Closet Extremist

Been Busy Mechanicin'

Sorry no Postie lately. I've been slightly distracted by the intrusion of life and stuff. The last three days, I've been experiencing some difficulties with my ignition key not starting all of my components in my van. Yesterday, when I got off of work, the damn key would only start the vehicle, and then turn on just a few of my guages and accessories (fuel, oil pressure, alternator charge, water temperature, and my radio). The important stuff wasn't working. Stuff like my speedometer, tachometer, windows, and my A/C fan wouldn't come on. The mahcine would start up and run, but when I tried to go down the road, the transmission was starting me out in second gear, so I had to manually shift it (I assume that the ECU was not powered along with the other devices that were vital to actually driving down the road, so all of the important things that it does weren't happenning.).

Since my key switch was acting a "wonky", and I could sometimes jiggle it and the important accessories would activate, I assumed that it was the problem, and got another one. $14.95 at the local parts store, and they had it in stock. I eased the 1/2 mile up the road, paid the man and brought that booger home. roughly six hours later (after working a full 10 hours at the elevator bidness) I gave up trying to get the damned steering wheel off. I needed a Steering wheel puller, and I didn't have one. All the stores were closed as it was nearly midnight, and I was "highly pissed". I couldn't get to sleep, and I wound up getting to work late this morning. It was a combination of lack of rest, and the fact that my damned van didn't run properly.

After work today, I stopped by my Uncle's house, and borrowed a wheel puller from him (God Love him, he's got just about every automotive tool under the sun.) and commenced to try and fix the issue right there in his driveway. I got there at about 6:15PM, and didn't leave until 10:30. Damn what a fight, but I got the new key switch installed and functioning. Unfortunately the issue was somewhere deeper in than that. The first time I tried it, the same thing happenned that it did with the old one. Lot's and lot's of troubleshooting later, I finally can determine that there is a switch somewhere deep down in the steering column that is not making up. with the key in the normal "run" position, things are boned, but if I turn it another eigth of an inch, "Yahtzee!" everything works.

After reassembling everything, I came on home, all the while holding the key switch so that my daggun speedometer functioned. A couple of times, my hand started cramping, so I had to let go. The guages died. A couple of times, I had to light a cigarrete, and they died then too. When the cherry fell off of my smoke, I just grabbed for it so it didn't burn a hole in my leather seat. After pithcing that bitch out the window, I realised that my guages were still functioning. Sweet!

I made it the rest of the way home with no issue, and my car appears to be fine. I think I may have just (accidentally) fixed that fucker. I sure hope that it works in the morning. I'd hate to only work a 7 and a half hour day, in order to work another four on my own POV afterwards.

We'll see.

Posted by Johnny - Oh at July 14, 2005 12:57 AM | TrackBack