What are you working on?

[69.5CUDA]

theres alot of additives out there and while i like stabil..i LOVE royal purples "max-clean-fuel-system-cleaner"

i dont buy into the whole put it in and it will clean your carb shit...but....ive got dirt bikes and street bikes, sometimes they get to sit too long, my xl600r id typicaly have to clean the carbs 2-3 times a season to keep it "right"(tiny jets n ports would require time on the ultrasonic), i was told to try this stuff and they wernt wrong.....

i havnt cleaned the carbs in several years now, ditto for my street bikes which would be a once a year thing milage be damnd, the xr250 was always an "easy" job but even it hasnt had to be done in about 5 years now, i even use it in all the "small engines" and havnt had so much as a hicup from any of them in the past 3+ years of useing it in every can i fill...do i use too much...maybe..but ive not once had to open up a carb thats been running it in the past 3-5 years..the exception is a couple bikes that were left to sit long before i switched to useing it

cant say how well it works in a filthy carb thats allready failing....but on a mostly clean carb ive yet to experiance a failure...and no i dont run filters on any of the stuff....the bikes its a fire hazzard with the heat n whatnot and useualy no room to plumb one in that will both flow and keep the line angled right

 

[Stretch]

Shart things.

Jass and I took a ride to a town about an hour and 15 minutes from here this morning. I had made arrangements to pick up a OD 4 speed I found on FB market place. It turned out to be locked up and rusty inside. The fella who had it was a very stand up guy. He said he had no idea and apologized for us coming down to buy it when it was basically a core. He offered it to me for free for coming down. I tried to give him something for it but he wouldn't take it.

So I came home and took the not as rusty one I have here apart. Now to order parts from Brewers.

I also worked on the replacement door. I have one small patch to make. Thats tomorrow's project.

 

[Stretch]

Rust hole repaired!

 

[restoman]

A tricky way to do it.
Looks like you pulled it off!

 

[thrashingcows]

One customer has told me numerous times that his $18 eBay Kohler carburetor (one where I'd have stuck with an OE myself) still works like a champ. He bought it about 4 years ago. I told him at the time, "Ethanol-free premium only if you want it to last." It's lasted.

We used to have ethanol free premium but now it has 10% Ethanol in it as well...so I have no other option but to run it. I do run the Marine Sta-Bil though and it seems to mitigate most of the issues the ethanol causes to carb sitting with fuel in them. I use my weed eater maybe once or twice a year and it always fires right up with no issues.

I've had a stubborn leak from float bowl seal on my old Craftsman ride on mower and before I started using the Sta-bil additive there would be gum and crud in the bottom of the bowl, now it sits all winter and I pop off the bowl to check in spring and there is basically no nasty crud in there.

Might try that stuff you are using 69.

 

[b-body-bob]

We've got an insurance policy that is supposed to pay to fix water leaks under the house. The old copper here seems to pop a new leak about every month so I don't think they've made on red cent off me in the year we've had it.. When it started they were lickety-split on the job, but over time it has gotten progressively worse. This time they first lost my claim, then blamed it on a computer problem, then the contractor told me the insurance co. had canceled it over the weekend. Called yesterday when I found that out, and they "expedited" it. Sure, OK. I think that would mean someone would be calling me today, but no.

So we have been mostly without water for over a week now.

Anyway, today's task was to cut in an in-house ball valve to prevent having to go outside to turn the meter on and off if we need water. It started out innocently enough, I cut out a 3/4" elbow so it's easier to fit the sharkbites couplers and the pipe. That's when I found out the "in" side of the elbow was a different size than tandard 3/4" copper should be (7/8" OD). Basically this piple was the same OD as the fittings so no way to slide them on.

I took it to the hardware store and they didn't have any fittings that would go on the piece I cut out. I showed it to my BIL the plumber and he'd never seen anything like that. The odd part is it was soldered into a standard 3/4" elbow, but it wouldn't go into another one.

I thought I was boned because that's just above the slab where the water comes in from outside. I looked closer and found that at the bottom of that pipe there was an old shut-off, and the pipe coming into that from below was the correct 3/4" size and there was enough of it that I could stick a sharkbite on. I was able to finagle it to where I could cut it off and hallelujah it looks like it's fixed.



That should have taken about 1/2 hour. I was after it for 7 hours, much of it trying to figure out what the heck was going on with the odd sized pipe and cussing my luck.

I still haven't hit it with pressure yet because Gina's not here to let me know while if it blows apart while I'm turning it on at the meter. I have to presume it's going to work though, so the next task is to find/fix the current leak under the house. I've got a sharkbite coupler, a sharkbite slip joint coupler, and a stick of copper ready for that activity. Hopefully that's all I'll need.

Then I'm going to call the insurance company to give someone total snarky hell and cancel it.

I guess I'll just sack up and re-plumb the house myself. My PEX skills are strong, but I just cant take sitting on the ground in awkward positions for too long. So my idea is to build it out in PEX beside the existing pipes over a couple of weekends, then cut it all over to the PEX using sharkbites to connect the upstairs to the supply line I will still have some copper in play coming down from the living area in the walls, but I'll deal with that when I have to.

BTW, these pipe cutters are a godsend. You just need 1/2 clearance around the pipe to turn it.

 

[69.5CUDA]

intresting cutter..ive never seen it before
i wish you luck....i have ZERO faith in pex....ive worked with it, ive seen it fail, call me old fashioned but i like a "fixed" joint thats "welded"(be it silver or glue)
as much as i too hate working with copper....

 

[dodgechargerfan]

We've got an insurance policy that is supposed to pay to fix water leaks under the house. The old copper here seems to pop a new leak about every month so I don't think they've made on red cent off me in the year we've had it.. When it started they were lickety-split on the job, but over time it has gotten progressively worse. This time they first lost my claim, then blamed it on a computer problem, then the contractor told me the insurance co. had canceled it over the weekend. Called yesterday when I found that out, and they "expedited" it. Sure, OK. I think that would mean someone would be calling me today, but no.

So we have been mostly without water for over a week now.

Anyway, today's task was to cut in an in-house ball valve to prevent having to go outside to turn the meter on and off if we need water. It started out innocently enough, I cut out a 3/4" elbow so it's easier to fit the sharkbites couplers and the pipe. That's when I found out the "in" side of the elbow was a different size than tandard 3/4" copper should be (7/8" OD). Basically this piple was the same OD as the fittings so no way to slide them on.

I took it to the hardware store and they didn't have any fittings that would go on the piece I cut out. I showed it to my BIL the plumber and he'd never seen anything like that. The odd part is it was soldered into a standard 3/4" elbow, but it wouldn't go into another one.

I thought I was boned because that's just above the slab where the water comes in from outside. I looked closer and found that at the bottom of that pipe there was an old shut-off, and the pipe coming into that from below was the correct 3/4" size and there was enough of it that I could stick a sharkbite on. I was able to finagle it to where I could cut it off and hallelujah it looks like it's fixed.



That should have taken about 1/2 hour. I was after it for 7 hours, much of it trying to figure out what the heck was going on with the odd sized pipe and cussing my luck.

I still haven't hit it with pressure yet because Gina's not here to let me know while if it blows apart while I'm turning it on at the meter. I have to presume it's going to work though, so the next task is to find/fix the current leak under the house. I've got a sharkbite coupler, a sharkbite slip joint coupler, and a stick of copper ready for that activity. Hopefully that's all I'll need.

Then I'm going to call the insurance company to give someone total snarky hell and cancel it.

I guess I'll just sack up and re-plumb the house myself. My PEX skills are strong, but I just cant take sitting on the ground in awkward positions for too long. So my idea is to build it out in PEX beside the existing pipes over a couple of weekends, then cut it all over to the PEX using sharkbites to connect the upstairs to the supply line I will still have some copper in play coming down from the living area in the walls, but I'll deal with that when I have to.

BTW, these pipe cutters are a godsend. You just need 1/2 clearance around the pipe to turn it.

View attachment 24544

That’s my hammer.

 

[74DartSport]

Finally decided to fix the noisy wheel bearing on my daily driver, and see what was making the occasional popping noise in the front end. Bearing was throwing a little grease on the inside so I’m guessing I diagnosed that correctly. Lower ball joint is fine, went to grease the upper and found the boot it torn on the inside, plus dropping the car back on the ground I heard it pop. Three years old, will check on warranty Friday.

 

[b-body-bob]

intresting cutter..ive never seen it before
i wish you luck....i have ZERO faith in pex....ive worked with it, ive seen it fail, call me old fashioned but i like a "fixed" joint thats "welded"(be it silver or glue)
as much as i too hate working with copper....

When we bought the house next door the crew had already stripped most of the copper out so I did the whole house in PEX with the stainless clamps. It's been 8 years with no leaks.

Nowadays even copper isn't sweated in, they use pro-press fittings and the ridiculously expensive tool.

I don't really trust sharkbites, but had no choice since I can't solder worth a crap, and a joint sweated by me is more likely to pop apart than a sharkbite

FWIW, it held pressure, so we might wait for the insurance to follow through and fix the current leak, then cancel it before the next payment gets drawn. It mostly depends on how hard Gina pushes for me to crawl under. I could hardly move last night after being crouched down or sitting on the floor in a corner yesterday. It's like the reason I never bought a mid-rise lift - raising the car isn't the problem, it's me getting up and down over and over that's the killer. Getting old ain't for sissies.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Years ago I got a call from a friend who was having difficulty installing a water heater. "Can you help us with this?" I'd never attempted sweating pipes but what the hell, I'll give 'er a whirl. I drove over--that's how long ago this was--and saw that the hardware store had sold them everything required except a torch. These two half-wits were trying to sweat the pipes with a 15-watt soldering iron. Hell's bells. I looked at my pal: "Are you f__king retarded?"

I undid what they'd done, which wasn't much beyond getting the lengths right. After cleaning all the pipe ends, I fluxed 'em, assembled 'em, and sweated 'em all in about 5 minutes, both supply and outlet. No leaks. The look of awe on their faces was as if I'd fully explained women to them. I sorta amazed myself for a minute there, then I just assumed that sweating copper pipe was really that easy. Maybe it's not; that's literally the only time I've ever done it. It's still holding, as far as I know. I was in the house less than 20 minutes.

 

[b-body-bob]

Years ago I got a call from a friend who was having difficulty installing a water heater. "Can you help us with this?" I'd never attempted sweating pipes but what the hell, I'll give 'er a whirl. I drove over--that's how long ago this was--and saw that the hardware store had sold them everything required except a torch. These two half-wits were trying to sweat the pipes with a 15-watt soldering iron. Hell's bells. I looked at my pal: "Are you f__king retarded?"

I undid what they'd done, which wasn't much beyond getting the lengths right. After cleaning all the pipe ends, I fluxed 'em, assembled 'em, and sweated 'em all in about 5 minutes, both supply and outlet. No leaks. The look of awe on their faces was as if I'd fully explained women to them. I sorta amazed myself for a minute there, then I just assumed that sweating copper pipe was really that easy. Maybe it's not; that's literally the only time I've ever done it. It's still holding, as far as I know. I was in the house less than 20 minutes.

Sweating pipes works great until you have a pipe that isn't dry and won't dry.

I fell into that same trap sweating pipes at one point. I watched Bob Vila (or someone) show the technique, went out and had great success the first time followed by repeated great failures. No thanks.

I had heard to just stuff the pipe with bread to soak up the water long enough to get it soldered together. I stuffed a 3/4" pipe once and when I turned the water on it plugged up every sink and toilet in the house. Perfect

If you're hung up against PEX and Sharkbites, the pros use Pro-Press now. Here the tool rents for $156 per day or $390 for a week. It's about $3k to buy a good one. A 1/2" straight coupler is $6.35 each, while the Sharkbite equivalent is about $8.50.

I've found the key to success with sharkbites (so far at least) is to measure and mark the depth correctly and they won't pop apart. If you don't get it seated fully, pain will result.

 

[restoman]

It's been my experience that Sharkbites are pretty much useless in areas that can potentially freeze, even if the water has been turned off.
They give new meaning to the term "Weakest link"...

 

[69.5CUDA]

and see ive seen a bunch of pex in "cold" come apart, a couple whole houses had to be re-done..and we dont get that bloody cold..that was atleast 10 years ago tho

honestly once dad showed me how to sweat copper and knew i could do a reasonably good job at it...id often get tosssed the job..so ive got 10 years of experiance at it...and still hate it to this day

you are right tho very old pipe that wont dry is the WORST, and can turn ugly and time consuming as hell

 

[b-body-bob]

I just came out from under this house and TBH I feel like knocking it down and putting in a double-wide. What a mess, and I don't seem to be able to hire anyone to work on it. So, yay me.

The copper where I'm working looked rusty IRL and in the dark.

I think this is the least of my problems
Leaking at the toilet

line goes behind the stack

and connects to the lav


There's this quality HVAC work that is likely to end up a disaster


You can't really see it but that Fernco goes over cast iron so I'll have to cut through it carefully to get it off. Trying to twist and pull on it to get it apart is a disaster in the making.

Not sure what's worse though - the HVAC contractor who cut that pipe off (used to go to the old furnace) and capping it with duct tape, or the gomer who made that fine adaptation to drain it to begin with.

The furnace was put in about 7-8 years ago?

As for sharkbites - if it freezes hard enough to push one off, you've split the copper anyway.

A PEX fitting might be problematic if it freezes, but the pipe itself won't be, it just expands. Replacing a fitting is a lot easier with PEX, and freezing a fitting is a problem whether it's copper or PEX brass anyway.

 

[thrashingcows]

The corrosion on the copper is usually from old flux being left on the joints after soldering the connection, a quick wash and clean when it was freshly done and those problems generally don't happen down the road.

I've done a bunch of copper piping in homes over the years...really not that hard and even leaky or wet joints can be over come with some pieces of bread shoved into the pipe and them moving quick to sweat the joint.

 

[b-body-bob]

I've done a bunch of copper piping in homes over the years...really not that hard and even leaky or wet joints can be over come with some pieces of bread shoved into the pipe and them moving quick to sweat the joint.

Come on down, I'll pay union rates

 

[restoman]

The corrosion on the copper is usually from old flux being left on the joints after soldering the connection, a quick wash and clean when it was freshly done and those problems generally don't happen down the road.

I've done a bunch of copper piping in homes over the years...really not that hard and even leaky or wet joints can be over come with some pieces of bread shoved into the pipe and them moving quick to sweat the joint.

The summer after I turned 13, I spent working in my cousin's plumbing company.
I think I learned how to solder properly the first week. Sweating soldered joints apart and then putting them back together without leaks or solder dripping all over the place was on week 2. Marv HATED seeing wasted solder! I learned a whole 'nother language that summer.
Except for being the newbie when it came to waste lines, that was a good summer job.

 

[b-body-bob]

Hooray I fixed the water leak under the house. There are a couple of sharkbites involved. I stopped counting places that are going to pop sooner than later because some genius used steel straps to hang the copper off the joists.

The weird part is I also cut that elbow and scabbed pipe out of the bathtub drain, now the bathtub doesn't drain at all. Impossible, said I from the crawlspace, actual, said Gina from the living space..

I just left the Fernco on cast iron in place. It's good enough - should outlast me. Cut out the 2", spliced it back with a Fernco, and used a Fernco elbow instead of gluing in a PVC part.

I'll work on that tomorrow. I feel like I've been beat with a rubber hose. Whatever that feels like.

 

[Stretch]

Ready to spray babyshit in the morning!