Wagonlicious

If you have a Dish 622 receiver, or any other Dish Network receiver that uses the UHF “6.3”, it’s pretty easy to set up. but it’s apparently a pain to find the directions on the Interweb. Maybe this will make it easier to find.

All you do is fire the TV up and hit the menu button on one of your remotes twice. That should get you to the system info screen. Near the bottom, it shows the secondary remote address, and the band it’s on. Take the battery cover off of your new remote, put batteries in, and set the switch to match what the screen says (probably A unless you changed it). Put the back back on, and push the satellite button. It should light up. If not, your batteries are bad (or your ability to install batteries is bad, one of the two).

Anyway, once you’re sure the batteries are working, hold down the satellite button for a few seconds until all of the lights on the top flash once, and satellite starts blinking. Then enter the number for your address, and press pound after. I use 12, so I push 1, then 2, then #. When you press each key, the satellite button should also light up. When you hit pound, it’ll stop lighting up.  It should now be programmed to use the existing code.

You should be able to exit the menu (hit ok) with the new remote now, and the old one should still work.  If not, well, try reprogramming them.  If you hit the record button on the UHF remote while in the system info screen, the dish should switch to whatever address your remote’s set to (so you can also change it if you’re having interference issues).

So, the printer (an HP C6380) says that it’s currently “Wednesday, 2010-08-04 21:23:33″.  I just installed two new “564XL” ink cartridges (black and photo black).  It says that their first installation date is “2010-07-30”.  Once again, the date on them is the date that they were shipped out.  I find this disturbing, and a little irritating.  Not that I’d use the warranty on an ink cartridge, but it’s still annoying.

Also, I noticed that these new ones are made in Malaysia (the previous were Irish), and they’ve removed the little clear section on the bottom which you could look at to tell if there was still ink inside.  Everyone reasonable already knows that inkjet ink is a racket – do the manufacturers really have to make it even more blatant?

There’s now 7 cars in the fleet. I’ve acquired a 1989 BMW 325i. It runs well, but has some minor cosmetic details which need adjusting (just clearcoat on the roof and new seat covers). The windows have been tinted and the stereo replaced now, though, and it’s been all cleaned up otherwise. I’ve been driving it for a few weeks, and nothing’s fallen off (well, the A/C stopped working when the compressor clutch died and the refrigerant leaked out the front and rear seals on the pump, but who needs comfort?), so I’m happy that I can pretty much just leave it alone.

Its probably about time to get rid of a couple of vehicles, since no one uses the prefix for seven (septavehicular?), while five and six are in common use. And Beth will probably stab me in my sleep if I get another just to say that we’re octovehicular. The Wagon and the Scooter are for sale, as a result… :)

So, I found a couple of pretty big vacuum leaks on the truck tonight. Fixing those has made a big difference in the idle quality, and got rid of the popping in the exhaust. :) Hooray for all of the air going through the carb. :)

also, the tailpipes are all welded up and exerything is clamped in place. So I now have a 3 inch mandrel-bent full exhaust with an X pipe. Soon i’ll be able to get focused back on fine-tuning with the innovate box and wide-band O2. Maybe I can get better than 9 mpg… :/

Thursday evening, I got the carburetor better dialed in on the truck, but it’s still not quite right.  It’s asking for too much fuel, and doesn’t want to idle right – it occasionally pops out one tailpipe…  So, since there was that fire on the intake a while back, I’m somewhat questioning whether or not the intake gaskets are still sealing properly.  I think the end gaskets are leaking oil anyway.  So last night, I went in town and got some new intake gaskets.  I picked up some radiator flush stuff while I was in there.  Today I’m flushing the radiator / heater core / block out, since I have to drain the coolant anyway to replace the intake gaskets.  Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll have the intake back on, and the carb will behave better when all of the air is going through it, rather than some leaking in elsewhere. :)  I may also finally get around to fully welding the exhaust; it’s just tacked in place now…