Interesting day

We had gotten a new shower last November. Last Monday I called the company who installed it to complain the caulking was coming off. They said they would be able to send someone the following Monday. Now that Monday is here and M asks if I can take the kids in to school so she can get to work a little earlier. I said sure, but didn't know when the shower repair guy would show up. I called the company and they said sometime between 8 and 9. That's precisely the time window we take the kids to school, so I can't take them after all and M takes them instead.

I figure I would work from home while the shower repairs are being done, only to find my laptop won't connect to my work network, so I can't actually get any work done. So instead I began working on some home networking cables since they aren't all finished yet. The repair man shows up just after 9 and I show him the problem. He gets to work and I go back to my laptop and reboot it since it is trying to install some software updates. After it reboots, it now connects to the work network. I work for 45 minutes, the repair man finishes up, and then it is time for a meeting. I call in and then go out to work on the car replacing a bad sensor since I need to get the car registered by the end of the month. I get the sensor replaced before the meeting finishes and attempt to clear the check engine light. Every time I clear it, it just comes back on with the same error.

The meeting finishes and I can now devote full time to the car because our only other backup vehicle has a bad starter and we need a second car. I pinpoint the problem to a bad electrical connection in the plug connecting to the new sensor. I decide to put it off for now and head inside for lunch figuring I would try to track down a spare connector so I can fix it that evening. I found a friend that had one that I could pick up after work.

Since I've been driving around with the check engine light for a couple of weeks already, I don't think too much about it and decide to drive the car in to work. The car won't start. Try, try again and still nothing. Eventually it starts up only to stall. Again it starts and stalls. I start it again and give it some gas. It is very hesitant to run and eventually settles into a very rough idle with the smell of gasoline hanging in the air. I don't dare try to drive this car because it will likely leave me stranded at work. The car has had the rare occasion when it wouldn't want to start, but every time once it did start, it would run just fine. I figured it probably needs a new distributor and spark plug wires since they are the original parts.

I track down a new distributor at a parts store and jump into the truck to go pick it up. As I'm driving down the freeway, I notice something moving out of my peripheral vision near my feet. I figure it was just an old paper towel or a leaf or some other piece of dirt as is typical in that old truck. I see it again and look down only to see a mouse scurrying around! Within the span of less than one second, I instinctively jerk both feet up in the air and then think to open the door and kick the mouse out onto the freeway. Rational thought reenters my mind and I realize if I try to do that, I'll end up crashing, probably killing myself and the mouse would live on unscathed. I decide to leave it be for now.

I arrive at the parts store without further incident and begin looking for the mouse. I can't find it, so I suspect it is tucked behind the gas tank. So I buy the parts and then make a second look for the mouse in the store parking lot, hoping I can just leave the mouse there. No such luck. So I decide to buy some mouse traps and set them in the truck when I get home.

Heading back out to the truck after buying the traps I make a third check for the mouse. Still no luck. So I hop in and the truck won't start. Should have bought a starter for the truck while I was at the store. I grab a part of my ladder rack and begin banging on the starter to get it unstuck. Fortunately I can reach the starter through the fender well and don't actually need to get dirty. Thirty minutes later it still won't start. I climb under to get a better look and find half of the transmission bell housing is missing. Well at least I can see into the starter. I grab a screwdriver and poke at the starter gear to find it moves freely in and out. Maybe there is a dead spot somewhere it the starter so I try turning the gear a few times to see if that will help free it. Sure enough, that did the trick. So not only do I need a new starter, but also a new bell housing.

I get home and set a mouse trap inside the truck. It's 4pm. I do actually have to get some work done today, so I spend the next hour working. Then I cook dinner and play with T before bed. Time to go get that sensor connector and a timing light. I get back close to 9pm and get the new connector soldered on by 10. I clear the check engine light and it doesn't come back on immediately. Whew! I decide to try starting the car just to get a baseline of where the current timing is set. Car starts up just fine and idles and revs perfectly. I check the timing and it is spot on at 16 degrees.

Now it's time to replace the distributor. I take the new one out of the box and compare it to the original. Looks similar but the mounting bracket is upside down. And the connector is wrong! This distributor is the wrong one. At least the car seemed to run fine. I decide to replace the spark plug wires and take the car out for a test drive. Car is working perfectly, but I'm still going to replace the distributor just in case. Now I get online to notify the parts store of the error in their database and it's finally time for bed just before midnight.