As you know my motorcycle is in pieces at the moment due to the drive shaft repair. So, that vehicle, my normal commuter vehicle, is out of commission and will be for a couple weeks still.
So I have been driving our Ford to school. That has worked well since my wife and kids bike to school/work on the days I go into school. Well, Monday night I noticed an oil leak coming from the Ford. And it seems to be bad enough that I was like, “Not driving that, until it gets figured out.” And of course I didn’t have time or light to do it Monday night.
So, Tuesday (yesterday) I decided to drive my VW to work. It has been running fine (There has been a little miss but I thought that was due to a sticky float). So I headed out and went along the Price access road all the way to Rio Salado Parkway. It had been running fine and I decided to take the 101 the rest of the way to campus. Well, as soon as I got up to speed on the 101 it backfired twice REALLY loudly and the engine cut out. The power was all still on. I popped the clutch and got the car running again for about 500 ft and then it died again. At this point I knew I had to get off the road. But it is the 101 north in the morning and there were cars everywhere. Thankfully I was able to maneuver enough to get off the road just before the McKellips exit. I called my dad since I knew he would be at least 30 minutes out from me and then I started trying to figure out what was wrong. I knew it had to be electrical in some way. My dad also said to check the points. So I did. I didn’t see an issue there at first, but I went to my jar of extra parts to find replacement points and found that I didn’t have a spare pair in my jar (stupid on my part). So I took my points file and cleaned up the points. I didn’t see an issue, but still it couldn’t hurt. I tried the car again and no go. So, back to the back and I noticed that the ground screw seemed loose. I worked on tightening that up (I needed a 6mm wrench but I didn’t have one that small in the car either (need to get one in there), but I managed with a pair of needle-nose pliers. Tried again and the car started up, but was not running well. So, I managed to get to the McKellips exit, and by there it was a little better, so I decided to venture along the on/off ramps to McDowell since I knew that was more convenient for my father. SO, just managed to get there and off the road. I again went back to the engine and started troubleshooting. I decided to look at the timing and when the spark activated in the distributer. On my car it is supposed to fire about 8-10 degrees before top dead center. Well, I noticed that it was firing not at that point, but about 12-15 degrees AFTER top dead center. There was the problem. My dad got there about that time, and his first response was, “How did the car run at all with it that far off?” And I agreed. So, we got it readjusted and then the car ran perfectly all the way to SCC. It was even running better than it had been (maybe the float wasn’t stuck). My dad followed me there just in case.
I was thinking the entire time, wait one more vehicle going down, really? I also was concerned about being late to teaching. I called a fellow teacher and she let my class know I was would a bit late. I ended up only being 10 minuted late and was pretty happy about that.
I am very thankful for my father who dropped what he was doing to come and help me. It was a relief while I was working knowing he was on his way. I am also thankful for the co-worker that let my class know I was running late. And I am thankful my class did all take off before I got there.
Most of all I am thankful to God that He has provided me with friends, family and knowledge to fix the problems I faced, and prevent others from happening.
And I do still have my VW in working order in case I need a vehicle.