Hola, folks! Sorry for the delay in yesterday’s post. WordPress has been giving me fits the last couple of days, and I didn’t realize it hadn’t made my post from yesterday visible until earlier tonight when one of you asked if I was okay, not having seen my post.
So… I got that straightened out and posted properly, and here we are again now at the end of another day. Today has been much like yesterday. I haven’t been over the edge, but the mental/emotional toll seems to be hanging around a little bit (I’m not depressed, but I’m not… right.)
Three cars today. First one was a 2010 Ford Focus that was a no crank no start. The issue turned out to be exactly what I thought it was going to be, but I had one hiccup that ended up adding like an hour to the job. The part I had purchased didn’t come with the bolt you need to put it together–apparently sold separately.
Really?!?!
And no dealerships nearby had the bolt, so I had to jimmy rig a way of getting the stuff put together safely, so they could at least drive their car until the bolt could be ordered in. The bolt needed is a special break-away bolt, meaning that it’s placed in a tight space, so you can’t get a socket or any other tool around it, and when you assemble it, once it reaches a certain torque, the bolt is designed to snap in two, leaving a rounded head that can’t be removed with regular tools. It’s designed to have to be drilled out (the purpose of this lovely little design is to keep people from being able to steal the car easily).
I guess I should have said that the bolt is what holds the ignition lock cylinder housing to the steering column.
Anyway, so I had to manufacture a bolt that would fit in the tight spot and that could be tightened at least enough to remain in place but not so much that it couldn’t be removed easily once the new bolt was procured.
So… what should have taken an hour and a half or so took three hours.
Second job was a no start that turned out to be just a dead dead battery, even though it was pretty much new, because of a really badly corroded battery cable. But it took a really freaking long time to do the job because at first I didn’t realize the cable issue. Even with a jump box, I was getting a single click from the starter, and then the whole car would lose power, even though the jump box was still connected.
Anyway, I traced it down to a really corroded positive cable that you couldn’t see how corroded it was because it was wrapped in tap, etc.
Anyway, so it took a little while for that, but I got to talking with the young man (U of A college student) about all sorts of things (he was asking me about a billion different things, wanting to hear in depth about my modern-English spelling system, wanting to know my approach for teaching Spanish… so many things.
Being distracted (not that I would have remembered anyway?), after I’d finished replacing his bad battery cable end, which took a little while on its own, I remembered his battery was still dead dead. That meant that I had to wait another 45 minutes to charge it up for him, as it’s not good for an alternator to charge a dead battery. I risk my alternator, but that’s my prerogative. I don’t want to risk a customer’s alternator.
Anyway, so I waited and waited, and it charged up, and we had a fabulous conversation the whole time, so it was enjoyable, it just took forever. But then… when I went to reconnect the battery, the other cable started giving me fits. It wouldn’t tighten solidly on the battery.
You know, it’s really annoying to me that in 150 years of making cars, we haven’t come up with a good battery cable connection that can be connected and disconnected many times without it ruining the connection. It’s just… dumb.
So I fought and fought and fought with that cable end, and that added like another 45 minutes to the darn job. It was pretty nutty.
I lost one job because of how long everything was taking, only having done two cars by like 5 o’clock. I wanted to head home, but I had a longtime customer who’s been waiting for me for a while now, so I swung by his house, diagnosed the misfire issue as a bad coil, replaced the coil (which fixed the misfire issue), only to find that it also needed a MAF. By this time it was something like 8 p.m., so I called it quits and sent him info for how to finish the job after he bought a MAF sensor. I provided the part number and even a list of tools he’d need (very easy job, just a flat-head screwdriver, an 8mm socket, and a T20 torx screwdriver. The end.
I could have gone back to the store and then back out to the job, but I was tired, and I wanted to get home. I don’t want to get back into the habit of working late again. I’m 40. Life is short. Don’t want to waste any more of it.
So… that’s that. It’s about to tick over to 11 p.m., which is better than 1:30 a.m. I’m a little worried for Ukraine right now. They were doing well, but now Russia is amping up the the firepower, and they have massive numbers of weapons. They can pulverize Ukraine. Like I said before, I don’t want the war, but you can’t give Putin an inch. The strongmen around the world are watching, and they’re likely emboldened in some ways.
(sigh)
May Ukraine knock Russia for a loop. May Anonymous continue pounding away successfully. May more Russian soldiers give up without fighting. May the world give Ukraine the firepower and manpower needed to expel Russia.
Go Ukraine!
Love to you all.
Lift the World
~ stephen
Lift the World 