Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Broken soft top zipper pull

My '95 Jeep Wrangler came with a factory hard top.  After a couple years of lifting it on & off with every weather change, I bought an old, used Bestop Supertop that was designed for a CJ-7.  It works on my YJ, and the price was right, but it's showing its age.  Some of the zippers that hold the vinyl windows in place are getting a little stubborn & probably need to be lubed.  Recently, the metal zipper pull tab on one of the side windows broke off the zipper body (it had been bending for a while, and it's only made of pot metal).  The solution was easy & nearly free.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

The death of a fuel pump

Back in April, I wrote about our 2001 Chevy Tahoe chugging, as if it wasn't getting quite enough fuel.  I suspected the fuel pump might be at fault, but replacing it is neither easy nor inexpensive.  Instead, I replaced the fuel filter (which was long overdue), and the problem went away... for four months.  Last Friday, my suspicions were confirmed when the fuel pump died quite suddenly and completely, leaving my wife & five kids stranded on the side of the highway.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Repairing a pop-up camper shell seal

When we bought our 1997 Coleman Santa Fe pop-up camper a few years ago, I knew there would be a few things that needed fixing.  One of the items on that list was the rubber weather seal along the bottom edge of the top shell.  It keeps the innards dry when the camper is packed up for travelling.  It's a two-part seal, with one half that adheres to the shell and another half that does the actual sealing.  Both halves occasionally have trouble staying attached -- a problem when I remedied recently.