Current mood: sticky and greasy
so i am wrapped in anticipation. since the air cleaner fire incident much has transpired– i spent all day saturday in the autozone parking lot. i figured at least they had loaner tools and parts if i needed them, not to mention dry asphault to scoot arount on instead of the rocky mud puddle at my house. the rain has been slowing down repairs and i am getting anxious.
let me say here that mid-eighties vehicles are the worst- miles of worn out vacuum hoses and strange and expensive emissions control devices in questionable repair. more likely than not many are missing and they all can affect “driveability” so i look at the veci sticker and copy it as well as make a new diagram of what actually exists in the van for comparison. what i know is there is an oil leak involving the driver side rocker arm cover and an exhaust leak between the ex manifold and the tail pipe. the veci sticker comes up from trying to figure out the item installed in place of the gasket i thought i had to replace was.
not really wanting to relive the whole thing, and aggrivated at helm publications for not sending out the manual i ordered, i will skip to the funny part. determined to get back home, i clamp the tailpipe back on over the broken studs and fire up the van. now the leak is worse, pouring oil on to the tailpipe and filling the van with white smoke. every time i took my foot off the gas, the van would die, so i had to restart it at every light. and the windows don’t work, so i had to lean way close to the windshield to see through the smoke. almost home, but the last stretch was a bit too long, so i had to bail out. i opened the door and smoke billowed out, the inside of the van looked solid. i was standing on the other side of the road letting it air out and this guy i passed before i bailed out walked up and said ’smells like oil, i think you blew something.’ i told him i had it under control and got in and drove off.
today i redid the work from saturday. thought a lot about american car culture. two other michaels stopped by to keep me company and help out. beautiful day for a shade tree mechanic. i gotta go to bed now, but lots to think about.