Wheelies

Today (Thursday) I went to the bank and dropped the insurance settlement check in. Two business days and I'll be able to draw on it, unfortunately with the long weekend that means Wednesday morning.

At any rate, as I was pulling back on the highway I had to make a hard left turn. When I did so the transmission on That Damn Pontiac (henceforth and forever to be known as TDP) slipped. I had to pull over and add another quart to the transmission, so there is definitely a leak there that was being masked by the power steering leak that we fixed earlier in the week (that popped up as soon as we fixed the massive engine oil leak, that happened as soon as we got the head gasket fixed (and put a new timing chain set on to replace the one that started rattling after we replaced the head last year - more on this later), that happened right after we fixed the first power steering leak, that happened as soon as we put struts on the damn thing a couple of months ago, which is where this round of car fixing started).

I tried driving the Mighty Rampage to work last week and the carburetor shelled on me again. The carb has been a constant problem for almost two years now. It also needs a driver's side CV axle and a clutch, and the transmission slips out of second if the revs aren't right when you let the clutch out.

TDP has a familiar rattle in the timing cover again as well. The last time we replaced the head, a little over a year ago, the timing chain started rattling soon afterward. We let it go for a while because we didn't drive the car that much, but when Laura started going to Rocky Mount we decided to fix it. Of course the head gasket blowing on the car hastened its fixing. We put a whole timing chain set on it, but when we opened the cover we found that the tensioner bolts had loosened, and the rattling was the chain slapping against the case.

It sounds like the tensioner bolts have worked their way loose once more. This means we have to pull the timing cover off again and this time we will apply a ton of Locktite on the bolts. TDP has not run trouble-free for a couple of months now, every time we get one thing fixed something else has popped up right away to take it's place.

While reflecting on all of this, I came to a decision. I'm tired of fixing cars. So, while I was in the neighborhood of the bank I dropped by a used car dealer and did a test drive. When I got home I called one of Eldest Son's friends and told him to come get the Rampage. I'll fix the Pontiac and Middle Daughter can have it as a backup (her Mercury isn't in very good shape either).

Next Thursday I go pick up the car in the picture, and a week from Friday I order the Mustang.

Men Plan

And God laughs.

Tonight as I was wheeling into the parking space at work TDP died on me. It looks like the timing chain has skipped a tooth.

I was going to get the Subaru on Thursday, but it looks like I will be getting it tomorrow instead. This should be a surprise to the dealer as I have already called and confirmed that I was picking it up Thursday, but I'm sure they will take my money a day earlier.

Fortunately I have friends who have time and equipment, so tomorrow I will catch a ride to the dealer with a friend, and at some later point the same friend will show up with his truck and trailer to tow TDP home to be fixed.

The funny thing is that as I was pulling into the parking space I was thinking to myself "This will be the very last time I drive TDP to work." Mere milliseconds later it proved me right.

Looks like I picked a bad day to give up smoking.

Car Maintenance

TDP's problem turned out to be a brand-new chain tensioner that is binding up. This tensioner was put on as part of a timing set not too long ago, so we didn't even suspect that we had a problem with it. Of course it can't be warrantied out because it was part of a set.

Anyway, a new one has been ordered and should be in tomorrow so TDP will once again be operational. It's Middle Daughter's car now in all but the names on the title, she will take it home with her when it's running again and will register it in her name whenever. Until then I guess she will drive it on my dime. Some things haven't changed.

The Subaru will get it's timing belt right after repairs on TDP are complete, along with a tune up and a full round of fluids. It should then be good for another 105K miles on the timing belt. I got a couple of key fobs for it the other day so now I can lock and unlock it remotely, aren't I special. I haven't figured out if it really has an alarm system or not yet, if it does it's stuck in the valet mode.

I also got a call from the Subi dealer saying the hitch is in, so I'll go get it on my next day off. When it gets put on I'll go get a small 4x7 trailer to carry the things that the bed is too small for. I'll order the cover for the bed this week also, and when it comes in and is installed the Subi modifications (such as they are) will be complete.

It's kinda nice doing stuff to cars cause I want to instead of cause I have to.

The Baja Has Landed

Today I caught a ride to the dealer and purchased the Baja. (This guy would probably have something rude to say. Actually, he's already pretty much said it.)

It has been christened Banana Boat by Youngest Son due to it's yellow color.

Tomorrow I will arrange for TDP to get towed back to the house. I will also get plugs, wires, oil, and a full round of filters for the Baja and re-base it's maintenance cycle. The engine is incredibly clean and the car runs well, but there is a bit of a sputter in the lower RPM ranges. No telling how long the plugs and wires have been on it.

UPDATE: It cost me a C note to get TDP back to the house, this was after the tow insurance paid off what they cover.

I also need to find a dentist tomorrow because I broke a corner of a molar off today.

So, busy day today and a busy day tomorrow. Friday I go order the Mustang.

End Of An Era

TDP is gone.

Middle Daughter, who inherited the car after I got my new ones, finally got tired of trying to fix it. What finally laid it low was a check engine light that no one could properly diagnose; it has to be out to pass inspection and after throwing several parts at it the light was still on. This after a bottom end job and a transmission solenoid to fix up the lockup converter that wouldn't unlock, a common problem with the TH125 transmission.

The junk man came and got it Tuesday and the plates got turned in today. I dropped the insurance on it this afternoon. Whoever picks over its bones will get a good engine (the only thing that hasn't been touched is the rings, but the compression was good after the head work) and transmission, but the rest of it was crap.

I had a dream that included me sitting on a cooler drinking beer and laughing like a madman as they fed that car into a shredder and made blue confetti out of it. Unfortunately the place that got it doesn't have a shredder, so it remains only a dream. A good dream, but a dream nonetheless.

Laura loved that little car, and it was good for her for a long time. Rust in peace TDP.

Arrivals

The following things are now in my possession:

The head for TDP.

The transmission parts for TDP.

The lawn mower parts.

Monster Hunter: Vendetta.

If you don't see anything new posted for a while, you now know why.

Miscellany

I got a letter today from my friendly neighborhood tax assessor. The good news is the value on my property has gone up $24,000. Of course that means next year's tax bill will be higher as well.

Today was 75 degrees and the sun was shining down. I had the top dropped and was All. Up. Innit. (for all you new folks, mine is the red one in the center of the header pic)

Eldest Son is busy at work on TDP.  The number 4 bearing was definitely spun.  The good news here is I didn't have to foot the bill for the repair work, although it is spread out all over my driveway.

The more things change...

Nood!

Just as soon as I said I couldn't justify the cost up pops a deal that I could afford. By selectively not paying some bills that I'm ahead on anyway I came up with the purchase price of a new laptop. So, Refuge Mobile is once again on the airwaves...webwaves...whatever they are.

The new laptop is an HP 2000-2d22DX with twice the RAM and half again as much hard drive space standard as the enhanced Acer had. The RAM can be upgraded to 8GB if I would like to do so, but I'm used to 2GB so 4GB is like going from TDP to the Mustang, so no need to supercharge it just yet.

And, as an added bonus, the webcam works...but unfortunately it only points at me, it doesn't flip around to take pictures of what I'm looking at like the Acer did...when it worked...

RIP faithful old Acer, hopefully the laptop doc can do something with your old pieces (he should be able to, two 1GB sticks of brand-new RAM and a new 500GB hard drive...)

Life At the Refuge

Work has begun on TDP. The head got taken off yesterday and sure enough, three of the four intake valves and at least one exhaust valve has tapped the pistons. Estimates for the head work run in the $400 range. I'll be glad to get it out of my driveway.

BIL has dumped a piece of junk on me as well, he brought his Toyota down for Eldest Son to repair. We are now waiting on parts, but I promise that I won't wait very long.

There will be a new shed arriving soon, I ordered a 12x20 footer that should serve nicely for motorcycle storage and repair. This one has high enough walls for lofts, which will supply some much-needed storage space for the seasonal supplies. The smaller shed will then become the home of the lawn mowers.

The riding lawn mower has worn out another of it's spindles, the same spindle that has already been replaced in fact. The lawn mower parts guy says it's common, he thinks it's because it is on the discharge end and should have been made heavier. I think it's all in the pulley, they are stamped metal and should have a milled hub (my opinion). A new spindle and three new blades are on the way and soon it should be mowing as it should.

The state of Iowa has decided I can keep my license. While I was back on vacation I got a little exuberant passing a truck and netted myself a nice little ticket. Since the speed was in excess of 25 MPH over the limit it was considered a severe violation. A little begging and pleading and I'm on probation until this time next year. Cruise control is your friend!

Last but not least, my checking account has been charged for Monster Hunter: Vendetta so it will soon be on it's way! I'm rather proud of myself, I've had a copy of the E-arc and have not even looked at it (although I did not delete it either, so the temptation was always there).

UPDATE: Shipped, ETA 4 October 2010. Soon, very soon...

Even On My Days Off, I'm Busy

Eldest Son has had TDP apart twice in the past two days, the timing chain looks right but the engine will not start. It acts like it wants to, and if you try a full-throttle start it will catch for a few turns and then die with a BANG and puff of black smoke from the tailpipe. It acts just like the valve timing is off a couple of teeth. Tomorrow he's going to pull all of the gears off and make sure they haven't broken any locating pins.

I installed the hitch on the 'boat today and got the trailer for it. Installing a Subaru hitch on the Subaru Baja is a snap, as it should be, and the trucklet hauls the trailer well. Anything that won't fit in the bed with the bed extender will certainly fit on the 4x7 trailer, and if it doesn't I guess I didn't need it anyway.

The other day I was backing the Subi out of the driveway, being very careful of that bright red Mustang, and I rubbed the left front corner of the Subi against the right front corner of Middle Daughter's Mercury. The only thing that happened was a little paint transfer, but when I went to get some touch-up paint the parts store didn't have any Subaru colors. Fortunately Chrysler's Radiant Silver Metallic is a dead match for the Subaru silver.

The headrests came in for the Mustang, and they don't fit. The headrest posts for the 10/11's are thicker and set closer together. No one seemed to know this before, but now I do. It only cost me a pair of Franklins to find out (grrrr). Hopefully I can find someone with an 05-09 that wants a set of tilting headrests in black, if not there is always Ebay!

I bought a new tent and put it up to Scotch Guard it. I did the rain cover separately, and wouldn't you know it the rains came down while the rain cover was off of it and went right into the open mesh top of the tent. So I had a bunch of water to get out of it. Out comes the shop vac!

The shop vac lasted just long enough to get the water out, and then the motor locked up. It's been going for a while, I'm just surprised it lasted as long as it did. I went down to the hardware store and got the next size bigger to replace it.

On the menu tonight, spaghetti with meatballs. On the agenda, a couple of beers and then a nap.

And that's what I've been up to today.

ER Blues

Tuesday the wife had another biopsy, the results of this one will be used to more closely tailor a treatment routine. It's finally happening, it just needs to happen quicker. She hasn't had a treatment in over 2 months.

(To start the day off right, I pulled the latch to check the oil in the car and the cable broke. One more thing to fix on TDP (That Damn Pontiac).)

Wednesday we went to the ER, same issues with the nausea and vomiting. The day shift staff there was not much help, the doctor locked on like a laser beam to the fact that she was short of breath (pain will do that to you) and decided he needed to determine that the biopsy had caused blood clots in the lungs which was causing the shortness of breath.

I tried to tell him that the problem was nausea, meaning she couldn't keep her pain meds down, which means she was in pain and couldn't catch her breath. Obviously since he was so much smarter than me he ignored everything I said. We left against medical advice, not that it was doing any good anyway.

(Note to people holding PhD's in medicine: you might be the greatest physician since Hippocrates, but if you have no bedside manner you aren't a doctor. God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason. Also, people not in pain are much more reasonable than people in pain.)

Tonight she's back in the ER, but the night shift understands what the basic problem is (having seen her several times for the same thing). She's resting comfortably now with an IV to replace fluids and meds for the nausea and pain. Next week we go back to Rocky Mount, and hopefully a plan of treatment.

I just wish they could do something for the frequent bouts of nausea.

They Just Don't Make Them

The old dryer churns away in the laundry room, it usually needs two cycles these days to complete a drying job. It would most likely regain its full efficiency if I were to pull the ductwork apart and clean everything out of it.

The washer and dryer were bought soon after we purchased the Refuge, seven years gone now, the most time I have spent in one place in more than 25 years. They are cheap versions of a brand name that is made in great quantities in a factory overseas, bought more for their price in a time when we thought they should be adequate for the three of us for a few years.

From two adults and one child, three or four loads a week, they have gone to as high as six adults and four children and twenty or more loads a week. I replaced the mixing valve on the washer a couple of times, but since the water filter went in I haven't even had to do that. Not bad for a cheap set of appliances we only expected to have last for 3 or 4 years.

My dearly departed Rampage served me well for ten years and over 200,000 miles, that from a disposable vehicle that was barely expected to make ten years and 100K in it's lifetime. It was a cheaply made Dodge Omni variant built during a time where Detroit's cars were generally regarded as junk straight off of the assembly line. Between the Omni and the much-maligned K-car they brought Dodge back from the brink of insolvency in the late 70's and early 80's. Not bad for throwaway cars.

It was almost 20 years old when I bought it and it had over 100K on the clock then. By the time it went on to its final resting place in the boneyard it was almost 30 years old and had over 300K on it. I let it go because, heartsick over loosing a wife and having had more than enough with fixing TDP, I didn't feel like tracking down the persistent vacuum leak that was causing its carberator problems. I wish I had kept it now, it would have made a great Lemons car if nothing else.

I hear it all the time, how "they just don't make things like they used to" when we talk about cars, or railroad locomotives, or washing machines, or the myriad of other labor-saving devices that we use on a day to day basis. I've always thought that such talk was rubbish, that the machines we so casually dispose of these days are junked not because they have reached the end of their service lives, but because there is something newer and shinier, or more up-to-date, or trendy to replace it. We don't have throwaway machines as much as we have a throwaway society.

I guess that makes me an odd duck, driving a shiny new Mustang automobile but preferring wooden stocks on my WW1 and WW2 firearms. My old Chevy pickup waits patiently in the back yard for its restoration work to get started, and my old Harley sits in the shed waiting less patiently for the same. Maybe one day when I'm not the answer to so many peoples problems I'll have the time, cash and room to get them done. They each gave good service, and if restored would continue to do so.

They wait until then. They never failed me, I hope that I will not fail them.

At The End Of The Week

TDP still will not start, all of it's timing components are verified good and in the right place. It's not building compression, so it looks like the engine was interference fit after all and will need to have it's head taken off and rebuilt. So, off with it's head!

The banana did fine towing the trailer to Middle Daughter's house and her lawn is now cut. Mine is as well. Youngest son had a ball driving the lawn mower, so that worked out well, too. The riding lawn mower's deck just barely fits on the 4ft wide trailer, there is absolutely no room side-to-side to play with.

The new tent has been dried and stowed away, we were going to test it this weekend but decided not to. We did get some fishing in yesterday after the lawn work but only managed to terrify a few worms. No fish were harmed - or even mildly annoyed - in the process.

Today it's back to work.

One!

The new owners took the Rampage home today.

I picked up the gaskets for the third foray into TDP's timing chain cover.

I ordered a timing belt for the Subaru, the book recommends changing it at 105K miles and it has 103K now.

I'm getting ready to go to work in the Baja.

The pony ride begins sometime in the next 24 hours.

No Good Deed

TDP is back.

Daughter just pulled up in the driveway with it, knocking and banging like she had a bunch of midgets in the bottom end of the engine with hammers.

Depending on how we do it, it will run between $300 and $2000 to take the hammers away from them.

Guess who gets to foot the bill?

I really hate that car.

Of course Daughter's solution to that is to let her drive the only other automatic transmission car I own.

That ain't gonna happen.

Etc

The toll is now three strap wrenches. I got a chain type that the plumbers use for the next try, I'll bet that one won't break. As soon as this timing belt gets done the PM on the Subaru will be complete until the next scheduled oil change in 3000 miles.

The second key for the Mustang showed up today, so now I have both of them. I had to drive it to work again, oh darn. The Firefly keychain got hung up in my pocket the other day and it's gravity rotor housing (the part that goes up and around the middle and extends along the tail section) got pulled off. I glued it back on, but now I'm carrying the second key on another keychain.

TDP will wait until we get back from vacation next month.

Tired

Today I took the Scoobytruck down to the tire store. It has been pulling to the left and has had a vibration in the wheel since Daughter and S-I-L took it to Florida, and I suspected it had a bad tire.

It did, on the right front, which is where I thought it was. My tire-fu remains strong.

I had an open carry lunch to do first, and afterwards we went back to the tire store where we got four new tires and an alignment for about half of what it cost for the Mustang.

I was happy to see that Merchants Tire has an alignment rack.

I was happier to see what Merchants Tire does not have.

I think they will be getting my tire business from here on out.

On another note, TDP rides again, and this time I didn't have to spend a single thin dime on it.

A Few Simple Repairs

It's car fixing day at the Refuge.

TDP has had a persistent oil leak that we are striving diligently to repair, and the mighty Rampage has a drive axle on the left side that needs to be replaced. Middle Daughter's Topaz got a new brake pressure equalizer yesterday to fix a massive brake fluid leak, so it's good now.

All of this repair work is being done because the Mustang has to go back to the rental place tomorrow. I'm really going to miss that car, but I will own one very soon.

I go back to work Friday. I probably won't know what to do with myself, having been awake days and asleep nights for a couple of weeks now. Anyway, starting tomorrow after the red rocket-ship goes back I will begin to re-adjust my habits to a more nocturnal schedule.

Until then I think I'll drive around with the top down for a while.