Kenmore Oven Baking Element

Today, I'm going to walk through replacing an oven heating element that probably should have never gone bad in the first place. I've never heard of one of these failing before, and Sears says it replaces about 1,000 of this part per year, but this one failed spectacularly with a bright flare that lasted probably 30 seconds and left the element in three useless pieces. I suspect that someone cleaned it at some point with an abrasive pad or compound that damaged the surface of the element and caused it to eventually break under the stress of normal use. Fortunately, this abused piece of hardware was easy to replace.

This project requires only one tool: a 1/4" socket and driver (this counts as one since a socket isn't much use alone). You could use a ratchet or adjustable wrench in a pinch, but the driver is really a superior tool for this since the screws aren't very tight and anything that swings out to the side for leverage would just get in the way. A single-piece 1/4" nut driver is an option and may be a reasonable investment if you plan on working on a lot of ovens, but I find it more space efficient to keep a set of sockets and a socket driver instead. If you don't have SAE tools handy, a 6.5mm socket should work.

One of my favorite tools: a 1/4" socket driver.

The first step was to find the model number of the oven so I could get the right part. Manufacturers put the information plates in different places, but they're pretty predictable. They're usually on front faces inside a door or drawer so that they're not visible with everything closed, but they're easy to access. In my case, the plate was inside the bottom storage drawer. There are several retailers for these parts online. Just search for your model number and "parts" and plenty of options should appear. Make sure you order the baking element and not the broiler.

Model plate location

Kenmore model 911.93512010

The part listing. Part #WB44T10010

Side note: This range has a broil setting, which means there's a second heating element in the top that's normally used for browning the tops of dishes that are otherwise already cooked. We were able to use the broiler for the Texas toast we were planning to cook when the lower element failed. This model doesn't have temperature control on the broil setting, so we were really eyeballing the temperature and just baked the food on the lower rack so it would heat more evenly.

When the part comes in, it's time to get to work. First, pull the oven out from the wall and unplug it. You'll pretty much need full access to the back of this thing, so pull it all the way out. The terminals for the heating element are covered by an access panel down the back of the range. This model has five screws.

Access panel screws

Heating element terminals

The element is connected electrically by a couple of spade terminals. There's no latch or trick, they just slide together like a plug in an outlet. Remove the two screws inside the oven and remove the broken element. It's a good idea to clean the bottom of the oven while the element is out. I didn't, but I should have.

Heating element screws

The company I ordered my element from packed the terminals in polystyrene, which is pretty standard practice, but it tends to leave some of the foam on the terminals. Make sure you get all of the packing material off of the burner and terminals, for obvious reasons.

Installation is the reverse of removal. Stick the terminals through the holes in the insulation and install the screws. Finger tighten only. Ovens are generally made of fairly thin sheet metal that can't handle much torque, and that's especially true with this model. Slide the connectors back onto the spade terminals on the back, then reinstall the access panel. On this model, the access panel slots behind a pair of tabs on the left. Reinstall the five screws on the access panel. It may be beneficial to install all of the screws loosely at first so that you can shift the access panel around to get the holes to align, then tighten them down. This one had a bare screw on the bottom and the rest were painted black. I'm not sure that it matters, but best to put things back the way they were originally installed.

Before you put the oven back in its hole, take a minute and clean. When was the last time you cleaned under your oven? Never, right? Nobody moves an oven unless they have to. I did take my own advice on this step. Some dust had also collected under the back of mine, so I vacuumed that out as well. Once it's all clean, plug the oven in and slide it back into place.

Finally, turn the oven on and test the new burner. Let it get red hot for a few minutes and then turn it off. Open the oven door and let it air out. The light film of release agent on the new heating element burns off and has a bit of a smell. It's probably harmless, but best to keep it away from your food just the same.

Fixed!

Headlamp Replacement - '99 Malibu and '95 Saturn SL

It's a simple fact of life that, if you own a car long enough and drive it year-round, you will end up with a pair of hazy headlamps, and if your mechanic is any good (and cares about your life and his license), he'll tell you that you have to replace or restore them before you can pass inspection.

Saturn SL2

I find the latter option to be a waste of money. I tried a headlight restoration kit on my Saturn about two years ago, and it seemed to work well at first. After about an hour of sanding, scrubbing, and polishing my headlights, I was able to present my favorite shop with something they could allow me to keep driving. The lenses looked almost brand-new. There was a faint line where the original glossy finish (which is next to impossible to remove on purpose) ended, but the lenses were plenty clear to pass state inspection. A year later, I had to do the same thing again because the finish from the polishing kit had worn off, and a couple of months after that, the haze was back. This was all done with a kit that came well-recommended. I had had enough of it, and I was not interested in trying a bunch of different polishing kits.
The hunt was on for a pair of affordable headlamps. Parts stores wanted at least $80 apiece for new ones, so I was going to have to hunt elsewhere. eBay has some available for $35, but I needed to make a trip to the junkyard anyway, so I thought I would try there before I bought anything online. Most of the cars in the yard had the same hazy headlamp issue, but one former owner had bothered to replace them within the last few years with a nice fresh pair. I snagged them for about $20 apiece plus tax.
Removing and installing headlamps in a Saturn S-series is one of the simplest things you can do to a car. They're held in with three bolts with 10mm heads: two right on top where you would expect them, and one down below, also easy to access. The procedure takes about eight seconds. Simply remove the bolts, twist the bulbs out, and reverse the procedure for the new lamps. If you like, you can unclip the bulbs instead and use the ones from your new set (if equipped). The signal bulb has the connector twist into the housing, then the bulb clips into the connector. Either way, you'll now have a few spares, which might come in handy if a police officer tries to write you a ticket for a burned-out bulb before you notice it.

Comparison shot before the swap.

The socket is on the lower mounting bolt. Top mounting bolts are also visible here.

Aiming these headlamps can be a bit trickier than installation. On my car, both the old set and the new were aimed low and cross-eyed. Ideally, the left headlamp should be aimed straight ahead and down slightly (to avoid blinding oncoming traffic), and the right should be aimed dead forward. The vertical adjustment is intuitive. There is a torx head at the top-center of the headlamp. Tighten it (turn right) to raise, loosen to lower the aim. The horizontal adjustment is a littler trickier. Toward the outer edge, behind the headlamp, there is a plastic adjustment wheel that looks like a gear. In my case, this was a very stubborn piece to move. Stick a flat-tipped screwdriver on the appropriate end and tap it with a hammer to make the adjustment. The way it works is, the adjustment wheel is stationary on the light, and it turns a screw that connects it to the mounting bracket. Since it's on the outside edge, screwing it into the bracket pulls the outside of the lamp in and moves the adjustment outward. Thus, tapping on the outside of either adjustment wheel will move the light to the driver side, and tapping on the inside will move it to passenger. Adjust accordingly.

Chevrolet Malibu

I thought that replacing the headlamps on my Saturn was as simple as it could get. I was wrong. The headlamps on this 1999 Malibu that I acquired can be changed without using any tools. The two plastic clips on the back of each headlamp pop up to release the lamp from the mount. This can all be done with bare fingers. There may be a rubber flap bolted to the frame rail, that somewhat obscures the clips. It can still be done without tools, but you might find it easier to remove it. As with the Saturn, the bolts have 10mm heads.
The price was also more attractive on the Malibu lamps. A cheap pair made in China can be had off of RockAuto.com for $25.89 plus shipping. Fitment is slightly off, but the rubber gaskets around the lamp still seal with the body. The light pattern is indistinguishable from stock, and, of course, output is much better with clear lenses. I have not adjusted these yet, as the car is not driveable, but I will update later with proper instructions.

Here, you can see the two plastic mounting clips. One is at the top of the picture.
The other is a little difficult to make out, a little below the middle.

Here, you can see the mounting points to which the plastic clips attach.

HP Pavilion Power Supply

My grandmother called me the other day with a computer problem. She's fairly computer-savvy for a grandma, so when she has a problem, it's usually something that's actually wrong with the computer. This time, it was hardware. The computer wouldn't turn on. I told her over the phone that it was probably the power supply but could also be the motherboard, and I went to check it out that evening.

The piece of equipment I used to test her computer was an especially useful piece that I picked up at the Circuit City going-out-of-business corporate selloff a few years ago. Their headquarters was here in Richmond, so I made multiple trips to raid their offices when they were liquidating all of their assets. I had stuffed a backpack full of cables and sundries, including this power supply tester, and gotten it for next to nothing. If memory serves, I paid the going rate for the Swiss Army bag ($20-25) and an extra $5 for all of the stuff in it. I had no idea what the thing was worth, but it looks like you can get one pretty cheap as well ($9 shipped on Overstock).

It is worth noting that a specialty power supply tester is helpful but not entirely necessary. The standard ATX pinout is available all over the web, which means you can test everything with a multimeter. If you should decide to go that route (or need to in a pinch), here is one from smpspowersupply.com, copied for your convenience.

That process is long and tedious, though. The ATX power supply tester was done in a matter a second or two, with no ambiguity and no need to re-check. The +5V LED didn't light up, and that meant that the +5V line on the power supply was dead. Just to be sure, since I had never used this junk-sale tester before, I checked the tester on a known working power supply, and all of the lights did indeed work. We were off to Best Buy to get the required hardware.

As usual, it would be cheaper to buy the same power supply online. There's a lot to be said for downtime, though, as well as the return process with a brick-and-mortar store vs. online. I did not have a working ATX power supply (the rig used to test the tester was an old Gateway, which didn't fit the form factor), so we spent the extra $25 to have the new power supply within an hour rather than a week.

This is the power supply we ended up getting. The salesman upsold us from the house brand, and I let him because, as I mentioned in the Heatsink Fan post, I've heard good things from people I trust about Thermaltake, so I was easily sold.

The above two images show the slight difference between the standard and aftermarket PSU. The Thermaltake unit (black) is standard ATX, while the HP unit is slightly shorter and made specifically to fit in HP's proprietary cases. I was relieved to find that the new PSU did in fact fit, as I had been through this nightmare years ago with a Pavillion with a nonstandard PSU form factor and thus had to replace the entire case. The one minor fitment issue is shown in the second photo. A clip built into the case to secondarily secure the PSU is no longer helpful, so the new supply is held in only by the four screws that are standard for ATX.

Manufacturers do weird things sometimes. In this case, a computer with only SATA drives and ports was built with a power supply for IDE drives. This was likely done to use up old power supplies, and it poses no problems for the new supply, which natively supports both SATA and IDE. Now I have some spare adapters for future projects.

Before I put the computer back together, I wanted to do a little cleaning up. This computer is about three years old, so there was a decent amount of dust build-up on the processor heatsink. Unlike my fileserver, this processor socket (Pentium dual-core of some sort) has what I feel is a proper heatsink mount. The heatsink attaches to the motherboard with a clamp, and the fan is held to the heatsink with four screws. This makes it easy to remove the fan for cleaning without disturbing the thermal connection between the processor and the heatsink.

Dusty heatsink. With everything unplugged, I just cleaned it out with a vacuum (no attachment). There's not really anything tricky to this, so I won't elaborate. This is just a good, simple step to take whenever you open up your computer to ensure processor longevity.

I hooked everything up, then turned on the power supply. Aftermarket power supplies usually have a separate power switch that the stock units don't have, and this one is no exception. It sounds like a dumb thing to mention, but sometimes intelligent people will neglect the simple details. Make sure the power switch is turned to 'on' (the international symbol is a line, to resemble a 1) after hooking everything up, before booting up. The operation was a success, and now Grandma can resume sending me videos of dancing dogs.