4 Wheel Drive No More . . .
Our morning started off with a move from site 72 where we’d been since Sunday night, to site 4 over in front of the office. Since we were only going about 100 yards, we didn’t have to pack things away as much as normal, and we had no problems at all.
We can move into the waterfront site this Friday if we want, and then move again on Dec 10th to a better site. But we’ve been burned before when we waited and waited to someone to leave, and they kept re-upping.
So we’ll have to decide what we’re going to do.
About 12:30 I headed out to check in with one of my long-time clients. They’ve got 5 computers that need cleaning and updating, and some problems with a home entertainment system that I need to sort out. So this will keep me busy for several weeks.
Brock’s Automotive had called earlier and said my truck was done, so about 3:30 I headed over there to settle up with them, and then Jan and I will pick it up later this evening.
As it turns my previously 4 wheel drive truck is now a 2 wheel drive truck. The damage to the front transaxle was more extensive than thought. It wasn’t just one axle bracket that had broken, but the transaxle case mounts had snapped off which is why the whole thing had dropped down on the skid plate. In fact, if the skid plate hadn’t been there, it probably would have fallen to the pavement.
When I first talked to Brock’s I mentioned the idea that, since the truck is 7 years old and has 178, 000 miles on it, with another 47,000 miles being towed, I really didn’t want to put several thousand dollars into it to fix this. So I ask them about the possibility of just disconnecting the two drive shafts, leaving me with just 2 wheel drive. As it is the last time we used 4 wheel drive was in a snowstorm driving from Billings MT to Sturgis SD in 2008, so I don’t think we would miss it.
And once the full scope of the damage was found, it was obvious that the entire transaxle/driveshaft assembly would have to be replaced. When Brock’s started checking around they found that a used one was $800 – $1000, and a new one was $3200 #$%#@# dollars. With another $1000 or so for labor.
No way! (I would have put ‘Jose’ in there, but you never know what’s not politically correct anymore)
So for $375, they removed the transaxle and driveshaft assembly, and threw in an oil and filter change. You can’t beat that.
Still driving Lowell’s truck, I headed back to the rig, stopping off to fill it up with gas, before picking Jan up and heading back up to Clear Lake.
Our first stop was Rudy’s BBQ on I-45 in Webster. We’ve always enjoyed eating at Rudy’s in the Austin area, and while we were gone this year, they built one here.
Next, we stopped by Brock’s to pick up our truck while Jan drove Lowell’s truck back to Brandi’s with me following in ours.
Brandi, Lowell, and Landon are heading up to Oklahoma tonight to spend Thanksgiving with Lowell’s parents, so we said our goodbyes and then headed down to La Marque so Jan could meet our friend Maria and play bingo.
I then ran some errands and was back down to La Marque to pick her up at 10 pm.
Unfortunately she didn’t win anything this time. Maybe next time.
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Thought for the Day:
“When faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand; then look at it again.” – Robert A. Heinlein
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