Tag Archives: dodge ram

Tuesday 8th October 2019 – I’VE BEEN …

… Mr Computer Repair Man again today.

having revelled in my triumphs a few days ago about getting my old Acer Laptop up and running after it crashed out on me in the USA and being able to salvage all of the data, down at the office today Rachel bunged another old laptop at me to see if I could raise that one from the dead too.

I spent a couple of hours working on it and, as much to my own surprise as anyone else’s, it’s now up and running again with not only all of the data still intact but all of the programs too.

It’s an old 2009 Lenovo with a 1.3ghz processor running Windows 7, but now that it’s working again it’s quite sprightly for its age as long as you don’t try to do anything too ambitious with it, but for taking down to the storeroom to do an inventory (which is why it was here in the first place) it’s just the job.

And talking of the storeroom, I’ve checked again and we do have indeed a large supply of 165/80 x 13 and 185/70 x 13 tyres for Ford Cortinas, as well as several other obsolete sizes too for other makes, so I’ve been posting the info on various North American classic car groups to try to drum up the sales.

All in all, I’ve had quite a busy morning.

A relaxing morning too. Although I heard all of the alarms go off, it was about 07:00 when I finally managed to raise myself from the dead. And with no school run this morning I was able to have a leisurely start to the day.

Not to transcribe the dictaphone notes though. There’s a couple on there from during the night and I’ll have to copy those over as soon as I can.

For once, Cujo the Killer Cat co-operated with me so I was able to leave the house pretty much when I wanted to without having to hunt her down.

This afternoon was more running around. Taking the cheques to be posted (it’s that time of the year) mainly.

But I had another task assigned to me which I managed to accomplish. In the garage is a 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 pick-up with a major electrical problem. With my little home-made testing apparatus I can tell that there’s a live feed reaching the relays at contacts where no live feed should be. This points to a short circuit in the fuse box somewhere and these are impossible to repair.

The easy answer is to replace the fuse box but, to my amazement (or maybe not, because I’ve long-since ceased to be amazed at the antics of modern motor manufacturers) the part is “no longer available” from the manufacturers.

Consequently, with the repaired laptop (and I’m glad now that I repaired it), I’ve been scouring the scrapyards of North America and I’ve eventually tracked down a rear-ended Dodge of the correct year and model in a scrapyard in Colorado.

A photo of the part on that truck looks identical to the one here, and so that’s now winging its way northwards in our direction. And who knows? We might even be able to make this Dodge start properly without having to hot-wire it all the time.

Fighting off waves of fatigue yet again (and I’ve no idea why) I went to pick up Amber from cheerleading practice after school, only to find that our little visitor had stayed behind too. Never mind the crowded cab when we have half-a-million strong therein by the time we get to Woodstock, it was pretty cramped in there with three, but we managed all the same.

Everyone was out this evening so I made myself some potato thins with onions, carrots garlic and assorted herbs with some vegan sausages, and it was delicious. Especially when followed down by one of the vegan muffins from the weekend.

Later this evening after tea I retreated to my room. I’m not feeling myself at the moment … “and quite right too” – ed … so some peace and quiet will do me good. I’m beginning to feel the strain and I really need a couple of days in bed to haul myself up again, but I doubt whether that will happen any time soon.

Looking at my schedule over the past three and a half months, it would have been pretty hectic for a younger person in good health. For an older person who is slowly dying, it’s been taxing to the limit and beyond.

But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Saturday 27th September 2014 – BACK IN NEW BRUNSWICK

trans canada highway irvings truck stop grand falls new brunswick canada september 2014Last night I found a decent place to sleep, at an Irving truck at Grand Falls. And this was a comfortable spec as well. Tucked away around the back of the building there out of the way. No-one bothered me at all and I didn’t feel a thing. But it was a disturbed night for some reason – I was tossing and turning for a bit and I don’t know why.

And I was on my travels as well during the night too. In the town where I was living was a beautiful bake shop that made some of the most beautiful apple cakes that I had ever tasted. And then a while later I was on my way down to the south of France and I stopped at another bake shop down there to see whether or not they had any apple cakes. And who should be working behind the counter of this bake shop but the young girl from the other place. So we had quite a lengthy chat and I told her that this was nothing because when I was down in the South West of France before, I had bumped into a woman that I knew from my days in Brussels. We discussed about how the world was getting smaller and you can’t go anywhere without meeting anyone whom you know.

So having dealt with those issues, I fuelled up (I believe that if I’m taking advantage of someone’s services I should express my gratitude accordingly) and headed southwards on the Trans-Canada Highway.

Down at Centreville I spent a pleasant morning helping Darren in the garage changing some universal joints on the propshaft of a Dodge Ram pickup and the spark plugs in a Chrysler 200. And if you want to know the meaning of the word “difficult”, try changing the spark plugs on a Chrysler 200.

The physical act of changing them is as straightforward as on any other V6 engine, but it’s finding them that’s the problem. There’s one of these huge pancake air filters on top of the engine and then there’s a huge plastic cowling all over the top of the engine and that’s held on by four or five bolts and brackets that are in something of an inaccessiible position. And I can’t think of any purpose for this cowling except to prevent the average d-i-y motorist from carrying out his own servicing.

This afternoon we had a pleaant day outside in the sunshine doing an enormous amount of tidying up and I installed a couple of solar panels and LED lights over the fire pit at the end of the driveway.

Yes, the weather has been wonderful today and apparently it’s going to be just as good tomorrow. I hope so, because the weather will start closing in soon for winter and we should make the most of the few summer days that are left.

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