Note: After reading the TapeOp article I changed the terminology for this post. They make a good case for "alignment" referring to the mechanical systems and things like head height and azimuth. Calibration is a more proper term for getting the electrical bits set properly. I replaced the belt & idler tire in my old cassette deck and cleaned the controls. Now it works, seemingly pretty well. But is it performing up to spec? Can it be better? I purchased a couple of tools to

Our refrigerator came with the house. It's a big stainless steel GE Monogram with an ice an water dispenser. Our first fancy fridge. The unit appears to date to about 2008. It has always worked nicely for us but this past summer it suddenly went on the fritz. The dispenser control panel would not respond and then the whole thing, fridge & freezer, stopped chilling. Even the interior lights didn't work. Last Christmas it was the oven. Now it's the fridge. Are we on some kind o

Prompted by our youngest becoming interested in making a 'mix tape' but not knowing what was involved. Literally... Me: "Do you have a cassette deck to use?" Them: "What's that?" I found my old tape deck in 'meh' condition at roughly 40 years of age. I hadn't used it in a very long time. It's a Denon DR-M33, from roughly 1984. It's pretty well built for a 'home' unit, it features 3 discrete heads and a dual capstan direct drive transport. It depends on a belt for the capsta

Once I had replaced the very noisy rear bearing I was able to hear a less noisy moan from the front of the car. It seems apparent I hit a pothole at some point that damaged both sets of bearings on the right side of the car. The left side seems completely fine. I read a bunch of threads and watched a bunch of videos (favorites below), ordered a few tools and got to work. High level tips/observations: Protect your wheel studs as you hammer away at stuff. In one video I saw a

In which I collect & test a number of approaches found in the wild to see what works. I don't write these because I am an 'expert'. I just try to collect the best approaches I can find and put them into a single document based on what actually worked for me. I had no idea when the bearing went bad. I drove all summer with the windows open and the sunroof too. It wasn't until it got cold out that I noticed the classic moaning of a bad wheel bearing. It was clearly coming from

The “after” pic in our little story. Just waiting to have new bushings glued on. Passivated Zinc plating is a really sharp look while protecting these parts from corrosion. My spring plates were in rough shape but it was also the middle of the Auto-X season. In the interest of time and adjustability I replaced the original spring plates on the car with an adjustable set from Prekom. They work great, and look terrific. But what to do with the old plates and hardware? They wer

Cornering on the stock suspension. Might be time for bigger anti-roll bars! (photo: Charles LeTouzey, CVR PCA) Having a few years of...

An easy fix, but one I was aprehensive about. I'm used to interior pieces being difficult to remove without either first removing other parts, or impossible to re-install due to the assembly order of operations. Luckily this job had neither issue. My door seals were already shredded when I got the car, and my sill plates were ugly and too short. Probably not uncommon, the door seal is pretty ripped up. There was some mild bodywork done on the door and a re-spray of the rear

How I installed new adjustable spring plates in the 911

My low horn stopped working and while I don't honk much, I would like it to not sound silly when I do. And the passenger side bellows...

Harkening back to my consulting days, here's the answer first and if you want the saga, well it's still all there. The Sunroof was...

Back in the fall of 2013 my VW Jetta lease was ending and my fancy consulting job gave me a stipend to pay for a nice car. I went looking for an Audi A5 with a stick, initially used but then found a cool deal on a new S-Line in Daytona Grey Pearl with a 6-speed. I didn't want an S5, the engine seemed a bit pricey to maintain and the even more expensive RS5 did not come with a manual so that was out even before I couldn't afford it. The S-line was kind of perfect, Quattro AWD,

I turned the key to lock the doors, and the lock went down and then popped back up. I tried it from both sides and got the same result. A...

Our home came with a stove in it, like most homes do. It is a dual fuel 36" range with a gas cooktop and an electric oven. It is a DCS-RD366* on the very off chance that anyone else still has one. The house was built in 1997, 28 years ago. DCS, the mfr, does not even make stoves like this anymore. Needless to say parts for a stove this old can be a challenge to find, as can someone to service it. But new stoves can cost a lot of money; one this nice can easily run $5-10K plu

One thing about getting older is the guitars you bought on the cheap 20+ years ago may be getting pricey and a little beat up from 20+...

My initial symptoms seemed to be that I was getting gas & getting spark since the car would start when cold, run and then die. I could...

Things are not always what they seem. It started out with a ride on a flatbed, I was about 10 minutes from home, the car was running...

Hot on the heels of building a Tele in spring/summer 2020, I then fixed up a beater strat which took more work and got me optimistic I...

Nothing mind blowing, just some hopefully helpful tips for first timers. While tracking a start and then stall condition, I tried to test...