September 30, 2008
Moab, Utah

Pulled into Moab and straight into a Napa Store to talk about my van. Veronica’s been having a harder time starting these days and I suspect her starter may be on her way out. So I talk to the Napa guy and he sends me down to a garage to test the starter, and sure enough it’s drawing too much power which means the bushings are probably going and about to be gone. So time to replace it.

Back to the Napa Store, drop some $$$ for a new starter and off to a gravel parking lot to do the job.

It’s about noon and I figure I can get the job done by night fall, so I crawl underneath her body and start tinkering away. I’ve helped a guy do this before but have never done it myself, but hey how hard can it be… let me tell you… it can be shitty-ass hard!

First thing is figuring out what’s what, then I’m taking off the old starter and got it all free except for one wire, a big, I’m assuming important, wire. When I try to take off this big wire (Plan A) the nut strips on the post head… completely strips!

So I figure, Plan B: Hacksaw, then after 20min of arm-in-a-shit-load-of-pain-hacksawing to go to Plan C: Tin Snips, then back to Plan B, then Plan C again, then finally Plan D: Hammer the hell out of it! Nope, Plan E: Get Out the Drill and a Kind of Grinder Attachment Thingy That’s Probably Not Built for Metal Grinding. Hmm, kinda worked, the nut doesn’t look like a nut anymore, so there goes any remnant of Plan A. Finally Plan F: F for Fuck all the Other Plans for Now and Stop, Relax, and remember that Everything is Moving and it’ll all work out sooner or later, so might as well enjoy the process.

In the end I go back to an A-F Combo Plan and get that big important wire free. It just took some time and determination, which the same can be said for the new starter installation.

I won’t bore you with the details, but let’s just say, two hours later, after a series of new plans and a few calls to my mechanically enlightened brother, and a meeting with a crow bar, I got the new starter installed. And Veronica is happier for it! She starts like a newborn babe and purrs like a kitten. And I am a better man for it, grease n’ all.

peace,
d

So as you'll read in the next post, I have a new digital camera, but not in time for this post.. so I improvised. This is basically how I looked all day yesterday.