Dan! I guess that you have learned, may I say "at long last" that a mix of
hands, live wires and water do not good companions make!
Jewel----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Rossi" <d...@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: "Blind Handyman List" <BlindHandyman@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 1:38 PM
Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Score one for D I Y
> Chalk up another point for a do it yourself repair.
>
> Saturday morning Teresa and I did our biweekly strip trip, where we go to
> an area of Pittsburgh called the strip district. This isn't the cheap,
> sleezy bar district, (we do that on alternate Friday nights), this is the
> area where all the ethnic food markets are. We have breakfast at an
> Italian cafe, shop in Italian, Greek, Indian, and Korean grocery stores,
> then have lunch at a Mexican taco stand.
>
> Anyway, we get home, drop off the groceries, and are preparing to head
> back out to pick up some more gravel at Lowes. I decide to grab a glass
> of water before leaving and go back into the kitchen. I notice a sound.
> A sound like running water. I step over to the basement door, dread
> filling my heart. I open the door and sure enough, I hear the washing
> machine filling. Normally, this wouldn't induce any kind of panic in me,
> however, I knew that Teresa had thrown a load of laundry in before we left
> the house at 9:00 and it was now after noon. The washer should not have
> still been running.
>
> I ran down the stairs and sure enough, the washer was over flowing and
> water was running down the floor to the drain. I pushed the knob in and
> out expecting the water to stop, thinking that maybe the timer thing had
> jammed. No dice. So I shut the water off at the inlet. I popped the top
> of the washer up and started feeling around inside to see what I could
> see. Just around the time that I thought I should unplug the washer, my
> hand came in contact with a lovely set of live wires. Lit me up pretty
> good too.
>
> Sooo, I unplugged the damn thing and began investigating some more. I
> eventually settled on the thought that the solenoid that controls the cold
> water had failed open. I removed the pack that contained the two
> solenoids and applied some percussive maintenance. I could blow air
> through the cold water valve but not the hot side. I tried to disassemble
> it, but the pack was pretty much sealed.
>
> Teresa got some parts numbers off of it, did some searching on line and
> ordered the $24 part with six bucks shipping. It arrived Tuesday evening
> and after a bit of screwing around because the mounting bracket was a bit
> different, and the stupid cheap, plastic threads on the hose connection
> kept cross threading, I finally got it put together and we ran a wash
> through and all was well.
>
> When we started, Teresa was convinced we were going to have to get a brand
> new washer. Thirty bucks later, we no longer needed a new washer. Well,
> we kind of do want a new one, but we don't have to run out in a panic and
> buy one without research or benefit of waiting for a sale.
>
> Score one for D I Y.
>
> --
> Blue skies.
> Dan Rossi
> Carnegie Mellon University.
> E-Mail: d...@andrew.cmu.edu
> Tel: (412) 268-9081
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Send any questions regarding list management to:
> blindhandyman-ow...@yahoogroups.com
> To listen to the show archives go to link
> http://www.acbradio.org/pweb/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=33&MMN_position=47:29
> Or
> ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/
>
> The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is.
> http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday
>
> Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various
> List Members At The Following address:
> http://www.jaws-users.com/JAWS/handyman/
>
> Visit the archives page at the following address
> http://www.mail-archive.com/blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com/
>
> If you would like to join the JAWS Users List, then visit the following
> address for more information:
> http://www.jaws-users.com/
> For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man
> list just send a blank message to:
> blindhandyman-h...@yahoogroups.comyahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
> __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus
> signature database 4371 (20090826) __________
>
> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
>
> http://www.eset.com
>
>
>
