All posts by Terry Pitts

Terry is a retired school teacher, retired Army Reservist, and retired civilian Department of the Army Civilian working about half the time as a pilot and flight instructor. He has been flying since age 19, adding gliders in 2011. He's been an FAA certificated flight instructor since 2013.
Cars

Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head

My windshield wipers didn’t work right. Everything was OK except the interval setting didn’t do anything unless I moved the moved the little wheel. Then, it only wiped once until I m over the wheel again. I lived with this for well over a year before I got around to googling for a solution. The likely culprit was the wiper relay. That’s a $100-part!

The relay is in the back right corner – brown box.

I was able to push, pull, rotate, lift, yell, and adjust enough to get my fingers on it.

A week ago today, I found where the relay is hidden under the hood. I took it out. It’s big and can be disassembled. I slipped two thin knives into the relay where I could see two locking tabs that hold the inside in the outer shell and easily pulled it apart. It’s a completely mechanical relay. The contacts get a carbon build up and stop working.

I cut a very thin piece of 1000 grit sandpaper and gently cleaned each of the two contact faces. I put it all back together, hoping for the best. The best was not to be…

The relay lives in a very awkward corner. I dropped it. It landed about three inches (75mm) below its socket. My fingers did not fit well. I accidently pushed it deeper. Frustrating!

The empty socket is on the right. Note the orientation of the slots. The open space in the middle with where the relay fell.

Two days later I tried to get it out again. I used duct tape wrapped around the end of a ruler. I tried to tie a loop of dental floss around it. Finally, with a hacksaw blade I was able to push, pull, rotate, lift, yell, and adjust enough to get my fingers on it. All this only after removing two other wire bundles. This took two unhappy hours. But, I got it in the right place. The wipers worked.

I had to wait from Sunday until today (Thursday) to test everything in the rain. It worked. Yay! I saved $100!

Books

Scotland’s Detective

In the summer of 2017 I was coming to the end of a two year tour in Germany. Melissa was coming over for a two-week visit. We set up to meet in Edinburgh, Scotland. We drove from the airport up into the Scottish highlands ending up meeting one of Melissa’s distant relatives for a wonderful tour through the countryside near Loch Ness. (I even got to meet a well-known Loch Ness researcher (No Nessie)!)

Back in Edinburgh we took a Hop On Hop Off bus tour (“Ho Ho” for insiders!) through the city. The tour guide mentioned a local detective story author but I didn’t catch the name.

A couple days later at the airport’s W. H. Smith book store I saw a banner for a detective story by Ian Rankin. I looked. It was “the right guy” – Edinburgh detective John Rebus – but I decided to start with book one from Amazon. I ordered the first two new. Then the next 15 used, sometimes in three-in-one volumes for just a couple dollars*. Book 18 and Book 19 came from the local library in the last couple weeks, with Book 19 making the trip to Tennessee with me. When I read the next three Rebus novels, all available through the local library*, I will have read all 22 novels in two years. Landmarks mentioned in each book remind me of my visit to Edinburgh with Melissa.

Holyrood Castle in the Queen’s residence when she is in Scotland. It’s often mentioned in the Rebus books.

*I have roots in both Scotland and the Swabian part of Germany. Both are known for their, uh, “thriftiness” – used books and the library save a lot of money! However, if you do buy anything from the Amazon links I will get a few cents. I’ve made a couple dollars in the last year. Gonna get rich!