Perpetual Ruminations

Tuesday

Day one of three about done. I can't say I got a lot accomplished, but I did give it a good try. All in all, not too bad for a day off, just wish it would have accomplished the desired results.

Let's start with last night, after I got home from town. I had gone in to pick Rhonda up from work, then we did a bit of grocery shopping and headed home. By the time we had things put away, ate a bit of late lunch, and relaxed a little while, it was after midnight. Then it was a quick entry in here and off to bed. So, that put it just after one this morning, and with the long and busy weekend at work, we were pretty exhausted. The cold, rainy weather didn't help any, unless you consider the exhaustion part, then it helped a lot.

So, this morning was one of those without an alarm set. Well, I can't say none set, the alarm went off at eight thirty, but Rhonda turned it off. Then, the dogs woke her up needing to go outside, but she made that a quick trip and then was back in bed and snuggled up to me. I don't know why Hannah wakes Rhonda up, but she does. If Rhonda isn't home, then Hannah will wake me up with kisses, but if Rhonda is home, Hannah wakes here instead. If, by chance I sleep in too late, then Hannah will eventually come in and wake me up, but that's the only exception.

But, the results were the same this morning, the alarm went off and woke Rhonda, who got up, turned it off, then took the dogs out since Hannah wouldn't let her sleep. After they came back in, Rhonda was back in bed, snuggled up tight and we slept in till about eleven, and it felt real good. Then it was a couple of cups of coffee and wake up a little. After two cups, we had brunch and then started out for the big project for the day, working on the van.

We got set up pretty fast, and then tore into removing the cowling and fixing the computer plug. Our model and year has a glitch that can let water leak down on the computer plug and cause it to short out and corrode. But, once we exposed the plug, it wasn't all corroded like I had anticipated. This is good, but it means this was not the problem. However, while we had things tore down, I noticed a vacuum line that wasn't staying connected, and that could also lead to some of the problems we were having. I had that fixed in no time, cleaned the main plug and socket, as well as most of the other ones I could find. We then put it all back together and gave it a try.

At first, we thought it was fixed. It has more power and zip, and it ran perfect. But then it lost power and died, just like it has been doing. I got out and unplugged the slow idle control valve and it fixed the problem as soon as I reconnected it. But, this is just a temporary fix and soon enough it lost power again, then died. I restarted it and it ran fine the rest of the way home. This is what it's been doing, and we have about run out of things to try. One of the codes was for the slow idle, and we will replace that next. Hopefully it will solve the problem, but if not, it's time to take it in to a shop that can do the real technical evaluation of the entire circuit.

That will be the only choice left to isolate the problem and fix it. The problem is, that's going to be pretty costly since there will likely be a lot of time involved in checking each circuit. The only thing we can hope for is that it's a problem that has been diagnosed before and the mechanic will know where to look right off, and have a pretty good idea of what the cause is.

So, for now it's a forty dollar part and about ten minutes of work to replace it. If it fixes the van, great, money well spent, but if it does not fix it, there won't be any returning it, and it's another forty bucks invested with no results. That will put us put to about two hundred dollars, or just a little higher, and lots of time and frustration. So, lets hope for the best, and tomorrow after the slow idle is changed out, let's hope the Freestar runs like a champ.