On May 12, 9:05*am, Jim Elbrecht wrote:
"HeyBub" wrote:
Hat wrote:

=====================
I get the idea now. *This is not for the faint of heart. *I'll hire a
professional to do the job. *Thanks very much.

Your choice, but the job's really not that hard.

It's like changing a ti

Except a little different. *With a minimum of common sense caution, a
tire change in unlikely to cause you any damage. * A slip of a
screwdriver, or a sharp piece of metal could fry you in place, flash
and blind you, or start your house on fire. * And it could do it 3
years from now while you're sleeping.

1. Jack up the car (remove power)

Being careful not to cause a short in the process-- and by bypassing a
seal that the power company put there to keep you from touching
things. * By breaking the seal you likely lose your fire insurance
coverage if your bean-counting insurance company can blame the
electric lines for the fire.

2. Remove old tire (scrap existing distribution facility)

That part is similar-- but be sure to inspect, with your
non-professional eye, every wire that you remove.-- and don't pull any
insulation off under a staple or though a cable connector with your
clumsy, inexperienced fingers.

3. Install new tire (apply new distribution panel)

Here's where it gets fun-- * rerouting all those wires so they fit
isn't likely. *You will probably have to make some junction boxes. In
the time you spend scratching your head and trying to decide how best
to do this-- the pro who has been here 100 times before has the job
done and is picking up his tools. [and if he screwed something up-- he
gets a call and comes back to fix it]

4. Lower jack (reapply power)

If you do things in the common sense order, the result will be as expected.
If you scramble the sequence, such as removing the tire before you jack up
the car, you can expect damage, death, and no free flashlight.

I'm all for DIY- and have done stuff that everyone said to leave to
the pros. *But the risk/reward on replacing an entrance panel doesn't
make it sound like a good idea to me.

Jim

Say that after you get an $800 quote to for it. The general sense I
get is that most people asking questions on this group have already
considered calling "the guy". We don't know their capabilities. Once
they get answers that explain the task then it's up to them to decide
if it's within their abilities. Isn't that sort of a given?
Everyone, even "the guy" has to do something the first time. Which
brings up the other advantage of doing it yourself, you'll learn
something. So even if it takes you all day to do it the first time,
next time you have to do it you'll have a lot better ideas of what to
watch for. As another poster put it, if you haven't ****ed up some
stuff occasionally then you haven't done much.