So after I replaced the battery in the truck, I went to the lumber yard and picked up a couple sheets of underlayment for a project.

Got them home, got set up to cut them to size and halfway through the first sheet, my Makita hypoid saw died.

Checked all the obvious stuff - brushes, switch, wiring - and got it to run intermittently a couple of times (not long enough to make a cut) before it died completely. The motor windings look a bit toasty in spots but no smoke or that "oh, shit" smell.

Replacing it is not going to be cheap...

No, but hell I bet the underlayment wasn't cheap!

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
No, but hell I bet the underlayment wasn't cheap!

Not horrible by today's standards: $41/sheet. I needed the good-one-side quality and did NOT want to know what A/C was going for.

Also, I found a couple of hypoid saws under $200 which is half what I thought they would go for. IIRC, I paid over $250 for the Makita 30+ years ago. Obviously, the new saws won't be as rugged, but then neither am I...

Just something to ponder. That Makita of yours most likely needs just a new motor core and perhaps new bearings. A simple telephone call to Makita may reveal that you can purchase those parts and completely refurbish your saw. I just checked their web site and under Support I found that Direct Repair is listed. Which means that you can send yours to a repair center and have it completely refurbished.

Because lets be honest here, a refurbished Makita is going to be way better than a lower priced alternative.

I can relate. Something is going on with the brakes on the car (hard brake pedal; I think it's an issue with the vacuum booster, but I'm not sure where exactly), and I just spent $200-ish or so for all the potential failure points ($159 for the booster, and $60 ish for the hose and check valve). Then, while I'm at it, I decided I might as well replace the serpentine belts too. I'm not 100% sure what that's going to set me back, but OEM is in the neighborhood of $50 from Ford.
(I'm thinking the vacuum leak is in the check valve because I have no real loss of fuel mileage. I'm also going to bleed the brakes because I currently have super DOT 4 in there and it's been a couple of years.)

I just paid for the 9qts of Mobil 1 5W-50 full synthetic motor oil, 3qts of75W-140 Valvoline diff oil, a couple of quarts of DOT 5.1 brake fluid, and 3qts of Amsoil transmission fluid in anticipation of my upcoming very "fun" fluid swap weekend as well.

Then, I've been tracking a minor coolant leak as well. That's the one that's going to really cost me, I think. at least I've already drained and filled the coolant - that one sucks.