub as well as that plastic spout that dumps water into the tub (That grimiesh colored thing at the top of the big rust stain down the washer's back panel.) cleaned up a bit. Not clean mind you, I think that would take a trip to the store and the purchase of a new washer, but I did get it cleaned up a bit.

 

 

 

 

Even though Bob made it look easy I was expecting an epic wrestling match to ensue as I tried to get the main cover to fit back on the washer, but Bob was right all along, it just slipped right on.

 

Then it was a simple matter of re-installing the two clips that hold the back of the machine to the cover, flipping the console back over and screwing it down, running a short test, removing the console screws again, flipping the console back, plugging the door switch cable back into place so the thing will drain and spin, flipping the console back into place, almost screwing it down again before realizing I hadn't tucked that really great wiring diagram back where I found it, flipping it - well - you know- finally screwing the console down one last time and; wa-la! It works!

 

 

Of course no job should go too smoothly. If that happens you start to expect it every time and we all know that's not real life so it would just be setting us up for disappointment later on. (At least that's what I tell myself.) So to finish up this job with the proper degree of calamity, I narrowly averted a minor disaster by remembering, just in time, that in order to pull the washer out from the wall I have to remove the lid from the lint filter we have in the drain line. (We have a septic system and there's no way we want all those little bits of indigestible synthetic lint clogging up our drain field one day!) Since the drain line from the washer goes into the top of the lid that I had temporarily forgotten about and just left dangling, I almost dumped the contents of the washer down behind the drier!

 

 

But in the end I got all the bits back where they belong and the test cycle ran flawlessly. Now when the washer goes into spin cycle it no longer booms like a demented base drum falling off the stage at a Kiss concert and rolling down the steps, getting faster and louder as it goes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



In the shop: new window covers for the van

My van has 5 large windows, only one of which can be fit with a traditional window shade, (RV'ers out there will be familiar with the popular day/night shade system.) the other windows, well I need to be able to see out of them to drive! They're nice and big which makes driving easier, but they're nice and big which makes keeping the sun, and prying eyes, out of the van a little problematic.

The solution is removable window covers that roll up and fit neatly into the overhead compartment when not - well - covering windows. But life in a window can be harsh and after 4 years of Texas sun the original covers started coming apart. Every time I rolled or unrolled the covers a shower of little bits of white plastic was left behind for me to clean up.

Time for new covers.

I stopped by one of the big box stores and picked up a 25' roll of 48" wide Reflectix. That's a foil bubble radiant barrier insulation often used in buildings and - well - window covers. Back at the barn, way up on a high shelf, I had stored yards and yards of a nice heavy, dark grey fabric we picked up off the bargain table somewhere for a dollar a yard. This is the same fabric I used to make the privacy curtain between the driving compartment and the living quarters for when I'm stealth camping, like at a handy Walmart or in a truckstop parking lot. And digging through my wife's sewing stuff (I'm counting on y'all not to tell on me!) I found a spool of UV resistant thread.

With supplies in hand I went to work and in two days (Well give me a break!! I had other things to take care of too! Like tending the garden and - and - well - reading a magazine and checking my email and  watching the birds and - Hey! after all I'm supposed to be retired here!!!) the new covers were completed and installed.



Years in the sun have taken their toll on the original covers



And every time I handled them these little bits of white plastic got left behind



Using the original covers as templates, I marked and cut the Reflectix, making sure to keep track of the fabric or inner side of each one.



Then I ironed up a bit of fabric (It has been stored in a garbage bag for quite a while and was pretty wrinkly, even more wrinkly than me!) After laying the fabric out smoothly over the bubble stuff I pealed it back on one side and shot one strip of spray adhesive across the bubbles then very carefully draped the fabric down into the adhesive, trying my best to avoid wrinkles. After all I just spent too long at the ironing board getting the wrinkles out! Repeating this process I gradually got the fabric stuck, more or less neatly, to the bubbles.



Then I flipped the whole thing over and trimmed off some of the excess to make the next step easier, but I was careful to leave plenty of fabric around the edges because the finished product will have about 1 inch of additional fabric all the way around the edges. The original covers didn't have this and were held in place with little tabs of self-adhesive Velcro stuck around the window frames with the matching half sewn onto the cover. That worked really well for about a week, then the sun started baking the Velcro patches loose from the window frames. My first attempt at fixing this involved sticking the sticky little buggers back on with epoxy, but that was only partially successful. In the end extra fabric and magnets solved the issue nicely.



So these covers will have an extra 'flap' of fabric all the way around. You can't see it but the edge of the bubble stuff is lined up with the right edge of the sewing machine foot and the blue tape marks a point 1 inch away from that. This leaves a 1 inch tube of fabric around the edges of the cover



I keep a stock of rare earth magnets around. (I just throw them at the metal cover plate for one of the quad-outlets at my fixed workbench. That way I know right where to find them when I need one.) In my forced experiments trying to keep the original covers where they belonged, I found that a combination of a fabric tube & these magnets worked best. 

As I was sewing around the cover, at strategic points I had previously marked, I would make a triangular detour out to the edge and trap one of the magnets into the fabric tube. It doesn't show much here but if you look close at the next photo you can see the outline of the magnet.

Once I completed the circuit all the way around each cover I flipped it over and cut away the excess fabric. The exposed bubble side will face outward and the nice dark, calming grey is what I'll see from the inside. (I'm sure my mother is cringing at my crude sewing skills but I don't have her hours of experience and will likely - OK - definitely, never get there.)

 

 

The point of no return!!  This mangled mess is the original cover for the windshield. The magnet trick won't work for this cover which uses battens to keep it stiff and the van's sunshades to hold it in place. Rather than cut my own battens from whatever scraps I have laying around I decided it would be easier to reuse the battens from the old cover. (Reduce, reuse, recycle. Aren't I quite the responsible consumer!!?)



Before I mangled it I used the original cover to carefully mark the position and ends of the various battens onto the new cover.



Then I spayed the back of each batten with adhesive and stuck it in place



Before draping and gluing the fabric down.



Then is was simply a matter of folding the fabric over the edge of the bubbles and sewing.



And trimming.



So now the van has nice new window covers that don't shed little bits of plastic that I have to try and clean up!



She even got a little extra bling out of the deal!

I could have ordered the bubbles with a white coating, which would match the original covers as well as the paint color, but the silver stuff was right there at hand and might even be a bit more effective at keeping some of the solar radiation from turning into heat inside the van. Time will tell.

And FYI, the reason the windshield wiper arms are sticking out is that when parked for more than a few days I remove the windshield wipers and throw them on the driver's seat. It only takes a few seconds and the wipers seem to last much longer when they aren't sitting out in the sun quite so much.

Just saying: The art of being

I just heard that my old company has laid off a significant portion of one of it's major divisions. It got me to thinking about all the 'downsizings' I sweated through over the years. If I was handed the black bean how would I pay the bills?, afford my next car?, the bigger TV?, and I'm struck by how all that contrasts sharply with what seems to be a growing sub-culture of people opting out of the corporate/consumerism lifestyle. (I think it's a growing community but that might simply be because in this day of electronic communications it's easier to get the word out and I'm hearing more of the voices of these people.)

News of these layoffs reached me just as I returned from an impromptu camping trip, one precipitated by a week-long forecast of glorious weather. Weather I was able to take advantage of because I have reduced my obligations and commitments and responsibilities down to the basics.

While on that trip I was thinking a lot about, and even spending a few moments practicing, the art of being, of living in the moment, of simplifying.

Many through the centuries, including philosophers, Socrates, Freud, (Though he didn't particularly like being labeled a philosopher.) apparently even the gloomy doomsayer Kierkegaard, and other thinkers such as Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman, have pointed out that true happiness can be achieved by living in the moment, by setting aside the clutter of stuff and ambition and the past and schedules and the future and instead embracing the glory of the moment. In fact achieving happiness by living in the now is the Third Noble Truth of Buddhism. A religion by the way that is happy to coexist with all beliefs rather than try to stamp them out, which is why, in its 2500 year history, there has never been any wars fought in the name of Buddhism.

 I can't claim to be very good at it, after all I spent a huge percentage of my life worrying about everything except the now so I've had very little practice, but I'm certainly a believer these days in simplification and living for today, (Which feels a lot like cheatings since I've already collected most of the 'stuff' I covet.) but I've been taking baby steps into this gentler, kinder way of life.

Gardening: Squash blossom!

What a difference one night makes. Yesterday this was a 2" long tight, oblong green bud

This morning this is what I found!

Slow start on the travel trailer

Well I got a few things taken care of on the travel trailer, the operative word here is few.

I drug the porch out of the utility trailer and got it set up because those folding travel-trailer steps are death-traps!!! Especially when they are slightly caddywhompus, probably because they were left extended once and then whacked sharply against a passing pole or sign or something like that! (Since I'm 100% absolutely sure I'd never do something like that; it could happen. But in this case we're not the first owners and this was actually before my time.)

I didn't bother with a photo of the porch since it has already stared in previous posts.

Then I got started on the hose issue. The guy who moved the trailer for me couldn't get the hose unscrewed from the trailer so it arrived stuffed into a nearby compartment that was then duct-taped shut.

Got to looking at it and decided it was time for a replacement city-water port. In fact I'm going to have to get inside the wall there and dig out the rotted wood and install new blocking before the new one can be installed properly.

While I was at it I checked the cap on the waste tank dump station and found it dripping despite both waste valves being properly closed. This confirmed my suspicion that the valves could also stand replacing.

Amazon to the rescue, (and no I get no revenue from Amazon for mentioning them.) All three items, the water port and 3 &1.5 inch waste valves were in their in-house inventory at a decent price and eligible for free shipping.




Then it was time to get the jack stands working. No not fancy automatic electric or anything like that, just the plain old screw-jack kind that have been around since before I was a kid. These had been locked into place in the damp under the trailer, near the Gulf Coast for over 4 years so it was no surprise they were froze up. (It took the guy moving the trailer a few minutes to remember he could use the tongue jack to get the jack stands out from under there, in the mean time he tried so hard to get them to turn he bent a few if the handles up a little.)

Of course I could have just replaced the set of jack stands but these things cost almost $50 a set (I just bought a set for the greenhouse trailer.) so I retreated to the bench and with a little work which consisted of some serious wire brushing and, in one stubborn case in which I was actually twisting the screw trying to free up the nut, a lot of heating with a torch, I got them all freed up. A little crude hammer and anvil work more or less straightened the handles back out.

Hopefully the generous application of PTFE based lube will help keep them that way.

What you can't see in the quality of the photos above is that between the photo of the rusted and frozen screws laying on the butcher paper soaking up a bit of WD40 and the one of the clean and operable screws laying near the grinder with the wire wheel on it, is that for the 4th time in as many years I threw my camera on the floor. This time it was vibration from me working the screws against the wire brush on the grinder that walked it right off the edge of the workbench. I didn't even know it had happened until my wife walked by and asked if I was filming a bug or something. I looked at her like she was nuts and she asked why else would the camera be laying over there on the floor!

This Cannon SX50 is one tough bird! (No, no endorsement money from Cannon either, just the facts as I know them.) You would think the mechanism involved in zooming a lens from 24mm to 1200mm and keeping all the elements properly aligned and able to focus from 0 to infinity (Yes 0, check out the specs if you don't believe me!) would be pretty delicate, but each time I've thrown this camera on the ground it was on something hard, rocks, asphalt, gravel and this time concrete, and the thing keeps on going!

Though the lens cap finally decided it had had enough of my careless fumbling so it went, on strike this time, refusing to work another day if I couldn't guarantee better conditions, but I hadn't clicked the checkout button yet on the miscellaneous trailer parts and, you guessed it, Amazon had a replace cap, so now all those bits are on their way.

The first of the wild black berries

OK, maybe not the first of the berries. I might have - well - eaten the first batch while still out in the field.

But in my defense; we share our harvest with other berry eating critters, so it's first come first served and I didn't have a container with me at the moment!

All washed and chilling for tonight's snack!

The travel trailer returns

Well the travel trailer made it back here to the property yesterday. Not without some drama but it's here.

This is the first time in something like 4 or 5 years it's been moved and apparently just in time since the campground it has been parked in was just sold and I'm not entirely sure it will stay a campground.

It arrived behind an F350 dully that I'm sure cost almost as much as my whole class-B motorhome. Taking over behind the wheel, I got it backed into the slightly tricky spot. (There's a big drop-off slightly less than a van length away out in front of the concrete pad.) One of those pieces of strapping laid out on the pad to guide me into the proper place with enough clearance to open the slide-out ended up just under the edge of the trailer tires so is just going to have to stay there until we move it again.

Now I should probably be out there getting the stabilizing jacks set, the slide-out slid out, the electric/water/sewer hooked up, the porch assembled, the fridge and water heater fired up and all that good stuff, but I just can't seem to get motivated. What the hell! I'm retired and there's always tomorrow.

I've always thought a travel trailer, especially the bumper-pulls, is a labor intensive way to travel, what with all the hitching and unhitching and jacking and stabilizing that goes with them. Sure am grateful I'm comfortable in my little van which requires all of 2 minutes worth of setup effort once I turn the key off, and it only takes that long if I drop one of the window shades as I'm putting it in place.