uncledj

Like you said, Carrier and Bryant are the same. Not similar...identical....except for the nameplate. Parts are completely interchangeable. Bryant will probably be a bit cheaper.....as I think on the base model, they omit the low / hi pressure safeties, which are there only to protect the compressor in the event of condenser fan failure or refrigerant loss. Bryant would be fine. Stay away from York. Trane's OK IMHO Lennox is the best, but they've been slipping a bit over the last few years.....still my first choice though. The Carrier or Bryant will slide right in, as all electrical / duct connections will be exactly the same as on the old unit. Best of luck. Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

I might be able to come up with a used inducer assembly. Heat exchangers on those little Carriers are SUPER easy to replace. Takes one guy about a half hour to 45 minutes. If you want me to try to get one wholesale, lemme know. Just sayin'

I'm not a Harley guy either, but I gotta say.....that's one sharp scoot. Congrats.

Where's the challenge in that? It's been a good truck, although I don't drive it much. Bought it in 06 with 30k miles on it, ...haven't quite made it to 90k yet....I generally only use it when I actually need a truck. Plus, it's been paid for for quite some time, so it's nice to not have that payment to make. Besides the leaking manifold, I'm gonna replace the shocks and the front axle u-joints, and then I should be good for a few more years.

So far so good. I soaked everything in the secret mix again this morning before work...gave everything a tap or two. Came home and asked the wife if she wanted to go out to dinner, and she said "I know you're itching to work on the truck, so go ahead".. God bless her heart. One by one, I heated the head around the bolt for a minute or so, then gripped the protruding studs with vice grips and got them out. One was a bi-otch....took over an hour...fought me to the last thread. The second one wasn't too bad....had it out in 20 minutes...then the most troublesome, hard to get at one actually came out pretty easy. THANK YOU GOD!!!. Now for the two I have to easy out. I determined from the ones I removed that the hole was about 1/4" deeper than the bolts, so I ended up drilling all the way through them with a small drill, then got some secret mix through the holes so that it's soaking from the front and back.....gave them a few taps... I promised a buddy I'd help him with something tomorrow, but as soon as I get home, I'll drill them out to the proper size,....apply a bit of heat and go for it. Wish me luck

I saw where a guy suggests heating the bolt heads until they're red hot and try it, which is how I did remove the one rear bolt. The idea is that it expands the bolt (lengthens it) to where the stress is off the bolt. It makes sense, and is certainly worth a try, but when, as in this case, the threads are two inches in from the bolt head, and inaccessible to penetrant until the manifold is removed, there's not much you can do to loosen the threads themselves until the manifold is removed. If I have trouble removing them tomorrow, I may put some heat on the head itself near the bolt(s).

Seems like what I was looking at was a bit more involved than this, but I found this pretty quick. For all of you that are mechanically inclined..... Penetrating Oils Compared A study done by Machinist's Workshop magazine in their April 2007 issue looked at different penetrating oils to see which one did the best job of removing a rusted bolt by measuring the pounds of torque required to loosen the bolt once treated. If the study was scientifically accurate, it turns out a home brew works best! Here's the summary of the test results: Penetrating oil .......... Average load None ..................... 516 pounds WD-40 .................... 238 pounds PB Blaster ............... 214 pounds Liquid Wrench ............ 127 pounds Kano Kroil ............... 106 pounds ATF-Acetone mix.............53 pounds The Automatic Transmission fluid (ATF)-Acetone mix was a "home brew" mix of 50 - 50 automatic transmission fluid and acetone. Note the "home brew" was better than any commercial product in this one particular test. A local machinist group mixed up a batch and all now use it with equally good results. Note also that "Liquid Wrench" is about as good as "Kroil" for about 20% of the price.

A couple of months back, I noticed the front bolt on the right exhaust manifold on my old (01) Dodge Truck was loose, sticking out of the manifold a half inch or so. Turns out it was actually broken. Then I started getting a tick from the left manifold. All bolts appear intact on that side. Anyhoo, I figured I'd better replace both exhaust manifolds / bolts before it becomes a problem this Winter. There wasn't much to grab to with a socket. 4 bolts and 2 studs per side, and everything was so rusted that a solid connection with a socket is difficult to impossible. (6 point) I spent two nights after work getting the manifold to exhaust flange bolts out by cutting them with a dremel cut off wheel. They were hard to get to, but after literally going through 50 small cut off wheels, I was able to cut / chisel them off. Then I moved to the left manifold that had the broken bolt. I gave the heads some pretty good raps, but couldn't get any penetrant to where the threads were, so I ended up busting the other front bolt, flush with the head. One of the rear ones came out, and the other broke, but left an inch or so sticking out of the head, so I still have something to grab to. (THANK GOD). The rear bolts are hard to get to. Lastly, I decided to burn the two studs off so that I wouldn't break them off at the head. (I always get nervous burning in an engine compartment.) Fire extinguisher....tank of CO2 with hose and a water hose handy, I went for it and it worked out ok. More tapping and heavy prying and I got the manifold to come off in one piece. Now to remove the broken bolts and studs. I cleaned the protruding studs off as best I could, ...chipping any rust that I could remove. Then I started drilling pilot holes for an easy out in the bolts broken flush. Mixed up a batch of 50 / 50 tranny fluid and acetone and soaked down the protruding bolts as well as the flush broken bolts.....gave them all a few taps to get the capillary action going.....cleaned up the tools....soaked them down and tapped them again....and again...and will do that again tomorrow morning. Tomorrow after work I'll try to vice grip out the studs...or if necessary, weld a nut onto the studs to crank them out.....I'm worried about the flush broken bolts though. I think I got the pilot holes centered well enough that if I can't get them out with an easy out, I may be able to drill and re-tap the holes. If and when I get through this...I get to start all over on the other side. I've had this truck since 06, when I bought it from Texas and drove it home. It looked like it came off the showroom floor....but 10 years of sitting outside in this humid swamp that is Central Ohio has rusted all the bare metal parts to ruin. Body's still ok....been stayin' on that as best I could. Anyhoo, I know folks here enjoy hearing of a mechanical challenge, so I thought I'd share. I sure don't wanna have to pull the heads for this. That'd be an even bigger PITA. Wish me luck.

How much was it and how ya likin' it ?

I used to have a Dolly Parton wrist watch. .......It didn't keep very good time.....but it sure was fun to wind.....!!!......

My vote would be for a class "A". Roomier inside and the big windshield / side windows makes watching the world go by more pleasurable. Slideouts are a big plus, but will raise the price. Large displacement v8 engines are fine, and probably give a bit more torque, but the Triton V10 in my 32' class A pulls just fine, but tends to rev a bit more. Has no problem maintaining 70mph pulling a trailer with my Venture on it. May drop down a bit on steep hills. These things are all gas hogs, but I think the v10 may squeeze another mile or two out of a gallon of go juice. (debatable). Mine has gotten as high as ten mpg.....as low as 6 mpg pulling a loaded trailer....usually gets around 8 when going up and down the hills common to Ohio / PA where I do most of my travelling. Gas engine should be fine for occasional trips, but if you plan on doing a whole lotta travelling or heavy towing, a diesel would be best, but it'll cost quite a bit more, and they're more expensive when they do break. When I retire, I'm planning on tradin' up to a diesel with slide-outs. It's important to make sure the roof is in good shape and, if the sides are laminated, make sure there's no bubbles, which usually indicates moisturre damage to the plywood beneath. Check out the tires. Many of these motorhomes don't get used much, and tires often will suffer signs of age before the tread wears out. Look for cracking, and if you're savvy enough to decipher the info on the sidewall, you can tell the true age of the tires. Make sure the generator works well and looks to have been serviced, as they're expensive to repair / rebuild. The larger the inverter the better. 30amp would be pretty standard. 50 amp would be better. With the 30 amp on mine, I can only run one of the rooftop a/c units when plugged in. If I want to run both, I have to run my generator. If I had a 50 amp inverter, I'd be able to run both when plugged in. Levelling jacks are nice if ya can get them. Levels the motorhome out, and even if you're on level ground they firm it up so the motorhome doesn't rock and roll as you move around inside. Like with everything, opinions will vary, but those are some of my thoughts on the subject. Hope it helps. Happy motoring !!!

Had another pic of Dad on my phone so I thought I'd send it. This is just a picture that I took with my phone of an old picture that I found while cleaning up Dads' apartment. it's a pic of him with some German prisoners of war that he was in charge of. Doing different sort of work details. Dad was able to communicate with them because he spoke Polish, and so did one of the prisoners.....which is why he was given the job. I remember him saying that he liked these guys. They worked hard and as long as they were fairly treated they were easy to deal with and did what was asked of them. Anyhoo, here's the pic.

I used to have a rail buggy with a body on it, and after I had it painted camouflage, I'd have to wander around the yard looking for it until I finally tripped over it.

Talked to the family today. Dad's been saying that when he passes he wants his car to go to his girlfriend, so we're going to see if we can talk him into giving it to her now, which would mean she'll take possession of it. We're going to start gently pressuring him into getting rid of the car, and effectively giving up driving, and see how he responds before deciding what the next step should be. Thanks for the responses. I'll let y'all know how it goes. Probably be six weeks before we all get together in one place to talk to him as a family group, but at least all the kids are in agreement and on the same page.

​ No such age requirements.

Wife and I went over to Dads' apartment and did some cleaning up and reorganizing for him. He's soon to be 94 and still gets along pretty well, but has difficulty seeing. He has macular degeneration, and can still read if the print's large enough, which I guess is pretty good for his advanced age. His faculties are still mostly there....sometimes he can be forgetful and occasionally gets a little confused, but all in all he's still fully functioning and caring for himself. I live about 3 hrs from him and try to stop by as much as I can, and his closest assistance is his grand daughter who lives only a couple of miles from him. He has a girlfriend who lives about 45 minutes from him, and most weekends he drives to her house and they'll go to dinner, or church or the casino, and do whatever those crazy kids do. Here's the problem....... We're... (myself, and the other 3 children who care for him)... questioning whether he should be driving. I'm not sure that he should be driving, and have heard comments from others that live in his (elderly) apartment complex that his driving isn't so good. I myself have not seen him drive in years now, as every time I'm going somewhere with him he insists I drive. If he were to lose his ability to drive, he'd lose much of his freedom and independence, not to speak of his ability to see his girlfriend. I'm afraid that it'd break his spirit and it'd be the end of him. The place where he lives has a van that comes by to take the folks for groceries and some events, so he would have that option, but I don't know how much of a consolation that'd be. I recently brought up the subject, asking how he felt about driving......if he thought he was competent....and he said "Yes".... So, ....that's the question I've been contemplating..... At what point do you step in and take action? How would one go about it without creating bad feelings? Pic of Dad and I taken recently, then pic of Dad in WWII....not sure where he was in the pic. lol

I kinda like it. Saw a guy riding a scooter, pulling a clamshell trailer at 70 + mph just North of Columbus yesterday.

I thought "Loud pipes save lives" Don't they care about bikers lives???? Bikers lives matter.

Lisa and I made it home in one piece. Had a great time, ....looking forward to next year. We may try to put something together up at the cabin in North Central PA for next Summer. Thanks to all the great people who put this together. I'm sure it takes a lot of effort but it's much appreciated. Love the band.....Not too sure about the Black Death. LOL... Jonas...Thanks a bunch for coming and bringing some of the "flavor" of home. Now comes the chore of packing up / cleaning out / putting away the motorhome and Black Cherry. Thanks to everyone ! What a great bunch of folks !

PC crowd is trying to get teachers to stop referring to children as "boys and girls". To be considered "sane" by an insane world is nothing to be proud of.

Ya don't have to worry about it for little ol' me....... I was plannin' on winnin' that one....

​What.....no prize for best mascot this year???

Wife and I will be there. Planning on leaving Wednesday after work. Not sure if we'll drive straight up or maybe pull over somewhere for the night and catch a few ZZZZZssss. Either way, we'll be there Thursday Morning. Driving the motorhome, trailering the scoot.

Must be nice to be able to not remember leaving 1600 smackers lying around. If I'm missin' a $50 I get upset.......('till I find out the wife took it)