Daily Archives: March 17, 2018
Ouch, Ouch . . .
Friday afternoon as I was coming home from work I got a another call from Brock’s Car Care about the truck.
Turns out a while back the truck’s transfer case cracked. Dennis at Brock’s said he knew it wasn’t recently because the dirt buildup around the crack where oil was seeping out. Apparently this threw the case out of alignment and begin to stress the U-joints. I knew from the rumble that I needed to have them looked at but I was trying to wait until all our upcoming doctor’s appointments were done with.
Unfortunately that didn’t work out too well.
Dennis wasn’t too encouraging about repairing it but I told him to take a shot and see what he could do using used parts where ever possible.
So he called yesterday with the ‘bad’ news. But not really as ‘bad’ as I had anticipated. By utilizing a used transfer case he could fix it for S2126.00 Ouch, Ouch.
However he said he would have to order a new driveshaft since he couldn’t find a used one. Wonder if a lot of Dakota’s have lost their driveshafts, so there’s a shortage?
Of course there’s always the math about putting $2100 into a 14 year old truck with about 274,000 miles on it, a truck worth maybe $5000 per Kelly Blue Book. But there’s a couple of other considerations.
Overall it’s in good shape. It still looks good and runs good, and it’s towable with just the push of a button. AND it has a $1500 Blue Ox baseplate installed on it. A baseplate that probably can’t be installed on many other vehicles, although I do have a call into Blue Ox to check.
So if I replaced it with something else, I would have to find something that was towable, and buy a new pricey baseplate. So I decided to roll the dice and take a chance.
We’ll see how it goes.
Dennis said it should be ready to go toward the end of the week. Luckily Chris and Linda are going up to Kingsland for a few days and won’t be back until Thursday night, so using his truck until then shouldn’t be a problem.
Last night we got together with long-time friend’s Barbara and Tom.
I’ve known Barb since the early 2000’s when I did IT support for the company where she worked. We always try to get together a couple times every year while we’re in the area.
Sometimes we meet at a restaurant and then go back to their home in the South Shore Harbor area. But if we’re really lucky, Barbara cooks!
Last night’s menu was Lasagna, Green Beans with Bacon, Carrots and Chopped Kale Salad. But Barbara’s gift is that every dish gets her special touch.
For instance, after cooking these carrots, she coated them with butter, Amaretto Liqueur and Orange Liqueur. Probably the best carrots we’ve ever had, and Jan’s new favorite.
Between eating, talking, and looking at a couple of computer problems she was having, we didn’t get home until 1am.
I’ll catch up with tonight’s family antics on tomorrow’s blog.
Thought for the Day:
I’m at that delusional age where I think everyone my age looks way older than I do.
dfgsdfg
