The story of my life...
 

Ok, so you guys may have noticed that I have not been around as much, or maybe you have not. Maybe you do not care, who knows!

Anyways, I have had alot of work in the shop, and also took a week off to go on a cruise to the Bahamas! And the worst part has been the heat in my upstairs hobby room. The ac unit I have up there was overheating, and the motor burned out. The compressor motor seems to be fine, and it still blows ice cold air (only on low setting as the motor for the blower/condenser fan overheats on med and high). Being horribly cheap!!!! I decided to fix it. This beast is a 2 ton window unit (must weight 300+ pounds) and was made in the 60's. Took the whole thing apart (try doing that with a newer unit), cleaned both of the coils and the drip trays and took the motor to a local shop to be rewound. Well that was more than a month ago and I just got a call today that he was done with it. 135 bucks... (he ended up buying me a new motor cause the old one was "too far gone to fix", whatever) might not have been the best idea, but a comparable new model would be close to 500 bucks... But it would also be new.

The funny part is that I bought a new ac unit yesterday evening from wally world. But I have not got it out of the box yet, so I will put the old unit back together and give it a try. I can always take the new unit back, right! Just how my life works, I try to be patient, but I always end up doing stuff like this.

The newer unit I got appears to be the same physical size, which would help as the current unit is in a custom cut hole in a wall, not a window. Hopefully the old unit keeps working, and I can take the new one back and get my $380 back. Plus the new unit is not as good spec as the old unit (might be a wash as it is new and might be more efficient?) I really do not want to have to modify the wall and mount a new unit in there as that will take alot more time than reassembling the old unit.

So hopefully I will have working ac soon and can get back to some of my rc projects. Still need to sell some of my excess stuff, but it is so hot up there that I cannot even dig thru the boxes without dripping sweat everywhere. Waiting for winter to play with my toys is getting old!

It's amazing that thing worked so many years. I had my in wall unit from the 70's replaced before this summer. Cost me $700 installed for 28000 btu. The new units might be very efficient but they are not built as solidly as the old ones.

Pretty funny huh? The unit was in the window when my parents bought their old house in 84, and it looked old then. Dad put central air in, so he put the unit in the garage, 30'x30' with no insulation at the time. Then I got it in 95 and put it upstairs at work. So it has run for at least 10-12 hours a week every summer since then, sometimes more if I was working late. It is well built, and you can take it completely apart with a 1/4" and a 3/8" socket... Plus it is all steel, and heavy!

Going without A/C sucks no matter what, I'm feeling you there !!
Best wishes getting your A/C up and going ASAP and getting back to prodjects.
This southern heat bites hairy butt cheeks.I've ben here in FL for 40yrs, I'm ready to move someplace a little more climactic myself.

Move to Britain; you'll never worry about too much sun/heat again.

Heh, I moved from Britain a long time ago, and I would prefer to not be socialist again... I am still a British citizen though, so guilty by association, right? The weather is a bit "temperate" in the UK but you guys can have similar highs to us here. And no guns to shoot yourself with either. Karl Marks would be smiling!

The south does suck in the summer, not so much the heat, but the 3 billion percent humidity, sweating is a joke, as evaporative cooling only works when the air is dry...

Hey Linc,
Curious; When you moved from Britain how did you find yourself in LA ? With all the choices of places to go, it seems like a unusual place to want to plant new roots ?

Well, yeah, but those 'highs' are experienced around once every 19 years. Otherwise it's just 'drizzle', 'scattered showers' or 'fog'. Britain has some of the most boring weather known to man.

At least you're having a sort of heat wave.

We get showers. Yay.

We also get humidity. Woo. Can't wait for that again.

In fairness, this summer has been alright. I've only had to call off going to a race meeting once so far due to weather, and that's fine by me.

Simple answer: The food and partying is unbeatable!

Well, I was only 14 months old when I came to the US. My dad worked for british aerospace, and was recruited by nasa to work on the space shuttle program. He was mainly a test engineer so he ended up in New Orleans at the Michoud plant where they build the external tank. He worked there for 11 years, then bought an auto body shop, and that is what I own now. I guess he could have gone to a few other places where the space shuttle parts were made, but not sure why he chose LA. I like it here, people are very friendly and laid back.

Not to mention the women!:yes:

Nothing wrong with drunk harlets slinging their silky milkys around, Good Times !

nothing wrong w/that at all!:yes:

HAHAHAHA, so true...

Yeah, the food and women are pretty decent around here. At least the food tastes good!!!

An AC unit is the story of your life?
Ha... It's great to have ya back LINC!

The best thing about it is, when the out-of-towners come in, yes all you guys, for Mardi Gras or any occasion. Its a free silky milk show, all it takes is some cheap plastic beads ad they'll do anything!!:whistle:


I love New Orleans! And did I mention that the Saints are actually looking and feeling like contenders this year? :surprised: Shocking, I know!

It is kind of funny story .... I thought I was going to read all about your life.....

My attic gets too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. Guess it is a problem when you get 4 seasons...

Thats the only thing thats not so awesome about being a dude, we are easily distracted with Tittys and Beer ?
I can live with my faults, how about you fellas ?

I'll have to change that slogan, I'm easily distracted with asses and beer... Bud Light Lime to be specific. Abita Amber if I'm drinking dark.

(Yet another reason to love New Orleans, home brewed Abita beer!)

I like my faults, atleast they are good ones (porn, larger, general lazyness).

True what they say though, they dont make 'em like they used to- take vacuum cleaners for example. When I was young, I used to go with my mum cleaning holiday apartments (no baby sitters), and they had hoovers that were from the 60s and 70s still in use. These days a hoover only lasts for 5 or 6 years if you're lucky, same with TVs, washing machines, VCRs etc, its all built cheaply by low paid foreigners in big factories with iffy QC standards. Nothing like good old fashioned 'made in britain' items, sort of things Fred Dibnah loved to make shows about...

WB pimpman, let the games begin

Wow, theres a page turner...

Nah you would be bored stiff with my life story, anything really interesting that I have done would get me banned and arrested if I put it on a public forum... And the rest is just filler, maybe a few good drunk stories, and a whole lot of auto body work.

Word! Have you clocked yourself in the face recently JJ?

Good to be able to say that the new ac motor works great! Ran out of time to get the case assembled, but I will do that tomorrow and get my helper to give me a hand getting the beast back on the wall...

Also found out that my buddy ha been thru 4 of the ac units just like the one I got from Wally World... He says they are crap, and that I did the right thing fixing the dinosaur... So I get to take that thing back and get my money back!

Ok, so here is the best part of my day...

So I bench tested the unit with the new motor yesterday and it seemed to work fine. I reassembled the case today and had my friend give me a hand to get it back on the wall. Cranked it up, and after 4 mins of running on high the motor stopped. Pulled it back down onto the bench and temped the motor - 210f...

Let it cool and cranked it back up on low, motor quickly got to 165. Medium got it a bit warmer. Tried it on high for a minute or so and it really started to heat up. After about 2 mins it was touching 200f so I shut it down. Let it sit for a few and the outer case was up to 218. Tried to switch it back on and it would not run till it cooled to about 160. Keep in mind this is on a bench with some moving air from a fan blowing over it.

So I guess I have a bad motor. Even the 30 yr old motor would not get up to 200, it shut down at about 165. This is a bit depressing, will call the motor guy tomorrow and see what he can do. This unit is pretty simple, and I cannot see how the switch could be causing the motor to overheat. I guess the walmart unit will go in the wall next, hope it lasts longer than 4 mins.

This is definitely the story of my life... Thwarted at ever step.

Dang suck to hear. I'll stick with my $5 wally world fan as my ac unit in my hobby room.:lol:

i just wanted to be in Linc's life story thread. am i getting cool guys?

Story of my life is running into unexpected larger $ amounts in bills....

Latest was my GPA went from a 3.02 to a 2.99, thus disqualifying me from a scholarship that paid for all of my college tuition. I was dropped to the lower scholarship level that pay only half. So instead of not having college school loans to pay back, I'll be stuck taking a loan out if I can't come up with $1500 by the end of the week. Plus book money = another $700

I know some laugh at my situation as they had to take out tens of thousands of dollars in college loans, but I went 7 semesters without it, paid for my books, debt free. Now in order for me to finish and graduate in December, I have to take on another debt...


Not too mention, I had a good day at work yesterday. I got to PERSONALLY tell a guy that he owes the IRS $4-5k instead of getting a refund in that amount. Boy did I get an arse-reaming of the consequences of that and his current situation and bankruptcy is his only option now. That highlighted my day, getting blamed for "incorrectly doing my job" and causing this man's life to go to shit... Glad I have a good manager that heard the entertainment and backed me up. My hands were turning into fists at that point...

Sounds like a gearing issue. :smile:

I can just see you giving that guy a knuckle sandwich... I had a similar day yesterday when this squirrel d**k Progressive adjuster totaled out my buddies mustang. He wrote the estimate way high and put stuff on that was not necessary just to get it over 75% of the vehicle's value so it would total. Then the claims rep is telling my buddy that his car is worth 6700 and nada online says it is worth 7200... Trying to screw him out of 500 bucks, and if they valued it correctly the car would not have totaled, as 5200 is less than 75% of 7200... What a bunch of thieves. I almost closed the gate and trapped the guy in the parking lot. If I see him when I am out he might make friends with the nearest solid object. Bastard. He did this before a few months ago on another truck I had here. I guess he does not like me, but he has no idea who he is f-ing with. I should have whipped his ass and tossed him in the soup kitchen dumpster. HAHAHA.

But I had to keep my cool, as this little fudge-packer would have sued me if I had roughed him up. Looks like one of those metro-sexual half-fags too, I would almost feel bad making him eat a steering wheel. Except he cost me a decent job and is really causing my buddy alot of grief.

how do you really feel Linc?:lol:

I want to kiss that guy... With a wrecking ball... Dipped in whale spunk...

Don't make the turd rich by sueing you. Find his address, middle of the night, dressed in black.. Take it from there. Bet that claim goes through real nice

When you get the A/C working you will be working on lipos again, right?:eyes:

I was thinking that I could fill his car interior with wet cement. After I call in to his ins co and cancel his policy on the car.

Possibly, after I sell off the rest of my unused rc gear and finish up some of my summer projects.

I read a good story about 'how to send a car to hell' in a certain cook book; take a can of shaving foam, freeze it, then pierce it a few times and chuck it into someones car (through a slightly open window or someroof). When it starts to warm up and thaw out, the foam will will expand out of the can, and it ends up looking like that police car in Demolition Man when Stalone crashes it... :mdr:

Good one Neil. I like that idea, but I would use the expanding foam that you can get from DIY stores. It is used to fill holes around pipes, window frames, etc. That stuff is super sticky and would be nearly impossible to get off the seats, carpet, headliner, anything cloth. Hehehehehe....