Tag: S-10

Down and Out, For Now

Sunday as Rachel, Taylor and I were heading to my grandma’s for some delicious vegetable soup, my truck died.  I was able to get it re-started to get it turned around and on the way back to our home.  It stopped about 50 feet shy of our driveway, and in the middle of our road.  We tried to push, but it wouldn’t budge.

An argument ensued, and I decided we leave it there for the moment and enjoy some soup to warm our souls.  We would return to move the truck soon enough.

When we returned, we couldn’t get the truck out of Park.  It just wouldn’t budge.  I don’t believe it’s my ignition switch again, cause we can crank the truck and the steering wheel isn’t locked up.

All in all, there are 2 problems affecting my truck that if taken to a shop will cost around $1,000 to fix.  My fuel pump has bit the dust, and some safety device which prevents the transmission from coming out of Park.

With the help of my neighbor Bill, I removed the drive shaft and we pulled my truck with Rachel’s Kia.

I can save myself about $600 by installing the fuel pump myself.  There are many “ifs” in this situation though.  I’ve never replaced one before, the weather is not conducive to working in the cold, did I mention it’s cold?

Rachel wants to just get rid of the truck, but it’s imperitive that we have a second mode of transportation.  Should I get a job somewhere not on the IU campus, I will need a way to get there.

With the trucks’ current condition, we would have to give it away.  Something I’m not willing to do.

I hope the truck isn’t still broken down by the time we need it, such as 6+ inches of snow.

Tired

The past few months have been especially hard on my poor old truck.

It hasn’t been doing it’s usual job, which is to sit right there.  It’s been worked and worked and over worked.

I normally only have to change my oil about twice a year.  The last time I changed it was in early April and I’m less than 50 miles away from that crucial engine maintenance again.

Wednesday while I was on my way home, one of my transmission cooling lines broke – for the 2nd time!  The first time was when I had my paper route, and I was right in the middle of it.  I had it towed to a reputable place in town and they supposedly fixed it.  I never checked their work until now.  Instead of replacing the line, they just put a sleeve over the break.

I took it to the nearest place, so I would do as little damage to my $3000 transmission.  They said they would give me an estimate, which I didn’t think would run more than about $200.  Was I wrong.

They gave me an estimate of almost $500!  I was shocked, my immediate response was to just take it back home and do it myself.  When I found out that other shops concurred with that estimate and the reason why, I decided to let them do the work.

The front trans-axle actually has to be dropped to slide these lines in.  Without getting overly complicated, this is a job I do not have the equipment or tools to do.  Plus working with the front torsion bar suspension is one part of my truck that scares me to death.

Luckily, since I am back at IU for the time being my truck can do it’s main job now.  Be used as a secondary means of transportation, and to haul things too large for our subcompact Kia Rio.