THE REATTA LOUNGE

[Padgett]

5/50.

[DAVES89]

1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

You guys in the land of salt sure have a lot of problems with steel brake lines and fittings. Around here that is seldom a problem. You would think the car makers would have anticipated that being a problem with the brake and fuel lines and used a different metal that wouldn't be so prone to rust. I guess there decisions are based more on cost than longevity.

That's why when I call a shop for repairs I no longer want to do I explain to them that while my car is older it's not a rusted out sh*tbox.

I am spoiled myself as my wife's car is 2 years old and except for the Black my cars don't see winters. However this summer I did spray the fuel and brake lines with undercoating. Hopefully that will help.

 

[2seater]

1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

You guys in the land of salt sure have a lot of problems with steel brake lines and fittings. Around here that is seldom a problem. You would think the car makers would have anticipated that being a problem with the brake and fuel lines and used a different metal that wouldn't be so prone to rust. I guess there decisions are based more on cost than longevity.

Here's an irony for you; the Ranger is older, but while my Subaru Forester has well over double the miles at about 206k, and also winter duty, the underside is almost pristine. The Forester is made in Japan and I would have expected the tradition of great drivetrains but sheetmetal and frames rotting away to be in evidence, it looks like the opposite is true. I do have to agree that while the dollar has certainly been most important, they do gradually learn. The one saving grace is if you need interior or rubber parts, look in the north, where there is a constant supply of failed chassis sending them to the 'yard.

[Ronnie]

17 minutes ago, 2seater said:

The one saving grace is if you need interior or rubber parts, look in the north, where there is a constant supply of failed chassis sending them to the 'yard.

That is true. Around here it's hard on cars for them to sit outside in the sun most of the time. It's common for headliners to come lose and fall down due to the foam backing getting brittle and letting go. The sun is really hard on the dash and steering wheels and it causes clear coat to turn milky and start peeling. I try to keep my vehicles parked in the garage as much as I can.

[DAVES89]

I agree about the upper Midwest for interior parts. Our temperatures are very moderate and the plastic and leather is not dried out. 

[2seater]

Not really Reatta related but referred to in my post above. I stated that I have found different sized fittings on the same line when doing repairs on my Ranger, but I didn't expect different types on either end. I brought supplies, flare making tool and tubing for inverted flare but discovered the master cylinder uses metric bubble flares🤨 Of course my supply of bubble flare tube nuts and such was back at home. Luckily, the tube nuts at the master cylinder were not seized on the line and I planned to use them over (two different thread sizes of course). Almost all of the tubing in the front of this vehicle is wire wrapped for protection and to be sure they stay damp and salty for promoting rust🙄, so a tube cutter doesn't work well. Because of this I nipped the end off to save the tube nut, but of course it plopped into the engine bay, (somewhere), and didn't fall through to the floor. After a fruitless search for the part, I made a 20+mile round trip into the closest city with an auto parts store, two of them in fact. At O'Reilly's, they had NO metric tube nuts and NAPA had only three different thread sizes for 3/16" line, and only one of them looked like fine enough thread, so I took one of each. Of course my sample was somewhere in the engine bay. I also purchased two 30" bubble flared prefabricated lines which had a fourth different size tube nut with fingers crossed. As it turned out, one of the tube nuts I purchased was correct for the larger of the master cylinder connections and the prefabbed line had the correct size for the smaller one. The opposite ends were cut off and did an inverted flare which I was prepared for. I guess my point about this is not my haphazard way of going about this repair but the odd lack of appropriate parts at two large auto parts stores and it wasn't that they were just out of them, they didn't stock them. That seemed odd since they are common on many GM and European  cars, and probably others.   

[DAVES89]

Over the last years I have decided that when I need one part for my Reatta I buy two. If a part breaks on one it is surely going to break on another. The exception is brake lines and fittings. I am very surprised that neither store has a good supply of metric flares as the whole automotive industry has gone metric. Now you have me thinking I should start stocking brake line fittings...

[Ronnie]

I replaced the clutch on my washing machine on Saturday.  There were a lot of similarities to changing the clutch in a car. First you remove the body. Then you remove the interior. Next comes removing the motor and the transmission. Then you can get at the clutch to replace it. After spending about 2 hours of my time and $30.75 for the clutch the wife is able to take the washer for a spin again!  🙂 Sure beats spending $700 for a new washing machine.

 

 

[ship]

Off topic/non-Reatta event:  You folks might remember my mentioning that I have a "whole house" Generac generator and a basement sump pump.  Last week of October we had 3 days of rain and lost electricity.  First time ever the generator sputtered and died leaving sump pump inoperative.  I ended up with over 2 inches of water in various places within my basement including my Buick/Cadillac man cave.  Couldn't get a commitment from New England Generator co. for a time/date to come to the house to fix said generator...and gave me attitude to boot!  Called Mass Generator co. (I'm not even a client) and they sent a tech by 7am next morning.  He replaced 2 parts and questioned why NE Generator wouldn't have spotted this during their annual May maintenance process.  Generator now runs like a top and Mass Generator co. is now my new maintenance company!  Diane and I had to throw out a room of carpeting, destroyed furniture, etc., etc.  Luckily, washer, dryer and water heater are on blocks and not affected.  Furnace ok, too.  Due to water damage caused by "outside water", I can't file a house insurance claim.  I don't have flood insurance (wicked way too expensive at $4k to $5k/per year because I'm near the ocean) so all expenses will be out of pocket.  Just a day in the life.... 

[Ronnie]

2 hours ago, ship said:

... they sent a tech by 7am next morning.  He replaced 2 parts and questioned why NE Generator wouldn't have spotted this during their annual May maintenance process. ...

Ship, if you had a written maintenance agreement with New England Generator co. and they overlooked an obvious problem, you might have good reason to threaten them with a lawsuit to recoup your money for the damage. Probably not worth the effort to actually take them to court but it might get them to help you some with the cost of items you had to replace. After all, situations like this is why you pay them to make sure the generator is in good condition.

 

 

[Padgett]

Florida/Duke power has never been reliable for as long as I've lived. Have 3 generators. Two large and one Inverter. Enough for essentials and AC in bedroom. Water table is at about 4 feet so no basements.

[Ron Walker]

Back to brake lines. I've had the brake lines on my Reatta replaced twice since I've owned the car (now near 25 years). Each time in the vicinity of $600. Salt and corrosive material in South Western Pa is the culprit since we use the car 12 months out of the year. My fault for using the car in the winter months, I know, but I already have 3 other "sun shine" cars. 

[Ronnie]

On 11/14/2021 at 12:26 AM, Ronnie said:

I replaced the clutch on my washing machine on Saturday.  There were a lot of similarities to changing the clutch in a car. First you remove the body. Then you remove the interior. Next comes removing the motor and the transmission. Then you can get at the clutch to replace it. After spending about 2 hours of my time and $30.75 for the clutch the wife is able to take the washer for a spin again!  🙂 Sure beats spending $700 for a new washing machine.

 

 

This November has been Appliance Repair Month for me. First was my washing machine as noted above. Then my daughter calls and says her dryer has stopped heating. After dragging it out in the floor and doing some troubleshooting I discovered thermostat that controls the heat had went bad and I had to replace that. You can no longer buy just that part. You have to buy a kit that has more parts and costs over twice as much as the part I needed. If it were still available separately the part would only have been $18. At least she got free labor. The guy at the appliance parts store told me the price of a service call starts at $78.

 

A couple of days later she calls and tells me her dishwasher stopped pumping out the water. After spending a lot of time taking the bottom off the dishwasher and finding nothing wrong in there that I thought would stop the pump from running I call my friend Gary that use to have an appliance repair business before retiring. Out of the blue he asks me if the kitchen sink is slow to drain and when I checked it was. Little did I know that a some dishwashers will shut off if the drain is restricted. I cleaned out the drain under her kitchen sink and that fixed the dishwasher. Who would have guessed that the drain on the kitchen sink would be the problem? Again she got free labor. 🙂

 

Then Saturday my wife turns on the garbage disposal in my kitchen sink to grind up some onion and potato peals and after running for just a minute it started sounding like it was going to fly all to hell and the sink started to fill with water and wouldn't drain out. I was thinking a spoon or something had fallen into it so I dipped the water out of the sink to inspect the inside of the disposal. To my surprise there was nothing in the disposal other than a few pieces of onion. I turned on the disposal and it sounded normal. Problem fixed right? Nope. I started running water in the disposal and again it sounded like I was grinding a beer can and water started backing up in it. I hated to bother Gary again so I decided the disposal had went bad internally and started taking it off the bottom of the sink. When I disconnected the drain pipe I found it was clogged completely up with ground up onion and potato peels. I cleaned out the drain and the garbage disposal no longer makes noise and is working normally. I have no idea why ground up onions and potatoes could cause a garbage disposal to sound like it is grinding up a metal spoon but it did. I'm just glad I caught the clogged drain before installing a new garbage disposal and ending up with the same problem. I had just installed a new one earlier this year and it's no fun.

[ship]

I had the same thing happen to my garbage disposal many moons back when Diane tried to send potato peels through it.  I ended up having to unclog the kitchen drain (after already removing the disposal).  All in all what a very messy job.  For some reason disposals don't like potato peels.

[Ronnie]

I think Kat probably overloaded the disposal to begin with causing the clog. She pushes everything into the disposal, turns the water on and then turns on the grinder motor. Never been a problem in the past but I told her she is going to have to feed the disposal a little slower or learn how to unclog the drain pipes. I think I heard her laughing at what I said as she walked away. 😁

[ship]

2 hours ago, Ronnie said:

.....but I told her she is going to have to feed the disposal a little slower or learn how to unclog the drain pipes. I think I heard her laughing at what I said as she walked away. 😁

I believe your Kat and my Diane must be related since I experience this reation often at my house!

[Padgett]

I have no problems but scrape plates into the garbage bag before using the disposal.

[Ronnie]

1 hour ago, Padgett said:

I have no problems but scrape plates into the garbage bag before using the disposal.

We do it a little different at our house. We scrape the plates into the garbage disposal in the sink. Our garbage bag is inside a trash compactor and when you smash table scraps from the plates with a compactor it can make a real mess inside it.

[DAVES89]

We have a garbage disposal and every time I see my wife scraping stuff in the sink to grind up, I clean up the mess and throw it away. My wife doesn't understand but then again she has never replaced a toilet, or cleaned a drain either...

[Padgett]

I have a 55 gallon trash bag in a garage container with a lid. Scrape in there. From kitchen just need to open door and there it is. Bag goes out every trash day. Recycle bin is next to it. Can in kitchen is just for paper.