What was the last thing you repaired?

I really enjoy fixing things, and getting more use out of discarded (or cheap!) items. As a complement to the “What was the last thing you made” thread, to start things off here’s my latest effort.

We got a pedal-powered digger toy for free, probably because it was missing the steering wheel and mechanism. I finally got around to putting something together:

Works a treat! At some point I should sort out those sticking-out bolts.

The little boy initially burst into tears because it wasn’t a steering wheel, but he soon got over it. Might be fun to make some kind of trailer next.

not in your league but fixed my non functioning dishwasher by tilting at a 45 degree angle, freeing up the float trip switch. Saved me a £60 call out charge 🙂

Oven knobs had split so they rotated on the spindle. 5 minute epoxy and job’s a good’un.

Repaired a broken floor tile in the kitchen along with putting a support under the break to hopefully prevent it happening again.

About to try and diagnose then fix an issue with the screen on a friends Lenovo laptop. I suspect the screen cable to be to blame – we’ll see.

Not exactly a repair, but the extending tv wall bracket I bought was poorly designed which allowed the second arm to dip under the weight of the tv as the bushes that held the spindle about which it rotated were loose fitting plastic. This meant that if the tv was horizontal when against the wall, it listed about 5degrees to the left when extended and if adjusted to be horizontal when extended, it listed against the wall.
So I made an alloy bush that cured the problem. I don’t have a lathe so bought some thick walled alloy tube, drilled it out and then reamed it to the correct size by hand V. happy that it has worked.

We’ve been given one of those exact same diggers. The red bits for hooking the arm up in front of the steering wheel broke, so I just removed the whole arm piece. Our 4yo boy is finds it difficult to play with as it’s so big for him but removing the arm mechanism helped. I really want to steal the wheels off it to make a barrow for the garden though!

I put new batteries in the TV remote

At some point I should sort out those sticking-out bolts.

You should do it sooner rather than later, they look like an accident waiting to happen.

Replaced condenser and compressor on my Honda civic air conditioning system.
A black car with no AC is orrible.

Washing machine, worked out the motor needed new carbon brushes, never done it before, bit fiddly and awkward but managed it, fired up first time.

+5 husband points for me.

Shower was cutting out during the wife’s mega showers – replaced the solenoid for a tenner and all’s working again.

I healed after my last injury if that counts

Last thing was the oven, fixed the pressure switch on the door and replaced the fan motor. Prior to that was a heating pipe that I slightly drilled into 😇

Fixed my track pump(rubber washer had cracked) new washer I found in my box of tricks. Pumping away an normal now 🙂

Replaced the elements in a Dualit toaster. Ordered spares from the factory and watched a ‘how to’ video on YouTube.

The lift off bit of our vacuum cleaner fell over and the tab keeping it shut snapped off…

IMG_20190925_211633 by STW stumpy01[/url], on Flickr

I designed these bits in Fusion 360, printed them and fitted them.
Still going about 3 years on…

IMG_20190914_103756 by STW stumpy01[/url], on Flickr

IMG_20190925_212639 by STW stumpy01[/url], on Flickr

Washing machine rubber door gasket. Needed a new jubilee clip to hold it on, so bodged it with a chain of zip ties while I waited for it to arrive. Zip ties still holding well, six months later.

Pedal bin linkage.

I’m not sure repairs above involving buying a replacement part and fitting it should get a full point.

Made a new choke lever/mechanism for my petrol leaf blower….

Yep baby Robin death machine

I put new batteries in the TV remote

S*** never thought of that just ordered a new TV 🙂
Glued a glass oven door back on recently can’t believe they are only held on by glue.Also sourced and replaced the carbon bushings for the motor on the washer.
Still can’t get the fridge light to work.It’s not the bulb but something to do with switch that turns the light on when you open the door but it’s a built in and I can’t be arsed dismantling everything to get it out.Similar problem with the oven light,the housing disintegrated when i tried to change the bulb.Mind you the hob ignition is also goosed.I know this as it wouldn’t stop clicking even when not in use so I pulled all wiring out to cure it.Think it’s probably time for a white goods upgrade.

Cheap crap exercise bike for the MIL. Belt had snapped, £5 for a new one and half hour or so of tinkering = maximum brownie points 😄

Just this evening helped my daughter replace the wiper motor in her aging clio. And un-bung the drain holes which meant it had been sitting in a trough of water.

AA man had told her it would cost £300 at a garage. £25 for a new motor, sorted.

Only tricky bit was getting the leverage bits in the right place so the wipers went up not down. Which we only realised once we’d reassembled all the plastic covers etc doh!

Unblocking scuttle drain holes is a regular part of the car washing routine at Nosh Towers,

Replacing the piezo ignition lead for one of the burners on the hob. Fixing a new drain hose on the seconds hand washing machine as the previous owner, my dad, decided to cut it off 🙄. Fixed the garden fence, post and gate that were rotten by replacing them all. Oh and a new bulb for the number plate light on the car so it passed the MOT.

God I’m such an awesome middle aged, middle class white bloke 🤣

@40mpg

aging clio

Have you checked the bonnet catch recently/ever? They’re known to fail if not maintained and it’s a fault Renault acknowledges can happen

Today was unusual because I repaired/fixed a couple of things.

1) The U bend on the bath waste. It’s been leaking for months, with an empty ice-cream container underneath it collecting the drips. Today I fixed it (I think) with a replacement costing the princely sum of £5.18
2) My son’s schoolfriend’s bike. A bmx with the rear wheel nuts slightly loose so the wheel had been pulled up the sliding dropouts and the chain had gone slightly slack. The poor lad’s dad died in his sleep a couple of months ago so I was more than happy to help.

Recent successes:
– The kid’s Dirt jump – needed a bit of a kicker on it and lengthening
– Water main – we have a 350m driveway, after it was graded there was a significant leak. In trying to locate it I created an even bigger leak, which i eventually fixed before finding the original leak (operative had driven into a valve causing an underground connection to loosen) and fixing that. A weekend i’ll never get back.

Failures:
– Waeco fridge … i’ll just get the casing off to replace the thermostat – nek minute covered in refrigerant.
– Youngest’s bike’s headset clicking 🙁

The lip/handle of the lid of the chest-freezer. 6:30am and it stinks of epoxy in here. So far 2021 feels like being stuck in the worst parts of the 1970s.

Replaced the ignition switch in my van with one from an Austin Metro. Required some cutting and crimping to the old multiplug

Hand drilled out the pinlock hole in my motorbike helmet visor to fit a pinlock branded insert so now I can see through a non scratched and non foggy visor

Kitchen cabinet downlighter
Bathroom fan
Oven fan
Washing machine brushes

^ they’ve all been this week. I generally find 2 or 3 things I need to fix per week.

Annoyingly it’s always something new so I’m learning from scratch every time. Guess it means my fixes generally work!

Mercedes

I generally find 2 or 3 things I need to fix per week.

Same. It’s good to do, but once you realise you can then you have endless jobs.

10 year old 55″ TV. Lost a little brightness at the bottom and would occasionally turn off. New back (side actually) lights from China (the only place with new parts) and 3 hours later and we have a nice functional TV again. No landfill!

Old Hope Mono M4 brakes from 2008. They’d been languishing in a box for 10 years. Stripped them down cleaned all the pistons and replaced the reservoir cap. A full bleed and new pads and they are as good as new.

@Daffy – nice job!

I had the apparently known mazda rattly speaker issue in the car.
Took the door card out, removed the speaker and glued the speaker cone back to the frame.
Probably cost 50p and half an hour of my time against £100 or so for a new speaker.
Crap design

My track pump

Replaced the o-ring on the piston and then undid all the damage I did by greasing the wrong parts

15 year old gore waterproof jacket – velcro cuff adjusters were delaminating so I’ve literally just super glued them back together. Glue is drying as I type.

Nintendo Switch joycon repaired for my lad. L1 button wasn’t working. Stripped and cleaned and still not working so £6 for a new button and ribbon cable. Replaced that and one happy son. And one happy me saving £40 for a new joyon.
Also replaced the sticking timer on our 14yr old Dualit toaster, but they’re designed so that you can do that. Does it still count?

Fixed my 1/2″ router which was cutting out under load. I thought I’d just killed the cutter fitting oak worktops and was pushing it too hard, but it did it with a new cutter too, and with minimal load. Thought maybe the brushes needed replacing, but it seems one of the holders was just loose. Nice to see that you can still buy pretty much any part of it as a spare though (DeWalt 625E, same as the Trend T10).

Fixed my track pump as well… sort of. I replaced the O-ring on the piston which had come off, stuck inside the cylinder and disintegrated, with one from my generic O-ring selection but it doesn’t seal perfectly, so while it works as pump, it does let some air out. Need to replace it with the proper size.

Our not very old but no longer in warranty AEG dryer was throwing the same fault code for months and it had gotten to the point where a reset wasn’t fixing it. Pulled the board and resoldered the cracked soldered joints. Then did the rest of them as I figured they wouldn’t be far behind. Been washing and drying EVERYTHING this past week.

SJS Cycles or BikeTart are your friends for Topeak spares