For Starters

You the nicest thing about towing a van to a mechanic? Driving it home when it's fixed.

The new old van which me brother Phil helped me tow to the garage yesterday needed a starter. I expected that, based on how it had acted. It hit me for $348 and some change, which honestly wasn't as bad as I expected. I thought it would be five hundred or so.

So, a good deal. Still, there's that part of me who thinks I should have tried to do it myself. I have before taken on some fairly major repairs. I had an old Pinto station wagon which need a rear main oil seal. I had never replaced anything like that before, yet I didn't think twice about it. I took it into the old barn and yanked that engine, which had to come all the way out, and replaced that seal. No biggie.

I've replaced engine heads and head gaskets on cars, even transmissions. Exhaust systems? Oh yeah. Even brakes, and I'm talking shoe brakes, not disc. One false move putting a spring on a shoe brake and it will fly across the Shop, as feared a projectile as if fired from a cannon. And I'm here to tell about it. Don't ask about Cloyce.

Brake pads and rotors I will still do. They're one of the few things on cars that honestly have become easier to fix. 

So anyway, what does that replaced starter mean on my new old van? Only that it's going on a 600 mile round trip tomorrow to deliver machines. I didn't have that old Chrysler fixed not to drive it. It could still make an appearance in Hessel sometime in 2025.