Tag Archives: Repair

Electronics, Found Materials, Restoration

Fixing a Broken Power Switch

My dad’s old record player had been out of use at my mom’s house for years because of a bad power button. He had good taste in AV equipment and I didn’t like seeing it sit unused. I offered to trade my mom a working but nothing special Technics SL-BD2 for a broken Phase Linear turntable.

I started testing things out and found a problem very quickly. The power button was sticky at best, and never seemed to click and move. The action should have been similar to a click top pen, but there was hardly any movement.

Getting to the switch was a pain. I had to take the turntable completely apart to get into the switch. Outwardly there did not seem to be anything wrong with it, but clicking it directly I felt the same resistance as when it was installed. It wasn’t the button cap causing the problem, there was definitely an issue with the switch itself.

Continue reading Fixing a Broken Power Switch →

Engines, Motorcycles

Former Triumph, RIP

For two years this 2001 Triumph Sprint ST got me all around the Bay Area and beyond. I racked up almost 45k miles on this. It was mainly used for commuting between San Francisco and Santa Clara, but it did get some time to stretch out on the backroads between Santa Cruz and Bodega Bay. And on one glorious 10 day stretch, we rode clear out to Utah and back.

Unfortunately a slow leak turned catastrophic one day on the freeway and it bled out of oil. A few moments later and a couple of lanes to the right, the piston was thrown into the head and the engine was effectively dead.

This is something of a backlog post, but since I don’t have the bike anymore I’ll probably never get around to any real detail. Below are some pictures from some of the projects I’d untertaken on it while I owned it.

Work history:

  • Plenty of oil changes
  • New throttle cable
  • Rear brake disks and pads

There are a couple of pictures of her all loaded up for the trip to Utah. One of the big cases was full of work equipment (I got to write off the first couple days as a business expense!) and was shipped back to CA from Reno before heading out onto the open roads.