Another beautiful four-day weekend in September...

Whelp, tried an mid-grade antenna for the TV and no joy :(



I don't think she had to stand on her tippy toes to look in, but I'm not entirely sure :D





Checking to make sure the driver's side sway bar links are tight.







Oh the odyssey of the oxygen sensors...


I have to look up the paperwork from what O2 sensor work they did along with the clutch this past winter; the CEL came back shortly after I left there.

So the sensor that was in there seems to be a bit more generic (probably Bosch); but I've read Jeeps are really particular about wanting the more expensive NTK/NGK ones.

While the ends look different, cables were same length.

Worse, some of the online references are wrong at least for my VIN (maybe later in the year?)...Bank 1, Sensor 1 is upstream right.



But O'Reillys online recommended a 23070...and the box said 23070...but when it wouldn't plug in I looked at the connector carefully and realized the Jeep side had offset slots. The one that was in there had wide slots, the new one had narrow but lined up slots. Luckily NAPA down the street had the only one in stock in the county.



What was there...


What I got from O'Reillys


What I needed is the bottom one / right side:






Ah, relaxing to Moab videos...


I've been at that car wash!


Been working steadily, was able to do stuff all four days this weekend even if it wasn't fast. Back out to the garage on Sunday to change the oil.


Oh...have to remember this setup for draining the oil pan, worked out really well with nothing spilled.

Blerg...while refilling with oil, I was putting in the final of 6 quarts so I'm pouring out of a new 5 quart jug when my stool slipped. I literally spilled more new oil on the floor than used oil :/ How I managed to somehow hang one and not drop the entire jug or have the stool slide so far I fell I don't know.


I've learned to put aside all the paper towels, so I can put them in the oil pan to absorb the remaining oil then I can put them in the garbage another day.


The thing with the green light is a low-voltage disconnect for the battery, but I really didn' like how everything was lying in there. I took it out while I try to figure out if there is a better way to mount it.



Matts-MacBook-Pro:20240915_AnotherFourDayWeekend mattkivela$

Weekend Wrapup

Saturday was quite productive...Sunday was mostly me being sore as can be :D Also thinking I had dehydration issues going on because I was drinking a lot more than peeing!

What kind of shrink-flation bullshit is this? First time in a while I picked up a bottle of crown and it didn't come in a box & bag this time!


Using the electric grease gun out of spite...this was the only fitting it fit because the other zerks were recessed and I had to use the manual one. Oh well, worked well for the tractor. (The electric has a fitting that locks onto the zerks so it's a smidge bigger than standard.)


Some other essentials picked up when doing my morning errands...


So this is the one that came off, IIRC I had tightened these laying on my back. While I got this side done, the other while still on both nuts had backed off and it is taking forever with the room I have to manuever on the driver's side. Think I'll jack it up high by the front bumper to see if I can get the nuts low enough to attack with an impact gun to tighten them.



Ok, let's go to longer ratchet...



I keep getting better at replacing these wheel speed sensors. I think I'm figuring out the most efficient way; shitty photo but after popping it lose from the shock tower I can put a hand around either side to release the clips. I'm wondering if I couldn't do this on the driver's side because it's a tighter area???



I'd say some water got into that sensor.



Oh my, new TV is awesome for watching how-to videos.



Sensor all buttoned up.



This fender started flapping in Nebraska and I had zip tied it with what I had. One set already fell off, so I replaced them with heavier ones.







Bought this VERY compact fishing rod and reel set -- I'm sure not the best quality of anything but should be good enough for the occassional attempt. Two spinning reel spools so I loaded 12# and 20# on those; hopefully I didn't go to heavy. And it comes with a fly reel! It's a heck of a mix-and-match set.

Finally back in the garage!

Ok...

So had a quick bout of Covid last Thursday. 100% no doubt about it unlike a couple "maybes" before -- driving in I thought the coffee was weak, then I stopped for lottery tickets since it was over a week since I was last at the office and craved some salty but the Cheetos were a bad batch or something. Got to work, took a bit from my bagel which tasted like cardboard...oh @#$^!@$@.

Had about 36 hours of symtpoms -- got a mild fever, muscle aches, and the congestion in my lungs wasn't bad but much thicker than I've ever felt before; I can see how people can go downhill fast, it was far "thicker" than my asthma/bronchitis in the past. I did manage to still work from home, it was mild enough.

The week before I went to the office, and whether a manager one row over hacking up a lung or not was the cause, I definitely felt a respiratory infection so I had worked Tu-Friday from home, WFH Monday so I could bring mom and Ed to doctor's appointment and other errands, figured since they were just over it I probably was exposed spending 3+ hours in the car so stayed home Tu & We to see if symptoms developed and you've heard about Thursday!

So was going to take Thursday & Friday off...and ended up working late into the night Tuesday, then Wednesday, then the 5:30 wake up call from work Thursday that I ended up having go into the office since 80% of the attempts by people to get remote access were failing (and we assumed it was 100%)...so worked half a day there.

Even after the time off this week I have 11 more "use or lose" days still to take this year, with no trips planned since I'm just finally getting to work on the Jeep.

TVs are so cheap today and the little 24" monitor I had out there died. 50" from Walmart!



Had to order and adapter to fit it to the arm I already have, it arrived Friday around noon but I will have to wait till Eric is down next time to hang it back up. Just to awkard to handle alone.



Still have some daylillies, about the only one unharrased by deer, blooming :)



I have a clean work area!

Clearly the perimeter still needs a lot of work.







The Jeep battery wasn't great last year. Bit the bullet an ordered a nice replacemnt today (20% off sale at NAPA!!!) but this one was so dead my little jump pack just said, "Sorry battery is in too poor of shape!" I did get it going with a 20 minute jump start, and while I desperately need to make a dump run I don't really trust the battery now if I stall it.



Well...huh. I guess the lesson is don't rush to leave for a trip next time this is at least the second fuck up from last fall I've found.

I'm guessing in both cases I forgot to come back and tightend things up.



Oh well, I can start on a bunch of the work this weekend and if the weather looks decent I'll take another four day weekend next week.



Ah, sitting in the garage at the end of the day watching Andrew Camarata on Youtube; this guys someone stumbled into what best I can figure is ASMR for men. It's mostly him operating heavy equipment and similar work with very little commentary. He's probably making six figures a year just off these videos -- 1.5 million subscribers and like 750,000 views per video.