Running Bear's August 2026 Coffee Shop

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RhB Michael said:
Holy smokes Chad. I remember it taking 10 minutes to change an alternator on my Buicks.

Were you able to even see the alternator on that VW?
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The last alternator I replaced was on a Geo Metro. Alternator unbolted and wiring unhooked easily, but I couldn't get the damn thing out of the engine compartment. Not enough room to lift it out the top due to the intake manifold and the A/C unit, could not drop it out the bottom either. When all else fails, RTFM. (read the freakin manual) Following the instructions I had to go purchase a 32mm socket, Remove the right axle nut, separate the lower ball joint to remove the right front axle drive shaft, the reassemble. After it was all together it ran fine for a day til the "charge" light returned. Come to find out the NAPA alternator was junk. At least I had a clear procedure and the right tools the second time.
That 32mm socket is still in my tool box, a dust collecting reminder to RTFM.
 
kbkchooch said:
The last alternator I replaced was on a Geo Metro. Alternator unbolted and wiring unhooked easily, but I couldn't get the damn thing out of the engine compartment. Not enough room to lift it out the top due to the intake manifold and the A/C unit, could not drop it out the bottom either. When all else fails, RTFM. (read the freakin manual) Following the instructions I had to go purchase a 32mm socket, Remove the right axle nut, separate the lower ball joint to remove the right front axle drive shaft, the reassemble. After it was all together it ran fine for a day til the "charge" light returned. Come to find out the NAPA alternator was junk. At least I had a clear procedure and the right tools the second time.
That 32mm socket is still in my tool box, a dust collecting reminder to RTFM.
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I think I would have given up if it required if drive shafts etc disconnection was needed. Unbolting the A/C compressor, moving it out of the way without twisting lines or putting strain on them and unbolting an idler wheel was adventurous enough for me...

I'm hoping this alternator is not "junk" even if it is Autozone. The reviews for the "Duralast Gold" line of alternators was generally good with a small percentage of failure/junk reports and a bunch of "been 5 years and running great" reports. I don't really want to go through that again though we could do it in 3-4 hours this timebecausme we have more clue on how to do it.
 


bnsf971 said:
My car has electric power steering and water pumps.
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My car doesn't even have an alternator! (It's a plug in hybrid and the 12V system is charged through the HV system, which is charged by plug-in and regeneration through the electric motor). :)

The son's car is a 2013 Passat and so follows the standard with mechanical belts driving most systems it seems. I think a lot of more modern cars probably have gone to electric pumps and stuff as it is easier to control through modern computer ECU and also less complicated mechanically?????? So maybe cheaper to manufacture? Just guessing. Interesting philosophical discussion on modern tech,
 
Finally able to get back in to the site. It was nice for a while.

Anyway, my EF58 DCC installation continues to be a problem and I got a response from the guy who created the board. His last statement was that he was only obligated to support a certain DCC system, one that I've never heard of, and possibly Digitrax. Since I have an NCE system, he's had to help me with some of the decoder settings to get it to work. We solved a couple of issues, but the last two CV changes to fix the blower sound from coming on intermittently while sitting, a surge in speed before stopping, as well as the tail and cab lights not working until the stay alive cap is charged and then power cycled (he told me to add a bleed down resistor), is leading me to believe that it really isn't compatible. My last statement to him was that I hope we can save this project. If I need to desolder the board again, it'll be permanent.
BODY OFF SM.JPG
 
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More fun and DCC games. I bought a Rapido Manning Wardle on a whim, which was a big mistake. Then decided to get the sound decoder for it, a bigger mistake. I gave it a go at installing the decoder, which meant braking some parts (by poor design) and ultimately failing to get a decoder that barely fits, into the thing. After giving up, I wrote to Rapido, who offers a lifetime warranty, to install this for me. So I sent it to them. Got it back, no sound. Wrote back to them, sent it again, came back, no sound. Their paperwork stated they reset the decoder, which they did, and tested it this time on DCC, but not addressing the issue. So, I wrote back to them. Didn't blast them but will if they respond poorly. Lifetime warranty is useless if the service sucks.

I was about to send it with a 5 iron into oblivion, but then remembered that I have the blanking chip and can make it DC again. Then the noodle started spinning and thought about ripping out the elex board and fit an N18 sound decoder in, which is what they should have gone with in the first place. I found a shop that sells the sound file and asked them if they could preload it onto an N18 decoder if I bought both from them. Waiting for a response.

Too cute to destroy, but came close.
SIR BERKELEY LEFT.JPG
 
Kusojiji said:
Mine does as well and I don't like it. The car tends to drift a lot and no, it doesn't have enough power to burn rubber!! I'm not sure what kind of brake assist it has, but it's not much. I have to stand on it quite a bit to stop and this thing only weighs ~2K lbs.
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Mine has several "features" that are more trouble than they're worth. It has active sway control I can't turn completely off, that causes the car to jam on its brakes when going through a curve on the highway, and lane keeping assist that, when turned on, I have to fight constantly to keep driving in a straight line. I do like the adaptive cruise control, that maintains a 1, 2, or 3 second following distance from the car in front of me. But even that isn't as great as it should be, when it's raining heavily it freaks out and tries to ram the car in front of me. You know, it fails when I need it most.
 


Kusojiji said:
Finally able to get back in to the site. It was nice for a while.

Anyway, my EF58 DCC installation continues to be a problem and I got a response from the guy who created the board. His last statement was that he was only obligated to support a certain DCC system, one that I've never heard of, and possibly Digitrax. Since I have an NCE system, he's had to help me with some of the decoder settings to get it to work. We solved a couple of issues, but the last two CV changes to fix the blower sound from coming on intermittently while sitting, a surge in speed before stopping, as well as the tail and cab lights not working until the stay alive cap is charged and then power cycled (he told me to add a bleed down resistor), is leading me to believe that it really isn't compatible. My last statement to him was that I hope we can save this project. If I need to desolder the board again, it'll be permanent.
View attachment 272620
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What board is it? I assume this is an N Scale EF58 from KATO?? Or is that H0? Hard to tell based on the desk stuff.

I have a special EF58 fantasy livery set I got from KATO that's several EF58 in non existent liveries that were similar to real ones never used on EF58 or something like that.
 
So my daughter, who is 18 1/2, had decided last year that she wanted to go on an LDS mission. We were in Japan and we visited her brother, my son on Hokkaido while he was a missionary. That inspired her. Earlier this year the minimum age for women to become missionaries was changed from 19 to 18, so instead of waiting for next spring when she'd be 19, she decided she wanted to go this Fall or Winter. So she got her application filled out, the various interviews and medical checks done, etc over the last 6 weeks and the application was fully submitted about 10 days ago.

Today she got a text that the "Call" was ready in her online portal account. She didn't want to read it until mom was home. She asked when shed'd be home but didn't say why but waited an agonizing 3 or so hours for her to come home. Mom got home from work and she said she had it. So she, thew wife, my mom (grandma) and I all sat down in the living room and we FaceTime-d my son, her brother down in Provo. Shen then opened it up and read it and she was called to serve in "Japan Nagoya" mission. She was ready to go anywhere in the world she was called to but we were all crossing our fingers for Japan. (The application does ask about any language capability or classes, and she'd had a semester and a half of HS level Japanese through an online system -- still has to finish the second class even though she's graduated from HS -- it's not for credit. It also asks about heritage of parents -- mom was born and raised in Japan, as well as where parents, aunts/uncles, grandparents, and siblings may have been missionaries. Her brother was in Japan Sapporo mission and got back last December. Mom (my wife) was in Japan Sendai (basically the top part of Honshu, the main island) and the wife's sister was in Japan Sapporo as missionaries. I was in Germany Munich so was odd man out. Prior language experience and heritage and family missions is not always indicative of where you'll go and there are lots of example of someone whose parent comes from say Japan and they go to Brazil. But they do play a role on where you get assigned and in her case it is Japan Nagoya).

Nagoya is where Toyota is based and is between Osaka and Tokyo areas. So she'll be in btw where her two aunts live. One aunt is in Kobe (which is near Osaka) and the other aunt is in Yokohama, which is south of Tokyo but part of the greater Tokyo megalopolis. The Japan Nagoya mission covers the part in between from the Sea of Japan to the Pacific and includes Nagano, where the Olympics were, and that part in the middle. She is super psyched. She starts the missionary training program through a week of Zoom online and then in person at one of the Missionary Training Centers, in her case down in Provo. Language as well as teaching skills are what is taught. It's about a 2 month experience and she starts on Dec 9 at home and Dec 16 in Provo, leaving for Japan Feb 11. We're all super excited. She wanted tow work as much as possible before and so she'll get 3 months of working as many hour as she can get as a lifeguard and swim teacher.

That's the news for tonight.

I'm hoping to get employed (for many reasons) but I'd like to go and do our family trip to Japan next year and stop and see her for a few hours (they usually don't want family coming as a distraction but we visited our son with permission of his leadership for a couple hours one Sunday and a few hours the next day, which is their "preparation day" -- the day they go shopping, play tourist, or whatever for about 2/3 of the day. I'm hoping to be able to do the same for her and then when she comes home to go pick her up like we did with our son when he was done last Thanksgiving.
 
bnsf971 said:
Mine has several "features" that are more trouble than they're worth. It has active sway control I can't turn completely off, that causes the car to jam on its brakes when going through a curve on the highway, and lane keeping assist that, when turned on, I have to fight constantly to keep driving in a straight line. I do like the adaptive cruise control, that maintains a 1, 2, or 3 second following distance from the car in front of me. But even that isn't as great as it should be, when it's raining heavily it freaks out and tries to ram the car in front of me. You know, it fails when I need it most.
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That sucks. My car doesn't have lane keeping or adaptive cruise control -- I wish it had adaptive cruise control. It does have some sort of traction control. But the wife's Jetta has the lane keeping and the adaptive cruise control. I love the adaptive cruise control. Luckily it doesn't have a problem in rain or anywhere else and I've used it a ton successfully. It's lane keeping doesn't cause a lot if problems though it does resist some when changing lanes etc even if I have the blinkers on. But I just insist and it figures I want it and stops bothering me. The Volvo we had was better in this regard. When you put the blinkers on it would turn off the lane keeping feature and not bother with even a little resistance when changing lanes since you told it you were doing it with the blinker. The Jetta is a little less sophisticated but it's not an issue since it only slightly resists in feel and when you insist it gives up.
 
chadbag said:
What board is it? I assume this is an N Scale EF58 from KATO?? Or is that H0? Hard to tell based on the desk stuff.

I have a special EF58 fantasy livery set I got from KATO that's several EF58 in non existent liveries that were similar to real ones never used on EF58 or something like that.
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It's HO. The board is from NGDCC. I thought it might be a good one after I watched a video. I've bought two function decoders from him before that I tried to install into my WAFU 29500 only to have it blow up after I forgot to insulate it. Installed the other and forgot to disconnect the capacitor before programming it. The on/off/on/off fried it.
DECODER WIRED TO BOARD.jpeg
 
Good morning gang!

58° under clear skies, looking for a high today close to 80°.

I have an appointment this morning with the wound care specialist at the hospital to see if I can get clearance to finally go back to work. Is sitting home all day is starting to drive me a bit nuts.
My Colorado has lane assist. 95% of the time I keep it switched off because of the narrow winding roads around here.You constantly wind up fighting it. It’s OK on interstate road trips but locally it sucks. Technology, another reason why I love my 2003 S-10. It has cold, AC, power brakes, and power steering. Manual windows, and locks, and a killer stereo. Anything else goes wrong? I can fix it.

BBL
 

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