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And then there was light …

I always liked the cornering light feature on my previous two cars, particularly when negotiating the steep drop at the end of our driveway after dark. It’s not a Mustang option, but my 2014 V6 Pony Edition has (had) amber corner markers in the right place on the bumper.

So, I started shopping for clear aftermarket lenses. I found lots of them for my model — so many, in fact, I was amazed nobody was touting them for cornering lights. Hm. Maybe for good reason, but I had to find out.

I bought fixtures and a pair of five-element LED lamps to replace the stock 194 size bulbs. eBay. Total cost, less than $22.

There are two ways that I know of to get into the space behind the bumper where the lampholders lurk. Look on YouTube for tutorials, but I can tell you (1) ingress through the wheel-well liner requires removal of 5 screws, and (2) the job took 1 hour 20 minutes, and (3) I scraped my arms bloody doing it.

After all that, I would have been disappointed if it didn’t work, but it did – kind of.

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Yes, the mod lights up the pavement in the right spot, but a road test revealed that the LED bulbs I bought aren’t bright enough to make a difference.

I may experiment with another bulb, but I’m not looking forward to sticking my arms in there again. And, I have to wonder if a brighter bulb might be too hot for the lamp holder. OEM cornering lamps only come on when the turn signals are operating, allowing use of a very bright bulb. The stock corner lights on a Mustang are on all the time.

I could wire a latching relay into the turn signal circuit, connect the corner markers to it, yada yada yada. I don’t think that’s going to happen. If you try this setup with a hot bulb, sufficient to throw useful illumination on the road, let us know if anything melts. 

Did you try something cool recently? Tell us about it in the comments.

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Waffled

My Waring WMK200 Belgian Waffle Maker quit. No lights, no heat … nothing.

It cost me $50 and it’s just out of warranty. Not cool, Waring. Wait … it IS cool, which is uncool.

Fortunately, I have experience with this issue.

It’s the thermal fuse. Cheap, easy to replace. The same thing happened on my VillaWare waffle iron. I replaced it, and it’s been working for years.

In this case, the fuse is an SEFUSE type SF240E. I bought five on eBay, just now, for $1.01 with free shipping.

You have to take the top half of the appliance apart to get the bottom half apart. The fuse is inside a woven heat jacket, under a clip, on the red wire. Here’s what it looks like.

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It’s a half-hour job. That’s $100 an hour. I can live with that.

Did you fix something today? Tell me about it in the comments!

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Pedal to the metal

The pedal on our 17-year-old trash compactor came loose yesterday, a consequence of a shoulder screw having worn through sheet metal at the bottom of the drawer.

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Only one side had broken out, but both needed reinforcing. I found steel washers in my parts bin, ground the plating off, drilled them out to spec and applied an abrasive disk to the sheet metal.

Since the drawer is galvanized, I worked outside. I also drank a glass of milk before starting, a traditional welder’s precaution against zinc poisoning. I have no idea if it works, but welder’s manuals still advise the practice.

Here’s the repair after dressing with a grinder. I used a DHC 2000 gas torch, oxy-acetylene, a #0 tip and a stick of clothes hanger wire for filler rod.

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Mind you, I undertook this project knowing the outcome was uncertain. Unknown alloys, dirty metal, a little too windy outside to be gas welding … blah blah.

But, a lifetime of skills development and the willingness to fix things instead of replacing them has paid off. Even if this project had gone south, I’m still ahead.

You can do this, and things like this. All you have to do is try.

 Are you inspired? Do you have a similar story to tell?

Put it in the comments!

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Valerian’s Thousand Planet Dressing

I went to see ‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets‘ last night.

Short review – It wasn’t awful. In fact, I was entertained.

Your mileage may vary, but I was not unhappy for having spent $10, despite the negative press about the movie.

Even Rotten Tomatoes, who I consider even-handed in its criticisms, treaded farther afield than I would.

What I was given to expect – Epic production values, miscast lead actors and a trite storyline.

What I saw – Industry standard production values, lead actors working with what they had, and a trite storyline.

Eh. It was better than any of the Transformers movies I’ve seen. Not especially visionary, but not terrible. Here’s a metric for you – I liked District Nine and Cloud Atlas, a lot.

I think the movie deserves to succeed, if for no other reason than to reward the people who sweated blood to make it.

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Locked Up

The keyless entry feature on my wife’s 1991 Buick Roadmaster quit working.

“Eh, use the key”, said I.

“Uh, uh, baby. You fix that thing”, she seemed to say.

So, the local car radio and security installer says to me, “300 Dollars, plus tax.”

Checking on eBay, I learn that the device he intends to install is $47. So … $253 labor?

Let’s try something else. A plain-jane remote unlocker from China is $5.98 with free shipping. What the heck, I bought one, and here it is.

Buick Remote

It’s the little box with the red wire. That’s right … $5.98, and four hours labor.

It was a hairy bitch of a job, requiring hours bent over in back of the station wagon, much reading of OEM wiring diagrams, fussing with splice connectors that REFUSED to make contact, repeated testing of circuits with meter and paper clips …

Yes, I made $64 an hour doing it myself, but it was painful, and there was more than one moment where I feared I might fail.

“Why”, you might ask, “is the OEM receiver still connected?”

Because, dear heart, the driver’s door lock solenoid depends on the keyless entry receiver to reverse circuit polarity during lock/unlock cycles. Can you believe it?

Good thing that part of the box works, else I would have needed to add a couple of relays.

The moral of this story is: Don’t feel bad if you take yours to the installer. I almost wish I did.

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The Daily Blurb

The Illusion of Gravity

It has been centuries since the Vanya, in a convulsion of psychotic rage, set off a fission bomb on the mainland. Now quarantined on the Laghu continent, their primary exports are kidnapping and murder.

At a research lab in Cognate territory, a devastating accident signals the end of a technological impasse that has stalled Anye civilization at the edge of space for a thousand years.

A cluster of instruments lodged in a water tank survives. Physicist Rivan Saraf has what he needs to unravel the mysteries of the universe, and perhaps save his people from the final gasp of a dying star.

But the Vanya are on the hunt, and if they find him they will kill him.

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Blurb out!

Here is, I think, my back page text for the new Quantum Soul cover:

Seventy years have passed since Rivan Saraf lifted Transdimensional Physics into the domain of working theory.  Aircars navigate the skies, spacecraft cross light-years in minutes, and finally, Nalanda University has produced a successor with commensurate talent.

Amil Leyta intended to work in orbital manufacturing, but his studies have taken an unexpected turn. He has built a device that images the essence of life, evoking the remarkable discovery that there is more than one type of soul.

They appear on his monitor at deathbed vigils, shining bright across the boundary between dimensions. He imagines they are Angels, guiding spirits to the between-life, and wonders if the Gods will allow what he must do next.

Because Amil knows how to bring them here.

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