#166 - There. I did it. - June 1, 2013

Cool thing from the last 24: I fixed a car for the first time in my life.  This is a big deal not because I haven't been involved in car repair, but because this time I diagnosed the problem, bought the part, installed it, and it worked.  All of my previous car repair work had been done with my dad.  So that chapter is now closed.  Yes, I can repair a car.  In limited ways, but I can do it.  And Katrina has driven it, so that makes it better.   I'll still consult with my dad on car problems, but I know I can do this myself.

I got home from work - it was 90 and the kids had been in the pool - changed into shorts and a t-shirt, and got to work in the garage.  The part had arrived in the morning, so I picked it up during lunch.  Katrina and the girls were set to go out in the evening, and we were headed out camping, so I had a deadline to finish the repair and get out the door.

I used the new part to see how the tabs worked to hold it in, removed the old one, taking pictures of the wire attachments first, and installed the new one.   I reassembled the fuse box, bolted it to the frame, mounted the battery and its cables, cleaned my tools out of the engine block, and started up the car.  No problems.  10 minutes later, the girls were gone.  Car repair accomplished, deadline met.  This, I can do.

The boys and I finished packing, and off we went.  The camping details will be for tomorrow.

Pic below: the iPhone is a wonderful tool for car repair.  I took pictures of the electrical connections on the fusible link before disconnecting them.  When I installed the new one, I just had to make sure the pictures matched.  Thankfully, Toyota had also marked the cable ends with sharpie in a certain way so I could identify it in the photos.  One terminal is green, the other has the sharpie marks.  The cables on teh other side were also distinguishable in this way.