Nick Postagulous
Monday, April 05, 2004
Balance
Sunday, as Alison and her mom toodled around looking at some houses on the Tour of Homes, I was planning on changing my transmission and differential fluid. You're supposed to get the them warmed up, but then wait for 30 minutes so the nearby exhaust pipe doesn't burn you. It cools faster.
So, during that 30 minutes, I changed my shift turret oil. It was like gray milk, which probably means the horribly ripped boot (not the leather one that I see, but the rubber one that protects the leather one and keeps the turret from being under the car) let some water in from below the car. I think the boot is $32ish.
After I finished that, I did the following. Pay attention and you'll figure out how I could have solved my problem easier.
1. Jacked up front left wheel as high as possible. Put in jack stand.
2. Jacked up rear left wheel as high as possible. Put in jack stand.
3. Jacked up rear right wheel as high as possible. Put in jack stand.
4. Jacked up front right wheel as high as possible.
5. Noticed that rear right was not sitting 3 inches above it's jack stand as the car is balanced across rear left jackstand and the jack at FR.
6. Adjusted RR jackstand so it was higher. Higher than my jack can go.
7. Put jackstand under FR.
8. Got under car and realized I didn't have a socket to fit drain and fill plugs.
9. Lowered FR wheel, but it didn't reach the ground.
10. Started jacking behind FL jackstand to remove FL jackstand...
And that's when the car started tipping forward. Very slowly, my car started to fall toward the front. I put my hand under the FL wheel and stopped it. With about 5 lbs of pressure upward, I pushed the car back into place. By moving the pivot point back by a few inches, the front right half of the car was heavier slightly and it started tipping that way. Still holding the wheel up with my left hand, I had to use my right to release the pressure off the jack.
Then I tried several different things. But, it's true, the car was balanced between two jackstands, one of which was higher than my jack could reach. Nevermind the stuff I tried, but when I sought external help, I had it on those jackstands, but with a ramp under the FR tire and the jack holding up the RL corner just a little.
Mr. Smiley Rocks
Mr. Smiley is my neighbor across the street. He had a stroke this last year and can't work anymore. He makes cabinets, a lot. I think that every wall in the house must be covered with cabinets at this point. Well, he was in his garage puttering around.
Me: Hey, Mr. Smiley.
Mr. S: Yes.
Me: Can you help me figure something out?
He only looked at it for about a minute before he said: "Do you have another ramp like that?"
Solution: Put jack on spare ramp. Raise RR (too high) side. Lower setting of jackstand to normal level. Lower jack. Remove Ramp. Raise RR side. Remove jackstand.
The rest was easy enough. I forgot to mention that when I sought Mr. Smiley's help, I had exactly 24 minutes before I had to leave for church. And the Miata was blocking the Focus in the garage. But it's not like I'd leave my car suspended in the air while I was gone for a few hours anyway.
And Speaking of Church
There was a meeting after church about what the relocation committee has found. See, our church is in a location which has had a 14% population drop in the last decade. It's one of the worst parts of town. House property values are depreciating. The relocation guys had been looking at the north and east, mainly based on what people wanted. However, most of the possible location out that direction suck (I'm summarizing here). So, they are going to start looking west. We live on the furthest west border of Huntsville. This could be cool.
Very cool, as we are getting a new school within a mile of our house, literally in Research Park. We are also getting another school, a middle school, in the Providence area. If you could, re-read that last sentence and say providence in a snooty accent. When I asked Alison what the sidewalks in Providence were paved with, her mom and her said, in unison "Gold."
And one thing Curtis, spokesperson of the relocation guys, said, was that they are targeting areas which will show good growth in the next 20 years, and a good indication of that was new construction and good schools. Woot! It'll be in our back yard. Ha ha. No more driving 20 miles to get to church.
And yes, there are nearer ones, but not nearer ones with Alison's mom at them.
