Cars: never all that easy to do even the easy stuff

We are going to sell the Kia Sephia we bought for Krissy a year ago. Before I sell it, though, I need to change out the alternator. The one in there now has a bad bearing and sounds like a cement truck when the car is running.

OK, not too hard. Upper bolt. Lower bolt. Two wires.

Not so fast.

First off, need to jack up the car to get underneath. Then take off the front wheel for more room to move.

Now there's stuff in the way. Some funny little box with wires and cables coming out. Three bolts and it's loose.

Dang. I need all my metric sockets. They're over here.. rusty...can't read the numbers...

Loosen up the top bolt, no problem. Oh, right, remove the battery ground. Moving on, remove one cable. Now what about the bottom bolt?

Way under here...14mm... no 14mm socket. Have an open end wrench that'll fit.

Pull, pull harder... No go. Gotta get a socket. Oh, here's one. Good. Bottom bolt is loose now.

But this other wire -- it won't come out. It's a plug, must have a lock or something. But it won't come out. After about 20 min of fiddling, I manage to bust off the lock tab and it comes out.

Well now we're getting really close. The bolts are finally out, the wires are off. Just need to pull... wait, it's stuck. Pull it out ... no.. twist it.... nearly out but this fuel tubing is in the way.... how is this supposed to come out?

Hop on Chiltons' online.. no help.

Try again. Still stuck. Could I take the tubing off the injector manifold? I'd really rather not...

Ok, one more time. Pull this way, shove that way, and apply more force!

It's out! At last! And sure as shootin, that bearing sounds horrible.

zzyzx road

Phishing emails still can't spell -- thank goodness

I'm glad phishing isn't getting too horribly sophisticated. Hopefully people reading this will realize that when there are spelling or grammar errors in an official email, it's a phishing ploy.

And that email address looks REALLY official, doesn't it?

The shrinking 1 x 2 has shrunk even further.

The "grocery shrink ray" strikes grade stakes.

On a recent trip to Home Depot, I noticed these grade stakes, clearly marked '1x2' -- I guess they are thinking that would be 1" x 2". But careful measurement shows they are 1/2" x 1 1/2". Now I suppose you could say "well, they were 1 x 2 before they went through the planer" but I sincerely doubt that. In MY day a 1x2 was at least 3/4 x 1 1/2. These are 33% less wood than THAT, and 37% less wood than what a 1x2 would be if it was full size. You can get nearly 3 of these out of a full size 1x2.