Last repair was a cleaning/lubing and new belts on an Akai tape deck for a client. Runs like new now.
Our Ryobi accu compressor failed today. 18V-accu would not charge, I measured 7.3V output voltage only.
Though seldom in use, it may be 10yrs old meanwhile,
The accu-power switch (2 PowerMOSFETs in series with neg supply) blocked any output.
There was no pos gate voltage - obviously the controller executed a error shutdown.
Inspecting the 5 cells I found 4 of them with a voltage >4V and one with ca 3.6V.
So I charged this cell with the help of my lab supply set to 4.1V and 1amp.
During this process the charge indicator LEDs displayed the progress, starting with one LED
and ending with all 4 LEDs lit. Problem fixed, compressor works again.
At the end this has been a balancing problem that caused a
shutdown of the accu control electronics.
Though seldom in use, it may be 10yrs old meanwhile,
The accu-power switch (2 PowerMOSFETs in series with neg supply) blocked any output.
There was no pos gate voltage - obviously the controller executed a error shutdown.
Inspecting the 5 cells I found 4 of them with a voltage >4V and one with ca 3.6V.
So I charged this cell with the help of my lab supply set to 4.1V and 1amp.
During this process the charge indicator LEDs displayed the progress, starting with one LED
and ending with all 4 LEDs lit. Problem fixed, compressor works again.
At the end this has been a balancing problem that caused a
shutdown of the accu control electronics.
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Yeah, I knew that platform was used in many cars. It's excellent.
I know a guy who bought a Jaguar and was showing off at work. I asked if he knew it was basically a V6 Mondeo. He thought I was joking and was quite disappointed when this was confirmed. I told him it was nothing to be disappointed about as the Mondeo chassis is one of the best (I know the Jag is RWD so it isn't quite the same).
I fixed my active speakers. On a previous occasion I had slightly rewired the power supply due to a slight buzz coming from the tweeter. I added a few small caps and that seemed to fix it. However over time, it came back and got to the level where it clearly needed fixing. The speakers are very very compact and keeping the wiring adequately spaced is a real problem. It turns out that once I had reassembled the speaker, the cable had relaxed again into a position much too close to the signal wiring. A few 3M sticky pads and a couple of tie wraps later, the cable is tied back out of harms way. The buzz is now only just audible with my ear next to the tweeter, but not at the listening position. Screened rather than twisted cables might be a better fix, but I don’t have any adequate current screened cables. Time to go shopping again I think.
Two Dynaco MkIII obtained from various sources.
One has a problem, power varied betweel 30 and 60w, and it was sensitive to touching to PC-1 bord or the
6an8 tube. This was solved when the 0.1uF cap was replaced.
Due to this i will replace both PC-1 boards with new production before sale.
One has a problem, power varied betweel 30 and 60w, and it was sensitive to touching to PC-1 bord or the
6an8 tube. This was solved when the 0.1uF cap was replaced.
Due to this i will replace both PC-1 boards with new production before sale.
Fixing an intermittant connection in a 1970's Bruel & Kjaer 2606 Measuring amp. This beast predates IC's and has a slew of small PCB's. I had to replace some very old electrolytics as well.. A few pics. It now meets spec (2 Hz to 200 KHz). Its the only version until recently that supports insert voltage calibration, necessary for reciprocity calibration of microphones.
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Imagine if someone built a guitar amp like that. Parametric bass mid and treble with calibrated db boost / cut.
I replaced this oil trap on the wife's S60 on Wednesday while I was in Atlanta, Georgia. I did the same thing a couple years ago on our son's S60.
Going to be restoring a genuine Mora Clock - Moraklocka , I recently bought.
Needs lots of TLC and the mech a renovation / rebuild .
It will be wife's birthday present.
She's wanted one for ages.
Eldest daughter, who is a professional illustrator / artist will be improving the decoration.
Don't want to over egg it though.
Will be a complete surprise for wife.
Needs lots of TLC and the mech a renovation / rebuild .
It will be wife's birthday present.
She's wanted one for ages.
Eldest daughter, who is a professional illustrator / artist will be improving the decoration.
Don't want to over egg it though.
Will be a complete surprise for wife.
A pair of Dynaco MkIII
To get them up-to-date i had to replace : Bias rectifier and filtering, can cap , power tubes, input RCA, speaker connectors as the screws was damaged on one, PC-1 as one had bad capacitor and their condition was questionable.
Also power tubes was replaced with matched JJ-6550. I also had to cover holes made for DIN connections with a small aluminium cover.
The above parts plus general cleaning made me a pair of excellent monoblocks fit for the next 50 years.
To get them up-to-date i had to replace : Bias rectifier and filtering, can cap , power tubes, input RCA, speaker connectors as the screws was damaged on one, PC-1 as one had bad capacitor and their condition was questionable.
Also power tubes was replaced with matched JJ-6550. I also had to cover holes made for DIN connections with a small aluminium cover.
The above parts plus general cleaning made me a pair of excellent monoblocks fit for the next 50 years.
Replaced a leaking transaxle seal on the car which took most of an afternoon. After finishing up and closing the garage door the garage door opener failed. So today's project is installing a new opener. Sigh.
(Opener is 30+ years old and I rebuilt the transmission in it 5 or so years ago. Then the motor cap died a few weeks ago so I replaced it. The cap failed again this week so I replaced it yet again. Now THAT cap has failed so motor must be headed to the junkyard in the sky. 30 years was a good run I guess.)
(Opener is 30+ years old and I rebuilt the transmission in it 5 or so years ago. Then the motor cap died a few weeks ago so I replaced it. The cap failed again this week so I replaced it yet again. Now THAT cap has failed so motor must be headed to the junkyard in the sky. 30 years was a good run I guess.)
Next "beast" a B&K 2807 two channel microphone power supply. The price was good. However its is distressed. I have seen cooked resistors before but a fim cap with its case burned off is a new one. This had been repaired and the B&K cal seals were intact so I don't know what to make of it. I found a service manual so fixing won't entail deciphering the circuit.
Typical of B&K of this era its a mechanical nightmare to work on. When the manual is here I'll order caps. I have two newer battery powered versions but they don't have the 130V supply for the preamp electronics this has. I'll share some other vintage repairs over the next few days.
Typical of B&K of this era its a mechanical nightmare to work on. When the manual is here I'll order caps. I have two newer battery powered versions but they don't have the 130V supply for the preamp electronics this has. I'll share some other vintage repairs over the next few days.
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The good news is that openers are not that expensive AND in California they are requred to have battery backup now.
I have an annoying repair ahead. My Peugeot 206 GTi failed to proceed last week. I drove to the shop about 5km from home, parked, and when I came back out there was no response to the ignition key except the gauges doing weird things. I had been aware these cars sometimes suffer from 'BSI' failures - the 'Built-in Systems Interface', or in other words the main control unit. This is an early Canbus car and this unit tells the ECU, climate control, ABS module etc. what to do.
I reset the BSI in the car park (there is an arcane process to do this, which includes soft booting the module using the parking light stalk) but had no luck. This was the first time I've ever needed a flat-bed to take a car home.
Some days later I've still had no luck getting it going but as I only have a basic OBD code reader I'm getting my son to bring his fancy one home from work. But it looks like I'll nee the BSI repaired. Bugger. And for no apparent reason. I expect the scan tool to tell me there are no Canbus communications between the BSI and ECU.
Unfortunately, a repaired unit will require dealer software to make the 'virginised' BSI compatible with the other control units. I may buy some cloned software (Peugeot Diagbox) but finding a reliable seller is a chore.
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Watching a video on the Pontiac Fiero, ( Hagerty Media, The Pontiac Fiero was a 50-MPG Con Job, Ep. 27)...Jason Cammisa is hilarious here! ...they noted one particular reason why Pontiac decided to go ahead with Fiero production. The tooling cost per-fender was Seven-million dollars, the plastic fenders of the Fiero ?, $50,000 ...
When we see year over year "new model" cars that seem to look new, upon close inspection...they just fabricated new front and rear plastic "bumper skins"...At pennies on the dollar upgrades, makes sense to change out the brutally cheap bumpers.
Now, plastics are everywhere in our cars...& often times, under the hood...where they don't belong, especially considering the environment.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick...
When we see year over year "new model" cars that seem to look new, upon close inspection...they just fabricated new front and rear plastic "bumper skins"...At pennies on the dollar upgrades, makes sense to change out the brutally cheap bumpers.
Now, plastics are everywhere in our cars...& often times, under the hood...where they don't belong, especially considering the environment.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick...
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Those beauty covers under the hood keep the heat in and cause most of the plastic / rubber hoses etc. to
evetually start cracking earlier than necessary so just put it up in the attic until you sell the car
Those hot “V” bmw,s with the red hot turbos laying in that valley plus the covers ? Yeh right bmw , great design
evetually start cracking earlier than necessary so just put it up in the attic until you sell the car
Those hot “V” bmw,s with the red hot turbos laying in that valley plus the covers ? Yeh right bmw , great design