Life in a haunted house.

When I was about 12 or 13 years old, we moved into a rental property in Greenwood Springs Mississippi. It was very convenient for us as it was just a mile or two down the road from property Dad had just bought where he planned to build us a house. In the evenings we would go and work on clearing out the house place and such.

My grandfather, Daddy Straw spent a lot of time with me during the time we lived at this place. He would take me hunting and teach me other skills that a boy my age needed for life in the country.

We had lived there a few months before we started noticing strange things happening. One of the first things I remember out of the ordinary was when I gave my mother a magnolia blossom as a gift. Normally these seem to wilt quickly once cut from the tree but for some reason, this one just never withered. I set it in a bowl of water on the dining room table and it stayed fresh for over a week. We finally got tired of it and threw it out but it still looked as fresh as the day I cut it from the tree.

The next strange thing happened one evening when we were all sitting around the dining room table after dinner. We heard a noise in the kitchen and we all looked up in time to watch the doorknob turn and the kitchen door open. We were expecting it to maybe my Grand Daddy Straw as he sometimes came in the back door instead of the front.

But to our surprise, the door simply closed on its own and no one was there. Then our attention turned to the other door to the dining room. This door led to the rest of the house. Just as before, the doorknob turned and the door opened on its own and then closed again as if a person had just walked through the room from one door to the next.

After a while, we got accustomed to sharing the house with our invisible roommate. We knew to look for missing shiny things under a certain board in the closet and to expect small items to move around when no one was looking. We even decided that our dog was not crazy for jumping on and playing with an invisible friend in the yard.

Never did any of us ever feel threatened by the ghost. We felt she was female and began calling her She. Once, my mother was ill and sleeping alone at the house. She said she felt a presence wake her up and as she awoke, she saw a white figure at the foot of the bed gently shaking her to wake up. Once she awoke, the figure was gone but she realized that the pilot light had gone out on the gas heater and the room was slowly filling with gas. The ghost had protected her.

The only scary time I ever experienced was one day after hunting rabbits with my Grand Daddy Straw; I went inside to put up the butcher knife I had used to clean the rabbits.

I tossed the knife onto the counter near the sink and turned to go back outside to get the rabbits. As I turned around, I heard the knife fall on the floor. I did not think anything about it, I just figured I had missed when I tossed it on the counter. I was more careful as I set down the knife by the sink and turned to go back out.

Again as I turned and headed out the door, I heard the knife hit the floor. Still, I thought nothing of it as the countertops were not quite level and I assumed it had slid off after I set it down. So this time I picked up the knife and carefully placed it on the countertop. I put it all the way back against the backstop near the sink. As I lifted my hand away I made sure it was stable and was not going to slide off again.

This time however as I turned to go back outside, the knife flew across the room and landed near the door on the opposite side of the room. This time, I decided to leave the knife on the floor and go back outside. I am not sure why she did not want the knife on the counter, but she made it very clear she did not want it left there.

How to write safety procedures everyone will follow

Considering Personality Types in Safety Procedures

People are different. Every one looks at life though the lens of his own personality type. By addressing these different personality types, we can create procedures that every one will follow.

Carl Jung defines four different personality types: Feeling, Thinking, Sensation and Intuition. Most personality psychologist use four similar categories, but with different names.

Since Sensation personality types tend to be good at accounting, care taking, collecting data organizing and supervising, they tend to end up in supervisory positions. Since they themselves are good at following directions they often think others are as well. They often don’t understand people who don’t follow instructions. After all, Sensation people follow instructions simply because the instructions are there.

Sensation personality types will not normally question the procedure; they simply want it to be executed fairly and consistently. If you are inconsistent in your enforcement, sensation personality types will follow the procedure simply because it is the procedure. But, if you change the procedure, you better give them some time to prepare as they also like to plan ahead.

Feeling personality types are good at being cooperative, mentoring, teaching and training. So these are the ones you want to use to present the new procedures to the people. They will be more interested in how the procedure makes them feel than what it is accomplishing. Also, in presenting procedures to Feeling personality types, it is important to recognize them as people first and employees second. Adding some fluff to the procedure that recognizes their humanness will win over the feeling personality types while annoying the thinking personality types. So be careful to find a balance.

Thinking personality types will want to know why. They will also be the ones to suggest a better way. Be sure you listen to them. Even if you don’t implement their suggestions, be sure you listen to them if you want them to follow your procedure. Make sure the procedure explains why the procedure is important to the process and how you came up with it. These explanations are very important to Thinking personality types.

Intuition personality types are the ones who pride themselves in not following the rules and can be the biggest challenge to generating procedures that every one will follow. Intuition personality types tend to be risk takers and impulsive. However they also make great leaders so if you get the Intuition personality types to buy in to a procedure they will bring the others along with them. To make the procedures palatable to the Intuition personality types, be sure to add some room for creative expression where possible. Understand their need for variety. Allow some options for them to choose from. In training for a new procedure be sure to include real world examples. Use funny stories if possible to get and hold their attention.

I often see procedures fail because the writer assumes that all people think like they do. And many managers think that “Because I said so” is good enough motivation to get people to follow a procedure. If you want employees to follow procedure when no one is looking, you need to consider the personality types of the employees.

The Red Jeep Saga

The Red Jeep Saga

Jeep Wiring Diagram from XKCD

My son Scott found the Red Jeep on Craig’s List. His original intention was to buy it for parts as the engine bay wiring harness was melted and he bought it for near scrap value.

The owner gave us a very small time window to complete the deal and pick up the non running Jeep. We arrived in the dark and began pushing the Jeep into position to load it on the trailer. In the dark, Scott hooked the tow strap to the axle in a way that put pressure on the tie rod causing it to bend just as the front wheels got on the trailer bed.

I was using a come-a-long to winch the Jeep onto the trailer and it became very hard to pull after the tie rod bent. I did not have the correct tools to pull the tie rod so I attempted to use a ratchet strap to straighten it. About this time the owner showed up with the paper work and wanting his money. He seemed to think we were complete idiots for having so much trouble loading the Jeep. He also just walked away without a word when I asked to borrow a wrench from him.

By the time we had the Jeep loaded, there was quite a crowd gathered at the closed shop where the Jeep was stored. We were very glad to be loaded and out of there as we were getting a bad vibe about the whole situation. But we left with the Jeep and the title so we were good.

When we got the Jeep back to the shop and looked it over, we found it was in excellent condition except for faded paint and of course the missing engine bay wiring harness. Scott decided to try to make it run again instead of just parting it out as originally intended. I assured him it would never run again, but he was determined.

Scott and Megan began searching pull -a- part yards for a wiring harness. The 89 is a strange year for wiring harnesses. It appears that on some Jeeps, and this being one of them, that a wire was omitted from the computer harness and had to be added at a later step in the assembly. Since the computer is under the dash in 89 a hole had to be drilled to accommodate the extra wire. This hole was drilled rather crudely on this example.

Scott eventually found a harness that did not have the extra wire and got the whole harness and computer just in case. After several hours of sorting out the various plugs, he finally got it all connected. Much to my surprise the Jeep fired right up. However it did have a stumble or a miss.

We double checked the injector wiring and spark plugs but could not find the source of the miss. However everything else worked great.

A few weeks later, I removed the bent tie rod and straightened it using my pipe bender. It actually turned out to be pretty straight.

Scott got busy with other projects and let the Jeep sit over the winter. He eventually found a potential buyer for the Jeep as it sat.

He fired it up and started to drive it back to his home but he did not make it very far. Over the winter, we both forgot that the front end alignment needed to be set after repairing the tie rod and the Jeep was just not running right with the miss.

I took it back to the shop. A few days later, when I got ready to set the front end, it would not start. It seemed the NSS was stopping the starter from engaging. I had a spare transmission in the shop so I pulled the NSS and plugged it into the harness and it still would not start. I even put a jumper across the wires to the NSS and it still would not start.

A few days later, I studied the wiring diagrams and then tracked down the wires to the starter relay. I found that by jumping the wire that goes to the NSS to ground, the Jeep would start. I also found that there was no continuity in the wire from the relay to the NSS connector. So, for now, there is a jumper in place to start it.

Also, when I got started, the Tachometer and temperature gauge no longer worked. They had been working fine earlier.

After setting the toe, I took the Jeep for a test drive and it drove great. But it still had a miss. I drove to Dayton to meet a friend for lunch and when I got home, I parked it on the porch behind Janice’s Jeep to drive it the next day.

The next day, it would not start. I had to push it out of the way. I checked and rechecked the starter wiring. Eventually, I applied power to the starter motor with a jumper cable and still nothing. The starter motor had simply quit.

I pushed it to the shop and installed a spare starter. It fired right up. But it still had a miss. There was also a strange noise coming from the power steering pump so I got out my stethoscope to listen to it. By the time I had the stethoscope in hand, the pump had quieted down so I decided to listen to some other things.

I noticed I could hear the click of the injectors quite distinctly so I decided to listen to them all. When I reached number six, there was no click. Just the whine of fuel in the rail.

A few days later, I decided to check further. I pulled the wire off and measured the resistance on the injector. It read about 16 ohms – the same as the spare. I connected a voltmeter to the harness and there seemed to be pulsing voltage there. It was hard to tell with my digital voltmeter.

Next, I connected a spare injector to the harness and I could feel it clicking in my hand. So I decided to swap out the injector.

I pulled the fuel rail and then when I went to swap the injector, I had misplaced it. I looked for several minutes knowing it had to be nearby; but eventually, I went to the bin and got another spare. I popped it in place and re secured the rail. I started the Jeep and had to shut it down immediately as gas was spraying everywhere. The O ring on the spare injector was bad.

I pulled the O ring off the original injector then I put it all back together again. I started it up and this time there were no leaks. However, there was still a miss. I was stunned.

I made up a test light using a side marker bulb and socket from the parts ZJ. I plugged it into the harness and sure enough the light blinked when the injector should be firing. I got out the stethoscope again and listened. No clicking. About that time, I saw where I had put down the first spare injector. I plugged it into the harness and I could again feel it clicking in my hand.

So, once again, I pulled the fuel rail and swapped the injector and O ring. I let the rail pressurize and checked for leaks. Then I hit the starter and fired it up. It took a bit, but soon, the engine smoothed out to the nice purr that these inline sixes are famous for.

The tachometer and water temp gauge still don’t work but at least it runs and drives well. I am sure that there is simply a ground wire loose that will fix both the gauges. I just have to find it. Marcus Ohms suggested I look behind the cluster so I will have to pull the dash to check it out.

Update: I pulled the dash to look for a loose ground connector. I also printed of the wiring diagrams and started looking for things the non working items had in common.

First I tested the ground connections and found they all had continuity. I also checked the power feeds to the dash and they all had voltage at the proper times.

I noted that the Tach and temp gauge that did not work shared power with the fuel gauge that did work. So I ruled that out.

I began working on each individual gauge. I started with the purple wires of the temp sensor. The temp sensor has a test feature that grounds the sensor while the key is turned to “START.” This feature was working fine. I then checked from the connector in the engine compartment to the cluster connector and found there was not continuity.

I tried tracing the wire but it quickly disappeared into a harness on both ends. I considered running a new wire but I left that for a later possibility.

Next, I tested the tach circuit. I found that the green and white wire again did not have continuity from the coil to the dash. It did have continuity however from the coil to the test plug under the hood. Just not to the dash connector.

Finally, I moved on to the NSS connection. Since all three of these stopped working at the same time I was still looking for a common element. The black and white wire from the starter relay was easy to trace as it was partly out of its harness. I soon tracked it to a dead end plug. I quickly noticed that this pug also contained a green wire and a purple wire. I got very excited.

I looked around the engine compartment and found the other end of the connector. I plugged them together and I could not wait to give it a try. Trouble was, the dash was still all apart.

So, I at least wanted to see if it made any difference so I hit the key and the starter engaged! The NSS was working! I got even more excited.

This being a dash with a mechanical speedometer, it takes a bit more work to put it back in than the later electronic speedometer. I finally found that if I connected the short cable extension to the cluster I could feed it through and screw it to the speed sensor under the dash and connect it together there.

Once I got it all in place, I was very excited to see the Tach jump up when I started the engine. I had to wait a few minutes for it to warm up before I confirmed the temperature gauge was working as well.

I drove the Jeep to my office this morning and I love the way this Jeep drives. I may have to keep it.

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XJ starter replacement

How to change the starter on a Jeep Cherokee

Remove the negative battery cable

Remove 8MM nut that holds the starter trigger wire to the solenoid.

Remove the lower mounting bolt. Note this is an SAE bolt with 9/16 head. It goes in from the front of the starter.

Remove the upper bolt. This one is metric with a 15 MM head that goes in from the transmission side.

Remove the starter and lower it enough to remove the battery cable from the terminal. This is a 13MM.

To install the new starter, first install the battery cable in place and move the trigger wire out of the way.

Position the starter so that it indexes into the hole in the backing plate. Start the upper bolt but do not tighten. This is the shorter metric one.

Start the lower bolt (longer SAE one) and make sure the starter is aligned properly with the hole in the backing plate. Tighten the bolts.

Attach the trigger wire and tighten the bolt.

Reattach the battery cable.

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Lost and Stuck in woods

Lost and struck

Ruts from where Jenny's Jeep was stuck
Ruts from where Jenny's Jeep was stuck

Late one afternoon last week I decided to make a test run on Scuffy to see how the new tie rod worked. It was really dark when I headed into the woods behind the barn. I had not run this trail in a while and I don’t think I have ever run it at night.

This trail consists to two intersecting loops. I had started at the far loop and was looking for the intersection of the trails to head back up to the barn. Right before the intersection there is a gully that has to be crossed. Somehow; in the dark, I crossed the wrong gully just before the intersection. I thought it seemed a bit steeper but I was not sure until I ran out of trail just a few feet up the bank. I managed to get turned around, but in the dark, I was not sure where I was.

I decided to walk up the hill to get my bearings. As I walked up the hill in the dark, I saw a light and started walking toward it. As I got closer I realized from color of the light, this was the light from my neighbors house and not from my barn. Suddenly I heard my dog Smash barking as he had been waiting for me by the barn. I turned and walked toward the barking. Soon I made it to the driveway not at all where I expected to be. I thought I was behind the barn when I got lost but I came out in front of the barn.

I went in and got a flashlight. Then Smash and I went back to look for the Jeep. I had thought about leaving it in the woods for the night but since the trail I was one runs along the property line, I considered the possibility that I might have been on my neighbors property instead of mine. As I walked down the hill, Smash took off in a different direction. I shined my flashlight over where he was and saw the reflection of my Jeep glint through the trees.

Smash knew where the Jeep was before I did. Thanks to Smash I took a much shorter route back to the Jeep than I did coming to the house.

Once I looked around and had a good laugh about what I had done, I was able to easily get back to the trail and drive back up the hill to the barn. The new tie rod worked well too.

On Friday when Jennifer came to visit, Janice told me to show her where I got lost because she was still laughing at me for getting lost in my own woods. I made a quick run around the trail in Scuffy and let Jenny laugh at me for getting lost.

As Jenny was getting ready to leave, her son Caleb wanted to see the spot also. I had already put Scuffy away so I took him in Jenny’s Jeep Princess. Just like Scuffy her Jeep has a three-inch Rough country lift, a Lock Right Locker and Maxxis Bckshot tires. The big difference being that hers has 31” and Scuffy’s are 33”. That two inch difference turned out to be more critical than I imagined.

I stopped on the trail to show Caleb where I got lost. Then I proceeded to cross the gully just before the trail intersection. The gully has gotten a bit deeper due to the recent rains and was still a bit mushy on the bottom. Unlike Scuffy, Princess also still has her stock front bumper and air dam. I entered the gully gently so as not to stuff her bumper into the far side of the gully. My fatal mistake was not powering on from that point. I was a bit concerned about hitting her back bumper as the rear wheels dropped into the gully.

It turned out my concern was valid. As I dropped into the gully, the rear bumper hung on the bank and held both the back tires up out of the mud just enough to keep them from getting traction. Working the front back and forth just got me more stuck. Eventually, I gave up and Caleb and I walked back to the house. We had no trouble following the trail in the daylight.

Jenny and I went back in Scuffy to pull Princess out. I expected a quick tug on the strap would have her free. It took quite a bit of maneuvering in the tight confines of the trails. After scraping a couple of trees and popping off a piece of trim, I finally got the strap hooked up. Jenny fired up Princess and Scuffy tugged. Scuffy went sideways and Princess stayed stuck.

I backed up and gave it a bump, but Princess stayed stuck. I bumped harder and slid sideways into a tree. Princess stayed stuck and maybe dug in a little deeper.

Now that it was dark, we decided to try the winch. It took even more maneuvering and running over some small trees to get Scuffy into a position to use the winch and be able to brace on a tree.

The winch slowly extracted Princess from the gully and she started up the hill on her own. However, just a few feet up she stared to spin again and slipped sideways. I rerigged the winch cable and pulled again. The angle was not quite right so the cable bound up in the side of the spool. I had to stop to respool the cable.

By this time Janice had called to see what was taking so long. She suggested that we just leave the Jeeps and let Jenny and the boys stay the night. We tried one last pull and got Princess up to the point where the two trails intersect. She should have been able to drive out at that point but for some reason not visible to us in the dark, she just went sideways into the tree instead of out onto the trail. Scuffy was blocked in by the trees and could not move until Princess was out of the way.

We gathered up their luggage and hiked back to the house. Also in the dark since one of her boys had stolen the batteries out of her flashlight.

Where the two Jeeps slept after getting stuck
Where the two Jeeps slept after getting stuck

The next morning, Jenny was feeling ill, so while Janice took care of her, I went down to check on the Jeeps. I strapped Scuffy to a tree and cranked him up to respool the winch cable.
Princess the jeep stuck
Princess the jeep stuck

After surveying the situation I saw why Princess was stuck. Her rear tire was against a root and the root was pushing her against the tree instead of letting her go up the hill. It did not help that her Maxxis Buckshots were still at full pressure.

Jeep Stuck on a root
Jeep Stuck on a root

I simply backed up a couple of feet and gave it a bump over the root and drove up the hill. Hunter and I then walked back down and drove Scuffy out as well.

I built these trails as a training ground to develop my off roading skills in a relatively safe environment. They sure served their purpose this week as I got to practice winching, rigging and various driving techniques to recover Jenny’s Jeep.

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