Recently I read that things come in groups of three.
- Ceiling fan wobbled and one speed did not work
- Storm shelter was full of water
- Mower self propel stopped working
We opened the storm shelter when the exterminator came to work on our "waterbug" problem. When the storm shelter was opened to fumigate, a 3 foot deep pool of red water occupied the shelter. The water was above the level where the electrical receptacle for the sump pump resides on the shelter wall. A breaker in the garage was tripped and would not reset.
I took a day off work to come home and work on some unfinished projects out in the shop, but was diverted to work on the swamped sump. We went and bought a sump pump. Before we left I took the ceiling fan apart to see if there were a broken wire or some other simple problem. I took down the control and we went a buyin'. We started at Ace. We purchased a sump pump. We looked for the smoked component for the variable speed fan to no avail. We asked about who would have such a part. After 4 or five places we discovered in downtown Waco an electronics shop that had some capacitor modules for variable speed fans.
The capacitor module on the fan control had 4 wires. The electronics shop only had modules with 3 wires. I decided to purchase one of the three wire modules and rewire the controls. The man at the counter, who was somewhat peculiar, made a comment about redneck engineering. He had several rings on each hand that looked like gold and diamonds. He was also about 6 feet in diameter. His name is Bubba.
With our trove of goods we headed home to fix 2 of the 3 items. I worked on the fan first. It was pretty simple to wire up the new capacitors 3 wires instead of 4 when I realized that the two pink wires were connected together inside the hermetically sealed unit. A few wire nuts later and a quick reassembly and the fan was working again.
I set up the pump with a hose connected directly to the discharge orifice and pumped the water out onto the back lawn. It took several hours to empty the water from the shelter. I sent Jeanette back to Ace to exchange a bushing for another size, because I had chosen poorly. To make the final connections to the existing plumbing I needed the other bushing. I gave up for the day.
The next day I came home from work and installed the pump. I realized that the pump did not have a ballcock or a switching mechanism controlled by the water level. I purchased another part and finished putting the pump in the sump.
Maybe some time soon I will start on the mower and finish clearing my mess from the pump installation episode.
