Gotcha!
As I’ve gotten older (I’m 65), I’ve sworn off some of the maintenance things I used to do; e.g. change the oil on our cars.
Not that I don’t think I still could — I even have a pit designed into our garage.
But our Honda CR-V is troublesome.
Removal of its oil-filter is a guaranteed hand-gash.
Ontario Honda, where we bought it, gives a free oil-change as long as we own the car, so let them do it.
So I was still changing the oil/filter on our Toyota Sienna.
Our pit made it fairly easy.
But LeBrun Toyota, where we bought it, does an oil-change as part of its scheduled maintenance.
It’s not free, but doesn’t cost that much.
So I let them do it.
Last summer my friend Art Dana, like me a retired bus driver from Regional Transit Service, needed to change out the steering box on his hot-rodded ‘49 Ford sedan.
Art has fairly severe Parkinson’s, but “You got a pit, BobbaLew.”
Over my pit it went, and we set about tearing out the steering box.
Or attempting to tear it out.
It couldn’t be removed unless a floor panel we didn’t know about was removed.
A friend of Art, who had a similar car, removed it in a jiffy.
“I can still do it,” I said. Overweight and creaky, it involved wiggling around on the floor in front of the front seat to remove a U-bolt that held the steering column to the dashboard.
It also involved pit diving, and getting liberally slathered with grunge.
I wanted to keep trying the next day, but both Art and I were too tired.
“We’re not young any more,” I said to Art.
Yesterday (Tuesday, November 17, 2009) I set about testing the charging on our fabulous zero-turn lawnmower.
I still have my ancient charging-system tester from the ‘70s. It measures amperage to the battery.
I’ve been having to trickle-charge that mower all summer long. It wasn’t self-charging; it was running off the battery.
After a while, it wouldn’t crank.
“Sounds like your regulator is kaput,” said Dan at Leif’s Sales and Service, where I bought the mower.
“They often fail,” he said.
My connections were terrible, essentially fiddled paper-clips.
My first test was backwards. The reading was slight, but negative.
Reverse connections; a slight positive reading.
“I can still do it, I guess,” I said to myself.
I patronize Leif’s today to get a new regulator — it’s solid-state.
The whole joy of these pursuits is “gotcha!”
• The “Honda CR-V” is our 2003 Honda CR-V SUV. The “Toyota Sienna” is our 2005 Toyota Sienna van.
• Both “Ontario Honda” and “LeBrun Toyota” are near Canandaigua. “Canandaigua” (“cannon-DAY-gwuh”) is a small city nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 15 miles away.
• For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY.
• Our “zero-turn” is our 48-inch Husqvarna riding-mower; “zero-turn” because it’s a special design with separate drives to each drive-wheel, so it can be spun on a dime. “Zero-turns” are becoming the norm, because they cut mowing time in half compared to a lawn-tractor, which has to be set up for each mowing-pass.
• “Leif’s Sales and Service” is a small garden-tractor shop nearby.
Not that I don’t think I still could — I even have a pit designed into our garage.
But our Honda CR-V is troublesome.
Removal of its oil-filter is a guaranteed hand-gash.
Ontario Honda, where we bought it, gives a free oil-change as long as we own the car, so let them do it.
So I was still changing the oil/filter on our Toyota Sienna.
Our pit made it fairly easy.
But LeBrun Toyota, where we bought it, does an oil-change as part of its scheduled maintenance.
It’s not free, but doesn’t cost that much.
So I let them do it.
Last summer my friend Art Dana, like me a retired bus driver from Regional Transit Service, needed to change out the steering box on his hot-rodded ‘49 Ford sedan.
 |
| Photo by my wife. |
| Art’s ‘49 Ford hot-rod. (That’s Art at right.) |
Over my pit it went, and we set about tearing out the steering box.
Or attempting to tear it out.
It couldn’t be removed unless a floor panel we didn’t know about was removed.
A friend of Art, who had a similar car, removed it in a jiffy.
“I can still do it,” I said. Overweight and creaky, it involved wiggling around on the floor in front of the front seat to remove a U-bolt that held the steering column to the dashboard.
It also involved pit diving, and getting liberally slathered with grunge.
I wanted to keep trying the next day, but both Art and I were too tired.
“We’re not young any more,” I said to Art.
Yesterday (Tuesday, November 17, 2009) I set about testing the charging on our fabulous zero-turn lawnmower.
I still have my ancient charging-system tester from the ‘70s. It measures amperage to the battery.
I’ve been having to trickle-charge that mower all summer long. It wasn’t self-charging; it was running off the battery.
After a while, it wouldn’t crank.
“Sounds like your regulator is kaput,” said Dan at Leif’s Sales and Service, where I bought the mower.
“They often fail,” he said.
My connections were terrible, essentially fiddled paper-clips.
My first test was backwards. The reading was slight, but negative.
Reverse connections; a slight positive reading.
“I can still do it, I guess,” I said to myself.
I patronize Leif’s today to get a new regulator — it’s solid-state.
The whole joy of these pursuits is “gotcha!”
• The “Honda CR-V” is our 2003 Honda CR-V SUV. The “Toyota Sienna” is our 2005 Toyota Sienna van.
• Both “Ontario Honda” and “LeBrun Toyota” are near Canandaigua. “Canandaigua” (“cannon-DAY-gwuh”) is a small city nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 15 miles away.
• For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY.
• Our “zero-turn” is our 48-inch Husqvarna riding-mower; “zero-turn” because it’s a special design with separate drives to each drive-wheel, so it can be spun on a dime. “Zero-turns” are becoming the norm, because they cut mowing time in half compared to a lawn-tractor, which has to be set up for each mowing-pass.
• “Leif’s Sales and Service” is a small garden-tractor shop nearby.
posted by BobbaLew at 7:07 AM
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