(written on August 13th from notes taken previously)
After getting up and heading over to Haven Hill, I spent a good little while working on my mileage efforts, jacking up my van, so the rear wheels are off the ground, and starting to run the engine with the vehicle in gear to up the mileage to its correct position.
Unfortunately, after letting it run for only a little while, as I was doing research to make sure everything that I was doing was okay, I realized that, supposedly, at least according to AI, it’s not.
I think I have legal wiggle room, because I think what’s illegal is changing the odometer in order to misrepresent mileage to your gain. This… isn’t that. Quite the opposite.
The problem, is AI seems to think that what I’m doing would cause damage to either the rear end or transmission or both. Not sure if that’s actually the case, but I decided to knock off what I was doing to be safe.
I also spent a good little while in my EVAP efforts, but I’ve been stymied at every turn. I’m either going to need to fabricate a bracket or find one somewhere that I can access.
🤞
After spending a fair bit of time struggling with everything, discouraged, I finally just called it for the day and listed it for sale. What’s the worst that can happen? No one buys it? Well, if it’s not listed, it won’t sell anyway.
Ad made, I headed out.
First stop was the AutoZone in Pea Ridge to see if they had the AC valve cores that I needed. They had an assortment bag, and one of the valve cores matched one of the ones that had been taken out, but the other valve core didn’t. The person working there hoped that maybe it was different because they had changed the design to make it better, so I banked on that, fingers figuratively crossed. 🤞
After a quick stop at Walmart to grab a drink and some popsicles for the day, I headed on over to Miguel’s shop, helping him with cars, specifically a Honda Odyssey that was having issues with one of the engine fans not turning on. Sometimes it would work totally fine, and other times, just wouldn’t work at all.
We were able to narrow down the issue to a bad relay which was both good and surprising (surprising because in my years as a mechanic, an issue being caused by a bad relay has been super uncommon.).
I don’t remember what other cars I helped him with, but I did spend a little while helping him clean the shop, and then we worked on Rover’s AC.
Unfortunately, it looks like somehow, perhaps just age and metal fatigue, the previous valve core stripped the threads, such that I couldn’t screw the new one in without it starting to get stuck. 😕
It looked like I was going to be stymied yet again, and this time, I was going to have to replace the AC line. And yes, that same AC line that’s an absolute pain in the butt to get on. 😕
But since the next step was to get an AC line, I figured I might as well try forcing the new valve core down into the bottom of the fitting to see if by chance it might seal, because there wasn’t really anything to lose. 🙃
So I forced down the valve core, and it seemed to seal. 🤞
So we fired up Miguel’s AC machine, set it to pull vacuum, and after waiting 15 minutes or so, filled the system, crossing our fingers that it wouldn’t leak. 🤞
As the machine pumped in refrigerant, the AC began getting cold, which in and of itself was nice to see. When we pulled off the lines, there was a small leak at one of the valve cores, but it is what it is. Maybe it’ll seal itself. Sometimes they do. And if not, I only need it to last for the rest of the hot weather.
After getting the AC going, I spent a little more time helping Miguel clean the shop, and then we chatted for a good little while before I knocked off and headed back to my mom’s place for the night.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 