Vehicles and Maintenance

It seems to be a time of machine breakage.

My car needs front brakes and a new heater core. It also needs new struts, but I can deal with a lousy ride. I just want it to be safe and for the heater/defroster to work. It also runs like crap, so tuneup parts are also in order. I ordered some brake parts last night and I'll pick em up today on the way to pick Sarah up and slap em on tonight.

When I was out on my ride to Chelan a week and a half ago, I lost the little knob off my speedo for resetting the trip odometer. I use the trip meter to keep track of how many miles I ride in between gas fill ups, so I need to be able to reset it each time I fill up. I bought a new one a few days ago at my local bike shop, along with a few carburetor parts I needed. Last night I went out to install it and found to my dismay that the whole shaft the knob was hooked to was gone as well. After my initial "being pissed" about it mood wore off, I wondered how I could make it work some other way. I rummaged around in my big box of miscellaneous hose and tubing and came up with a piece of rubber tubing that was just teeny enough inside to fit over the little nubbin that was left on the speedo and I epoxied it on. It seems to work fine. It's flexible enough that it should never break, but rigid enough that I can easily spin it each time I want to reset my trip odometer. The carburetor parts I had on order are to fix the problem it has of overflowing gas if I accidentally leave the fuel petcock on when I park it. I'll come back to a big puddle of gas on the ground. Imagine having that happen in the garage? No thanks!

I also bit the bullet and ordered a new battery for the Harley yesterday morning. I had done some research already so I knew what I was going to buy, but still hadn't done so yet. I kept hoping that the bike would not leave me stranded on our trip but wasn't overly concerned because I was with other folks. I could have gotten a push should I have needed to (thankfully I didn't). There were a couple times it turned over slow, but because it had been ridden a lot, it started very easily. Anyway, I remembered yesterday morning I still had money in my PayPal account, and my favorite online Harley superstore has that as an option. I was able to damper the $85 bill down to $22 out of pocket. I should have it very soon. Considering I've had the bike now since September of 2003, I've been very lucky the battery has lasted as long as it has. Some people are lucky to get two years out of one. I think it's because they end up sitting so long in between rides.

The truck still sits... Still not being driven. Still insured, still leaking oil on the driveway, still has a bad engine, and still only starts when it wants to. It's dirty and the paint looks horribly oxidized from neglect. It needs a bunch of stuff, but I just wish it would go away. Trouble is, you can't sell something that doesn't work right--You'll lose your ass.

Sigh. Put it on the list...