What did you do in your garage today..?

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Relax said:
This probably should go in the "What are you doing to the house" thread, but I can't find it and it and this is more of a mechanical repair than a renovation, so here it is.

As we were watching TV last night I noticed I was getting warmer and warmer. Next thing you know, I see a missed email from Ecobee that something's wrong with my AC because the system was calling for cool for the past few hours, but the temperature has kept rising. Well crap, it's the hottest night of the year, the next day is Canada day, and I'm leaving on vacation the day after. Praying that it's just the start/run capacitor, I find one with the same specs on Amazon that ships next day so I grab it. Then I go outside and check the condenser - hmmm, the fan is spinning - last two times the cap died, the fan wasn't spinning. Now I'm wondering if I have a refrigerant leak. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now, so expected the wife to call around while I was gone to have someone come by.

Today the cap arrived and I figured I could spend time I don't have to diagnose the entire AC or take a few minutes and just swap it out. Well hot damn (no pun intended), the new cap it fixed it, so it the "run" part of the old cap went bad this time. No bulging and no rusting like the last 2. The one catch is that the cap I got is physically larger than the ones I used in the past, so I had to bolt the holder "open" to the frame and leave it to spring tension to hold it in place. Will try not to dwell on it while on vacation and attach it properly when I get back.

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Ours was also running poor the other day.
26 degrees inside the house.
Buddy is coming over to look it over but I decided to clean the AC unit.
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oioioi said:
Ours was also running poor the other day.
26 degrees inside the house.
Buddy is coming over to look it over but I decided to clean the AC unit.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if that fixed it. The very first time I ever had a central AC problem, I was expecting a hefty but fair fee since a friends brother was in the business. He came by and said the problem was just dirt/grass all over it from my neighbor moving his lawn (my side was gravel) and that after he washed it all of it was fine. No charge!
 
Relax said:
I wouldn’t be surprised if that fixed it. The very first time I ever had a central AC problem, I was expecting a hefty but fair fee since a friends brother was in the business. He came by and said the problem was just dirt/grass all over it from my neighbor moving his lawn (my side was gravel) and that after he washed it all of it was fine. No charge!
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By the time my buddy came by around 5 or 6 pm. there was ice buildup outside and on the furnce coil.
We toopped up for now and will monitor.

Last time it was topped up was about 7 years ago when I moved it from one side of the house to the other.

New AC quoted at $3400
 
Employing the 2 annoying ducks in their commercials....
 
Jampy00 said:
Never done this, it doesn't leave a film?
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It must but not really one that's noticeable. You rub it in and shortly after you won't hardly notice it.
 
I found a broken spark plug in a Moto Guzzi Quota 1100 ES that no one has been able to get started in years!!!

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Replaced both plugs, gapped em good, hit the starter, and!!!!!!














Piece of **** still won't start.


(it's with Carlo at Moto Motori now... concussionbrain can only troubleshoot so much)
 
Jayell said:
Wow! Nice bike! Where did you find a Quota?

Good luck with it.
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Thanks! It found me. The owner reached out asking if I might be interested in it.

I was like "Oh cool!" .... and immediately started Googleing wtf a Moto Guzzi Quota is.

A few people have told me that Quotas are ugly as sin but otherwise excellent motorcycles... I can't comment on excellence yet, but it does look like they know what they're talking about lol
 
adri said:
Thanks! It found me. The owner reached out asking if I might be interested in it.

I was like "Oh cool!" .... and immediately started Googleing wtf a Moto Guzzi Quota is.

A few people have told me that Quotas are ugly as sin but otherwise excellent motorcycles... I can't comment on excellence yet, but it does look like they know what they're talking about lol
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Wanna sell it? Would make a good listing on reasonably priced motorcycles - then you don’t need to invest in having someone fix it!
 
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It has some risers on there in the pic. This is a heavy 1100cc enduro. About 590 lbs wet. **** me. With my shoulder still a mess from last year's car accident, especially with any weight getting close to shoulder height or above, I could barely push this thing around.

Removing the risers helped a lot.

From what I put together, these were the precursor to the Moto Guzzi Stelvio. They were discontinued when Aprilia bought up Moto Guzzi around 2000'ish. Aprilia wanted one less competitor to their new Caponord model, so they quietly killed off the Quota... It left an empty space in Guzzi's line-up until the Stelvio came out in 07.

Looking forward to finding out what that big 1100 transverse v-twin can do in that kind of frame.
 
Mad Mike said:
Wanna sell it? Would make a good listing on reasonably priced motorcycles - then you don’t need to invest in having someone fix it!
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Why? Wanna buy it?

I doubt it's going to cost much to get it running to be honest. It's something in the fuel delivery. We've got spark and air. The motor looks good, has less than 10,000 km, and those big ol Guzzi tractor-like motors are as reliable as a mother in law's nagging. I'm not worried about it.

At this point though it's a second Guzzi, both were unplanned acquisitions, so... once I get each one sorted out I'll figure out which one stays and which one goes.
 
Changed the rear tire on a buddy's BMW F650... With one "little" hiccup.

Old tire came off easily enough... New one slipped onto the rim with greater ease than ever before. Seemed odd.
I always check and re-check the whole direction of rotation thing by reading the side-wall... No problem, didn't mess that up :)
Pop! Pop!... 'Bead set.
Screw in the valve core... 'Start adding PSIs...
"Ohhh Sh**... we have a problem..."😯 (says buddy who ordered the tire)
He points to the words branded into the sidewall... "TUBE ONLY".
"You ordered the wrong tire..?"

Apparently yes... Wrong tire.
Can't use a TUBE ONLY tire on a cast "tubeless rim"

Luckily the buddy who ordered the tire on behalf of the other buddy, who's bike it is had a new set of tubeless tires sitting at his place...
As his bike is smashed and waiting on word from the ins company as to its fate AND the fact that he's still too busted up to ride....
He went to his place and brought back/donated the appropriate tire...:)

So... Removed the wrong tire, installed the proper tire, put everything back together again and relentlessly teased buddy over his faux pas.
 
I painted it myself.

It was my first try at tank painting and it turned out pretty well. There is still a little orange peel if you look real close and the decals are not quite perfect bit I'm happy with it.

I only used spray cans, a bunch of sandpapers of various grits and a lot of patience.

I sanded all the paint off the tank to start with, filled in some dents and sprayed 3 coats of primer, 4 coats of finish paint and 4 coats of clear coat.
 
KevinR said:
I painted it myself.

It was my first try at tank painting and it turned out pretty well. There is still a little orange peel if you look real close and the decals are not quite perfect bit I'm happy with it.

I only used spray cans, a bunch of sandpapers of various grits and a lot of patience.

I sanded all the paint off the tank to start with, filled in some dents and sprayed 3 coats of primer, 4 coats of finish paint and 4 coats of clear coat.
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It's surprising how nice a job you can get with rattle can if you're prepared to do a little sanding. I rattle canned my CB750 and I'm pretty happy with it.

You say ready for a test ride, don't you really mean ready to wheelie?
 
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