Phantom Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 Friday night / Saturday morning just after midnight I got a call from my younger son telling me his car ('83ZX) was dead on the side of the road about 15 miles from the house. He suspected a failed alternator. Fortunately he has towing on his insurance (good idea for an older car with 240,000 miles on it) so we confirmed that he would call USAA, get a wrecker to his location and have it towed to the house. In the meantime I got a jug of distilled water, the battery charger, and a battery cap pry tool positioned in the garage for when he got there. At 3:00 AM I got a call from a concerned neighbor. The tow truck had gotten their dogs up who had gotten them up and then they got me up concerned that someone was about to bolt with the Suburban I have parked in the driveway. Good neighbors! After putting her mind to rest I got up and went out thorugh the garage to help with the offload of the car and then, while JOsh was settling up with the driver I popped the caps on the battery, added about a pint of water, hooked the charger up, and gave him a brief lecture on checking battery fluid periodically. With that I brought him inside and set him up in the guest room for the night and went back to bed. At 9:00 I was up and at it again, managed to confirm that the battery was good - 14 volts by the gauge and car started fine - but that the alternator was bad - red warning light and not voltage rise from the 14 when the car was running. Josh got an alternator ordered from O'Reilly's - only $49.95 with a lifetime warranty which is cheaper than the battery - and then went off to work in the wifes Z32 convertible. Knew there was a reason I have three vehicles. Sunday after church we put the car up on ramps and started in. Had to pull the power steering pump to get the alternator out and then the alternator. Ran the old one to O'Reilly's, compared it carefully to the new one, and then headed back to the house. About three hours after we started the car was back together and Josh was off on a victory lap around the block with a working alternator. Even with a fan, shade, and lots of ice water it was a tough three hours in 102° heat. Still managed to teach him a few things as well as supply a boatload of tools. Seemed that every nut & bolt needed and different size, configuration tool to get it out - not to mention the hammer and screwdriver routine on the blet tensioner to get it too loosen up and getting into my box of spare Z bolts when one mysteriously disappeared. Now all we have to do is clean the car up so it will pass emissions. Sigh. This was all follwed by a couple weeks of projects on my older son Erics Firebird while he drove the wifes Z32 convertible to work. Did I mention that I now know why I have three vehicles? Anyone else the family garage/vehicle rental agency? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete280z Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 Isn't that what dads are for Phantom? That's a heck of a weekend, but I bet you make your family proud. I think my friends and family see me as "computer guy," "car guy" and "bicycle repairman." In the past week, a coworker came to my house on two nights to get help plugging a tire, and a friend two states away called me to troubleshoot her DSL installation. I'll pretty regularly tear down a bicycle and rebuild it with a bunch of parts a buddy sourced from ebay. I get a kick out of the car and bicycle stuff still. Computer stuff comes with the territory, especiallly as more and more tech support moves offshore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 I had the good luck to return a favor recently. When I was in CA I had a couple friends who BUSTED THEIR BUTTS to help me plant a lawn and install a large patio with pavers. It was a big job, almost 2000 sq ft of pavers and these guys went way above and beyond the call of "friend duty". Anyway, I move to Seattle, and 2 years later one of these guys does too. He calls me up one day and says "My car is running weird and there is coolant on the ground, but the temp gauge is at 0 and the heater blows cold." Oh crap, I thought. He ran it out of water and probably warped the heads. I told him add water NOW. See what happens, see if it blows a bunch of white smoke. I also told him that the coolant temp sensor needs water to transmit the temperature and explained all that to him. Anyway, the headgaskets didn't appear to be blown, which was good news. He brought it by and it was pretty obvious the waterpump had failed. He said he was going to take it to a shop, didn't want to impose. I told him that I'd do it if it was expensive. Needless to say the next weekend I was changing the water pump on his S10 Blazer. Easy job, but he had neither the tools nor the mechanical aptitude to do it himself. Did the job in a couple hours and BBQ'd up some dinner for him. Car runs great, saved him $300+, and I've at least partially repaid him for all the work he did at my old house (probably need to do another 15 water pumps to fully repay the guy), but it really feels good to pay back the debt even to some extent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 My kids are too young to require any serious auto work. However, my neighbors call me "Home Depot" because they come to me whenever they need anything special done. Things like replacing a water heater, fixing their house wiring or especially to borrow tools, nuts and bolts. It has gotten to the point where neighbors of our neighbors friends will come by to get boards ripped or routed. And of course all the neighbor kids known I am happy to fill their bike tires. Funny thing is I absolutely hate asking other people for help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted July 17, 2006 Author Share Posted July 17, 2006 Pete, Know what you mean. I have about 10 kids - most of them unofficially adopted that we're always doing something for. On top of the ZX alternator thing Chris and I spent all of Friday night and then last night she was up until after 1:00 AM counseling a young woman who's roomate - another one or our adopted kids - has gone off the deep end after getting divorced and is dragging her roomate with her. She is now temporarily living with us until she can get control of he own emotions and something can be done about the crazy roomate. Today Chris is out with yet another adopted daughter whose fiancee' is in Califormia with a new job. They are shoppig for wedding shower clothes and Chris is attempting to cheer her up because of problems the separation is causing. Saturday night we have a ministry event at our house with a bunch of people coming in and then Sunday evening we're having a 30th birthday party for another adopted guy whose folks are doing nothing for him. Tonight my car goes in the shop to have the window tint redone - under warranty which is another story in itself - and Chris' Z32 goes in later this week to get the top redone under warranty so that it actually fits right. Yeah - it never ends but that is what makes life interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete280z Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 Jon, you make a great point. I had almost the same landscaping situation happen to me a few years ago. We had 3 nights to get a lawn planted so we could get a certificate of occupancy for our new house. We promised water, beer and burritos. I was amazed at how many people turned out to help and how eager they were to get the job done. Pay it forward... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelman Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 I miss those times with my son and his friends. He joined the Airforce last year and is stationed in DC now so I don't get the opportunity to help the younger guys as much as I used to. Our garage was where most of them would head whenever they had car trouble. I enjoyed helping them out and teaching them the basics. Now my daughter has reached that age and has a car. We already had to pull the tranny and have it rebuilt. It gave her and I the opportunity to spend some time together and she actually got greasy. We also did a full brake job on it. She wants to learn but I haven't had many opportunities to work with her yet. Most of her friends aren't interested in more than driving the cars so I don't guess I'll see them showing up asking for help doing the work. They might ask me to do it though. Pop, I'm the same way about asking for help, absolutely hate it. I really enjoy helping others if it's something I'm good at but asking is very hard for me. Wheelman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted July 20, 2006 Share Posted July 20, 2006 This reminds me of the thread about whether people work on their Z alone or in the company of friends/advisors. There the preponderance of comments were in the “alone” column. And in this thread, most folks are posting that they are the ones providing the tools and being the neighborhood automotive resource. Whereas I tend to be the guy who appeals to acquaintances to borrow tools, to weld something for me, to come clean my gutters, etc. Maybe this is why it took so long to get my Z built, and why it’s still no really finished? Then it dawned on me… at work, I tell graduate students, technicians and the like to wire such-and-such device, to calibrate so-and-so instrument, to run various tests, do different derivations, plot this and that - but I don’t do any of that myself! Instead, I go to meetings, review proposals, chair sessions at conferences and write research topic descriptions. In other words, I’ve become a manager! I am now officially incompetent and obnoxious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad-ManQ45 Posted July 20, 2006 Share Posted July 20, 2006 Phantom: With the exception of Car Provider, I'm there. Computers, Audio/Video, house wiring, plumbing, sheetrock, building decks, auto repair or finding a good deal on something, I'm the family&friends (even friends of friends) go-to guy. The one area I don't touch (except for my own stuff) is woodworking, my father being the one that people go to. I let him have his area and I'm glad he's there for it, but I do my own because I'm anal , take my time and think it out better (the programmer in me). Between helping everyone and the honey-do's, business and lawn work, I have very little time for my own stuff. Right now everyone is reveling in the fact that I built a blast cabinet (2'x2'x4'). This project drug on and on for the reasons mentioned. The best part of this is that I get to sit on my butt drinking their booze while cleaning up their messes! (I really enjoy making things look good) I wouldn't have it any other way.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted July 20, 2006 Author Share Posted July 20, 2006 Oh yeah - I forgot to mention the wood working equipment I lent to my older son a few weeks ago, the camping gear in the shed, the lawn equipment I finally gave away because I've completely ladscaped my front & back yards with no grass anywhere, the paint sprayer I'm trying to find to help paint a house in a few weeks, etc. Dang, and I was thinking it was just cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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