Thursday December 19, 2013 Guerneville CA.
A trip was required to the muffler shop
Since I had done all I could on fixing the van, it was time to take it to a muffler shop and have them do their thing. I had to get the exhaust pipe to the new exhaust manifold rebuilt as this new exhaust manifold was different than the one I had on there originally.
That meant I had to drive the van to Santa Rosa without the exhaust pipe connected, which I knew would be a bit noisy.
I was a bit concerned that the hot exhaust gas would burn up my oxygen sensor connector as it was mostly right in front of where the hot gases would exit the manifold.
I just had to mess up my back, ouch
So, this morning I got under there first thing and put some tin foil over the wires. In the process, my back said ouch. Ouch, Ouch. Now, that back really hurt and I was thinking maybe I’d just a have to stay home and nurse it.
I took a couple meds and got my cold pack out of the freezer and laid on that pack for a half hour and got up and decided I might as well go get the repair done. It back was a bit better after the cold pack treatment, but I could tell it was going to be hurting for awhile yet. I figured I could hurt just as well at the muffler shop.
I wish I had my ear plugs
I left the house and it wasn’t too long before I had wished I had my ear plugs and was hoping a cop didn’t hear me go by.
I made it to the muffler shop without any problems and told them what I needed done. I got right in and spent the rest of my time there prancing around in the sunshine in front of the bay where they were working on my van, talking with the guy doing the job off and on. The prancing helped my back a bit.
It was interesting that they wanted to know where I found the new exhaust manifold, as they can be hard to find. Interesting because I had originally though of calling them to ask where a guy could find one of these. Interesting also that it took a modern thing like Amazon on line, to find an old van part.
I kept an eye on the guy doing the work and gave him some not needed advice several times, but he took it in stride. :O)
So, they fixed me up and as I started the engine, the check engine light came on, but it ran ok. The check engine light was on all the way over there as with the exhaust pipe off, the sensor wasn’t being used, so I wasn’t surprised too much with the check engine light on.
I decided to see what was going on with that when I got home.
Visiting
Since I was in Santa Rosa, I decided to go over and visit Marty and Patti for a bit and then go home from there on a less trafficked way. We had a nice visit and my back was hurting a bit so after awhile I headed on home.
Steve lives on the road I took home, so I thought I’d stop in and visit for a bit and also check to see why the check engine light was on.
Fixed that check engine light thingy
Steve wasn’t in, but while I was stopped I crawled under the van to see if the guy hooked the oxygen sensor wire back up and he did. What I found was I had pulled another vacuum sensor off accidentally while I had it apart. I was able to just push that hose back on and off I went. No more check engine light on. Great. Now my only problem was my back. :O)
So, I was sitting on the ice pack at home and my phone rings. It’s my brother Barry. A car broke though one of the planks on our family bridge, could I help him fix it tomorrow? Sure, but my back is killing me, but I’ll do what I can.
Nice to get the van all fixed up, but not so nice to mess up the back.