"DonkeyHody" wrote in message
ups.com...

KMoiarty wrote:

This seems similar to a challenge I had to get inside and repair a sealed
fan speed-control switch for my car (for which used parts are now rare
and
new ones are unreasonably expensive, plus take ages to arrive after
placing
in an order). In this case I carefully cut the plastic casing open with
a
blade-shaped hot soldering iron tip. Then after fixing the insides, I
resealed the case by again using soldering iron (with a different tip) to
meld edges back together again. Didn't look very neat, but it's
concealed
from view and it did the trick.


It's funny how our experiences mold our personalities. My Dad came of
age during the Great Depression, and it had a profound effect on him.
His mantra was repeated to me at least once a week during my formative
years. "Use it up, wear it out. Make it do, or do without."

Once he had a tire with a slow leak. I noticed the low tire, dragged
the air compressor out of the barn and filled the tire up for him.
"There, Dad, that should hold you 'til you can get to a service station
and get it fixed."
"Fixed?? There's nothing wrong with that tire. It just goes down."

Last summer, the computerized climate control quit working on his '92
Cadillac (barely broken in with 165,000 miles). Rather than pay to get
it fixed, he ran a wire from the AC compressor back to the base of the
windshield. Too much trouble to fish the wire through a hole in the
firewall (he's 82). So he just ran the wire outside around the "A"
pillar and back in through the open driver's door. The wire continues
to a residential light switch in a handi-box he mounted to the steering
column with zip ties. When it gets too hot, he turns the AC on. When
it gets too cold, he turns it off.

Growing up on a farm with him had a profound effect on me. I have
absolutely no tolerance for anything "rigged". Nothing at my place is
held together with baling wire or duct tape. I may not have all the
toys I want, but the ones I have are nice.

But I'll probably die broke instead of comfortable like him.


Well compared to your Dad, at 46 I'm just a youngster, never having had
to experience anything like the great depression. But I'm a bit of a rebel
when it comes to today's disposable modular car parts, where there's no
apparent advantage over the old fashioned kind except more money to the
manufacturer when the most minor of repairs are needed. Maybe I learned
this from my Dad because he was always handy at repairing things that other
people wouldn't even try to repair. In fact, before struck by chronic
illness, he had a humble but thriving small appliance sales and repair
business whose customer base largely was attracted to his reputation for
repairing items other dealers would either refuse to, or do so for a price
that was in line with all that actually needed to be done. For example, if
somebody's vacuum cleaner's motor brushes were worn out, and the wholesale
cost for a set of replacement brushes was unreasonably steep, my Dad would
simply take a larger sized set of brushes out of his collection of otherwise
worthless spare parts, take a couple of minutes to file them to the size
required, install them and the machine and it would be running like new
again.
I did this myself about 8 years ago when my car's defrost motor conked
out, due to what I discovered was in fact worn out brushes. Paid $7 for a
set of vacuum cleaner brushes (after convincing the reluctant owner of the
vacuum cleaner store what made me presume he even carried such a part in his
store, and then that I wasn't attempting to deprive him of any business by
intending to use them to repair my own vacuum cleaner. funny Filed them
to the right shape and size, etc...etc... I still drive the same car (with
almost 300,000 km on the odometer) and the defrost motor hasn't been any
problem whatsoever since. Saved myself a lot of money not having to buy,
not merely a replacement motor per se, but the whole modular unit which a
new defrost/heater motor comes encased in. (PS: The car is a '91
Dodge/Mitsubishi Colt 200, which I bought when it was new.)


Ken