The 69 Diary - Chapter 4

8/6/01 - The temperature is still almost 100 when I get home from work and Sam isn't around. No replacement today. James did call from California and asked how I had made out with the starter, tho!

8/7/01 - After work, Sam and I head out. It is over 100 degrees and no breeze. Of course, my driveway is on the west side of the house and the car is cooking. I burn my fingers on the starter and tools I left in the car and drag them in the house to the air conditioning so they can cool enough for me to handle. I have great hopes of quality mother/son bonding - not to mention getting the starter in.

Meanwhile Sam grabs the floorjack and starts to jack up the car. I ask him to wait until I take the tire off. I need the space to get in close enough to work and head for the beater to get the X-shaped lug nut remover. Before I can get back, Sam has his tools out and is using a rachet with a pipe and a socket. I remind him the nuts look rather rusty and suggest my tool. He has to make an argument out of it, until he breaks his rachet and throws it against the fence. Then he stomps off. I finish all the lug nuts - having to use WD-40 on one.

When I come in to retrieve the only slightly cooler starter, he has posted the following on NE3G - using my computer no less!

Topic: JESTER would you like to tell her she doenst know $hit about cars

Well i dont know who gave her the idea that she could change the starter hjerself but as im sure yopu guessed already she cant do it and who does she ask for help of course the person who isnt supposed to touch the car. Please talk some sence into her, and tell her to not work on the car as i would like to get some work done on mine.
Sam

I am really annoyed. Not only is he throwing temper-tantrums and all hopes of quality time have quickly evaporated, but he posts it and misstates what to me is obvious. Uncharacteristically, I respond.

Jase - pls tell idiot that if he would use a tire iron to loosen lugs nuts rather than trying to prove that his rachet and a piece of pipe work better, that he wouldn't break his rachet....

There is a reason for using the right tool - he is just PO'd because Mom is right...AGAIN!

I march back out with the starter and confirm there is no way these short arms / small hands are going to reach and hold and rachet. But I was prepared for this and get the jack out of the wagon to use to help balance the starter. Before I can get back to the 69, Sam is underneath with the starter and insisting he will not budge. I know better than to argue with him and tell him how the starter fits, how the gear has to go by the flywheel, and he gets it bolted on. I have been ready to puke from the heat for quite a while already. But being stubborn, I won't say "let's wait for a cooler day". I explain where the wires go and pass appropriate tools. I feel like a semi-competent helper, but I had really wanted to do this myself!

Sam finally crawls out from under the car. I am leaning on the the fenders for support as we replace the tire. But I really want to see if I can start the car. I get in the hot car and it starts like a charm! I am so excited! I put the car in gear and decide to try to move it - to straighten it in the driveway, so we can use the jackstands. The car doesn't want to move - not reverse, not forward and getting it into drive was a real struggle. I turn it off - leaving it in drive as I am getting too lightheaded. Getting as far as the garage steps, I have to sit before attempting the steps. Sam is still griping, but now he is telling me I have to get in the cool house, between saying nasty things about the 69. We get in the house & I lay on the floor while Sam appears with a glass of water, telling me I am beet red. He leaves me with instructions to drink more water and disappears to work. Eventually I doze off on the floor.

Well If there was a tire iron with the car and she didnt have to search through five different cars to find one that fits, i wouldnt have to use my tools. And apperently she is now saying that you dont use the right tools as when you were up here and we took the tires off my car if you remember correctly we used the ratchet, not the tire iron. Her excuse for this is my car isnt a RUST BUCKET!

Well after I installed the starter, we started the car. It (kind of) runs, but wont go into any of the gears, as she tried all of them but the car doesnt move.
Sam

Ede, however, made a constructive comment about adding transmission fluid - and this would be the solution to the tranny problem. Alot of people on the board were really supportive of me, which only pissed Sam off more. By the time he was home from work and I was ready for bed, he had posted again.

i never said that there was a problem helping her fix the car, the problem that i have is that she wanted to do this all her self. Atleast getting the car running well enough to make it to florida. But she ask for my help, after thinking that she can fix the car ( not her own fault as someone told her that the starter was easy to replace, but my mom has
some trouble lifting heavy objects (suck as a starter while laying on her back under a car). I wanted jester to tell her what he had been all along, that she shouldnt really be fixing the car. Now i do give my mom credit as she did go out and buy tools, and a jack and stands, but i dont belive that she sould be fixing the car to try and drive it to florida. I think my mom will have a lot of problems on her way to florida with the car. I hope she and the car make it there fine, and all goes well with her plans for the car. But as stated in the first post, she doesnt know shit about cars, and that is why i feel she shouldnt be working on it. I also understand that she wont learn anything unless she does work on
the car, but that is a big chance her first tuning experience and then drive to FL.
Sam

LIke i said man i give her alot of credit but i just think its a big gamble trying to learn how to work on your first car, and then driveing it to fl. And agian i dont mind helping her fix that car, but she said she wanted to do it all on her own, and the biggest thing i keep saying that she is going to drive it to Fl after her first experience trying to fix it. That is the same as if i was going to drive the silver fiero to fl, last summer when tri, nate and I started working on the car. As im sure you know that the car is now finally running, but it still wont move, as there is no motor mounts and im sure there is gonna be a hell of alot more problems after it does get on the road.

Ok - I am going to take advantage of my admin powers and lock this post.

Sam is close to correct - I don't know alot of $hit about cars, but I know more about simple cars than I do the new computerized ones. And I can learn what I don't know.

The 69 is a project - there is no rush and I 'rushed' today because I was excited to get the starter in and have her running. It was way too hot to do this and I ended up with a slight case of heat exhaustion. I think this scared Sam (sorry Sam)...and I suspect he took his worry out by negatively bashing on my project.

End of discussion, pls.

Kat promised to come over Saturday and play with the car with me. I was feeling really disheartened and incapable. Kat sounded so encouraging and I decided it was time to
stop trying to be quite so independent. It was obvious that for some things I was going to need an extra set of hands and Sam had dropped to the bottom of my assistant list. Kat was gratefully added to the Project 69 Crew.

Jester was also supportive (and probably happy to hear I was able to start the car)! But I went to bed still feeling the effects of the heat and rather depressed. My first attempt at replacing anything hadn't quite turned out like I had hoped.