E350 appocalypse

The Saskatchewan job is killing me.
First we bought a locker rear end, because the 2 wheel drive van was really just one wheel drive, and if just one chain fell off, we were stuck.  Turned out the truck rear axle is 8 inches shorter than the van.  In a panic, not wanting to deal for hours in the middle of nowhere getting the van unstuck, I welded the rear diff in a temporary fashon.  This was done lite so it could be removed easily for the addition of a locker rear end.  Also it was done quickly, because we had to leave for Saskatchewan   It was welded outside, -25c, no preheat, and just one pass on each gear.

The Lincoln locker was brilliant.  It got us through Saskatchewan twice, we kept up with the big new 4x4 trucks.  Second trip we knew we broke a weld, changing a tire the axle was no longer solid, had some play. It was still working, we didn't do anything about it.  We got stuck briefly in Sask, hammered the throttle, spun us out of the deep snow, got us on the road, and clunk, broke the spider gear in the diff.

I had purchased this cube van because business is getting to that point, I need a shop, or storage locker, or hey cube van can park rite outside my house.  Insurance costs less than a storage locker.  This one had the 7.3 diesel which really sold me on it.  The cube had some issues, I never intended to drive it, until I blew the rear diff in my work van.  I am so impressed with the pulling power of the 7.3L, I have to put that engine in my work van now.

Anyway, I drove to Sask w the cube and car dolly, wouldn't you know the van didn't fit the car dolly, so I put dually rims on the front to make it narrow enough, and it just blew both car dolly tires rite away.  Back to AB I go, and purchase a tow bar.  I plasma cut neat plates to bolt to the bumper mounts, and  off I go to Sask again.  That 7.3L and those duallys on the cube did amazing.  One hair pin turn in deep snow we couldnt make, and the 7.3 hauled the van rite through the ditch.  Then we spun out on some ice, and hauled the van out of the ditch again.  That last ditch was the end of the transmission.  I believe it died of overheating, blew the front pump seal.  Hence my hate for Automatics.

This left me now with 2 E350s stuck in apx Bonnyville AB.  Rite away I got my poor pregnant wife coming out with a case of transmission fluid, and I called a tow truck.  Well it was the hollidays and I couldnt get a tow truck.  This was because the only tow company open, had the police contract essentially, and I would bring them too far out of town for their in town call.  Even though I expect the police would eventually hire them to get rid of my two vans where they sat.  So new plan, rent a one ton to tow the work van, and get a guy from Andrew to come out and tow the cube.  12 hours later I got both vans in my driveway in Andrew.  Now the dually conversion begins.

New A-Team Van

I bought a far from new bucket truck.  I love my equipment, not only does it make me money, but it makes day to day life chores easier.  This van is dubbed the A-team van, because its 80's, and black.  It isn't a Chevy like the A-team van, and it won't ever get the same wing, but we will paint a red stripe like the A-team van.

I  have been looking at bucket trucks for a couple of years now.  Ever since I did a shop w 20' ceilings, and basically needed to rent a scissor lift.  I found the first one at a dealership, $12000, second one was a private sale for $7000.  The A-team van was the third bucket truck I looked at for half the price of the private sale.  The generator/hydraulic power pack wouldn't start when I went to look at the A-team van.  That saved me $1000.  It didn't really even matter, I have a dozen generators, and the bucket still lifts, extends, rotates and all with the "back up" electric hydraulic power pack.  I don't even really see a use for the gasser power pack.

I was going to park this van on the farm, until it warms up and I can fix the suspension.  The rear springs are shot, maybe broken.  But I got work for it the second day I owned it.  So if it continues to pay for its insurance, and make money every month I will keep it insured for the rest of its life.

I am almost sure I will need an employee to run my second van full time in the spring. actually that would be the third van and employee.  The Astro is still in service at whats currently my biggest job.

I expect in the spring the bucket truck will be my third van in full time service.  I run the 96 E350, I drop an employee off at the job site with the ATV/Astro van on site, and I will have another employee to run the bucket truck. Until then its the two E350's don't get used at the same time.

Before the comments start, I don't really like ford.  Ford is probably my least favorite car manufacturer, but there is a lot of them out there, and they are cheap.  That makes them good work trucks.

Prepping For Saskatchewan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQUQjK-R5us
Picked up lil over 100 basements to wire on a Saskatchewan, on a first nations reserve.  They maintain their own roads, so we had to take a few precautions.

There was the seasonal snow threat, and the all year threat of loose livestock, or "livestock at large" as the signs say.  Also excessive wild and loose dogs, moose, and more dear than I have seen in the last decade.

I actually purchased a real limited slip differential, after the final failure of the Astro van lincoln locker.  But we had to install it and go to Saskatchewan the next day, and it was in the form of a full axle off a dually cube van.  I need to deal with brake lines, change out the brake shoes, add leaf springs wile that is all getting installed.  Then there are the duallys, I need dually rims, tires, and fenders. Not happening in an afternoon.  So Lincoln Locker it is.  This proved to be a GREAT idea.

Our brand new tire chains broke almost every time we used them, 3 times a day,  so most of the time we only had one chain on one wheel, which worked surprisingly well, as seen in the video.

After rain, all the roads iced over, and we lost steerability in the van, so we put a chain on the front and one on the back.  That worked awesome that day, till the back one broke, we had to put the front one on the back.  Next trip, we pack more chains, small shackles to repair the chains, more bungie cords to keep broken chains away from the brake lines, and more beer.

Furnace Troubles

I love that the old furnaces are so simple.  Sure they are not 100% efficient, our house isn't insulated either.  We saved 50% on our energy bills just turning the furnace down wile we sleep and go to work.  In our 2 years with a forced air gas furnace, we've had some problems with it.  This fall it only worked for a  few hours.  Made a quick vid of the fun repairing it, its very rare that I get explosions on video, so this one is worthy of youtube.  Part 1 and 2.
Furnace Trouble Shooting

Furnace Repair

Bi-law Enforcement

Piece Officer Animal Enforcement unit was by the house.  Chickens are restricted animals in the city of Edmonton.  $500 daily fine for having chickens.  I took the two hens out to Andrew, with the other 14 baby chicks.  A dog got in killed the two big hens and 5 little hens.  Left us with 1 baby hen and 8 baby roosters.  After all that hatching nonsense we have less chickens than we started with.

Bilaw didn't stop there, separate issue which I am totally aware of and take full responsibility for, I am not allowed to use my front yard as a work shop.  So I had to clean that up.  That was a good thing, I needed a good kick in the ass to clean it up when I get home from work at 11pm.  Also the neighbors house burned down and they are like, "can we just put some stuff in your yard". Normally I would say "yeh for sure, pile your stinky black smoke stained garbage in my front yard, just pick it up when you get your new place."  That never works out well, usually ends with me taking it to the dump when its not picked up.

We did however agree to take the neighbors parrot, until they get a place.  The parrot is lots of fun.  We secretly hope they never pick him up, but hope they do pick him up at the same time.
They had a lot of animals that didn't make it out.  Someone managed to carry the parrot cage out.
The fire was started deep frying french fries in a pan on the stove, then "going outside for a smoke" but leaving the burner on.  Oil reached its flash point temperature, then there's no putting it out.

A quick vid Michelle did of the parrot trying to drink my coffee in the morning.

parrot drinking coffee

New "Job"

The other day, I just decided I have to make a thousand dollars a day as an electrician, or its just not worth it, I'll join my budy, playing in the dirt with the skid steer, making $1000 a day.  I should have been more specific in my decision making.  8 hour days, 100 days a year, I don't know.

Shortly after I get the phone call.  50 houses to wire, all identical, back to back and framed up.  I never thought I could compete in the new construction cookie cutter mass production market.  Two weeks of fine tuning my game, 16 hour days, and getting covered in mud.  I can do a house a day.  One house, one day.  Now he wants 8 wired this week.  Thats more than one a day, just saying.

50, turned into 150, in two weeks.  What does that mean.  There is no light at the end of the tunel, its getting further away.  In two weeks, 14 days, I have wired 10 homes, and I still have other comitments I do at night and the odd day.  Instead of just 36 homes left to wire, there is now 136 homes left to wire.  I feel like I just got myself a "job"  I have four and a half months work if I work every day, 7 days a week, 12 hours a day.  But I have no doubt the number will get bigger again, and I will have work all year, which is good I guess.  No need to dream up interesting things to do in the winter.  I can just work like every one else.

I have lots of video and stories about the jobsite, but it all requires editing.  I just got one clip today that I'm not going to ediit, but rather upload as it is and goto sleep.   This is just a video of the Zoom Boom on site, put in the ditch.  Its pretty awesome to look at.

Whats New

Chickens

We have 2 chickens living in our front yard.  Everybody walking by is very entertained by them.  Our mail man, who has been trying for 2 years to NOT deliver our mail, got us written up by the Canada Post.  The official letter stated that our mail has become undeliverable, because we have lose chickens in the yard that might escape.  Thats bullshit cause they were flying out of the yard and back in on their own the week we got the letter.  They have never gone through the gate nor have they tried.
But you know before that it was the dogs, then it was some dog poop, then an extention cord was left out he was afraid he would slip or trip on it.  Or the snow wasn't shoveled enough for him.  Our mail man is just a dick.  We don't want to push the chicken issue, we feel lucky enough that everyone loves them, even our racist neighbor that doesn't like black people, loves our black chickens.  Truth is we don't know if we are allowed to have chickens in the city or not.  There is lots online about trying to approve 2 chickens per house, but nothing saying it has been approved.  So we keep 14 chickens out in Andrew, and 2 in the city.

Vehicles

Got a new van, big ol long Ford Econoline Club Wagon.  Seats have all gone in the garbage, and its filled w tools and wire.
The Astro is going good w its new trans, and Lincoln locker.   Really looking forward to driving that next winter in the snow, like four wheel drive, all at the back tires.
Nobody wants to buy my motorbike for cash.  Lots of people want to trade something, not even a phone call from someone with cash.
The old dodge is done.  I am going to take my many accessories off it and scrap the rest this summer.  The motor has troubles, the brakes have had troubles since the trailer brakes failed in the mexico mountains.  I did replace the pads, but rotors and god knows what else needs replacing now too.  This spring I did have a little fun with the dodge.  I was going to set it up for advertising, make it a real head turner, and decal it out.  Nothing show quality, just a WTF quality.  but I realized how unsafe and underpowered it is since I got the 1 ton Huderite van (Ford Econoline)  Here is a vid of the cold air intake I put on the dodge this spring.

http://youtu.be/UhHHEWhoOwY

Equiptment

I haven't got the Ditchwitch mini skid steer running on both cylinders yet, dispite lots of work done to it.  Amazingly it still managed to lift the 700lb 6.2 diesel into the back of the 1 ton, with a 200lb bucket on it.  I should have got video of that but didn't have a camera guy.

I did find a 1974 ish ditch witch for sale at a garage sale.  I purchased that for cheep, then I will remove the bar and reduction gears and put it on my skid steer.  that will be a real money maker.  I'll have a video up the motor from that sometime soon.  It is an amazingly huge and heavy 12hp Wisconsin engine.  I actually just like having it sit in my shop to look at it, its a nice looking old engine.

Work

I'm busy with work, as I am every summer.  We are thinking of buying another place this winter to renovate over the winter, wile things are slow.   I have guy that is a pro at flipping houses that wants to partner up on a home.  I have lots I want to learn from him.  Not so much how he does it but how he does it so fast.  He will replace every thing, make the place beautiful, in a month, working weekends and evenings after his full time job.

Babies

No babies yet, besides the 14 chicks we hatched this spring.  Michelle is destressing about kids in Germany rite now with her long time friend from Toronto.

Zombie Apocalypse

The Zombie Apocalypse as I like to refer to it, other wise known as the end of the myan calendar, dooms day, what ever.  Having our furnace go out a couple of times last year, and having a water pipe freeze and explode really made us aware how reliant we are on electricity and such in the winter months.  No electricity, no heat.  No heat no water.  So we have some solar panels and batteries, for the basement.  I am getting a pellet stove, just for the ease of installation.  I would like a wood stove, but its going in the basement and the pipe will then have to be vented 3 stories up.  Don't know if you have ever bought three stories of zero clearance pipe before, but it costs more than the stove.  Pellet stove goes rite out the side of the house like a new style furnace.  Also we don't own this house, and you know insurance won't even pay for the fire truck if  "they didn't approve" your wood stove installation.

Bobcat is Gone

I got my new skid steer, sold the old one.  Turned out to be sorta serious problems w the new skid steer 24hp motor.  I tore it down and took the head in for servicing, but nobody can get to it for 2 weeks.  Its very tempting to buy a brand new electronic fuel injection 28 hp, just cause we have work to do with it.
Video Of The Bobcat Tow Away


Funny after searching so long for a decent motor to put in the old 632 bobcat, found nothing.  I take my 24hp motor in they say buy this new 28hp for $2000.  Anyway would have had motors for both skid steers but my 632 is gone, I just have the SK500 now

It was a scrapper guy that hauled the bobcat away, but he had no intention of scrapping it,  he intended to put one of his scrap motors in and use it for his scrapping business.  Pretty cool tow truck he has, thing is worth $70,000.

Dune Buggy Race Track

I proved myself last weekend.  Everyone said there wasn't enough space in the back yard, in Andrew, to make a buggy track.  Without even using all the available space I made a short oval track, and it was a lot of fun for everybody.  It was much like the Speeders Electric Kart track we have in Edmonton, only we don't have to pay $20 a piece to rip around on it for 6 laps.

The 250's are perfect, just nuff power to spin the back end around on the hair pin and get enough speed on the strait to be slamming the brakes on in terror as you come in to the corner too hot.  This is also really great, giving Michelle some twisties fish tailing experience, to help her deal with icy roads when she drives.  I pretty much yanked her off public transit, gave her keys and told her to drive in Alberta winters, and she has had some nasty experiences since then, without ever getting a second chance.  "well maybe if I turn into the skid I could regain control" She'll never know until today.

New skid steer should be here Friday.  You know the buggy track is getting a tunnel, jump, velodrome style hair pin wall, and what ever else we can come up with.  The original 632 bobcat is for sale cheep.  I just don't have time.  My winter fun time is over, booked solid for a week in advance.  There really is something to my favorite contractor that goes to Arizona from Nov to May.  It is unbelievable, like someone flipped a switch may first and filled my calendar.  I still did little stuff all winter but was worried if we winter down south my contractors would find another Electrician.  This winter that wouldn't have been the case.
Check out the Dune Buggy accident video.

Equipment Upgrade

A couple of weeks ago I met a 23 year old that is excessively motivated to succeed.  I don't know if its just Alberta, or that generation of kids, we call "the generation of entitlement" because they, generally speaking, have no motivation and think they are entitled to success.

This young man, Justin, contacted me looking for some joint ventures in business.  He runs a part time earth works company, wile he is a full time heavy duty mechanic.  His earth works company runs into a lot of electrical over lap with trenching and new construction work.

At 23 Justin owns $60,000 in equipment, with no dept, and he keeps it busy.  But his equipment, and how he gets it is what really sparked my interest.  He runs the mini skid steer primarily, a $25,000 machine brand new. I call these mini skid steers the future of urban development, because they are only 36" wide they get into back yard gates, and through home doors.

I searched Canada for a used machine.  I was able to spend the $12000 people were asking, but they sold quicker than I could get to them.  Or in one case, the owner actually decided not to sell it, as if the earth just thawed, and he was reminded how useful it is.  So like Justin, I turned to searching the states.  Used equipment in the states seems to be virtually worthless.

South Dakota I found an SK500, a middle weight mini skid steer, for $3900.  That is less than I paid for my handle bar walk behind trencher in Canada.  Granted I still need to buy a trencher bar for the skid steer at $5000, but it will make my trenching and back filling life so much easier.  My handlebar machine really tries to kill you with big trenches, and then you have to back fill them after the machine beet the crap out of you

This is a picture of my machine, I should get late next week.

Attachments are expensive, but I can actually cut down the buckets for my full size bobcat, and save some coin there.  I can also make pallet forks, make buckets, my trailer able back hoe could end up going on this for back hoe work as an attachment.   For this machine I can buy post hole driller, trencher, anything the bigger skid steers use, but what really excites me is the Roto Witch.

Directional drills weigh in at 10,000lb +, and cost $100,000+.  I'm just not interested in spending that and hauling it around.  Ditch witch has made a roto witch, which is just a 30' drill bit that can connect your two trenches on either side of your driveway.  No more jack hammering drive ways and side walks, and doing scabby concrete repairs.

I'm sure I will make a video of the SK500 unloading. next week.  The next challenge will be transporting it.  The 500 only weighs 2200lb so hauling it without a one ton is very achievable.

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Bator

Well we went to a friends house to buy 12 fertilized chicken eggs, cause our baby chick from last year turned out to be a rooster, and we only have 2 hens.  I was surprised fertilized eggs are worth $10 and up a dozen.  But somehow we ended up leaving with 48 fertilized eggs for free, of varying age.  Like 2 weeks later, we get around to dealing with them.

I took 24 to the hatchery to hatch, cause we don't know what we'r doing.  Then in another week we got our bator together, got a cooler, hot water thermostat, computer fan.  The hot water thermostat only went down to 110 deg.  I think I need 100 ish deg.  So I simply dialed the stat down to 110, then pulled its nob off and reinstalled the nob at 120 and dialed it down to 110 again.  That gives me a theoretical 100 deg.

It seemed to hold within 5 deg, and our chickens are definitely developing.  So its looking like we will have some 40 odd chickens.  If any body wants any, let us know.  We have a mix of bantams, blue eggs, I don't even know.  The bantams will make some nice city birds, cause they are small.

Video of the home made incubator:


Video of candling eggs day 10:

Possum VS Cricket

A quick vid of our sugar glider stalking and attacking its prey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ1YZjHvmkY

Seating Tires

I have never had this problem before, but I got these sexy Corvette wheels, and the 235 tires that came on them rubbed bad on the slightest corner.  I really enjoyed this video, and trying to seat the tire, I am glad it worked out.

The Astro Van Diesel

This is the diesel I got for the Astro van, basically free, with the 700R4 transmission.  Which ironically turned out to be a great transmission, the only one of three that has a good fourth gear, but I rebuilt it anyway.  Who knew a 30 year old automatic could still be sweet inside.

I have unsiezed  this diesel engine like this three times now.  It obviously has some internal problems.  So its on the list to get a tear down and rebuild, right after the Ranger is back together.  It takes about an hour or more to get this motor turning over 360 deg.  Then it won't quite fire, but makes little smoke puffs.

The starter in the 6.2 diesel has some serious torque, sucks the battery voltage down and makes a tremendous amount of heat.  It still takes an hour of cranking an eighth of an inch at a time.

Torque Converter Myth

I got my new built transmission in my van.  Haven't done all the tests yet, but it worked sweet around the block.  Everything is as expected, shift points are perhaps a tad higher.  It slams into gear, to get rid of the "slush box" automatic feel, and make me more aware of what gear I'm in.

I was actually looking forward to cutting my original torque converter open, to see how burnt up it is.  It is my theory that most of the heat on the highway was coming from the torque converter.  My testing proved it did not lock up as it should have.  When I told the transmission shop I was going to open the old converter, they were taken aback, "oooh, you have a metal lathe?" they said.  I was like "no I'm just going to open it w a grinder".  And they told me its so thick, like 1/4" thats a lot of work, and waste of time.  I actually listened to them and didn't open it up, for a few days.  Then I remembered I own a plasma cutter.

I was totally disappointed in the results.  It seemed to me like there was nothing in the torque converter to wear out.  Maybe it is a steel clutch of sorts that doesn't have the strength to lock up under the load I put on it, I may never know, but I have put the question out there.

http://youtu.be/qY3PThQszTE

700R4 upgrades

I've learned a lot over the winter rebuilding my Chevy automatic transmissions.  Thanks a bunch to Michelle for letting me take over the basement all winter and putting up with the musk of burnt tranny fluid.  I feel much better about my automatic Astro van now, knowing I can fix the transmission, should I burn it out.  Before it was like "when's this trans going to go?" and I would always be on the look out for a new van, or have a back up truck ready to go.  Now I will have a back up automatic transmission built and ready to install.

I didn't really film the rebuilding, cause honestly I didn't know what I was doing, and it took about 6 months, hour here, hour there.  Next one I will film, with short cuts, to show what you most likely get with a $800 rebuild.

I did a few mods to the automatic transmission to make it hold up better towing the 4500lb electrical trailer.  Those mods are going to cost me more work on the install, because I will have to mess about pulling the governor, and modifying the governor, to get the shift rpms back to where they were before the higher pressures and bigger valves.  I have 2 videos covering the mods I did here.

Making A Lincoln Locker

I don't always get my point across clearly in video.  My van doesn't usually get stuck on its own, its usually towing something, or in really deep snow.  But no more...

I have only driven this thing around the block with the new Lincoln Locker, and it has a WAY different feel to it.  I am going to say, the rear end probably breaks free easier now, though I'm saying that because drifters weld the rear ends.  My whole block is ice and snow, so breaking the rear end free is a regular occurrance, with out trying to. But it seemed, for the 2 corners I did to get it parked back out front, that the recovory and handling from spinning the tires and going side ways, was way more predictable and smother.  I'd say it handled a whole lot better.  That is the best news ever because these things I do to solve a problem, or improve my situation, often turn out to have negative effects, and I was worried about poor handling.  I am not worried about squealing the tires around every corner, even at 5 km an hour.  Nor am I worried about having to replace my tires maybe every year.  I have a tire machine, and 15" tires are $15 at the wrecker.  So I just added proximatly a $3 monthly bill to my company, to keep the van in back tires.

Now I know I am going to get some flack for this, from normal every day people that don't like to bend the rules, but...
Let me just say, a locker rear end is well over $1000, I paid $1000 for my whole van, where is the value in a rear end worth as much as the whole van?
I have seen a whole lot of failed locker rear end videos on youtube.  I have seen a few welded lincoln locker rear end videos too.  The rear end is under tremendous stress turning tight corners on dry pavement with a locked rear end.  Even more so with my heavy electrical van, and big truck tires going on next.
The set up of a rear end looks like a huge pain in the ass, and several hours work in its self.  But with out set up, I am probably saving more than 6 hours work, just pulling the axles and replacing the diff with a posi rear end.  I would probably never do it that way, but add another 4 hours on that, I'd buy the complete used S10 locker rear end, with disks and calipers, update the whole thing, and I still might do that.  I'm "looking" for one. But I will not be changing that in the middle of winter, in 6" of snow when its -20c outside.  This worked, we'll see what the internals look like in a month.  In the mean time I do have that spare truck rear end in case this rear end goes bad.

Click on the link to see the video if it didn't show up for you.

This was a week ago or so now, the Blog is a little behind but..
My Youtube channel is a little less behind if you want to subscribe to that, you need to make a simple free youtube account, you can find my channel here   http://www.youtube.com/user/pacificcloud

Got to spend a couple days in Andrew recently, cleaning up the yard.  A short 45 second vid, so much fun.  We hardly got any snow this year, but its starting to come down now, this week.  We "traded in" the crappy sled that was hard to start, and got another better unit.  In this vid is old reliable 250 Everest, I love this sled.

Hot Tub Relocation Gone Wrong

I finally, after a year of being moved and not having electricity at the cabin, got the hot tub moved to the city.  Because its just a little 110 unit, and we really want it for winter use, we had to put it in the house somewhere.  It was either build a deck off the second floor bedroom, build a bigger entrance way and put it out there, or get it into the basement.  Getting it into the basement seemed like the least amount of work, at least no city permits involved.  It did turn out to be a lot more work than anticipated.  The video is condensed two days of work

As usual, the blog is falling way behind the youtube videos.  If you want to see more of the latest videos, the most recent selection can be viewed on my channel here.  http://www.youtube.com/pacificcloud

Driving Ground Rods

Some people have never seen a ground rod driven with a jack hammer.  Until today!  I made a video to show off my favorite tool, the jack hammer.  This has driven over a dozen ground rods now, at times that it is impossible to drive them with a sledge hammer.  It is also good because I am by myself most of the time, and a sledge can be almost impossible on your own, you need someone to hold the ground rod steady.  Here's the vid of it.

Drilling A Hole In Bees Nest

This is a recent job, putting a new service on this house, with the attic bees nest.


I also had to stick my hand in to put a nut on the other side of the mast clamp, also get a wrench on it to tighten it up. I was happy that I never got stung. I hear that Epcore came and gassed the attic when they hooked up the power that I installed. Sad really the bees are good to have around, and the owners were happy to let the bees live in their attic.  Here is the link in case you want to see other recent Youtube vids of mine, and as usual the embeded video

http://www.youtube.com/user/pacificcloud?feature=mhee

China LED Pot Lights

I stand behind my recommendations to buy put lights, direct from China and Hong Kong, online, but there is costs associated with doing so.

Buyer Beware!  I have purchased a lot of lighting products direct from China, through Ebay and other sources.  I usually get good products for very good prices, but in many cases there is no quality control.  In this case both pot lights work and look great, they just wont look good together, as seen in the video

My first bit of advice is MAKE SURE YOU GET THE CORRECT VOLTAGE for your area.  twice now I have mistakenly ordered 240v lights, which do me no good in Canada.  240v tends to be a lot less expensive, because they don't need as many rectifiers in the light bulb to run the LEDs.

I have returned light fixtures, which turned out to be not worth wile at all.  I paid 40% of  the original cost, in shipping to return the items, then somehow the refund turned into a 70% refund, and even that, finally agreed upon partial refund, has not been credited to my account yet.  If it ever gets credited I will get $0.03 on the dollar refund after I paid return shipping and all.

Frozen Pipe Repair

As almost everyone knows, I managed to dodge the only real week of winter in Edmonton, at -35 Celsius.  I was hiding out in Victoria for their worst week of winter with -5 deg weather and lots of snow.  The trip was planned perfectly, as I was on the plane home, the weather was warming up in Edmonton.  Michelle heard a funny noise in the Edmonton house, and eventually found a water pipe burst, that blew water through the basement drywall.  Home at midnight I didn't deal with it till morning, but here's how that went down in the video.  In the future I expect I should get rid of all this copper pipe, replace it with pex, and run it through the basement ceiling, not on top of the concrete foundation wall, or even in an outside wall at all.  That was what I was going to do originally, but then my phone started ringing, and I had to go to work.

Intake Manifold Back Firing

My 1989 Chevy Astro van with the rebuild engine, developed this intake manifold back firing in the last few weeks.  Its not like exhaust pipe back firing, where it makes a loud bang, but rather it just makes a popping sound, muffled by the air cleaner.  The problem is it burns everything in the intake manifold, and you lose power for that second.  2 intake manifold back fires in a row and you can stall out in the middle of a U turn or what ever.  Hit the gas to pass someone, it pops a couple of times and your right back behind them.

This was ridiculously easy to fix, when I figured out what the problem was.  The cause can be a sticking, bent, or burnt intake valve, valve timing out, or ignition timing out.  Or I read bad fuel that is still burning through the exhaust stroke and into the next intake stroke as the intake valve opens.  Basically an intake valve is open when  the spark plug is sparking, or burning.

I thought the timing belt had stretched, but I've read they don't stretch like the old chains did.  So I thought I was going to have to pull the heads and do the valves.  One last ditch effort was to address the spark plug wires.  I went to the wrecker and purchased 4 spark plug wires for $4 of f a newer astro van.  Mostly I wanted the extra wire dividers, and extra loom that came on them , but I did replace the one wire that was arcing before.  I spaced all the spark plug wires evenly 1/4" apart, eliminated wire crosses,  put loom on them where anything touched them, and clipped them all up securely.  This fixed the problem of cross sparking, as seen in the video.  Hopefully this helps someone.

Propane Fork Lift Trouble Shooting

The propane fork lift wouldn't start at the bottle depot behind my house.  They come to my house now when they have problems, which is funny I think.  I was pretty happy I fixed it in bout 10 minutes.  I have a propane truck out on the buggy farm, the propane system is always the reason for the thing not started.  Trouble shooting propane vehicles basically goes:
-Propane in the tank?
-Propane regulator iced over?
-Power getting to the propane solenoid?
-Vacuum getting to the propane vacuum switch?