Gas Fireplace Repair

Can You Really Compare Harbor Freight To Snap-On? (Yes)
SuperfastMatt

I like tools. I have a bunch, not a huge bunch like some people (video above), but enough to get me this far. I have a problem keeping track of them because I have some in my office where I work on small stuff, and a handful in a drawer in the kitchen because there is always something that needs to be fixed in the house. The bulk of them were in the garage in a roll-around tool chest. Those are all for automotive repairs and the bulk of them were wrenches. I say 'were' because since my family has started buying houses, houses that need remodeling, my tools have gotten scattered across three (and now four) locations.

Special Tool - Multi-Size Test-Ball Plug

I try and avoid special purpose tools, I prefer general purpose tools, but sometimes you can't avoid it, like when you want to pull the radio out of a 1995 Ford Windstar, or you need to test the sewer line for the building inspector.

Where are my Giant Channellock Pliers?

I was freeze proofing the outside water lines the other day and I could not loosen the hose fitting on the backyard faucet, so I went looking for a pair of Channellocks but I could not find any. Bah, double bah and humbug. That dang Osmany doesn't know his own strength. Whatever. I rooted around in my tool chest and came up with some kind of weird chisel. With that and a small hammer I has able to loosen the fitting.

How to remove a rounded nut or bolt- 5 different ways
[clipped to show hammer & chisel technique]
Ultimate Handyman
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It's hard to see in the video, but you need to aim the chisel to some point away from the center, the farther the better. Having a sharp chisel helps here. You're going to make a dent in the surface, but if you are this deep into it, that probably doesn't matter. You many even need to make a small cut straight in to the center in order to have something to push against to turn the bolt.

Now we're going to tackle the gas fireplace. The pilot light has gone out and relighting it doesn't help. There is a thermopile sitting in the pilot light flame. It generates a small amount of electricity (less than one volt) to run the gas valve. I check the voltage coming out of this thing and it's 165 millivolts, which is half of the recommended 325 millivolt minimum. So, new thermopile.

750 Millivolt Thermopile

Low and behold, Amazon has one for ten bucks, and they even offer same day delivery, on Sunday! 

CHANNELLOCK Pliers Set

There is a small catch, your order needs to be at least $35. Well, what else do I need? How about some Channellocks? I find one I like, but it's only $17, not enough to reach the number I need. I could buy a pair but the small one is only like six inches long. I already have one of those and I'm not real fond of it. I hardly ever use it. If I have to resort to channellocks, I want a big one. I finally settle on this set which includes a decent size channellock (yes, I know they are all Channellock brand, but I'm talking about the arc-joint pliers).

I do have a really big pair that have come in handy more times than I can count. I like them, but one pair is enough. Besides a new pair runs $70.

P.S. Not really happy with the new thermopile. The output is just above the recommended minimum and nowhere near the claimed 750 millivolt output. Well, what do you expect for $10?

Weatherstripping

Everything I needed

Replaced some damaged weatherstripping on the doors of my house today. The weatherstripping that seals the sides and top of the door is specially shaped vinyl that slides into a groove cut in the door jamb. Replacing it is easy, just pry one end loose and then pull and the whole thing comes out easily. Cut the new one to length with a pair of scissors and push it into the slot. Last time I did this, I thought each strip cost about 50 cents, now they cost 5 dollars. Only reason I have to replace these is that the cat shreds them with his scratching. You don't have to replace the whole thing, you can just replace the damaged portion.

The weatherstripping along the bottom of the door is another matter. This required taking the enormously heavy door off its hinges and tipping it over on edge. That's the bottom edge of the front door in the top center of the picture. It's resting on my handy dandy SuperBar pry bar so that it is up off the floor so I can tell when the new weatherstrip is flush with the edge of the door. The old weatherstripping had been attached with staples. I pried the old weatherstripping loose with my pocketknife and the wrecker bar. Prying the weatherstripping loose pulled only some of the staples out, most of them just ripped through the vinyl and stayed stuck in the door. I used a six inch pair of Channellocks to pull them out.

Staples would be just the thing for attaching the new one, and I have an electric staple gun I could use, but I only have 1/2" staples for it. From previous experience I know that this gun doesn't have the oomph to drive 1/2" staples into solid wood, so let's see what else we have. Oh, how about these little bitty half inch long nails I found squirreled away in my small parts cabinet? Looks like I ought to have enough, but they are really tiny, how am I going to hold them in place, hit them with a hammer and not smash my fingers? How about a pair of pliers? My first choice was a pair of needlenose (with the blue handles in the picture above), because they were handy. I could not maintain a solid enough grip with them so I trekked to the basement and got my needlenose Vise-Grips. They worked fine for holding the nail while I gave it a whack to get it started. Then I'd release the Vise-Grips and drive the nail home using the punch.

Out of the ten or so nails I used, one managed to find one of the old staple holes. What are the odds?

Craftsman punches are not chrome plated anymore.

Are Victorinox Swiss Army knives being made in China now?

GMC Suburban Water Pump Replacement - Notes

Update: Part one of this story here.

This was a real shade tree mechanic type operation. Jack's Suburban was parked on the dirt driveway in front of his house in amongst the two dozen monster trees in his front yard. The ground was covered with tree litter making it a little more difficult to find any parts, like screws, that we dropped. We used a pallet of flagstones that were destined for the patio in the back yard, but being as they are heavy, they haven't made it there yet. It was not the best of tables. If we had dropped any small parts in the cracks between the stones, we would still be shifting the flagstones looking for them.

We were fortunate, the weather was very pleasant and no rain, and we didn't lose any parts into the flagstone labyrinth. The sun was shining and we were working in our shirtsleeves. We also came through relatively unscathed. I jammed my thumb into the pump once, and Jack got a cut on his hand, just big enough to decorate it with a little blood.

The steel strap we used to hold the water pump pulley while we unscrewed the fan clutch was a bar about one inch wide, a quarter inch thick and about 18 inches long. The hole for the screw was about 3/8" in diameter and close to one edge. It was also at the end of the bar. I think it would have been better if the hole had been placed about three inches from the end, that way the bar would work in either direction. As it was it only worked in one direction. In the other direction it would swing around until the square end of the bar was pushing against one of the flats of the hex of the fan clutch and would work against the wrench trying to undo it, so we would have to undo the screw holding it, flip the bar around, and put the screw back in.

It is not necessary, or beneficial, to remove the fan from the fan clutch. Matter of fact, it just makes things worse. You do become dexterous at starting and tightening bolts in the confined space between the fan and the pulley. A 16 penny nail with a right angle bend proved useful in aligning the bolt holes in the pulley to the corresponding holes in the water pump.

It would have behooved us to spread a sheet of plastic under the fan and over the undercarriage to keep dropped screws from crawling into the dark recesses of the frame.

We used a pair of channellocks about 10" long to manipulate the spring clamps securing the water hoses. These pliers were pretty new and the teeth were still pretty sharp, which helped. It sometimes took two or three incremental settings to get the clamp from totally relaxed to open enough to go over the lumps in the hose. For instance one grip would get the clamp open enough to go the over the end of the hose, but then you would have to adjust the pliers and take another grip to get it to open up enough so the hose would slide over the hose bib. Bigger pliers could probably have done it in one grip, but I don't know if you could have gotten them in the confined spaces we were working in.

This vehicle was about a '99 model, and it was about half metric and half American, which is really annoying. I could understand this when they started making the changeover to metric about a zillion years ago, but the fact that they still haven't completely changed over to metric makes me think either they are incompetent or lazy. Professional grade nothing. I suppose there could be some kind of internal civil war going on, or maybe they are just waiting for all the fractional engineers to die off.

GMC doesn't make a Suburban anymore. It's now called a Yukon. At first I couldn't remember what the model name was. After all, it's "Chevy Suburban" I think of right off, not "GMC Suburban", but maybe they used the same model name. But look on GMC's website and there is no Suburban to be found, only the Yukon.

Update. Replacing the water pump did not solve the problem. Turned out to be a bad intake manifold gasket which cost about $500 to have repaired at Master Wrench. They have done a number of repairs for Jack and he has always been satisfied.

Update October 2016 replaced missing pictures.

Light Bulbs

2Pack, GU10 120V 35W MR16 Q35MR16 35 watts JDR Halogen Bulb Lamp

One of the light bulbs in my brand new range hood is burned out. This is an outrage! This range hood is not even six months old! If it used regular old incandescent bulbs it would be a little annoying, but no more so than the annoyance caused by any other regular light bulb burning out somewhere in the house. But this one is some fancy-schmancy light bulb, so instead of just unscrewing the old bulb, reaching into my light bulb magazine (which is stocked with a whole bunch of regular old, 60 watt, incandescent, soft-white, light bulbs), pulling out a new bulb and screwing it in, I am faced with a Gordian knot sized problem.

It doesn't look like that big a problem, I should be able to pop the old bulb out, run to the store and buy a replacement, and pop the new one in. Not too bad. The annoyance of having to run to the store is countered by the fact that I would be going to Lowe's (a giant hardware store) which is always a soothing experience. Mmm, tools. Mmm, hardware. Mmm, plumbing. You get the picture, I hope.

But first I have to get the old bulb out, and how to do that is not obvious. The bulb is flush mounted in a panel on the underside of the hood. There is just a little lip protruding from the surface, and being coated with a thin film of grease (that comes from all the cooking being done here), it is un-grasp-able. I try a medium sized pair of channellocks, judiciously applied, to try and grip it, but no go. An observation by my sharp eyed assistant reveals arrows drawn on the panel indicating the direction the bulb should be turned to remove or install. So we are on the right track, but how do you get a hold of the bulb in order to turn it? And then inspiration hits. The bulb has a flat lower surface, flush with the panel. I reach up with my hand, place my palm flat on the lower face of bulb, apply a little pressure, turn (anti-clockwise) maybe a quarter circle, and it falls out in my hand. Easy-peasy, if you know what you are doing.

So what kind of bulb is this? Here's the second part of the problem. I can see there are some black markings on the side, but they are almost unreadable. They are printed on the outside of the glass reflector, which is fluted and plated on the inside. By focusing on one character at a time and slowly turning the bulb I can make out that it is a

GU10C

110V35W

I could take it to the store and look for one, but I have other things to do, and if I wait to do this when I am out and about I am liable to forget. Amazon to the rescue. Point and click and a couple of minutes later a pack of two bulbs is on its way for $9. It won't be here for a couple of days, but that is more reliable than relying on me to remember to look for one at the hardware store.

P.S. These bulbs come in two flavors: LED and Halogen. The one I have in my hand appears to be a Halogen bulb. I am still a little suspicious of LED's. Enthusiasm drives up the price. High prices cool my enthusiasm, so Halogen for me. Plus all the others on the first page were for packages of eight or ten, and I do not want a pile of these suckers. I only want one, but two might not be a bad idea. There are two bulbs in the hood, and if one has burned out the other might not be far behind.

Update: Plugging in the new bulb was a bit of a trick. As you can see from the photo (above), there are two prongs on back of the bulb. Plugging in the new bulb should be fairly straight forward, except once the prongs are near enough to the socket, you can no longer see what is going on. So I eyeball the situation, orient the bulb as best I can, raise it straight up and hope the prongs reach the correct holes. I make several attempts but none make the connection. Finally I abandon my careful align-the-bomb-sight method and simply push the bulb up with the palm of my hand and turn it (much in reverse of my removal procedure) and after a little big of jiggling, it pops into position. Now it's a matter of turning the bulb enough to engage the clips. That takes some repeated applications of torque, but eventually it gets done.

Plumbing

Kohler Elliston Faucet

I don't know whether to be disappointed with how miserable this whole business of plumbing is, or whether to be impressed with how well it all works. Our kitchen faucet has been leaking for a couple of weeks. If you turn the handle just so, it stops, but that's a nuisance, and so is the dripping. It's basically a valve, and when it's off it should be off, not sort of off, or mostly off, except for just this little, tiny insignificant leak. Bah, double bah and humbug.

Delta ball valve

So Friday afternoon I set about fixing it. It shouldn't be a big deal, all I need to do it remove the handle, unscrew the  top ring, lift out the ball and replace the two little seals that actually do the sealing. I've worked on this faucet before, and in fact I have a complete new faucet that Delta sent me the last time I ran into trouble, so I shouldn't even need to run to the store. Hah, fat chance.

The handle is held in place with a set screw. I locate the correct Allen wrench and, grunt, it won't move. I apply an adjustable wrench to the Allen wrench to get more leverage, and the screw breaks loose, which is good, and it starts to turn, which is also good, but after a bit it becomes apparent that it is not unscrewing. It is just going around. Now, technically, one shouldn't need to completely remove the screw from the handle, loosening it a couple of turns should do the job.

Delta ball valve

But as I recall, the pin that the handle mounts to has a flat spot milled into it, and if you don't unscrew the set screw far enough it will impact the end of the pin that has not been milled flat and the handle won't come off. Simple solution is to simple remove the screw completely, that way you know that the screw is not going to interfere with the removal of the handle. Except the blamed thing won't come out. It just goes round and round. I suspect that what happened when I applied the adjustable wrench to the end of the Allen wrench is that the screw just ripped the threads loose from the body of diecast handle.  Well, poop. Maybe the screw is loose enough that we can pull the handle off. No, that is not the case. Applying a hook end of a crow bar with extreme prejudice produces no change in the status quo. The handle stays in place.

Well, like I said, I have another complete, brand new faucet. Replacing the faucet will be a pain, but cost free, and since it is the same make and model, it should be relatively problem free. Hah, double hah, and triple humbug.

Business end of Delta faucet showing evil, gray plastic plug.

I manage to get the faucet replaced without too much difficulty, but when I go to hook up the water lines I discover that there is a little gray, plastic plug in one of the lines. Why I didn't notice this before is one of those questions for the ages. In any case, it shouldn't be a big deal, it should just pop out. Except it won't, and none of my exhortations or conniving or cursing persuades it to move. Nothing for it but to pull the faucet back out and then when I have it lying on the bench I am able to apply my trusty Sears Craftsman Channellock, er, sorry, "arc joint", pliers and pry this evil spawn of the devil from its chosen abode and cast it into the abyss.

Reinstall the faucet and assemble the ball valve at the top, which for some reason was not assembled.  Put it together and turn on the water and the ball valve is leaking, not out of the faucet, but out of the top where no water should ever appear. Bah, bah blacksheep, have you any wool? Yes sir, I do, but it's all water logged.

I fiddled and fussed, but Saturday morning I finally decided I needed some new parts so I head down to Lowe's, but I can't get there. Someone has effed up on the road and traffic is massively snarled. I end up going to Freddie's and buying an off-brand seal replacement kit for $5, but by the time I've gotten home, I've written off trying to fix this faucet and decide to make another attempt to get to Lowe's and this time I buy a new, different faucet.

Well, of course it's different. We've had the Delta faucet for untold years. The last time I had a problem with it was nine ((9!) years ago. While it used to be you had a choice of maybe two or three faucets, there are now dozens, and since they are now fashion items (the plumbing department at Lowe's is called Fashion Bath), there are new models every year. I look over the selection and there are several models of several different makes. I need one that will mount in a single hole, so that eliminates the cheapest faucets. I want one with a chrome finish. I think our original faucet was white, and if you get something with an odd-ball (i.e. not chrome) finish, and something breaks you are going to have a hard time getting a part to match. This eliminates the most expensive models, which have some kind of brushed metallic finish. Besides, chrome goes with anything. So now I'm looking at the middle tier and there are several brands. Whether it's my own experience or the relentless advertising, the only ones I am comfortable with are Kohler and Delta, and I've just spent a bunch of time fighting with my Delta faucet, so let's get something different. It might not be any easier to work with, but it will at least be different, so to keep myself amused, I get the Kohler.

Steampunk Squid

When I open the box it is immediately obvious that the Kohler is different. Instead of short copper pipes protruding from the bottom like the Delta, there are a trio of long, black plastic hoses. Makes me think 'steampunk squid'. Both faucets are secured to the counter and sink by a brass nut that threads onto a big brass screw. Delta has threaded one of the three pipes emanating from the faucet. Kohler has threaded a big brass tube that encloses all three of the water tubes. In both cases the screw is about six inches longer than it needs to be (for my kitchen, maybe there are other counters where you need the longer screw) which means you get to spend a minute or so screwing the nut onto the shaft.

Master Plumber Ed Del Grande installs a Kohler kitchen faucet

The Kohler has a couple of screws that go through the ring (nut, photo above) that are to be tightened after you have the ring all the way up. This would not be a problem except that the screws turn easily in their holes, so easily that while I am spinning the ring up the big brass tube, one of the screws unscrews itself and falls out. Well, poop, that's annoying, but I should be able to screw the screw back into it's hole, except I can't. I am lying on my back under the sink and the ring is an arm's length away and I cannot get the screw lined up. I can get it started, but it is quickly apparent that it is not properly aligned and is now jammed. No help for it but to unscrew the ring so I can get it to a place where I can see what is happening. More fussing and fiddling but I get it done.

All that's left now is to connect the supply lines. The Kohler lines are equipped with fittings that connect directly to the shut off valves, so I need to remove the old supply lines, which is just as well as the hot water line was too short to connect to the new Delta and would have to have been replaced.  One of the shut off valves is leaking and I am thinking that once I make the connection it might still be leaking, but at least it will quit dripping, so I put a little more force on the wrench and it twists the tube, which crumples. Loosen it back a bit, put my channellocks on the ferrel and tighten it again. No help, the valve is still dripping. Now I realize that the valve is leaking around the stem, and not just through the valve seal. So over tightening the hose fitting was probably not a good idea. Let's hope I didn't do any permanent damage.

Keeney Shutoff Valve

The shutoff valves require a dozen or so turns to open or close. New ones are ball valves and only require a quarter turn. Replacing the shutoff valve requires turning off the water to the house. The valve to do that is twelve feet into a crawl space. I've been thinking about making an access hole in the wall so I could just reach in from the basement and turn it and since this is now day two I resolve to do something about it. I pick up an access panel from Lowe's, use an ice pick to mark the location from inside the crawl space, and then cut a hole in the drywall to mount the access door. Worked well, especially since the hole ended up being adjacent to massive storage shelves and not behind them.

Houses really should be designed that the plumbing connections are accessible from behind sinks instead of underneath, that way ordinary people could work on them. This might put a few plumbers out of work, but how many would it save from crippling injuries? The only people who should be doing this kind of work though are kids, who are flexible. Teenagers could probably handle it okay, it would be easy enough for grade school school kids and a piece of cake for babies. That's the ticket, plumbing companies need to make their fixtures so easy to install that babies could install them.

I got annoyed with the problems I was having on day one, so I cracked open a bottle of wine. Normally I will have a couple of glasses during happy hour, but by the time I had given up fighting with the faucet for the night I had finished the entire bottle. Usually when I exert myself on a strenuous mechanical repair project I will be sore and achy the next day. Did not happen this time. Oh, I had a bit of a hangover, but not debilitating, after all I was able to get the faucet installed, connected and working.

Oh yes, Delta has a lifetime warranty, and if I hopped on this problem when it first appeared, Delta would no doubt have sent me the replacement parts, no charge. But the problem is a couple of weeks old and it's time to fix it and $200 for a new faucet is cheap compared to the 500 or $1,000 that a plumber would charge.