Motor Outdoor Party

We've hashed out the details for the fall Motor party. Check the Facebook page or the flyer in the elevator for more details.

Annual Fire Truck Parade

Every year the firemen have a parade on 9-11. I happened to be coming home when it was starting, so I took a few pictures. Enjoy!

+++Click here for photos of the parade+++

Replacing the Boot Gasket on Your Washer

Recently, I was doing a load of laundry when water started leaking from the front of my washer. I put a bucket under it until it was done, and found out that the problem was a small piece of rubber had broken off of the seal on the door (see picture).


After some research, I found that this piece is called a "boot gasket". I ordered it from partstore.com (here's a link to the product page) You can look elsewhere to find it cheaper. It was about $50 with shipping. Your washer is a Bosch WFL2060UC.

If you want to attempt to replace this yourself to save money, it requires few tools, but the difficulty is a little hard. Why? It's because of the fact that you'll be working in the small space between the drum and the opening in the door. I'll explain as I go along, but know this going in - it isn't the easiest of projects.

So you've decided to do it? Good for you. The first thing you want to do is to remove the metal ring that holds the gasket to the front of your washer. If you look closely, there's a small spring that holds it in place (where my finger is in the picture.)


I used two needle-nosed pliers to get it off, by holding onto one end of the metal ring and pulling the spring up with the other.

Once that metal ring is off, you'll need to remove a large spring that is wrapped around the back of the gasket towards the drum. It's pretty tight, but I just stuck a screwdriver between the gasket and the lip holding it in place and pulled back, and it released the spring and gasket. After the spring is loose, the gasket can be easily removed. Pay attention to how everything fits in place before you go ahead and rip it out though (so you'll remember how to put it back in.)

Now for the hard part - putting it back on.

If you look at the picture below, you'll see that the spring fits in a little groove all around the gasket like this. The difficulty is that you have to do this is the confined space that you see in the pictures.

The first thing you need to do is put your gasket back in (don't worry about the spring yet). If you look at your gasket, there are three drain holes which need to be facing the bottom of your washer. Make sure they are on the bottom.

The next step is to seat your gasket in the lip that goes around the washer. If you look at the fourth picture (the one with the screwdriver) you'll see the lip. It's a brownish-gray metal ring that goes around your drum. Find the part of the gasket that needs to go in there (the part where your spring will eventually go (see picture below)) and fit it in there with your fingertips. Get it in there snugly (you'll feel it when it goes in the lip) and once you get one part in there, guide the rest around from that point in a circle. You don't have to stretch it hardly at all.

Now comes the spring. This is the most difficult thing you'll have to do. If you have your gasket in place, you'll feel the groove that the spring is supposed to fit in. You'll need to go under the gasket and try to stretch this very tight spring around the entire thing to hold it in place. Let me explain my method and the difficulties.

The gasket is a big rubber ring, and you're going to have to stick your hands under it and work all the way around it trying to stretch this very tight spring, while keeping it in the groove, joining the ends with all that tension, and finally fitting it in place.

Here's what I did. You might find something that works better for you.

Tie a piece of fishing line around one end of the spring and tie the other end to the door. (See picture below) It will be a lot of force, so make sure it's something that can take the stress. I used several pieces of fishing line. This allowed me to tug on the spring with one hand and hold it in place with the other, while keeping the other end tight.

Pulling the spring tightly (but not too tightly) put it in the groove where you want to start and hold it in place with your other hand. From your starting point, keep pulling the spring as much as you can and sliding your other hand over the tightened area to keep it in place. This takes a lot of hand strength. Keep pulling with one hand and holding it in place with the other hand, working it all the way around. Surprisingly enough, the rubber helps to hold it in place to a degree. Pull too much, or at the wrong angle though, and the whole thing will snap out of place and you'll have to start all over again, so be careful.

Once you're a little more than 3/4 of the way around, attach the two ends of the springs. Make sure to keep holding it into place because you don't want the whole thing to snap out after all that work! Since you have enough of the spring wrapped around the rest of the lip, this should allow you to stretch the attached ends of the springs over the rest of the lip with two hands. Remember to always keep that tension on the springs though. Once you've fit the entire spring around the lip, clip the string and check to make sure the spring is entirely in the groove.

Some advice I would offer on this part of the project would be to make sure the string you use will allow you to make that last pull of the spring so it can fit over the lip. Don't tie it too short or you'll be stuck.

Another thing I would recommend is to fold the rubber carefully in toward the washer. (See picture below) Since you'll have to work around the outside of the circle, it gets in the way a lot and can be frustrating. Keep working with it, and it should look like the picture below.

If you've gotten the big spring in place, rejoice! You're almost home. Now all you have to do is put the metal ring back on. Unfold the rubber and it should fall nicely into place. On the outside of the door is a very small lip that the gasket fits into. Put it in place, working it all the way around. Finally, get your metal ring ready to put over the gasket.

This time put the whole ring together first, put it around the gasket as much as you can and pry the rest into place with a chopstick.

That's how you replace your boot gasketfor your Bosch front loading washer. It's a little frustrating and a bit time consuming (It took me about two and a half hours) but it wasn't horrible.

A Look at the Flower Box

I thought I'd take a few pictures of the flower box to show the progress since the last post.

+++Here are a few pictures if you're interested+++

Recycling Program Cancelled

Why?

1. Cleanliness – Some people were not cleaning their recycling. Not only was this an issue with bugs, it was also something the volunteers shouldn’t have had to handle each week.

2. Trash – Each week (especially with the plastic) lots of trash was put in the bins. Just because it’s plastic does not mean it can be recycled. Also, the lids should have been removed from glass. This was not happening.


3. Volume – The amount of recycling we were getting was getting to be more than a few people could handle. It was also starting to outgrow the little improvised area we set aside in the hall, and was starting to look bad.

4. Junk – For some reason, the recycling area attracted all kinds of junk. Everything from wood to clothes was being left next to it, and it looked really bad.

My original intent for the recycling program was that if a few of us were already recycling, we could help out others by taking back their clean recycling. Maybe we could still arrange something like this with cooperative volunteers. If you are still interested in recycling, or have any ideas, please contact me.

Cardboard is still being collected (it's a separate program) and for now we are still collecting aluminum.

District Directory for the 63rd District

Our lovely state representative sent a district directory for 2010 in the mail. I was getting ready to toss it (who needs more junk in their loft?) when I thought it might be a good resource for the Motor community.

If you have any political issues or questions - like contacting a city official - this guide might help you out.

Here's a link to the directory. You might need to hit "zoom" to be able to read the phone numbers.

Flower Box

Passing by the flower box the other day, I was reminded of the famous line from Hamlet, "...fie 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; Things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely."

Okay, it's not Denmark, and we could go on forever discussing if Hamlet's view on nature is apt, or how today's modern political situations relates to medieval Denmark, but where was I going with this? Oh yeah, the flower box looked pretty bad, so I decided to take action.

Some of the black-eyed Susans (a native Missouri wildflower) from last year had already sprouted. They are a good, hearty flower and need little maintenance; however they were surrounded by a lot of weeds and junk. I pulled out most of it: weeds, cigarettes, a newspaper, a big stick, and a condom. Yes that's right,
someone was getting freaky in the flower box. I would call that the "rank and gross in nature" part of Hamlet's statement. (In case you're wondering...no, I didn't touch it. It was old, and I just flicked it in the trash bag.)

While I was finishing up on my weeding, I happened to espy two of the girls from Gateway Greening. I asked if they had any spare seeds that I could use, and they magnanimously gave me a few packets to throw in there. If they take root, we could also have some bachelor's buttons, Irish eyes, and zinnia. I appreciate their help and hopefully we'll have some nice flowers coming up soon.