It's almost August, and I'm still not breathing, just holding my breath below the surface of the water and waiting for the inevitable loss of consciousness. Getting up at six, working from home until eight, having breakfast with the family, heading to the office at nine, meetings, meetings, meetings, interruptions following more interruptions, fleeing the office in the early afternoon to try and get something done by working from home again, staying up til midnight working on the things that didn't get done during the day.
Not worth it, not worth it, not worth it.
Dreaming of other things.
Got out my old Bill Cosby tapes, intending on converting them to MP3 before the ferromagnetics degrade, and got lost listening to the old jokes and remembering the many, many times they were played in the old van as I drove around Richmond with the boys in their carseats on those weekends home from New York. Remembering the good times with my little brothers and how much it hurt to have to leave, heading back to that weird semi-nomadic life.
Nowadays things are so domestic, but there aren't enough hours in the day to share between the family and the workplace, although I cheat somewhat and take things home so that my body is present if not really my mind. This is why the work goes on until midnight, as my brain tries to multitask between family tasks and work tasks and gets totally scrambled in the process.
Vacation Bible School goes on this week without as much participation from us as in years past. The younger children attend, and we are helping out with the junior high group on Thursday, but that is the limit of our commitment. It aches to stand in the back and watch the kids having so much fun and not be an integral part of it - there is nothing worse than not being involved - but other pressing duties (and a spectacular youth minister who is able to handle both junior and senior high events simultaneously) obviate our desires.
Never enough time in the day.
It's midnight far too soon.
And I'm ... so ... tired.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Back on the Farm
The vacation is over at the end of today, and here's what I have to show for it.
Project Number 1: Ceiling Fan
The Michigan summers get pretty hot, and it's nice to have something in the room to blow the air around, something a bit bigger than the little heater/air-conditioner vent which sits on the floor and spits dust into the sky. We've been in this house four years now; it was the second summer, I think, when we installed ceiling fans in the kids' rooms, so now on the fourth, it's high-time to get something in the master bedroom so the parents can cool off a bit as well.
We looked through the ads and the circulars, and spent some time looking through the lighting sections at Lowes and Home Depot and other hardware-type stores, and finally found something we liked. It is big and white and self-balancing and easy to install (well, that's what the box says, anyway!). We actually bought it a few weeks ago, but weren't motivated to put it in until two things happened.
One, I got a bit of a vacation. And two, it got really hot outside.
Unfortunately, since it's in the master bedroom, and the master bedroom has one of those specially-shaped ceilings, it wasn't an easy thing to hang. I had to go up in the attic (early in the morning, before it got roasting hot up there!) and find the joists underneath two feet of blown-in insulation; then figure out where the middle of the specially-shaped ceiling was; then fit the mid-joist electrical appliance outlet box in between a couple joists; then find some circuit to tap into (again, with wires buried under two feet of blow-in); then actually hang the fan without doing serious damage to the textured ceiling.
I got the mechanical portion of it done the first day, but then it got too hot to breathe up in the attic, so I put off the wiring and finishing until today. That took a couple hours. But it was sure worth it when the fan started turning and the cool air starting flowing across my sweat-stained shirt!
Ahhh....
Project 2: Sprinkler Head Replacement
Seems like every year since we bought the house, I've had to perform some kind of maintenance on the sprinkler / irrigation system. Gotta blow the lines out before the first frost, then unseal everything at the beginning of summer so the grass can get watered - all that just so the lawn stays green! Not really worth it, if you ask me. Michigan grasses have been just fine, thank you, long before we came along. They brown up in the summer a bit, but fall, winter and spring sure don't do 'em any harm. And we're just pouring out water like it was free.
But that's just my whining.
First thing that had to be fixed was one of the sprinkler heads out by the bushes. Seems the head got ripped off by the snow-blower last winter, so it had to be replaced. Couldn't replace it with an exact duplicate because that particular brand of irrigation system isn't available in the States (must've been one of those contractor specials), so we had to make do with whatever we could find at Home Depot.
T'other problem was that the boys were a bit reluctant to dig the old one out, being as it was muddy (they're not lazy, just lost their affinity for playing in the mud when they turned pre-teen). Ol' Dad don't mind playing in the mud, though, so after the boys had dug out a pit using the garden tools, I got down on my hands and knees and showed 'em how it's done, pulling out gobs and gobs of wet, muddy clay (it's all clay around here) and piling it up on the side til the pipe was clear. Had to be careful, though, since this particular spigot was in a narrow spot between a very nice bush and the sidewalk, which means that the root system was all over the place. Which is why I was using my hands and not a trowel.
Finally got the pipe excavated, then popped the new one into place and set 'er back down and let the water go. Looks like she'll work out fine. Of course, the old one was one of those fancy-dancy "pop-up" kind (and it popped up to the tune of ten or twelve inches!), and the new one is just a stationary bush sprayer (sitting pretty at fifteen inches altitude) so the watering will be slightly different; but, hey, it's off my list now!
Project 3: Irrigation System Control Setup
The irrigation system controls were originally set down inside this plastic box with a green cover, dug down into the ground about eight or ten inches, all hidden (mostly) from view. Woulda worked great, too, if it hadn't been for the fact that the noobs who planted it, planted it right next to a big fir tree. Idiots didn't understand the concept of growing root systems and earth movement. Come the second summer, the box was warping and the mud from the pile of dirt around the tree was coming in through the not-fitting-anymore cover, and then - can you believe it? - the controls stopped working. Hard to work when covered in mud.
Last summer I pulled the box out and left the controls sitting above the ground, mostly hanging in mid-air. But the mud kept coming in and filling in the hole where the box had been, so that wasn't a really good solution. With work taking up most of my time, though, I didn't have a better fix; and then suddenly it was fall and then winter, and I had to wait on it.
This year I re-mounted the controls onto a pipe that sticks right out of the relief valve (about three feet off the ground) and attached the water lines right on to the controls, and don't have to worry about mud or growing trees or anything. Sure, it looks ridiculous, but since it's behind the tree which faces the street, it's not visible from anywhere but my own backyard, and I don't care what it looks like so long as it works.
I used the opportunity to teach the boys how to use plumber's tape, too. Showed them what it was like with no tape on the pipe threads (i.e. water leaking all over the place), then had them put the tape on each set of threads and tighten down the caps and voila! No more leaks!
It's always fun to turn these little house projects into educational opportunities.
(I decided not to turn the ceiling fan into an educational opportunity because they would've had way too much fun exploring the attic, and I might never have found 'em again under all that insulation...)
Project Number 1: Ceiling Fan
The Michigan summers get pretty hot, and it's nice to have something in the room to blow the air around, something a bit bigger than the little heater/air-conditioner vent which sits on the floor and spits dust into the sky. We've been in this house four years now; it was the second summer, I think, when we installed ceiling fans in the kids' rooms, so now on the fourth, it's high-time to get something in the master bedroom so the parents can cool off a bit as well.
We looked through the ads and the circulars, and spent some time looking through the lighting sections at Lowes and Home Depot and other hardware-type stores, and finally found something we liked. It is big and white and self-balancing and easy to install (well, that's what the box says, anyway!). We actually bought it a few weeks ago, but weren't motivated to put it in until two things happened.
One, I got a bit of a vacation. And two, it got really hot outside.
Unfortunately, since it's in the master bedroom, and the master bedroom has one of those specially-shaped ceilings, it wasn't an easy thing to hang. I had to go up in the attic (early in the morning, before it got roasting hot up there!) and find the joists underneath two feet of blown-in insulation; then figure out where the middle of the specially-shaped ceiling was; then fit the mid-joist electrical appliance outlet box in between a couple joists; then find some circuit to tap into (again, with wires buried under two feet of blow-in); then actually hang the fan without doing serious damage to the textured ceiling.
I got the mechanical portion of it done the first day, but then it got too hot to breathe up in the attic, so I put off the wiring and finishing until today. That took a couple hours. But it was sure worth it when the fan started turning and the cool air starting flowing across my sweat-stained shirt!
Ahhh....
Project 2: Sprinkler Head Replacement
Seems like every year since we bought the house, I've had to perform some kind of maintenance on the sprinkler / irrigation system. Gotta blow the lines out before the first frost, then unseal everything at the beginning of summer so the grass can get watered - all that just so the lawn stays green! Not really worth it, if you ask me. Michigan grasses have been just fine, thank you, long before we came along. They brown up in the summer a bit, but fall, winter and spring sure don't do 'em any harm. And we're just pouring out water like it was free.
But that's just my whining.
First thing that had to be fixed was one of the sprinkler heads out by the bushes. Seems the head got ripped off by the snow-blower last winter, so it had to be replaced. Couldn't replace it with an exact duplicate because that particular brand of irrigation system isn't available in the States (must've been one of those contractor specials), so we had to make do with whatever we could find at Home Depot.
T'other problem was that the boys were a bit reluctant to dig the old one out, being as it was muddy (they're not lazy, just lost their affinity for playing in the mud when they turned pre-teen). Ol' Dad don't mind playing in the mud, though, so after the boys had dug out a pit using the garden tools, I got down on my hands and knees and showed 'em how it's done, pulling out gobs and gobs of wet, muddy clay (it's all clay around here) and piling it up on the side til the pipe was clear. Had to be careful, though, since this particular spigot was in a narrow spot between a very nice bush and the sidewalk, which means that the root system was all over the place. Which is why I was using my hands and not a trowel.
Finally got the pipe excavated, then popped the new one into place and set 'er back down and let the water go. Looks like she'll work out fine. Of course, the old one was one of those fancy-dancy "pop-up" kind (and it popped up to the tune of ten or twelve inches!), and the new one is just a stationary bush sprayer (sitting pretty at fifteen inches altitude) so the watering will be slightly different; but, hey, it's off my list now!
Project 3: Irrigation System Control Setup
The irrigation system controls were originally set down inside this plastic box with a green cover, dug down into the ground about eight or ten inches, all hidden (mostly) from view. Woulda worked great, too, if it hadn't been for the fact that the noobs who planted it, planted it right next to a big fir tree. Idiots didn't understand the concept of growing root systems and earth movement. Come the second summer, the box was warping and the mud from the pile of dirt around the tree was coming in through the not-fitting-anymore cover, and then - can you believe it? - the controls stopped working. Hard to work when covered in mud.
Last summer I pulled the box out and left the controls sitting above the ground, mostly hanging in mid-air. But the mud kept coming in and filling in the hole where the box had been, so that wasn't a really good solution. With work taking up most of my time, though, I didn't have a better fix; and then suddenly it was fall and then winter, and I had to wait on it.
This year I re-mounted the controls onto a pipe that sticks right out of the relief valve (about three feet off the ground) and attached the water lines right on to the controls, and don't have to worry about mud or growing trees or anything. Sure, it looks ridiculous, but since it's behind the tree which faces the street, it's not visible from anywhere but my own backyard, and I don't care what it looks like so long as it works.
I used the opportunity to teach the boys how to use plumber's tape, too. Showed them what it was like with no tape on the pipe threads (i.e. water leaking all over the place), then had them put the tape on each set of threads and tighten down the caps and voila! No more leaks!
It's always fun to turn these little house projects into educational opportunities.
(I decided not to turn the ceiling fan into an educational opportunity because they would've had way too much fun exploring the attic, and I might never have found 'em again under all that insulation...)
Monday, July 14, 2008
Why Am I Always So Tired?
Today was supposed to be the start of my three-day working-on-the-house vacation, and it was supposed to conclude with being tired from a long day of great accomplishments.
But it actually began with being tired, and it wasn't the tired that comes from getting back from a long road trip; it was the tired that comes from not wanting to get up and face the world.
This is what happens when the world takes away from you the joy of doing what you want to do.
I really like living here in this part of the country. I enjoy the short commute, the nice neighborhoods, the ease in getting from the suburbs to the city, the laid-back style of life. I do not wish to return to the long commutes, the road-rage stress, the constant fear of layoffs.
But I am not entrepreneurial. I do not want to "sell myself". It is not in my nature. My nature is to sit and contemplate, to write, to create, to ponder for long periods of time about little things that might or might not mean anything to anyone, to scratch it all out because it doesn't sound right, and then do it all over again - only a little bit different, until the form and rhythm are correct.
I can't do that anymore, not here, not as an engineer.
The Company, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that Americans are too expensive to utilize as engineers (creators, designers, testers) because those "assembly-line" tasks can be performed at far less cost by people in Third World countries. So they have declared - and acted upon - their intentions to rid their American workforce of those occupations by instituting layoffs. My escape from this first round was purely by coincidence; I had accepted a leadership position as a favor to a friend, and thus became the lowest rung on the ladder which was not cut off.
This is not to say that my turn will not come. As soon as the current project is completed, in six or seven or eight months, perhaps it will be my turn, and (assuming they do things the same way it was done this time) I will receive a phone call to let me know that my services are no longer required.
(In this industry, it hasn't been the first time; and unfortunately, in all probability it will not be the last.)
What is most upsetting, is that they are taking away from us engineers that which gives us meaning in our professional lives. Writing code and creating electronics circuits is why we got into the business in the first place. We did not begin our careers so that we could sit in meetings all day long and generate status charts and handle charge accounts and give presentations to customers.
We want to create things. Good things. Things that other people will find valuable, of course, but mostly things that we find valuable because we designed them, we created them. To take all that away is to cheapen our lives, despoil our achievements, reduce our significance to less than nothing.
This is not to say that there will be no job; there will always be jobs available, so long as there are things that need to be done. But there will be far less joy and satisfaction in those jobs, far less fulfillment, far less creativity.
And there will be more tired mornings.
But it actually began with being tired, and it wasn't the tired that comes from getting back from a long road trip; it was the tired that comes from not wanting to get up and face the world.
This is what happens when the world takes away from you the joy of doing what you want to do.
I really like living here in this part of the country. I enjoy the short commute, the nice neighborhoods, the ease in getting from the suburbs to the city, the laid-back style of life. I do not wish to return to the long commutes, the road-rage stress, the constant fear of layoffs.
But I am not entrepreneurial. I do not want to "sell myself". It is not in my nature. My nature is to sit and contemplate, to write, to create, to ponder for long periods of time about little things that might or might not mean anything to anyone, to scratch it all out because it doesn't sound right, and then do it all over again - only a little bit different, until the form and rhythm are correct.
I can't do that anymore, not here, not as an engineer.
The Company, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that Americans are too expensive to utilize as engineers (creators, designers, testers) because those "assembly-line" tasks can be performed at far less cost by people in Third World countries. So they have declared - and acted upon - their intentions to rid their American workforce of those occupations by instituting layoffs. My escape from this first round was purely by coincidence; I had accepted a leadership position as a favor to a friend, and thus became the lowest rung on the ladder which was not cut off.
This is not to say that my turn will not come. As soon as the current project is completed, in six or seven or eight months, perhaps it will be my turn, and (assuming they do things the same way it was done this time) I will receive a phone call to let me know that my services are no longer required.
(In this industry, it hasn't been the first time; and unfortunately, in all probability it will not be the last.)
What is most upsetting, is that they are taking away from us engineers that which gives us meaning in our professional lives. Writing code and creating electronics circuits is why we got into the business in the first place. We did not begin our careers so that we could sit in meetings all day long and generate status charts and handle charge accounts and give presentations to customers.
We want to create things. Good things. Things that other people will find valuable, of course, but mostly things that we find valuable because we designed them, we created them. To take all that away is to cheapen our lives, despoil our achievements, reduce our significance to less than nothing.
This is not to say that there will be no job; there will always be jobs available, so long as there are things that need to be done. But there will be far less joy and satisfaction in those jobs, far less fulfillment, far less creativity.
And there will be more tired mornings.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Reunion 2008
We wish you were here, but you're not, so you'll have to just read about it instead of experiencing it in full 3-D.
First of all, we slept in. What can I say? We're tired. Or just lazy. The girls slept in Grandma and Grandpa's room, so they were up early to get breakfast; but the rest of us didn't bother getting out of bed til 7 or 8 or something. Even then, Cheryl and the boys headed down for breakfast before I even got out of bed, so I get the Laziness Award for the day.
After breakfast, some folks headed out to the stores to get more food (as if we were ever going to run short!!) while we went back to our room - all six of us this time - and watched cartoons and cruised the web until it was time to head out to the park. Which we did, finally, around 11:30 or so.
Saw Doc and Beverly on the way out of town. They had a car-ful!
Got to the park around noon, unloaded the car, sent the kids off to play, wandered around saying hello to everyone, met some people we didn't know, met a lot of people we did know and hadn't seen in a long time.
Absences of note: Lee Albertson is non-ambulatory. We all missed him and his silly jokes. Joe and Betty were dealing with the loss of power out at their farm, so they were scrambling to get something put together for the ice cream feast later on tonight.
Lateness of note: Bob and Joyce et al were MIA for awhile, but showed up after we'd started eating (finally!) so they didn't miss out. Got to see Robby and Ricky and Rachel (Rachel is the one wearing the batman outfit).
Unexpected arrivals: Nancy. Didn't realize she had moved back to Indiana, but she has. Good to see her and her family.
The girl cousins - Deb and Mary and Braelyn and Rebekah and Braelyn's cyberFriend (whose name escapes me) ran off to play. The boy cousins - Adam and James and Brason and Caleb - were last seen watching Bob's chess demo.
The food was wonderful, as expected. Doc's bratwurst was superb, as usual. I had only a small pile this year, as there isn't much room in my tummy these days and I was saving room for that yummy home-made ice cream later on.
We had our traditional afternoon at the pool with the kids, which normally takes place while the adults are taking their traditional hike to the falls; then James and Mary and I took a hike to the falls after we were done at the pool; and then we all finished the clean-up of the site and got back in our cars and drove to Joe and Betty's for dinner leftovers and ice cream.
Many hours of visiting later, we departed for the motel where it was time to settle down, clean up, watch some TV (History Channel, of course!), surf the web (looking for DS skins), and hit the sack.
All in all, a very fulfilling day.
First of all, we slept in. What can I say? We're tired. Or just lazy. The girls slept in Grandma and Grandpa's room, so they were up early to get breakfast; but the rest of us didn't bother getting out of bed til 7 or 8 or something. Even then, Cheryl and the boys headed down for breakfast before I even got out of bed, so I get the Laziness Award for the day.
After breakfast, some folks headed out to the stores to get more food (as if we were ever going to run short!!) while we went back to our room - all six of us this time - and watched cartoons and cruised the web until it was time to head out to the park. Which we did, finally, around 11:30 or so.
Saw Doc and Beverly on the way out of town. They had a car-ful!
Got to the park around noon, unloaded the car, sent the kids off to play, wandered around saying hello to everyone, met some people we didn't know, met a lot of people we did know and hadn't seen in a long time.
Absences of note: Lee Albertson is non-ambulatory. We all missed him and his silly jokes. Joe and Betty were dealing with the loss of power out at their farm, so they were scrambling to get something put together for the ice cream feast later on tonight.
Lateness of note: Bob and Joyce et al were MIA for awhile, but showed up after we'd started eating (finally!) so they didn't miss out. Got to see Robby and Ricky and Rachel (Rachel is the one wearing the batman outfit).
Unexpected arrivals: Nancy. Didn't realize she had moved back to Indiana, but she has. Good to see her and her family.
The girl cousins - Deb and Mary and Braelyn and Rebekah and Braelyn's cyberFriend (whose name escapes me) ran off to play. The boy cousins - Adam and James and Brason and Caleb - were last seen watching Bob's chess demo.
The food was wonderful, as expected. Doc's bratwurst was superb, as usual. I had only a small pile this year, as there isn't much room in my tummy these days and I was saving room for that yummy home-made ice cream later on.
We had our traditional afternoon at the pool with the kids, which normally takes place while the adults are taking their traditional hike to the falls; then James and Mary and I took a hike to the falls after we were done at the pool; and then we all finished the clean-up of the site and got back in our cars and drove to Joe and Betty's for dinner leftovers and ice cream.
Many hours of visiting later, we departed for the motel where it was time to settle down, clean up, watch some TV (History Channel, of course!), surf the web (looking for DS skins), and hit the sack.
All in all, a very fulfilling day.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Hoosiers by Hairline
We have arrived. Finally.
It was a hectic day, starting with the break-up of our campsite in the wee hours of the morning, followed by a last-minute round of rifle shooting, after which James and I scooted on home to do a bit of laundry and cram the family into the van and head south for the Reunion.
Didn't get out of GR til nearly five; finally got down to Bloomington near midnight. Had to stop for dinner, after all.
Mom and Dad and Clyde and Judy were waiting for us at the motel, so we had hugs all around before heading off to bed. Tomorrow will be a busy, busy day.
It was a hectic day, starting with the break-up of our campsite in the wee hours of the morning, followed by a last-minute round of rifle shooting, after which James and I scooted on home to do a bit of laundry and cram the family into the van and head south for the Reunion.
Didn't get out of GR til nearly five; finally got down to Bloomington near midnight. Had to stop for dinner, after all.
Mom and Dad and Clyde and Judy were waiting for us at the motel, so we had hugs all around before heading off to bed. Tomorrow will be a busy, busy day.
Friday, July 04, 2008
Independence
The day didn't turn out quite like I'd expected.
The objective for today was to install the belt kit for the Caravan. It had arrived on Wednesday, but there was no time to do anything with it that night or the next. It was left for today.
It wasn't my intent to spend the entire day doing it, but then again, it never is. These projects just tend to take over sometimes, especially the ones where I'm wading into deep and unknown waters.
There's also the prep work that ends up taking far longer than I'd planned. It's important to have proper lighting in the engine compartment for things like this, so the plan was to use the halogen worklights on their tripods. But since they were cheap models, one of the extender poles wasn't working properly: the nylon tightener, which was somehow supposed to not slip when placed inside the metal tube, slipped. Wonder of wonders. Not sure how they figured that was ever going to work. I drilled some holes in it and stuck some copper pins in place, then roughed up the nylon in an attempt to create more friction, and it worked. Mostly.
Let there be light.
First order of business was reading the instructions. Then reading them again. Then laying out the pieces so they could be identified. Then reading the directions again. Then figuring out which tools were needed. Then reading the directions again. Then looking at my watch to see how long it had taken to get this far.
Too long!
Then it occurred to me that it would be nice to have a bit of room to work in, so the van was moved half-way out of the garage to give me lots of floor space to scatter tools and things; then because it might be necessary to crawl under the car to reach things that weren't accessible from the top, and there isn't much space between the bottom of the car and the floor, the jack was set up and the car was lifted up a bit and then it was time to ... disconnect the battery.
Note to self: always disconnect the battery. Sticking one's hands inside the engine compartment into dark areas where one cannot see where one's hands are going, is a sure formula for disaster when there is electricity around. Or rotating parts.
Next, set up the halogen next to the engine compartment (with the hood up!) so it is possible to actually see what is going on.
Then re-read the directions. Again. What was the first step again? All these distractions have gotten me confused.
Oh, yes. Locate the tensioner pulley. Turn the tensioner pulley bolt to loosen the belt, then take it off. Check. Then remove the tensioner mounting nut to remove the tensioner. Um ... I can't even see that bolt. It's hidden behind the exhaust manifold, below and to the rear of the engine.
Could I see it if I remove the black mounting plate that's holding the alternator? Perhaps. Let's give it a try. OK, the mounting plate is actually two mounting plates, one supporting the other. Need to unbolt the first one, then unmount the alternator, then unmount the second mounting plate, then ...
Hmmm. It's not moving. Must be more bolts holding it on. Oh, wait. The tensioner bolt is holding it on! OK, scrap that idea. Gotta get the tensioner off from down below.
Time to crawl underneath.
Oooh. Still can't see anything. There's a splash guard in the way, as well as the power steering pump. Trying to reach my arm up and around things to find the nut - nope, can't reach it.
Might be able to reach it if I move the power steering pump out of the way. So it gets unbolted. One, two, three, four, five bolts later, it finally comes off. OK, now I can see the tensioner nut. Gonna be hard to reach way up into their. And the exhaust manifold is too close to use the socket wrench. Going to need the universal joint. And the extender. Still difficult, though, because the ratchet can't turn very much without hitting something. Millimeter by millimeter, it finally turns. It finally comes off! And promptly drops into the nether regions of the engine compartment above my head, into a gap between two metal pieces. It takes a bit of blind feeling with my fingers to locate it.
But - Success! The old tensioner is off!
The old idler pulley is much easier to get off. One bolt loosened, and there it is.
I take the two pulleys over to the workbench to place them next to the new ones, just to compare them. The new ones look really cool - grooved and black and shiny. The old ones look ... old. And shiny. Not shiny-new but shiny-smooth, like How on earth did the belt ever stay on those pulleys?
Now to put the new ones on!
Again, the new idler is simple. One bolt tightened down, and it's done.
And the tensioner shouldn't be too hard, now that I know how it goes on. Just another trip underneath the car to get the nut placed properly, and it's on. Oops! Forgot to put the alternator mounting plate back on. Took the tensioner back off again, put the mounting plate in place, then remounted the tensioner. OK, that was easy; now for the power steering pump. One, two, three, four, five bolts in place, tightened. Done.
Back up top to put the alternator back where it belongs. Put the second mounting plate back on. Then the alternator. Done.
Now for the belt!
Weaving the belt through the myriad of pulleys isn't easy, especially since there are also lots of wires and tubes and hoses in the way. Took me nearly half an hour. Then it was time to check the directions again because it's important to know how to get the belt on now that it won't slide over the slick, smooth metal of the old pulleys. There's gotta be some serious slack here or it won't work.
OK, the directions say to leave the belt off the idler pulley and then rotate the tensioner pulley down to make some slack so the belt can be slid over the idler pulley, then let up on the tensioner and it'll be set.
Right.
Took the 15mm end wrench (there's no room for the socket) and put it on the tensioner pulley bolt and pulled on it to rotate the pulley assembly and ...
Ow! That's hard! The spring in the tensioner is really tight! I can't hold the wrench for more than a few seconds before it becomes too painful. And I can't just let go, either, or it snaps my hand back against the alternator mounting bracket. I try it several more times, but eventually decide that this just won't work. More leverage is needed.
But there are no breaker bars (or pipes) for leverage.
Time for a trip to Home Depot!
---
One hour later, armed with a 12-inch long piece of 1-inch steel pipe, I'm ready to try again. This time, the wrench (with its pretty steel pipe slipcover) is much easier to move, and the pulley assembly rotates all the way to the stop-point; but it just isn't quite enough. The belt still won't slide over the idler, no matter how hard I try. And I do try.
Arg!
Now what?
---
The only possibility that comes to mind is loosening the alternator; it has a little bit of rotary play, so if I disconnect the top bolt from the mounting plate, it might rotate enough to allow a little slack. So pull the bolt, shift the alternator a smidgen, and now the belt slides. Right. On. To. The. Idler.
Yay!
(Of course, now the alternator will be impossible to put back into position, right?)
Oddly enough, the alternator slips right back into place, and the bolt slides in. I tighten it down. And it's done.
The new belt is on.
No more worrying about belts sliding off in the rain.
And I'm exhausted.
(Pictures are here.)
The objective for today was to install the belt kit for the Caravan. It had arrived on Wednesday, but there was no time to do anything with it that night or the next. It was left for today.
It wasn't my intent to spend the entire day doing it, but then again, it never is. These projects just tend to take over sometimes, especially the ones where I'm wading into deep and unknown waters.
There's also the prep work that ends up taking far longer than I'd planned. It's important to have proper lighting in the engine compartment for things like this, so the plan was to use the halogen worklights on their tripods. But since they were cheap models, one of the extender poles wasn't working properly: the nylon tightener, which was somehow supposed to not slip when placed inside the metal tube, slipped. Wonder of wonders. Not sure how they figured that was ever going to work. I drilled some holes in it and stuck some copper pins in place, then roughed up the nylon in an attempt to create more friction, and it worked. Mostly.
Let there be light.
First order of business was reading the instructions. Then reading them again. Then laying out the pieces so they could be identified. Then reading the directions again. Then figuring out which tools were needed. Then reading the directions again. Then looking at my watch to see how long it had taken to get this far.
Too long!
Then it occurred to me that it would be nice to have a bit of room to work in, so the van was moved half-way out of the garage to give me lots of floor space to scatter tools and things; then because it might be necessary to crawl under the car to reach things that weren't accessible from the top, and there isn't much space between the bottom of the car and the floor, the jack was set up and the car was lifted up a bit and then it was time to ... disconnect the battery.
Note to self: always disconnect the battery. Sticking one's hands inside the engine compartment into dark areas where one cannot see where one's hands are going, is a sure formula for disaster when there is electricity around. Or rotating parts.
Next, set up the halogen next to the engine compartment (with the hood up!) so it is possible to actually see what is going on.
Then re-read the directions. Again. What was the first step again? All these distractions have gotten me confused.
Oh, yes. Locate the tensioner pulley. Turn the tensioner pulley bolt to loosen the belt, then take it off. Check. Then remove the tensioner mounting nut to remove the tensioner. Um ... I can't even see that bolt. It's hidden behind the exhaust manifold, below and to the rear of the engine.
Could I see it if I remove the black mounting plate that's holding the alternator? Perhaps. Let's give it a try. OK, the mounting plate is actually two mounting plates, one supporting the other. Need to unbolt the first one, then unmount the alternator, then unmount the second mounting plate, then ...
Hmmm. It's not moving. Must be more bolts holding it on. Oh, wait. The tensioner bolt is holding it on! OK, scrap that idea. Gotta get the tensioner off from down below.
Time to crawl underneath.
Oooh. Still can't see anything. There's a splash guard in the way, as well as the power steering pump. Trying to reach my arm up and around things to find the nut - nope, can't reach it.
Might be able to reach it if I move the power steering pump out of the way. So it gets unbolted. One, two, three, four, five bolts later, it finally comes off. OK, now I can see the tensioner nut. Gonna be hard to reach way up into their. And the exhaust manifold is too close to use the socket wrench. Going to need the universal joint. And the extender. Still difficult, though, because the ratchet can't turn very much without hitting something. Millimeter by millimeter, it finally turns. It finally comes off! And promptly drops into the nether regions of the engine compartment above my head, into a gap between two metal pieces. It takes a bit of blind feeling with my fingers to locate it.
But - Success! The old tensioner is off!
The old idler pulley is much easier to get off. One bolt loosened, and there it is.
I take the two pulleys over to the workbench to place them next to the new ones, just to compare them. The new ones look really cool - grooved and black and shiny. The old ones look ... old. And shiny. Not shiny-new but shiny-smooth, like How on earth did the belt ever stay on those pulleys?
Now to put the new ones on!
Again, the new idler is simple. One bolt tightened down, and it's done.
And the tensioner shouldn't be too hard, now that I know how it goes on. Just another trip underneath the car to get the nut placed properly, and it's on. Oops! Forgot to put the alternator mounting plate back on. Took the tensioner back off again, put the mounting plate in place, then remounted the tensioner. OK, that was easy; now for the power steering pump. One, two, three, four, five bolts in place, tightened. Done.
Back up top to put the alternator back where it belongs. Put the second mounting plate back on. Then the alternator. Done.
Now for the belt!
Weaving the belt through the myriad of pulleys isn't easy, especially since there are also lots of wires and tubes and hoses in the way. Took me nearly half an hour. Then it was time to check the directions again because it's important to know how to get the belt on now that it won't slide over the slick, smooth metal of the old pulleys. There's gotta be some serious slack here or it won't work.
OK, the directions say to leave the belt off the idler pulley and then rotate the tensioner pulley down to make some slack so the belt can be slid over the idler pulley, then let up on the tensioner and it'll be set.
Right.
Took the 15mm end wrench (there's no room for the socket) and put it on the tensioner pulley bolt and pulled on it to rotate the pulley assembly and ...
Ow! That's hard! The spring in the tensioner is really tight! I can't hold the wrench for more than a few seconds before it becomes too painful. And I can't just let go, either, or it snaps my hand back against the alternator mounting bracket. I try it several more times, but eventually decide that this just won't work. More leverage is needed.
But there are no breaker bars (or pipes) for leverage.
Time for a trip to Home Depot!
---
One hour later, armed with a 12-inch long piece of 1-inch steel pipe, I'm ready to try again. This time, the wrench (with its pretty steel pipe slipcover) is much easier to move, and the pulley assembly rotates all the way to the stop-point; but it just isn't quite enough. The belt still won't slide over the idler, no matter how hard I try. And I do try.
Arg!
Now what?
---
The only possibility that comes to mind is loosening the alternator; it has a little bit of rotary play, so if I disconnect the top bolt from the mounting plate, it might rotate enough to allow a little slack. So pull the bolt, shift the alternator a smidgen, and now the belt slides. Right. On. To. The. Idler.
Yay!
(Of course, now the alternator will be impossible to put back into position, right?)
Oddly enough, the alternator slips right back into place, and the bolt slides in. I tighten it down. And it's done.
The new belt is on.
No more worrying about belts sliding off in the rain.
And I'm exhausted.
(Pictures are here.)
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