"Do-it Yourself'er" Explanatory Notes

Okay, have you ever had one of those weeks... The dishwasher crumped... again. The car quit in a corn field in the middle of nowhere beyond the distance the insurance company says they will tow. The vacuum cleaner explodes!, etc., etc. So, I've knocked off the first two. Here are some interesting notes:

1. The picture of the key shows the anti-theft "chip", which turns out to be a 680 ohm resister that you can buy at Radio Shack for 5 cents. The problem was that the car, without warning, simply wouldn't start! It wouldn't turn over, nothing! It was a mystery, or should I say, it was misery! Anyhow, there are only a few mentions anywhere of the anti-theft module and none of the local second source parts places (autozone, etc.) had any diagrams or information. I did, however, get some clues from the web. Long story short, I finally isolated the wire from the anti-theft module to the ignition key, cut it and spliced in a 680 ohm resister I had in my stash in the garage. The only people who would work on a car with an anti-theft system problem were the delerships and the average quote for the repair was $1000.
2. The picture of the dishwasher shows the parts I replaced to get it going again. The interesting thing to note here is the following. Orriginally, the machine went down when a trace burned right off the back of the computer circuit board. The best price I could get on a replacement was $90 if I install it. So, I did what any "do-it yourself'er" would do, I fashioned new trace out of wire and soldered it in place of the burned trace. That worked for a while. Then the main fuse (thermal cut-off type) blew. I replaced it a couple of times, trying to catch the exact time in the wash cycle it would blow. However, each fuse would last anywhere from several days to several weeks. I did finally isolate the problem to the heating element. I bought a new one for $59 (a lot of $$ for a ring of iron...), but as it turns out there was more. Apparently, they had upgraded (fixed is probably a more accurate term) the heating system so that along with the element came a new computer! So, for $59, I was okay with that. While I was in there, I also replaced the soap dispenser, which had a broken latch. All of my kids are happy that the dishwasher is fixed!!!