Automotive Update

I knew the truck battery was going south, and even made a mental note this morning to attend to it. Well tonight, it gave up the ghost, and refused to start after my bike ride. A runner coming back to her car gave me a jump, so I drove directly to Pep Boys and bought a new one. Every time the guy behind the counter mentioned the price, it was $5 higher. Well, I had it, so now all I had to do was go to the service department and they would install it.

Wrong. They were too busy.

Plan B was that they would lend me the tools to do it myself. They handed me a little adjustable wrench and a pair of pliers and sent me out into the deepening dusk. The cables came off easily enough, but there was a hex bolt down by the air cleaner that held the battery in, and the shitty little adjustable wrench was not sufficient. I went back into Pep Boys and they showed me where some real tools were. It took me a half hour of trial and error, borrowing a specific size box wrench and then walking out into the parking lot to try it for size. Finally I figured out that the battery was held in with 13mm metric bolt, and if I lifted up the air cleaner I could spin the wrench enough to loosen the bolt and take out the old battery.

It was night time by the time I finished, but now I'm finally home.