Wow. I'm starting to lie as easily as Erin does.
(FYI, Erin Murphy, will answer every question you ask her with a very detailed response regardless of whether she actually knows the answer or not. I kid you not, the girl will literally tell you how to build a space ship if you ask her. You'll walk away thinking, WOW, I didn't know Erin was an Aerospace Engineer. Erin will walk away thinking, THAT... was REALLY fun! Hey, we each have our hobbies.)
Back to it... Obviously, if I cannot sit still for a 2 hour movie on any given day, I definitely can't break into a meditative state for two days. No, weekend four wasn't as adventurous as the weekends on either side of it, but I was able to get some work done on my car.
Being a craigslist FIEND, I was able to locate a guy in Redmond that was selling not only a transmission, but every single component held within a 87-92 Jetta engine compartment. And the best part? I paid $275 for the whole package, and he even helped me deliver it! This may not mean much, but consider this: On a previous search for parts, a transmission ALONE was running $300-$400 dollars.
After attending a kegger with an ice luge (an enormous block of ice into which tracks are carved, shots/bottles/pitchers of alcohol are poured down the grooves, and the liquid, chilled to a mind-numbing temperature, screams down the shoot like a bobsledder into the mouth of a partygoer, perched like a baby bird awaiting it's morning worm) the night before, I spent the better part of Saturday sleeping... After awaking, I headed to the store and bought some Trannie Fluid, some wire brushes, and a specialty 12-point wrench. Returning to the house, I realized I was in need of at least one more wrench to remove my tire. Having already ridden to the store on the bike, I didn't want to repeat the trip, so I got into the car to see if it would work.
Can you guess what happened?
It worked.
That car has a mind of its own. The shifter shifted. It ran rough, clearly in need of some machanic time, but it ran nonetheless. It allowed me to drive up to TrueValue, where I was truly ripped off, and back home.
For 3 hours I disassembled that engine. Transaxles. Power steering pump. Alternator. Transmission. Wiring, Brakes, lower frame, you name it, and it was removed. I was left at the end of the day with a giant pile of parts, ready to be installed in their new home when The Goblin decided it was ready to break down again.
A big pile of parts. All but the engine currently reside in my trunk.
That was the extent of car work that I accomplished for another three weeks, as all the work that needed to be done required a jack.
Two weeks ago I had to drive down to West Seattle to meet up with some people for a ride (this will be detailed in "Weekend 6"). The car started acting up, like a child on the verge of a temper-tantrum, so I started looking for a jack and jack stands. Once again, I stumbled across a remarkable deal. $26 for a jack, stands and a mechanics creeper (you lie on it and roll under the car to access various things). Completely armed with the means to repair, I took the afternoon of the following monday to get the car up on the stands, drain and replace the tranny fluid, replace a section of shift linkage that has been broken since I bought the car (hence the looseness whenever I tried to shift, i.e. am I in first, third, or reverse??), and replaced the speedometer cable (the one I pulled through "the god-damn fire wall"). With those tasks complete, I packed up the tools, took her off the stands, and fired her up.
She started.
More importantly she ran.
The shifting was perfect. Yeah, first was a bit hard to get into, and to this day, I do not have 5th gear. Minor, minor. The speedometer worked. I could tell that I was speeding!!
The car is still running well, but I've have gotten so used to riding a bike and bussing everywhere that I actually despise driving right now.
I do feel like a ball and chain has been removed. Without the car, I couldn't pack up and leave the city unless I was carpooling, and it is difficult to always rely on other people for your own freedom.
Now, if I want to leave the city for the hills, I don't question whether the car is going to make it...
I know that she MIGHT. And that is a good feeling.
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