Monthly Archives: January 2012
It’s Dead, Jim . . .
Thought I’d start off today’s blog with a little musical interlude.
Here’s “Sweet Georgia Brown” on 3 Guitars and A Tractor, in German, no less.
"Sweet Georgia Brown" on 3 Guitars and a Tractor.
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After coffee this morning I got back on my truck’s power window problem. I wanted to pull out the motor – regulator combination and see if it can be repaired, or will need to be replaced.
First I had to get the glass out, by removing the trim strips from the window edge,
and then the front window guide inside the door.
After removing the two bolts at the bottom of the glass, I was able to carefully lift the glass out of the door and set it aside.
Then 5 more bolts and I was able to pull out the motor and regulator combination. It took a while to figure out how it works,
but finally I found the culprit.
This piece of plastic had broken off, letting the the cable that raises and lowers the glass, wear thru the plastic guide and snap off.
I spent some time trying to figure out if it could be repaired, but it quickly became obvious that if I did fix it, it wouldn’t last.
So my next step was to order the replacement from Amazon that I found yesterday. Hopefully it will be here toward the end of next week.
In the meantime, while I’ve got the door panel open, I’m going to take a look at a problem with my door lock. The key unlocks the door, but does not turn off the alarm. I fixed it once before, but I haven’t had any luck this time. I may have to replace the lock, and if so, now would be the time to do it.
Tonight was Jan’s night to get together with her former coworkers like she does every year. This year it was at Café Adobe up in Webster, so I dropped her off a little before 5:30, and I headed over to one of my client’s office to work on configuring his new computers and router.
I picked up Jan about 8:15 and we finally headed home after another busy day.
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Thought for the Day:
"No clever arrangement of bad eggs ever made a good omelet." ~ C.S. Lewis
sdfggf
Wipers and Doors . . .
I spent this morning working on a few things around the rig, starting with installing those expensive Rain-x windshield wipers I just bought. It only took a few minutes, and even on a dry windshield, they were nice and quiet. I only did the truck today. I do the ones on the rig later.
My next chore was a big one. I was going to take my truck driver’s door off and see what I need to do to fix my broken power window. The window motor still works and the window moves freely up and down in the track, so I figure the motor and the window are no longer connected together.
Removing the door panel wasn’t as difficult as some I’ve done. Five screws, and after disconnecting the two electrical plugs, just lift it off. The only real problem was disconnecting the two control rods that connect the inside door handle to the door lock.
The next thing I did was lay out the screws on a table in the pattern they came off the door and take a photo. This makes it easy to remember which screw goes where when I put it back together.
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Getting the trim panel off and setting it aside, I peeled the plastic weather shield back to try and get a look at what’s going on inside the door.
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I plugged the window/door lock control panel back in so I could run the window motor.
ASD
I used a suction cup to hold the window in position so it wouldn’t fall down into the door frame.
In trying to see how the window mechanism worked, I found a cable hanging down loose inside the door. A little Google research told me that these Dodge Dakota windows use a motor-driven cable to move the window up and down, and they sometimes break loose. Some people have had luck reconnecting the cable, while others say it quickly breaks again and they end up replacing the window regulator anyway.
I’m going to go ahead and pull the motor/regulator unit out and take a look at it. It’ll got to come out either way. A new unit from the dealer lists for $331.00 with installation extra. I found one on Amazon, a brand-new, OEM part for $59.00.
I love Amazon.
I ran out of time today so if the weather holds out tomorrow, I’ll pull the unit out then.
I stuck the weather shield back on the door and just left the window control panel hanging. To open the door I have to pull on one of the control rods, but it works for now.
Jan and I headed out on some errands about 3pm. First up was dropping her off at a laundromat in Friendswood so she could do some heavy rugs and blankets that won’t fit in our rig washer. While she was doing that I ran some errands and then stopped by Brandi’s and talked with our son-in-law Lowell for a while.
By the time Jan was finished up, it was time for supper, so since King Food was nearby, we couldn’t resist. And of course, more great leftovers.
After supper we stopped off at Brandi’s again to pick up some packages that had come in, before heading over to Kroger’s for a few groceries.
Then it was finally home for the night after a busy day.
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Thought for the Day:
Aim High. Time Flies.
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