Preparing to hit the road again-its about time

Monday

Very overcast today and a little rain.  Did some computer work and upgraded Bonnie's MAC to the new Lion operating system.  Then called Interstate, more insanity they still do not want to accept the receipts I have from the motel for my claim.  They seem to do anything they can to deny the claim.  I talked to the motel, they do not have a computer to even generate a typed invoice.  Just unbelievable.
Off to court now.  Had a little rain tonight.  Pretty uneventful day.

Tuesday

Woke up to a beautiful day, nice and sunny.  To bad I have to spend the afternoon in court.
Then off to WW tonight and possibly a trip to Harbor Freight to pick up a tool to make taking the caulk off the roof of the MH much easier and quicker.  So been paying bills, watching podcasts about the MAC and reading some.

Talked to the warranty people again today and now they have decided the receipts I sent from the motel are sufficient so they are processing that claim.  They had agreed to call the motel to verify they did not have a computer and that I actually stayed there.  So I guess they believed them.  I also checked on the repair claim check.  25 business days so I guess I have a while to wait.

Gained a little this week according to WW so back on the band wagon for this week.  Picked a my tool at Harbor freight so looks like I am ready to work on the roof of the MH when the weather looks good for a day or two.  I also still need to do the brakes on the truck, maybe tomorrow.
Thats about it for today.


Wednesday

Another great sunny cool morning.  Lots to do today.  First a trip to the bank to make a deposit.  Then home to hopefully get the front brakes changed on the truck.  Once I get that done there are a few things I need to work on for the MH.  I should take an hour or so and do some weed control around the property also.

This is the old light just no longer works

Here is the new one, also has X10 control

Ready to start after lunch.  Notice how few tools are on the table

On my lunch break now, yes I sometimes get a lunch break.  I already did the bank deposit.  When I got home I changed the motion light on the side of the garage and started the brake job.


  Hopefully I will get a little shade to work in before I finish.  Still sunny but not that hot so lets get started.

Wheels off and I use the C clamp to compress the cylinder on the caliber so it will fit over the new thicker brake pads

Using the bucket to support the caliper.  The bracket that holds the caliper has been removed.  Notice the screw between the top two studs.

That screw is a T30 torx head screw.  I knew I did not have one.  But you know your Dad never stops giving to you.  I looked in the tool box my Dad left me when he died and there was a set of torx wrenches and there was a T30.  This was the last screw that needed to come out to get the rotor off, Thanks Dad.

This the the bracket that holds the brake pads ready to be loaded with the new pads.

New rotor and pads in place ready to put the caliber back on.

Old inner pad on the left new one on the right.  Old one served me well for 46034 miles.

Box of old pads

The table now has all the tools it took to do the job on it.

 The three most important tools today were the new impact wrench, much more torque than my 20 year old one, the penetrating fluid called PB Blaster (without it and the torque wrench I would not have gotten the caliper bracket off) and the torx wrench my Dad left me.

T30 Torx wrench

The whole brake job took a little over two hours.  The second wheel took only 40 minutes, the first a little longer as I had to keep getting more tools.

Cost estimate as you may recall was $364 at the Chevy dealer.  My cost was about $161 for the parts, $110 for the new torque wrench and a couple hours of my time.  So I saved about $100 bucks and got a new wrench.  Plus finding the torx wrench brought back wonder memories of my Dad.

I hav had the truck out for a test ride no more squeaking brakes and all seems well.  All cleaned up and showered now waiting for Bonnie to get home from shopping.  Tomorrow after my eye exam I will concentrate on loading up the MH for the weekend trip.

Thats about it from here, Thanks for Checking in.