I have written about my experiences at being a reluctant handyman. I don't like mechanical things. I'm not good at mechanical things. I still don't know which way to turn the wrench and I never will. I just experiment and if the nut moves Ok it's going to come off . If the nut doesn't move well then I'm turning the wrong direction.
Well, my latest experience was to change the motor on my central vacuum system.
When the vacuum quits running the first thing to discover is why it won't run. I leave the diagnosis up to the micro manager. She found out that the motor had to be replaced. Then comes the shopping to get a motor.
Now we're in business. Take the machine apart and instal the new motor. Well not so fast. Be careful when taking things apart so that you know how to put it back together. I took a couple of wires off that I didn't have to. There is a hood over the motor that has to be taken off so that you can get at the motor . Inside the hood are three wires that have to be taken off. I made sure that I labeled the wires and where they should be reconnected. Oh and don't forget to take the exhaust pipe off the motor. And don't forget to turn the power off. Oops that should have been done a few steps ago.
Now I found out that I was missing two parts. I needed a gasket to go on top of the motor and a clip to go on an electrical wire.
The whole machine is very dirty as carbon comes off the motor so there was some cleaning , lots of cleaning. Those first two wires I took off? I had a tough time to get them back on. They were in behind and at eye level. You couldn't look on the top of them.
Well after a few checks and lots of cleaning, the Micro Manager says, "Let's see if it works" Well what do you know. It was fixed.
Why do I go through this torture? Tradesmen are so awful that we will do many things to avoid them. At one time I had an excellent plumber but my experience is not the same with other tradesmen.
Also , today Buttons at Buttons Thoughts wrote about all the good things about being a handyman. I enjoyed her post.
