No snow brush required
Several months ago, I heard a new noise in my truck that was obviously related to truck speed, and figured out that the muffler was ex-foliating layers of rusty sheet metal, which peeled off and rubbed on the drive shaft, making a whah whah whah whah sound that got faster as the shaft spun faster.
So my fix was to get the long-handled snow brush and whack the muffler until the piece touching the shaft either fell off or bent enough to not touch. It worked great, but since the muffler has chronic and degenerative rust, and many layers of sheet metal, I had to do this several times over several months.
At work, in a tie, where I got busted by a colleague,
At Brown's Berry Patch with Kelly and Richie, who were really amused. By amused, I mean mortified,
And again at work where a group of colleagues busted me, again in a tie, insanely whacking somthing under my truck with a snow brush and swearing under my breath.
Now that I have a garage, I have other ways of fixing things.
I worked on El Truckbo all day today. I really like having a garage.
I replaced the shock on the passenger side. All four need to be replaced, but it took me all day and I didn't have time for the others, so I'm going to ride the bike this week when I can, which will be every day.
Before:
After:
If you see more parts in the first photo than the second, let me know. That's one of the nice things about digital cameras, you can take "before" shots to see how everything went together, so that five hours and three hardware store trips later, you can put it back together.
So far, the garage has let me:
Replace 1 shock
Rotate front tires
Change truck oil and filter
Change bike oil and filter
Road salt sucks, this truck will probably be good for a few years here, but it didn't have many winters left in Upstate NY.
The remaining things I want to do to the truck are:
The other three shocks (the front driver one, of course ASAP this weekend)
Replace the muffler
Oh, yeah, antifreeze and transmission fluid changes.
Maybe the rear differential fluid too, the front was done not too long ago.
With all that done, the truck should be like new. If new trucks came pre-rusted underneath.
You can't work on a vehicle as an amateur without thinking of the amateur who taught you how to fix things, so I almost feel like I spent a day with my father. I remember all the tips and pointers he had, and I find myself breathing in the same intense, heavy way he always does when fixing things, especially when fixing things in the lotus position to reach awkward places.
When I got the truck back together and got myself and the garage cleaned up, it was time for dinner, which Kelly put together.
It was FANTASTIC! It's called Harvest Creamy Corn Something. I know what the something is but I refuse to say it because the word makes me want to slap Rachael Ray for bringing that word into the world to irritate me.
But dinner was awesome and filled our place with the best autumnal smells. The corn bread was good too. Yes, I ate next to my computer. Yes, I always do that.
Corn Something has Bacon, so you know it has to be good.
So my fix was to get the long-handled snow brush and whack the muffler until the piece touching the shaft either fell off or bent enough to not touch. It worked great, but since the muffler has chronic and degenerative rust, and many layers of sheet metal, I had to do this several times over several months.
At work, in a tie, where I got busted by a colleague,
At Brown's Berry Patch with Kelly and Richie, who were really amused. By amused, I mean mortified,
And again at work where a group of colleagues busted me, again in a tie, insanely whacking somthing under my truck with a snow brush and swearing under my breath.
Now that I have a garage, I have other ways of fixing things.
I worked on El Truckbo all day today. I really like having a garage.
I replaced the shock on the passenger side. All four need to be replaced, but it took me all day and I didn't have time for the others, so I'm going to ride the bike this week when I can, which will be every day.
Before:
After:
If you see more parts in the first photo than the second, let me know. That's one of the nice things about digital cameras, you can take "before" shots to see how everything went together, so that five hours and three hardware store trips later, you can put it back together.
So far, the garage has let me:
Replace 1 shock
Rotate front tires
Change truck oil and filter
Change bike oil and filter
Road salt sucks, this truck will probably be good for a few years here, but it didn't have many winters left in Upstate NY.
The remaining things I want to do to the truck are:
The other three shocks (the front driver one, of course ASAP this weekend)
Replace the muffler
Oh, yeah, antifreeze and transmission fluid changes.
Maybe the rear differential fluid too, the front was done not too long ago.
With all that done, the truck should be like new. If new trucks came pre-rusted underneath.
You can't work on a vehicle as an amateur without thinking of the amateur who taught you how to fix things, so I almost feel like I spent a day with my father. I remember all the tips and pointers he had, and I find myself breathing in the same intense, heavy way he always does when fixing things, especially when fixing things in the lotus position to reach awkward places.
When I got the truck back together and got myself and the garage cleaned up, it was time for dinner, which Kelly put together.
It was FANTASTIC! It's called Harvest Creamy Corn Something. I know what the something is but I refuse to say it because the word makes me want to slap Rachael Ray for bringing that word into the world to irritate me.
But dinner was awesome and filled our place with the best autumnal smells. The corn bread was good too. Yes, I ate next to my computer. Yes, I always do that.
Corn Something has Bacon, so you know it has to be good.
Who are you and what have you done with my son? My real son never paid any attention while I was breathing heavily in the lotus position under a vehicle! He did hover around and ask questions like, "When your done can I take it for a spin?"
I'm thinking one of those captured aliens, we all know are housed at your place of employment, has occupied your body and is fixing your truck to CA standards.
Paw
PS: Nice space, how about a shot of your tools and work bench?
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If he did, in fact, pay attention to the way his father did things, no one wants to see the tools and bench as they are spread from one end of the garage to the other and will require brother in law Steve to step in and organize.
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Chal,
Cute, really cute.
It occurs to me we could communicate back and forth for several hours before the laid back CA residents even know we've seen yesterday's entry.
Paw
Paw
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HA! You guys are funny. Sadly true, but funny.
You guys missed an awesome Harvest Supper this weekend - lots of ham with rasin sauce and the only beets I'll eat until next year...
Jimmy loved the beets. Wierdo.
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Rachal Ray should...well, die is really too strong a word. But something bad should happen to her for that utterly ridiculous non-word. I just threw up a little after reading that word. What a moron. She can take that and her EVOO and...well, do something else.
One thing that always made me feel out of place in western NY was the total lack of interest I had in fixing cars. Maybe its because I didn't really have a car. Or that my dad didn't fix cars (or anything else for that matter). But I kind of feel that if I had a car now, I would probably take it apart at times and see if I could put back together. Lord knows I've done that plenty of times with all my computers and a few of my cameras. Can't be all that much different with a car (except of course that I never drive my camera at 75 mph on the Thruway). Then again, there more than a few people I remember in high school who were both good at fixing cars and good at getting into car accidents. I'm glad I never became one of those accident people.
BTW: What kind of camera do you have, Chuck?
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You should know that Jimmie eats beets, zucchini, squash, kale, spinach, collards, green and red peppers, roasted onions, and much more...all organic from our weekly produce bag. He is quite the little veggie man. As I recall, Richie was too until you unhealthy eaters go a hold of him! (I seem to remember him coming home from a weekend at the Scarpullas chanting 'hamburger, fries, coke, yeah')
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The workspace is not much, and actually taking on a project is a little risky, since, if I can't get the thing back together, it's taking up Kelly's space and we can't close the door.
I use the screw jack an two jack stands for stability and redundancy, since dropping the truck on it's rotor is a rather unsavory idea.
Jeffrey, I do imagine that if you had a car, you would do about the same complexity of maintenance I would. Yestarday is as complex as I'll get.
My camera is a four-year-old Kodak EasyShare DX4530. It has duct tape holding the battery in. I want a new one, but I won't justify the cost until this one quits taking pictures or quits transferring to a USB port. For the type of pictures I take it's been great. I've put it through a lot.
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