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What did YOU do today?


I watched a thing on using an ultrasonic cleaner on them and now I’m thinking I need to invest in one of those…
They're great, I have a 10L version and it does help, not magical on really screwed ones though... for simple carbs they work great
 
The Escape is fixed. The solenoid replacement was not fun but it wasn't as bad as the head lights and coolant hose were. Speaking of which, there is still a coolant leak. I haven’t found the source. So, I suspect it is the radiator. That will be an adventure in itself. Look up a radiator replacement for an Ford Escape, 2013 -2018 (I think). The front of the car is going to have to be torn apart again and the A/C system drained before and reserviced after the work is done.

The condensor, radiator, and turbo intercooler have to be dropped as a unit and broken apart.
 
I watched a thing on using an ultrasonic cleaner on them and now I’m thinking I need to invest in one of those…

They're great, I have a 10L version and it does help, not magical on really screwed ones though... for simple carbs they work great

I just used one on a carb for the first time a few weeks ago and it definitely made it cleaner. We've got a 95 Kawasaki Bayou 300 4x4 that I rode up until around 2014/15 when I bought a newer Honda Rancher. It was a good ATV, just a little small for me, and age/ethanol was getting to the carb. Dad tried cleaning the original carb a few times with little success and ended up installing an ebay/amazon replacement. Never quite ran right with that one and IIRC he was always chasing a fuel leak issue. He was working on it again when he passed this summer. I think he though it was about right, but then it sat for months. I could get it to start on ether, but not run at all, when I disassembled the carb you could see the ethanol damage.

I ordered up a rebuild kit and decided since I was rebuilding anyway I was going to try the original carb first. Original is usually better quality if it can be cleaned. Took it apart, cleaned the passages with carb cleaner and torch tip cleaners, reassembled. I could get it to start with and run on choke, but that was all. Disassembled it again, dropped it into my 2.5L harbor freight ultrasonic. Filled the cleaner with heavily diluted simple green pro (metal safe) in distilled water (tap is probably fine) and ran it on heated cycle a few times, probabl 30 minutes total. That aluminum came out looking good. I'm not going to say new, but about as good as one could expect for a 30 year old carburetor. Reassembled the carb, and now it starts and runs with no choke in 50 degree ambient temps.

Still wouldn't run off idle, but I think that is because I have the pilot jet or float level set wrong. Hunting season hit which kept me occoupied on the weekends, then discovered the water damage at the house, so haven't been back to mess with it for several weeks (I drained the carb first). Well I did mess with adjusting the float some more while I was over there yesterday, but didn't get around to testing it. This freezing weather has the rubber boots not wanting to cooperate. When I get back around to it, I'll mess with the carb a little more, and if that don't work it's another replacement carb on order. I've got more important stuff to do than waste extra time on an ATV I won't be using much. Throw on a new carb and tell them to ride it often to keep fresh gas in it.

Anyhow... It wasn't the first time I'd used the little ultrasonic, but after seeing those results, I'm sold on the tech. I stopped by HF a few days later and bought the 6L and hope it does even better. I'd started disassembling my 6.5" Taurus Tracker 44 mag and decided I wanted to ultrasonic it, but it wasn't going to fit in the 2.5L. Even a bigger carb wouldn't fit in the small one. Bought the big then it got put on the back burner like everything else. Need to set up the cleaner and work on that while taking breaks from fixing the house. Hopefully the gun actually fit when I try it, if not I might have to start looking for a bigger one.
 
I finished up my man space in the spare room. Wife let me have Christmas early. Just a place to tie flies... tinker/clean guns and the cabinet on the left is the new lockable ammo storage. Freed a lot of space in the safe. She really surprised me with a pretty nice desk chair today.

20251217_171834.jpg
 
Yesterday I painted the other side of the shop office door and another coat of paint on the door trim then pulled the masking tape. Tonight I put the door back on, tried fitting one of the door knobs I have and the latch part is 3/8" too deep, there's assemblies on amazon for like $12 (it's a shop, lever for slippery hands... round is cheaper)

Today I tried to exchange my empty Argon and 75/25 bottles for full ones but I didn't know the size, tried to combine an order with work and they assumed 200cf tanks, turns out they're 300cf tanks... and were out of date so I went to the main office of the place (24 miles away annoyingly) but the lady was SUPER nice and saved me some $$, with cert fee and fill for two giant tanks was $208, didn't seem too bad... I was half anticipating 30% more...

To top everything off it's rained constantly today, I don't have flooding issues but the ground is saturated and my septic alarm is on from high water level (don't know where the leak is, will likely address that this summer when I do some work) and the wife said the toilet won't flush so both tanks are full... The shop even currently has a moat! Water level has been higher since we've been here, one year the "yard water" was 5' from the house on Thanksgiving, it's 25' away which is 6" of depth which is a LOT of volume so should be fine...

About to head back to the shop to put the now full tank in the welding cart, it'll be nice to use shielding gas again... now I'll have two argon bottles so I can have inner purge gas when I make the intercooler piping for the F350...
 
Yesterday I was voted up to fire police captain from first lieutenant
Now you are responsible for ALL the shenanigans your guys do! Congrats!
 
Last day of semester (high school), the admin, in their infinite wisdom, banned any assessments for the last day, so we've been finished since Wednesday (block A/B school). Absolute waste of everyone's time.

I have two students in my first block class.
 
I got official confirmation that I'll be an automotive technician for the USPS starting January 24th. So no break in pay, or at least not a huge one in the transition from working for the DoD to working for the USPS. This is assuming the transition goes smoothly, we are talking about the federal goverment after all.

I am looking forward to the change in venue and work environment. It does seem to be way more easy going and stress free compared to working for the military on aircraft from the impression I got during the three hours I spent on location for the job interview.
 

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