Yesterday was not my favorite day off, but it was a good one inthe sense that I got some things done I have been putting off. Specifically the old car readied up for a trip to the salvage yard. I am sad to see it go, but there is no use it sitting on the trailer in the back yard anymore. So I cleaned up the personal stuff and took a few parts that were laying about in it, as well as got out the parts I tried to install when we were trying to save it.
The car up and died when I hit a bump going into Cafe Zupas a little hard because someone was diving out of the parkinglot right at me, and his view was initially blocked by a car going down the road between us. The car started to misfure, then it lost compression in a the two and three cylendars. I tried to save it in the O’Reily’s parking lot, but after two days of that, I finally had to get it out of there and home. When my oldest came down on his time off from work, he brought a compression guage and we confirmed that it was dead. It was the same two cylendars he said he had trouble with before.
I kept the car up on the trailer and ignored it a spell while I got some other things done around the house on my days off. I felt like it was a chore I just did nto want to address, perhaps because that was admitting defeat once and for all, and I did not want to do that. But it was dead and not improving, and did not have hope of doing so unless I was willing to pull the engine and rebuild it down to the crankshaft. Non chance of that.
So I got some fuel for the tractor yesterday morning, and used it to pull the trailer with the car on it around front. I cleared out the things that were mine and saveable in the car, put that all in a paper bag, then started saving loose screws and crap I thought I could reuse. While I was doing all this, I also took out the parts that I had installed at the autoparts store so I can return them and get credit for the gaskets I need for the Honda. I hope I can get that done today and get the honda fixed up next time our oldest is down.
One really exciting to me bit of the salvage operation was trying to pull the battery cable from the car. The battery is in the trunk, and there is a big positive cable that gowe from there to the fuse box and distribution in the front. Well, there used ot be. I could not get through the carpet and all that, so I used the long end of a ratchet strap to wrap around a few feet of the cable and hooked it to the tractor bucket and pulled. What do you know! Out it came. So that is good. I inted to use it to wire a second battery into the pickup truck and use it as a spare to run it with, or to run the winch with. I need it to add charge and be there when needed. Maybe that is not enough to do my plan, but hey, with a little more research on things like if the alternator is sufficient, I can give it a go. I think it should be okay.
One more task to do. Our oldest wanted the wheels off it for a trailer of some sort. So I picked up each end with the tractor and took two at a time. I was not sure if my little 25 horse tractor would be able to do it, but it did with ease. Now I know. It is a small car. I think I could have flipped it over if I wanted to. What a riot!
Anyway, I rolled the trailer to the back at the end of the day, and have it in a position to hook up to the truck when I next get a chance, and take it up to the salvage yard.
I tried to return the parts up to the O’Reilly’s in town, but they asked if they had been installed, and because I told them they had, and that the guy in Smithfield helped me, they could not return them there, and he had to do it. So I need to take them down there today and give it a go. While the lady was in back “asking” about it, the kid in front still told me they were changing their returns policy and would not be doing it anymore once a part has been put in. Well, good to know. I hope that if they intend to enforce that policy it is on future transactions and not out of the blue on one sold during the old policy. Be warned! They don’t seem to be doing it. Apart from some kid casually mentioning it.