A Hot Day Off.

[TheTerrorist_75]

Summer has just begun and we have already had several muggy days in the 90s since the onset of Spring. I got stranded 70 miles away from home when a wire burned on the manifold causing a short which melted the fusible link to the computer. What a great day. I had to walk from where my truck cut out to the hospital where my transplant was performed. I sat on a wood bench for three hours waiting to talk with my surgeons. I found out they were busy and I finally saw a resident who said all my tests look good and as long as Iwasn't having problems I could go home. As I left the hospital I saw why my surgeons were busy. Senator Schumer was holding a press conference in the lobby.

I walked back to my truck in the miserable heat and tried to work on it. The truck was parked in the right lane of a six lane main avenue. A guy stopped and said he could push my truck to the repair shop down the road. The shop was extremely busy and said they were unlikely able to fix it that day. I told them I would pay cash if they could get me up and running before night fall. After seven hours sitting on another wood bench outside and pacing the parking lot my truck was done.

A quick jaunt to see my doctors turned into a fifteen hour ordeal. I should have cancelled the appointment to a cooler day.

[Honda_Boy]

wow that sucks. Was this your Ford or GMC? (you have a Ford too right? I remember you mentioning something about one)

My Honda was kinda acting up yesterday but it wasn't keeping it from moving. Just small throttle issue. I'm bout to go drive it again to see if it will do it again.

[mikex]

Days like that make me want to lose all self control. I am glad you were able to get the repair done the same day. I am looking at replacing the AC on my wifes 03 Expedition. The replacing will not be a problem as it is easy to get to. The problem is cost of parts and replacing the r-134a.

M

[TheTerrorist_75]

It was my GMC. The previous owner replaced the transmission and didn't bother to put the transmission bolt through a bracket that helped keep the wiring harness away from the manifold. I'm just glad it didn't wipe out the ECM.

I spent three hours this morning routing the harnesses correctly and bolting up the brackets. Now I need to figure out why the speedometer quit working. I'll have to wait for the shade to move around to the truck. It was a bit hairy driving back last night through some nasty cop counties without a speedometer. I made the 70 mile trip in one hour. Many of the areas had 30-40 m.p.h. limits.

I was actually pleased that I used less than 8 gallons of gas for the 140 mile round trip.

[Honda_Boy]

Well, a typical Honda-Tech Response. It's either your VSS our your Gauge Cluster.

VSS is the speed sensor by the way. That's a question asked quite often on H-T and so one of these 2 things are just about always the problem. On my old car it was the cluster so I replaced it. Problem solved.

[TheTerrorist_75]

The Vehicle Speed Sensor and gauge cluster are fine. The harness burned where the wiring from the VSS joins the main harness. I need to jack the truck up and open the harness enclosure from the tranny to the main harness and check those wires.

[irregularjoe]

Holy s#%t! That's awful. I'm glad that you finally made it through.

Probably the only thing that could have been worse would be having it happen here today. It was 114 degrees.

[martymas]

i feel sorry for you guys in that heat

where i live it is the exact opposite

it has been 5 below

ok that isnt cold by some standards

but it has been like that for 3 weeks

and is now turningng into a black frost

ive had my oil heater going for over a month

with out a break

the hotest it can get here is about 35 to 40

so that is cool compared to some places

hope all is ok now TT

you take care of your self

you arnt getting any younger

marty

[TheTerrorist_75]

Another day of 90+ degrees. The humidity is at 85% and climbing. This is unusual for Upstate NY. I need to borrow a shade tree to work under. My dog has soiled the area around my Apple tree so I can't lay on the ground there.

[bozodog]

Hey, Marty. Is that 5C? Or 5F??

it has been 5 below

ok that isnt cold by some standards

but it has been like that for 3 weeks

and is now turningng into a black frost

ive had my oil heater going for over a month

with out a break

the hotest it can get here is about 35 to 40

so that is cool compared to some places

[JDoors]

... A quick jaunt to see my doctors turned into a fifteen hour ordeal. I should have cancelled the appointment to a cooler day.

Take care tough guy, you're not Superman. Take your time and stay cool (in both senses of the word).

------

At least the last time I got stranded the weather was cooperative. Just a short trip to pick up milk (at a store one mile away) turned into six hours of one unfortunate turn-of-events after another.

It's been nearly as hot here so I'm holed up inside with the air on. I try, oh how I try, to go without the air 'cause electric rates were "deregulated" (meaning: skyrocketing bills), but by noon it's just impossible. I awoke last night and opened a window, figuring it'd cooled off by then and I could get some fresh air -- the condenser is below the window and kicked on. Two a.m. and it's still hot.

But hey, we're six whole days into Summer, what'd you expect?

[martymas]

bozodog

we measure it in celsius

not degrees

marty

[Pete_C]

Definitely does not sound fun. I can't say which is worse, having to work in the heat, having to wait in the heat, or having to wait for no good reason when they should have let you know that there would be a delay.

I long since took to carrying what I need for basic repairs all the time, duct tape, tools, spare wiring....

Thursday after taking the OL to the dentist we decided to go to the mall , when I noticed my oil guage bounce down to zero pressure and back.

An inspection showed there was a hole in the oil filter . Must have been some debris in the roadway, that was what that thunk I heard a day or two before had been.

Fortunately I was only a half mile from home, so I poured in my spare quart and hurried home.

I walked the mile and a half or whatever to the auto parts store , got a new filter and walked home.

I had just removed the old one (after laying down papers to absorb the oil that had leaked out) and was trying to thread the new one when a downpour drenched me from the waist down (what stuck out from under the truck). So I had to come in , dirty and drenched and wait for it to pass so I could get a good view of the mounting and get it on .

I guess I should be glad the rain did not hit while I was walking to the store and back, but then I had an umbrella ready for that possibility , but when you are under a truck with the hood up and your feet sticking out there isn't much you can do when the storm hits .

I remember my old Isuzu used to go through fusible links at the oddest times ; I took to keeping a couple spares in my console.

[TheTerrorist_75]

I had all of my tools in the truck. I had the crimp connectors and crimpers. The only thing I didn't have was extra wire and my VOM. 4 wires burned through on the driver side manifold, that I didn't see, and the fusible link to the ECM completely melted from the firewall back into the harness on the passenger side. I was going to cut off the wire harness for my trailer lights and just run a straight wire in place of the fusible link. Without the VOM I wouldn't have noticed the dead short and may have damaged my ECM by jumpering with the straight wire. I was glad that the garage owner noticed I was getting anxious and had wire cutters in my hand. He took a time out from his busy schedule and walked over to the truck with a VOM and spotted the dead short then said the harness needed to be traced.

In the end it cost me a long wait with only a $120 repair bill. He actually soldered and heat shrinked new wires into the harness.

[Chappy]

AHhhh....Thats Nothing!!

This one time.....at band camp...(heheh-heh)

A few years back I was about 85 miles out of Lethbridge Alberta on my way home in my 95 GMC SLT, when EVERYTHING just up an died on me!

Nothing, no electronics, no spark, no nothing and I was in the dark and all alone. I was able to hitch a ride back to Lethbridge and had the truck towed in the next day. Turns out there was a flaw in the onboard computer that caused it to short out against the casing, and it was a factory workmanship flaw so they paid my towing bill and had a new computer shipped in and installed the next day.

I had to call into work and take a day off, but I was glad that it didn't cost me anything and that I wasn't further out, or have it happen at 3am when there's little traffic on that highway.

I don't know if all this electronic stuff is better or not really. It just adds more things to break down and is impossible for the average joe to fix without specialty tools and diagnostics. Give me a 74 Chevy with a 327 and I can rebuild it in a day, but these new vehicles....ferget it!

[TheTerrorist_75]

I don't know if all this electronic stuff is better or not really. It just adds more things to break down and is impossible for the average joe to fix without specialty tools and diagnostics. Give me a 74 Chevy with a 327 and I can rebuild it in a day, but these new vehicles....ferget it!

That's the truth. They quit making good vehicles after the '70s. I could fix any of the pre-computerized cars on the spot with just using my brain and ears as diagnostic tools.

[JDoors]

... I had just removed the old one (after laying down papers to absorb the oil that had leaked out) and was trying to thread the new one when a downpour drenched me ...

Flashback to my Opel. It was fuel injected before that was common and cost a bundle to maintain or repair. At what I knew was near the end of the car's life the injectors were drenching the plugs with gas (the crankcase would actually fill with gas from the excess flow).

I couldn't afford to get the injectors replaced, for the third time.

Every time I shut off the engine the soaked plugs would prevent the engine from starting, so I had to pull them (at least that was back in the day when you could actually SEE the plugs) and run them through a battery powered plug cleaner. Every time.

Of course this started occurring in the dead of Winter (I wish I was just getting "soaked"). So every time I started the car I had to pull the plugs and run them through the cleaner, often in blizzard conditions. Brrr!

I traded 'er in on a car with a carburetor (which would occasionally flood in cold weather, so there was little improvement, really).

[Pete_C]

I don't know if all this electronic stuff is better or not really. It just adds more things to break down and is impossible for the average joe to fix without specialty tools and diagnostics. Give me a 74 Chevy with a 327 and I can rebuild it in a day, but these new vehicles....ferget it!

That's the truth. They quit making good vehicles after the '70s. I could fix any of the pre-computerized cars on the spot with just using my brain and ears as diagnostic tools.

I second that. Nothing like the days when you could fix your vehicle with just a few basic hand tools which fit into a neat little cloth tool pouch. Now I have to carry a code reader, and manual and all kinds of useless crap just to figure out what might be wrong.