one more from the "can't catch a break" files

monday after work i picked up the little guy from grandma's house. pulling away from a stoplight(in my 2005 avalanche, that had the trans overhauled by PO at aamco 37k ago), i lost forward. it was a large hill on a 45mph road so we coasted to the bottom and pulled into a development. no reverse either. nothing but park.

had my parents bring their astro to take my cargo trailer and my wife bring her oldsmowinterbeater to get the kid. my dad was talking stupid about going to get his 4 cylinder 5 speed ranger to pull me home. all 3 tons plus of truck with me and a bed full of parts/tools. either way home, which is under a mile, is uphill. i hooked my big tow strap to the olds and had him pull me home with that.

in the morning i pulled a cooler line and fired it up, and did not get squirted. nothing came out. so i dropped the pan with a glimmer of hope that the filter fell off. no dice. the fluid is beautiful, red, smells good, no sparkles. just to be safe i pulled the inspection cover to make sure the converter and flywheel spin together, which they do. so it looks like in some sort of freak failure, the pump let go.

so the impala froze and cracked at least a head, the chevelle spit the driveshaft at the ditch, the belair wouldn't wake up because my $200 fuel pump bit it over winter, and now the avalanche is broken. i didn't have it in me to start tearing it apart so i called up the shop that built my dad's suburban transmission 150k miles ago, then called up my buddy who has a towing company, and wiped my hands of it.

this is the first time in 33 years on this earth that i've sent a vehicle to the shop for anything that was not an alignment or tires. and i rarely do that. there goes the credit card. this is one case where things can't sit, this is my daily work truck and i need it to make money, so biting the bullet now will pay off in the end.

i took advantage of a day of missed work and sunshine after we dropped the av off at the trans shop to drop the cradle of my wife's rendezvous to change out a bad shift solenoid and get that almost back together, to discover the steering rack has a bad seal. rock auto is providing me some new tie rod ends and a rack seal kit to make sure i don't have anything else to do this weekend.

i got to drive my 90 4.3 5 speed shortbed c1500 to work today. it's whooped engine wise with over 300k miles, but it got the job done mostly. sometimes when i go to restart it, it won't fire without starting fluid. and sometimes it stalls on me. so once at lowes and twice in the road i had to deal with that, but it got me there and home and hope it does tomorrow too, and i'm optimistic that i can get my avalanche friday morning. nothing beats keeping a spare truck or two around.

and of course, the rambler still starts every time.

No warranty from the previous rebuild?

I think I counted like 10 cars in that post ... And I thought I had problems

bgkast wrote: No warranty from the previous rebuild?

no paperwork with truck, just know from autocheck report that it was done in 2011 at 93k. truck has 130 now. so even if it had a 3yr/36k mile warranty that was transferable, it would be up.

I'm glad most of my cars are British, much more reliable.

We were joking about how a rambler is the most reliable vehicle in the driveway yesterday, after the strong feeling of needing to vomit about all the automotive carnage went away.

The best thing to come of this was it lit a fire under my ass to get my wife's buick fixed for her. I promised i'd do the shift solenoids after it was done being winter. I had been dreading the job but in reality it only took a few hours and was much less horrible than i thought it would be.

Bonus, karma may be starting to pay me back. I had to dig 2 post holes for a deck addition for a customer and they were the 2 easiest i've ever had to dig. On top of that, Summit racing had a really nice trickflow fuel pump on clearance for the belair comparable to the mallory pump currently on the car. Keep it coming, karma

That's what you get for texting me while you were driving...

I'm in a similar boat, my zx3 melted its wiring for the running lights, and the sho is having another disagreement with the clutchmasters clutch in it(seriously, never buy a CM clutch).....the IH will run/drive, but it isn't plated.

Right now the bike is the only thing I'll reference as being trustworthy. I'm tempted to go trade in the zx3 on a fiesta ST, but I'm waiting to find out if I get a promotion this year.

Gimp wrote: That's what you get for texting me while you were driving...

Siri, beeyatch. But yeah i texted you all of a minute before it happened. You must be bad luck.

Truck done. Full rebuilt unit installed with warranty. The ring that holds the vanes in the pump grenaded into 4 pieces and sent metal through what it could. Lots of sparkles in pan. $1740 out the door and they had it under 48 hours. Picked it up and went to work.

And that deck with the easy to dig dirt? Have to pull and re-dig all the original posts because dbag that built it only poured 8" footings, code at the time was 36" and currently 42"

and from the stop working when you get tired files, i did something today i have not done since i was 19. i fell through that deck when walking the joists. my shins are torn up and sore as hell, and my toes have bruises across them from the safety caps in my boots. it almost feels like whatever moves my right 2nd toe may have broken free from whatever it connects to that makes things move.

my transmission works though.

They do seem to clump up a bit sometimes! Last 9 days...Clutch exploded on the 4 door Escort, bolt fell out and put the fan in the radiator (96 Dodge diesel), Crown Vic and the heater core, niece borrowed the Mustang and brought it back with enough gas to get it 2 blocks from the gas station, fuel pump blew on the riding mower, 8N tractor radiator leak, scooter got trash in the carb 2 blocks from the Mustang during a rescue mission and the other Escort was a victim of a 3 year old who somehow turned the key on and ran the battery down.

Pray you never need to find a fan for a 96 Dodge diesel truck, impossible to find until you spend $130 for one, then 5 show up and 2 of them are free!

Got everything fixed but the clutch (that car is finally dead) and the heater core so it's all good!

another break not caught:

picked up truck thursday. new trans just started slipping on 2-3 shift. needs to go back. i understand stuff happens, and i picked this shop based on past positive dealings with them, and i have a warranty, but this is my daily get me to work truck and can't keep being down while it gets fixed. i have to call them in the morning.

my backup is my 300K+ mile 1990 half ton shortbed that randomly decides it wants to not start, usually at a store or after it has stalled at an uphill intersection. and has no wipers because the guy i got it from swapped(crammed) in the wrong steering column.

Now I don't feel bad about my steering rack crapping out. Bad luck, man. I hope it gets better soon.

patgizz wrote: my backup is my 300K+ mile 1990 half ton shortbed that randomly decides it wants to not start, usually at a store or after it has stalled at an uphill intersection.

You can count on the person behind you to helpfully lay on their horn to allow you to become aware of this. Like yesterday morning, when my ECU packed it in.

and has no wipers because the guy i got it from swapped(crammed) in the wrong steering column.

Fortunately, this week it's supposed to rain so often that you don't even notice.

truck back in the shop. i'm actually borrowing my mom's astro to go to work tomorrow, since it's supposed to rain.