My BIL emailed me this morning, writing that his car was struggling to start and that he thought his battery was headed south. So I wrote back to check the battery terminals for corrosion before he went and bought a new battery.
So, BIL was going to stop by this evening to borrow a few wrenches and clean up the terminals. They were pretty bad. When I say bad, I mean they looked like tempura fried shrimp. The negative terminal connection was completely buried in white corrosion.
When you are doing shade tree mechanics, something always goes wrong. If things go well for too long, it means something really bad is going to happen before it's over.
BIL dropped one of the terminal nuts down into the engine bay. We hunted for it for a while and gave up.
Fortunately, I keep random left over nuts and bolts so we overcame that little problem. Given the minor nature of this mechanical undertaking, I thought we'd made it through the driveway crawler's rubicon.
BIL gets in to start it up and we are greeted with...nothing, no crank, no click no nothing. So, after a bit more inspection, we discover a small ground wire, formerly attached to the negative wiring harness has broken loose. Holding that wire to ground does not result in a starting car, so I pronounce the car dead and tell him he's going to have to get it towed. For him, that's the really bad part. Tow charge, pay a mechanic etc etc.
So, we were going to push it out into the street by the curb to get it out from behind Belle's car.
Key is turned to the on position and the emeffer will not come out of park. It is now a Ford Brick.
Long story short, I managed to maneuver Belle's car from in front of BIL's car out into the front lawn and get it out into the street by the curb so she can get to work in the morning.
Just imagine every youtube video of the world's worst parallel parker you've ever seen and you'll have a good idea of how that process went.
Now I'm back from dropping my BIL back at his place and enjoying a hoppy beverage I put in the freezer to chill when I got home. Beer Slushy anyone?
Been there bud. It's the only thing I hate about owning a truck, because then the inlaws expect me to tow their cars for them every time they break down, which is fairly often these days.
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