I fixed my truck.
The other day I drove to school, and much to my chagrin my truck would not shift into park. This frustrated me to no end, so I ended up driving home and parking the truck on my yard (since my driveway is sloped). I had to disconnect the battery and they my wife drove me to work in our Santa Fe.
I really like my old truck. It is just beat up enough so I don't care who I park next to. The old Silverado is made up of tougher steel, so if you try to give a door ding you probably will end up with more damage to your door then mine. It also has a new transmission in it...which of course made me even more disappointed in the shifting problem.
Turns out the problem was the shift interlock solenoid. I like to say those words a lot now. Makes me sound like I know something about cars. When I am with the guys I say stuff like "Yeah, it was just my shift interlock solenoid...only took a couple of minutes to tear it out and put in a new one".
Confession though...I am not a mechanic. Well, not really. I am a new breed of car fixer. I am a youtube mechanic. Pretty much I just look up a video that describes my vehicles malady, decide if the person is credible or ironic, and then walk through the step by step process.
I don't know if that makes me a professional. I have to be honest, I can't imagine my father-in-law (God rest his soul) ever looking up how to do something on youtube. Maybe he would read a book about it or look at a manual or figure it out with prior knowledge.
As I finished the project I was reminded that years ago I would have called him and he would have talked me through the repair. He was youtube before youtube existed...except better. I can't have a beer with youtube.
Before I met Jerry, I had little confidence in doing anything mechanical, maybe owing to a tragic experience I had dismantling my Daisy air rifle in an attempt to clean it 'thoroughly' and in doing so pulled an unbeknownst spring-loaded pin and shot BB-gun parts across the interior of our basement thereby ending its wonderful usefulness I had so long enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteMeeting Jerry in November of 1983 upon the NW corner of his farm where my 1972 Toyota Land Cruiser laid mortally wounded, twice rolled and smashed in his ditch -- and me ejected (miraculously without a scratch, bruise or cut) was providence.
A few days later he asked me to help him insulate his shop in exchange for his help getting my classic 1959 GMC pickup, then sitting on blocks, roadworthy again. Jerry was legend:)
I love this post and Steve's comment. When I was a teenager, the Langton family always had a lot of cars because my dad was mechanically gifted like Jerry. We had a '55 Chevy that didn't need a key. I think he painted himself, too, down at the fire station. The car he fixed up for me was an Opel - not a brand typical to the streets of Waltham, MA. I loved that car, not as much as I loved my dad, but a lot. To have a foreign car matched the urge for going I was hearing all about on the radio.
ReplyDeleteJerry Solom (God rest his soul) broke down and got a smart phone when he saw his son download the manual for some broken down motor or machine on Indian Summer.
ReplyDeleteJerry believed in efficiency.