I had great aspirations for this weekend. Lots of time in the garage, time to catch up on all the mods and fixes and such that have been stacking up. The list I had compiled mid week was this:

• Mow the jungle...errr...lawn
  
• Finish catching up on VFRness and Speed Bleeder orders, since the Speed Bleeder bags had finally arrived
  
• Remove forks and replace oil and seals and bushings....27K miles on the oil, and the left side is leaking pretty bad.
  
• Install my Bike Bolts colored hardware, and write an evaluation for VFRD
  
• Install my Pro-Oiler
  
• Replace left headlight
  
• Upgrade headlights to run off the battery, not through the single 12 gauge wire that powers everything....I have nearly 2 volts lost by the time the the tail-lights get power
  
• remove the resistors in my JC Whitney Trunk lights (custom LED lights, 18 lights for left, right and brake....the voltage drop doesn't allow enough power for them to light correctly)
  
• weld/fix trunk rack where the platfrom broke....it wasn't originally built for the JCWhitney trunk
  
• assemble my Mini^3 headphone amp (one of the top rated amps there is)
  

Now I know this was a big list, but it just keeps getting bigger and the long weekend was going to be the perfect chance to do at least 50% of it. Instead Friday morning my wife informs me "The AC is making a weird noise".....great. I had just changed the filter the day before (Getting that Honey-Do list out of the way for the weekend). I check and confirm....yup, blower making weird noise, not getting cooler in our house.

All day friday was spent wishing I was home figuring out what was wrong with the AC, and hoping it was simple(and CHEAP) to fix. Got out of work a bit early and headed home. First thing to do was check if the outside unit was working....AC had just kicked on (such as it would) when I got home, so I was able to check right away. It was running, which was a good sign, but it was also iced up from the house to the thingie in the middle. I immediately went in and shut the AC off, then jumped on Google to see what could be wrong.

Google was full of what it could be, and my wife reminded me of a friend of her's who blogged about AC problems she fixed herself. I read her blog, where the problem was the Run Capacitor not working. Cheap fix...wonder if I could have the same problem.....I could hope, right? I went into the attic (gotta be 140 degrees up there I SWEAR). I took the side cover off the Blower unit, and looked inside like I would be able to just see the problem....wouldn't that have been nice. I did locate the blower motor (behind a plate containing sixty-eleven wires and a circuit board). I turned the power back on to the unit (light switch installed in attic for just this purpose...nice). I saw the fan start moving, but it didn't seem to be moving very fast....definantly a fan problem. Good to know the rest of the AC system SHOULD be in good shape. I also located the Run Capacitor, and called my wife via cell phone to have her write down all the different numbers on it, as well as the model number from the AC unit.

My wife and I had somewhere to be at 7:00, so we dropped the 4 kids at a friends house and headed out. On the way home I heard a noise from our rear tire...congrats, we were the proud owners of a nail! Luckily I have replacement and flat protection, so that would just mean a trip to Discount Tire in the morning. We didn't get back until after 10:00, and by the time we got the kids in bed etc it was well after 11:00....no work was going to get done that night.

Saturday I woke up thinking "Maybe I can get a new Run Capacitor, it will fix the problem, and I will be back on track". I started calling around, trying to find one. Every HVAC place I called told me they were not allowed by law to sell parts to the public..... :blink: I didn't feel like arguing about how even if that WAS a law, it certainly wouldn't cover an electrical motor part. I did find that Grainger carried the part I needed.....Awesome!!! Too bad Grainger is closed on Saturdays, and the Monday is a Holiday. 4 days of having my wife and kids living in a sauna wasn't going to be pleasant. How was now 84 degrees. I placed an order to be shipped for 2 of them ($6.56 each).

As I wasn't going to get the AC fixed, I started on my list....Mowed the Lawn. After mowing the lawn I took the car to Discount Tire....wait time would be 1 hour. Darn....oh well..."get er done". Discount Tire is awesome, but their estimates are not always spot on...took closer to 1.5 hours I think. It was now 12:00. I also took the car to Service King to get pictures taken of the rear bumper...at a recent Volley Ball match another driver thought she should park in our space with us. Service King was speedier than usual...I was done in 15 minutes. Got home at about 12:45.

Soon after I got a phone call. One of the HVAC places I left a message with actually called me back. Real nice guy who operates out of his house maybe 1 mile from me. I told him my problem, what I was looking for, and he said he thought he might have one on his truck. He promised to call back. I didn't hear from him for 20 minutes, figured he had decided it wasn't worth his time. Finally he called back, he had a used one that he said was good...he was willing to sell it for $10. A bit steep, but beats 4 days of hoping the parts I ordered from Grainger would fix the problem. He was very helpful on the phone explaining the possible testing that could be done....I wasn't too interested, it was worth $10 to try and fix it. I popped over to his place, met his dog and grandson, saw his 15 stitches in his leg, paid my $10 (had to borrow cash from the kids...sad).

Got home with the part, and headed to the attic to try it out. I recalled some web sites I read that said the problem could be insufficient air returns, so on the way to the AC unit I decided to open a 2 foot hole in the ceiling to allow more air flow. Luckily I caught myself with my shin, thighs, hip and elbows, so I managed not to fall ALL the way through the ceiling. I did demonstrate a few of my better words, which of course got my wifes attention. After asking if I was ok, and if I could get out, both of which I said "yes" to, I heard her giggling. This of course brought the kids over to see what was going on. I managed to extract myself from the ceiling, but not before I heard the camera going....she got proof of it:

I made my way to the AC unit, and plugged in my "new to me" Capacitor. Kicked on switches, and the Blower came on.....Success!! I buttoned up the AC unit as I over heard (through the new hole next to me) my wife explaining to the kids what happened. I managed to get everything back the way it went, and got the heck out of the attic. Unfortunantly, when I got down I discovered that although the blower was working, no air was coming out of the vents. Turns out the coils were totally iced over and nicely blocking all air. I left the AC off and the fan running to hopefully thaw them out.

The next 6 hours was spent repairing the ceiling in the hall. Of my long list of To-Do's, I managed to get the Lawn mowed. Every time I walked past my VFR it was pouting at me. I know the poor thing feels ignored and used...I really need to devote some time to it!