Minor Win thread - Life is good!

The clutch doesn't work and it sounds like a pulling tractor, but my buddy's Camaro started and didn't burn down today. Now to find a solution to the clutch that hopefully doesn't involve dropping the trans again.

Our mailbox is attached to a trellis thing that was wired to two pieces of conduit that in turn was attached with two (2) sheelmetal screws to the side door's awning.  Nothing on the bottom but some bricks on either side to hold it sort of in place.  Of course, sheetmetal screws in thin gauge aluminum is not a long term solution, and high winds blew it down earlier this week.

Well, looks like I get to buy new C3 batteries for my cordless drill, and hope the problem with them is the batteries and not the charger.  But let's look at Harbor Freight's site first.

All Bauer tools are on megasale this weekend.

So, bought a 1/2" drill with battery and charger for $60, and a nice new 1/2" impact for $90.  The Craftsman was barely strong enough to loosen lug nuts even with fully charged, good condition batteries.  Let's see what this sucker can do.

The other win:  Landlord apparently deposited my rent check immediately on receipt and not a week or so later like usual.  So I had an extra $300 that I applied to my credit card.

Half way through this weight loss competition. Goal: 40lbs. Current loss: 25lbs. Right on track. That money is as good as mine. 

After 3 weeks, 25 hours of working, 2 online orders, and 5 trips to parts stores, I finally have brakes on the ranger again. 

Now if only I could get it to start all the time instead of every once and a while...

In reply to Knurled. :

Please post tool review before sale ends.  I need cordless drill and impact, and I have $ in my pocket!

Took my older daughter on a University campus visit.  I’ve never seen her so excited about *anything*.  It was awesome.

In reply to AngryCorvair :

The cordless drill/hammer drill is pretty good, light, but simple. The half inch impact guns, both of them, are freaking spectacular. 

Look for all black batteries, the black n red batteries are garbage

In reply to RevRico :

What kind of starting issues? I had a couple starting issues with my ranger that caused intermittent problems. I had a worn out clutch switch and a bad ground on the starter.

Chesterfield said:

In reply to RevRico :

What kind of starting issues? I had a couple starting issues with my ranger that caused intermittent problems. I had a worn out clutch switch and a bad ground on the starter.

Pretty sure one of the battery cables is broken or corroded somewhere I can't see it. Weirdest E36 M3. Sometimes it will start to crank then stop and do absolutely nothing, sometimes it's totally dead, put a trickle charger on it for 2 minutes and it goes fine. Sometimes wiggling the cable or jiggling the key will get it to start on its own too. 

Seeing 14.4 at the battery, between the battery and frame and battery and block while it's running, have conductivity between the battery and all points I can check, brand new battery and terminals. 

It hasn't shut off while driving, but I am kind of afraid to shut it off anywhere until I get this sorted out. 

AngryCorvair said:

In reply to Knurled. :

Please post tool review before sale ends.  I need cordless drill and impact, and I have $ in my pocket!

I ran out to the Batcave for an impromptu test.  Test done with a lightly discharged-from-full 1.5A battery, not the 3A battery they specify.

On lug nuts torqued to 80ft-lb, running a chrome socket taped to a spline drive adaptor, it kinda rattled for a half a second before it loosened the nut.  Not the "BAP!" and off that I expect from the air powered 2135MaxQTOMGBBQ that I have at work, or even the 18v Milwaukee that my co-worker uses as his only 1/2" impact (I'm shocked at how good that is).

Next, I tried something more difficult.  I didn't have any assembled rotary engines handy to try for a flywheel nut.  I do have a 9" pumpkin but it still had a driveshaft stub on it so its pinion nut was inaccessible.  I did however have a Mazda 7" available, so I stake-marked the nut and the end of the pinion gear and.... about a half second of rattling and then it loosened the nut.  Cool.  It tightened it back down to the stake mark fairly easily.

So my review:  Not as good as a Milwaukee, or probably an Earthquake, but better than my C3 Craftsman ever was.  It also weighs about half as much as the Earthquake (3.x vs. 7.x pounds) and the only way to really shed weight is with lighter hammers in the impact assembly, which will hurt loosening torque.

The real test will be when I try to do the timing belt on teh S60R.  The crank pulley nut (yes nut, not bolt) is torqued to some crazy high torque.  My C3 would not budge the one on my S40, although admittedly neither did a 2' breaker bar.

In reply to Knurled. :

Thank you!  One more request:  could you post the item numbers / SKUs and/or links to these items on HF?  My most recent HF emails don’t say anything about the mega sale or these particular items.  And just FMI, what is C3?

In reply to AngryCorvair :

Oh jeez, now you're asking for a lot... the boxes and receipt are at teh Batcave and I'm still in bed in my feety pajamas sipping coffee.

Going to https://www.harborfreight.com/# right now has a big ad as the main page.  The "20V HYPERMAX 1/2 IN IMPACT WRENCH TOOL ONLY" is about 1/3rd of the way down.  SKUs listed in the ad are 63629 and 56176.  I did not need a coupon to buy at $90.

For the drill, it turns out it's not actually on sale.  However a charger is $20, a 1.5A battery is $20.  A 3A battery is $40.  I bought the most useful thing at the lowest price (1/2" drill, non hammer, $60) that came with a charger and battery.  So basically I got a drill for $20 and the charger and 1.5A battery.

I will be buying the 3A battery somewhere down the line.  For now, I can swap tires at rallycrosses with minimal fuss, and maybe get some work done quicker in the garage without having to hook up the noisy, slow air compressor.\\

C3 was Craftsman's name for their universal 19.2v battery system, they had a whole lot of different accessories that would run on it, like impact guns, impact drivers, air compressors (!), drills, grinders, etc.  Of course it's been superseded.  So I figure, if I'm going to "invest" in an electric tool/battery/charger setup, I won't bother with going with name brand because by the time I need to buy replacement batteries or tools, it will be all NLA and superseded, so I'll go with the cheapest I can get and treat it as something to be cycled out every 4 or 5 years.

In reply to Knurled. :

Thanks man, I appreciate the info!  I used the HF search for “Bauer Impact” and was able to find all the items you mentioned.  I’m going shopping later today.  :-)

In reply to RevRico :

I also remember that I used to carry an extra solenoid as well, I went through several of these until I cleaned up the ground or replaced the cable on the battery and alternator. There was a common thread with all theses problems, I had several rusty crusty grounds.

Doing brakes on the new miata, I saw and replaced a missing bolt on the LR brake caliper before there was a catastrophic event. Bonus Win: I had an old caliper in the parts pile that I could steal a bolt from to replace the missing one.

In reply to AngryCorvair :

More updates.

I gave it the acid test (well, one of them) today.  I needed to remove some pinion bearing shim from my 9" and I had previously tightened the pinion nut by the "stall the impact gun" method, with my 2135TiMax.  The Bauer rattled for half a second and zipped it off

I kinda like this little electric gun

Today’s minor win: apparently I have no idea who Luke Bryan is. 

I ordered something from Woot. It's traveling from Texas to Louisiana. Tracking shows it in New York right now.

What's the minor win?

Tracking also shows it ahead of schedule, and likely to arrive early.

Successfully replaced the battery in my 6S last night, and it's doing a LOT better than before. It was a refurb to start with and the battery has always been wonky (would sit at like 20% for an hour and then just shut off, other times would spend half the day at 1%) so it's nice not have to worry about it as much. 

Just ordered the replacement battery kit for the iPad Mini 2... that looks like it will be a bit more challenging- but I'm pretty sure that one I have the kit for it I won't ever have to order another kit with the tools because I'll have like 4 sets of some things and more than enough of the things that you need multiples of.

Always check new OEM parts pricing. I was all set to pay $220 for one new headlight for the MR2 Spyder when I realized I hadn't checked discount Toyota dealership pricing online. I found them for $150/ea! So cheap that I decided to replace both. I can probably sell what's on the car for $150 (for both). The passenger side is badly chalky and the driver's side is near but not quite pristine. A new pair of headlights will really dress up the car.

After our drummer had some huge life stuff pop up and had to bow out, the drummer search has been slightly annoying but i think weve found a good drummer(knock on wood).

As anyone who has tried out musicians knows, this is slightly more than a minor win, and damn i am happy right now

This evening we start our next road trip.. it'll end tomorrow morning in a different location than she's expecting, and it'll end with me popping the question. I'm beyond excited, and hopeful that I'll stop dreaming I forgot the ring at home after tomorrow morning..

In reply to dculberson :

OEM parts are always either surprisingly affordable or ridiculously expensive.  There is no inbetween.

In reply to classicJackets :

Good luck man!