Fixit Log

[Ego]

Also fixed a light switch. Straight swap. These rocker switches are not durable. But I'm stuck with them because I don't want to change the other switches and beauty plates. I've lost half a dozen in the last ten years. I just buy bulk packs now and keep them on the shelf.

That is strange. I've got 40 apartments with an average of about 6 switches per apartment and I believe I changed one switch in six years. These old two-button switches were made to last.

[Gilberto de Piento]

An electrician friend once told me all the old stuff that was made in the knob and tube era never goes bad. It could be survivorship bias, all of them that were going to fail have failed and the rest will still be working when the earth is burned up by the sun.

[Sclass]

Wow that’s an old switch. I have a couple of those left in my old home in LA. They must be 100 years old and they’re outside. Still work. There were some other toggle type that had a mercury bulb in them. There was nothing to break in those. They’re super smooth.

I think the decora switches in my place just have a weak plastic housing. It’s a little thin where the pivot point sits and it cracks. I’ve changed a lot of them. The toggle type ones don’t seem to have this weakness.

[Married2aSwabian]

Hey Fixit Forumites! Pulling my hair out here with a 2006 Kenmore Elite (v fancy!) gas dryer. It’s been sitting for 1-1/2 years awaiting my repair efforts. We’ve been line drying, so don’t really need it. It runs, but burner shuts off after just a few seconds. I’ve had good input here + good fixit videos, used my multimeter to check continuity on: thermal fuse, exhaust thermistor, high limit thermostat, thermal cut-off, power coming in to controller. There was very little lint anywhere. Blower and motor work fine. Because the parts were relatively cheap, I went ahead and replaced the igniter, flame sensor, gas valve solenoids, thermal fuse and exhaust thermistor all to no avail! Ive mainly been working off of the repair tech sheet for the appliance. In it there’s a table for resistance values to check the solenoids. One of the three values was too high. When I got the replacement parts (from AMZN) the resistance was also higher for that value! Anyway, appreciate any ideas.

[Sclass]

I what is the model number?

If you’ve replaced all that stuff and the voltage to the gas valve is still being cut, it’s possible that your controller is bad. Something needs to process the small current coming off the flame sensor and if the electronics that does that is bad the controller may think there is a no flame condition.

Just a theory. You’ve changed almost everything else.

Check your documentation to see if there is an operational flow chart. Your dryer may have other sensors like a pressure sensor that may be telling the system to shut down if your exhaust is plugged or the pressure sensor is defective.

Hard to say without seeing exactly what dryer you have and it’s various components.

[Slevin]

Yeah I’m of the same opinion as sclass. If the burner is shutting off after a couple seconds it sounds like something is telling it to shut off, which then points to sensor or decisioning logic failure. I assume that’s the thermistor for the sensor, and you’ve changed that out, so then it sounds like a decisioning problem, which would be the controller? But it’s impossible to tell for sure without actual specs and circuit diagrams to look at, but even then if it’s digital circuitry it might be too complicated for a normal person to fully understand.

[Married2aSwabian]

Thanks Sclass, thanks slevin. Yeah, it does sound like a controller issue. Not sure it would be worth changing that out. Not available on AMZN and sears parts site wants a fortune for it. The model number is 110.77042600

Here’s the circuit Diag:




There’s nothing in the manual about changing out the heater relay only - probably not possible?

I also tried to access any saved fault codes in diagnostics on controller, but didn’t work…hmmm, kinda a catch 22 there.

[Married2aSwabian]

It works!

Funny - not 100% sure what the cause was now, since I changed too many variables at once. I did jiggle every wire and check all connections, which seemed to be good before putting drum back in and front panel and door assy.

I had made up a jumper to bypass the door switch, so I could leave that off for troubleshooting, but that shouldn’t have been a problem. Drum and blower would keep running previously when flame shut off prematurely.

Anyway, thanks all for the input!

Also, I submitted the following to DW upon completion:



Invoice

Midwest Appliance Repair


Kenmore Gas Dryer Repair
Customer states that dryer won’t heat.

Replace igniter, flame sensor, gas solenoids, thermal fuse and exhaust thermostat

Parts. $50.00
Labor: 100 hours @ $25 / hr. $2500.00
—————————————————————————————————————

$2550.00

Thanks for your business! Have a nice day!

[Ego]

Hah. I love that invoice and will be using the idea in the near future.

[Sclass]

Yes! Saved some cash for the holidays.

Looking at the diagram it looks like you either checked or changed all the logical culprits that can shut down the burner. Sensible choices. My guess is the flame sensor was bad or had a weak connection and the burner was shutting down. If the burner was shutting down after the same precise period it’s an indication that the brains are shutting it down for some kind of safety lockout. The ignitor and valves were likely good if you saw fire.

Just a guess but maybe it was a bad flame sensor and/or a weak connection. The good news is you have a functioning dryer for cheap.

I like your invoice.

[davtheram12]

Great work M2S! That invoice is pretty clever. I may steal that idea and use it with my DW. Repairs and services like that really add up.

[white belt]

My steering wheel on my 2005 Pontiac Vibe is really starting to show its age with many rough patches where the material has peeled/flaked off. Does anyone know any fixes for this type of issue? Basically it seems the market solution is to just buy a steering wheel cover but I'm wondering if there are alternatives. I have a steering wheel knob spinner mounted as well which might make fitting an off the shelf cover a bit trickier.

[Chris]

My steering wheel on my 2005 Pontiac Vibe is really starting to show its age with many rough patches where the material has peeled/flaked off. Does anyone know any fixes for this type of issue?

The steering wheel of my car began degrading at the top, likely due to UV. It was dry, cracked, and eventually bits started falling out. My initial fix was to wrap the damaged areas with electrical tape, but the summer heat would cause the adhesive to leak out, requiring retaping. The solution? Adhesive-free tape! Silicone tape to be exact. The stuff has no adhesive, and bonds only with itself.

[SavingWithBabies]

@wb I'd be tempted to try something like this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/202833772778

Or if you don't mind waiting longer:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2255800385297856.html (although there are a lot of options there, I just picked one)

Wrapping it with a kit would make it easier to leave your wheel knob on is my thought.

[Sclass]

It is surprisingly easy to make one of those covers. They’re basically a rectangular strip of leather sewn together at the end with a slight arch in the stitch to compensate for the larger outer diameter of the wheel.

You can custom fit and cut a pattern out of paper. Then the big secret is you do the perforation holes on your sewing machine without any thread loaded up. The machine will put a perfect hole pitch in each edge that will easily match on each side. Just set it to your favorite straight stitch length and sew the edge without thread. I’d use a chisel tip or leather needle to open up better holes on skin. Then you double needle stitch - see YouTube for the pattern.

I’ve been tempted to do some using couch leather I’ve salvaged but Old Mercedes wheels don’t wear out that easily.

Alternatively hit your self service junkyard and pull a wheel. My local LKQ sells steering wheels for $22. Pull one off a low mile wreck. Follow safety instructions online (remove fuse) when swapping over the airbag.

[Married2aSwabian]

We have a nice pair of Infinity speakers bought new just 30 years ago.

The foam surround (on woofers) is shot … surprised it held up this long! Must’ve been the AC/DC album I cranked up this past summer that finally did ‘em in.

I’ve got this kit on order:
https://www.amazon.com/Infinity-Inch-Sp ... 10&sr=8-16#

Just curious if anyone’s done this repair? Seems pretty straightforward, but the devil’s in the details as they say.

[Sclass]

I saw my roommate do that twenty years ago. He restored a couple of audiophile speakers.

My guess at the time was he may have not been able to match the original speaker parameters - namely cone stiffness and mass. But they sounded just as nice as they did before the surrounds crumbled so they were either close or slight variations in speaker parameters are undetectable by the human ear.

My roommate was a really good craftsman. He was a fine arts major specializing in small architectural models. But I don’t think it required extraordinary skill. Nonetheless he made it look easy.

What I found amazing is the kit existed and we found it on AltaVista using the brand and model of the cabinet. It was really inexpensive…like $20 to repair $2000 speakers.

[Married2aSwabian]

What I found amazing is the kit existed and we found it on AltaVista using the brand and model of the cabinet.

I miss AltaVista - It was a great search engine! I proudly had my own 2 page website for German Technical Translating back in 1996. I got some good side work out of it too, after registering the site on AltaVista, Yahoo! and other search engines.

[SavingWithBabies]

@Ego Ah, that's good to know the trick with the sewing machine. I really want an industrial sewing machine but I'm holding out until we're on a sailboat boat (just in case we don't make it there and so we don't have to move it).

@Married2aSwabian I have the same kit (well, different speakers, same brand) sitting here for over a year to do the speakers in one of our vehicles. I'm planning on getting it done this winter. I watched a video on (Youtube I think) and it didn't look too hard but curious how it goes for you!

[Gilberto de Piento]

Just curious if anyone’s done this repair?

I did this job a number of times using a kit from the same company you linked to. It was at least a decade ago though. It was an easy job if you follow the directions. The main concern as far as function is that the voice coil is well centered so that it ends up floating freely and not rubbing. I don't think you will have any trouble. If it did go wrong it seems like you could peel it off and try again with another kit but that would depend on how well the glue stuck.