Sunday, April 16, 2006

I spent a month in a VW one day....

I made it to my dad' s house in Mesa, finally. It was an eventful Saturday, let me tell ya.

I picked up the car in St. George Utah at 9pm friday. Went to bed. Got up to see that the front tires are trashed, and won't make it very far, (thanks for telling me steve) . I went to the tire store and the car is so low that no tires will fit under the fenders, and the size of tires it had were a special order item that nobody carries. I thought I was going to be stuck there for a couple of days.. frustration was an understatement... so, I just stopped, sat down and prayed for a little bit..

God calmed my heart, then I got my thinking cap back on. I remembered that the front suspension on this VW is adjustable, meaning that I could raise the car up, put on the different tires, and be on my way. Well, the guy I bought the car from was sure that it was already raised up (idiot) but it was actually at it's lowest setting. So, I finally got some tools, and stuck the nose of it up in the air. Then I drove to the tire store and put some new kicks on the front, and I finally left St. George at noon.

I didn't get the speedo hooked up before I left, so I was guessing the speed. Whatever speed I was going, it was about 25 mph slower than everyone else on the freeway... when I looked in my mirror, I felt like the pacecar at the Daytona 500, watching all the swirving to get around me. In my defense, I'm pretty sure I was doing at least 70, which means everyone else was hauling some hiney yesterday.

But the car ran pretty good, except the idle was a little rough.. no biggie...

After getting through Las Vegas, I drove over the Hoover Dam, on the dam road. It was quite impressive... I was sad that I didn't have a camera, or anyone with me to enjoy it.

Anyways.... I got to Wickenburg, Az, which is only about 60 miles from my dad's house when....

I stopped to talk on the phone, dropped the clutch to leave and heard the nastiest grinding and breaking metal sound. I thought that I'd fried the clutch. After some investigation, it wasn't the clutch, but the rear axle had stripped out the splines in the brake drum..... causing the axle to spin free inside the wheel.. Praise God because that's a much easier fix than a clutch.

So I called my Uncle David, and he brought the trailer, and we rolled in about 8:30 pm. Then scott came over and brought a used brake drum and we jacked it up on the trailer and fixed it in about 20 minutes.

Geez. What a day. God is good, I could still be in Utah or stuck on the road a lot farther away..

Despite the problems, I'm happy with the car. It does have a few problems that need fixing... like, no lights work except the headlights and tailights. So I need to fix the brake lights, turn signals, dash lights and license light.... whew.

See you guys late monday- early Tuesday morning!

Dan

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bummer! I'm sorry it's been such a rough time. Sure am praying for you and your family.

Anonymous said...

I am excited to see the thing man, come back safe

Anonymous said...

...must've been a dam good view from way up there...