Postcards From Myself

Well, it was bound to happen sometime. At some point there would be a problem that would stop Roxy in her tracks. I thought I had guarded against most things, but there was one are that I blindly forgot. There weather turned cold here last night with temperatures down in the mid-twenties. Hey, I said cold for Charleston, not cold for Maine! Anyway, I checked the anti-freeze and oil and such, but totally overlooked the battery.

Roxy started up and ran fine this morning. Not a problem in the world. But, when I went out this evening to fight the traffic home from work things weren’t so good. I put the key in the ignition, turned it, the engine started to spin and then click. Nothing. Silence. No lights, no solenoid click, no horn, no nothing. I don’t think it is anything major, I think the battery just died due to the cold and age. I cleaned the terminals and cables and looked over everything, but all signs point to the battery being toast. I even put her on jumper cables to my wife’s Ford Escape for a while.

Silence. Darkness. Nothing.

So, I will try a few more things tomorrow when I can see more clearly and then I am sure I will be off to buy a battery. Funny thing is that this doesn’t upset me. I knew something would happen at some point. Hey, the car is nearly thirty-two years old! And I am no where near making it through checking all the systems. It is for that exact reason that my old car still graces the driveway. I am just glad Roxy is sleeping soundly at my office and not by the side of the road or in some shady section of town.

One other item to mention - oil. I was going to give her an oil change yesterday. I knew her drain plug was in bad shape so I had ordered a new one. So there I was with oil, filter, drain plug, and all tools all ready. And that is where I still am. Seems the spirit of owners past has reared its ugly head again. The drain plug is 100% seized. I worked on that thing for over half an hour with nearly every tool in my arsenal. It started off as nearly rounded off. It ended up totally round. Nothing would bite and it would not budge. Heating, clamping, pounding and cursing - nothing helped. So I am going to have some Serious Work to do on that. It is going to have to be soon too as I have no idea how long the current oil has been in there. As far as I can tell it looks like the ooze you would expect to see in a tar pit.

Such is the joy of classic car ownership. But as I said, for some perverse reason I enjoy this stuff. In hindsight at least.

Technorati Tags: BMW, Cars

OK, this is boring stuff but I wanted to have things noted. I got 10 gallons of gas after going 185.5 miles. That give milage of 18.5 miles per gallon. Not too bad, but it really should be about 21 to 23. I have some work to do. Need to get the idle down to 900 RPM or so instead of 1500 RPM.

Yesterday I did a bit more work on Roxy. Ok, so it wasn’t a lot but I did get the replacement driver’s seat in. So now instead of the Scheel racing type seat she has an original, or fairly original, blue 2002 seat. I don’t know much of anything about the Scheel that I took out, so I am trying to figure out if there is a market for it or what. The basic problem with it was that it was too narrow for my wide load! Now the replacement is perfect and I feel much more comfortable. It has about the same amount of wear as the rest of the car does, so it fits right in.

If you want to see pictures of the Scheel that came out:

• Picture 1
• Picture 2
• Picture 3
• Picture 4
• Picture 5

Technorati Tags: BMW, Cars

Well, we got a nice weekend day and nobody was sick so I got a chance to work on Roxy a bit. I figured that I should tackle the exhaust leak since it was not only noisy but unhealthy. There is nothing like riding in a car for long periods of time with exhaust leaking into the cabin. Not only do you come out smelling like hydrocarbons and such, but you killed off enough brain cells to make illicit drugs unnecessary.

I wasn’t sure whether the leak was coming from the manifold gasket or the manifold to exhaust flange gasket, but I had a hunch it was the flange gasket. Since I would have to take that one loose to replace the manifold gasket anyway, I figured that was the best place to start. Sure enough, the flange gasket was burned through. As you can see by the picture below, it had really seen its better days.

Of course, the one pictured on top is the new one just there for comparison. Once I replaced it and put it all back together the difference was amazing. The car seems entirely different. I know that it is really the same car, but without the fumes and noise she really is a different creature.

Amazingly, one of the harder parts of the job was getting the wheel off. To get at the flange nuts I had to approach them from underneath the car. And to do that I had to jack the car up and take the wheel off. Simple, right? Well not when someone has put the lug nuts on with an air-wrench. Just because you can put a nut on with an air-wrench and tighten it down to a million foot-pounds doesn’t mean you should. It is one of those things that rookie’s do that has ticked me off since I was young. Guess it is one of those things that I picked up from the old mechanics that I used to hang around with. All it does is make the next guys job harder and, if you aren’t lucky, you run the risk of stripping the bolts and those can be a real pain to replace. Guess I should now go around the entire car and check them all. Fun!

Well, I am about to go out for a drive and enjoy both my fume free car and the nice 78% January weather. Tomorrow I will probably tackle the shift bolts and mount that still need replacing.

I had hoped to be posting about all the industrious work that I got done on the car over the weekend. Well, that is what I had hoped to be posting. In the end the new seats, hoses, gaskets, cooling fans, and other parts are still sitting around in the garage waiting for me to do something with them. What I did do was sleep. I got lots and lots of sleep.

The family and I went to visit Keeper of the Wild on Saturday morning. Keeper of a Wild is an organization that saves abandoned or hurt wild animals and nurses them back to health. When at all possible they are released back into the wild. If they aren’t able to be released due to injury or other condition, Keeper will take care of them for as long a necessary. Around here they end up with lots of raccoons and possums. We went to visit on Saturday with a friend of mine, Jan, who does a lot of volunteer work with them. At this time they have the common raccoons and possums, but also skunk, rabbits, prairie dogs, a flying squirrel, and a fox squirrel. If you would like to see some pictures of this trip, please click here.

Anyway, after doing that visit Saturday, I wasn’t feeling so well so I went to bed. Other getting up to eat a bit I slept all that afternoon, evening, and until the next morning. I went to church still not feeling great and then came home and went back to bed. I was basically wiped out until Monday morning! Totally unlike me to fall out in such a way, but I just felt nasty and had no energy.

Roxy is still doing great in spite of my lack of care though. I promise, I will get to work soon!