The Truck Lives!

I don't know what clicked really, but when I came home from work yesterday I felt like working on my truck. Maybe it's because Sarah was off at a friend's house and wouldn't be home until later... Maybe it was because Suzie wasn't coming over after work... Maybe a combination of both. Add to that the glimmer of hope that I detected the other day when I found out that its battery had 4 cells that were way low (below the tops of the plates) on water and had been on the charger since I discovered it.

Whatever the reason, I started plugging away at it.

I played with wiring, I played with the battery--I even added my old Harley battery (it was fully charged) to it. Nada. The most I could get was a spark and little bit of a click when I jumped the starter trigger terminals together. I even took the starter back out and tried it. When I did that it worked like gangbusters. Then I thought about maybe it was binding up and refusing to turn when I bolted it in and investigated that. Nope. After some more troubleshooting, this time focused on a suspect area and I finally got it. For some reason there was only a teeny little ground to the starter--Basically none to speak of. I added a hefty cable to the chassis of the starter and viola! A little fussing around here and there to tidy up all the crap that I had unhooked and I was ready to try it. I couldn't believe how easily it started! It was like it kept waiting and saying, "Come on man... Give me another chance..."

Well, it runs like crap. It's some sort of tuning issues from what I can see, but at least it started. It still seems to have that same problem it has had for a couple years, which is sometimes it starts and sometimes it has nothing. I would think that there really must be something wrong with it's little onboard computer. After all, that controls the spark and timing and all sorts of stuff. At least I have a chance of actually driving it or at least moving it around a bit now. Before it was just another derelict hulk of a truck that you used to find in someone's front yard up on the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation. I'm still not ready to call the insurance company up and have them put it back on yet.

Sarah went off with one of her friends at about noon yesterday, but she texted me just like I told her to when she left. When I got home from work I found the TV on and clothes scattered here and there in the living room. All typical teenager stuff. I was going to rag on her about leaving a mess, but I later realized that she did clean up one potential mess. When Teresa delivered her to me the other day, she also brought all the fixin's for Sarah to make a cheesecake for her friend. Basically a home-assembled kit. Well, apparently yesterday she made it and they took it with them. There was hardly any sign that she had actually made it in the kitchen so she cleaned all that up nicely. It's a start. She got home about 10 minutes before my bedtime last night. I texted her a reminder at 9 to get home because I didn't want to have to get out of bed to let her in, and she replied that she knew and was leaving soon anyway. Although yesterday she didn't, today she has a key. Now all she has to do is remember to take it.

Small news bits:
I ordered car tabs online the other day for both the Neon and the Harley. I've still got another couple months for the truck, and hopefully I'll be able to drive it by then, because it will need an emissions test I'm sure.

G.W. finally came through and sent me my token check to help me to do my part to stimulate the economy.

I helped my mom drag their old waterbed mattress out of the house on Friday. They've had a waterbed since the early 80's. Sunday night was the first time since then that they have slept on a "real" mattress. She called last night to thank me for helping her and to tell me that they slept well. Apparently dad is now classified as a frail whiner so he couldn't sleep on the waterbed any more. It hurt his back or something.