Oh let me see....December First....
Today I thought would be a great day....
I woke up and it was nice and warm in the house...
...figuring I would have a lot of time to finish up on my computer project with my new touch screen monitor...
...I had a good breakfast and wife told me we needed to go to the store to exchange something, so I took her to the store. As we left I noticed a damp spot on the drive way...
...I mentioned to her that I think the gas line is seeping again that I was sure was fixed...
...I came home and she asked me when I was going to fix the gas 'leak' on her van, I told her after I warm up from being out in my truck for 10 minutes...
...so I went out there at 3PM (about three hours after we got home) with the sun shining above the clouds, I jacked up the van, put a jack stand under it and got underneath the van where I found out that the gas line wasn't leaking it was coming from one of the rear heater lines so I gently moved it...
...and the tubing disintegrate before my eyes right after the mounting bracket which caused me to be soaked with two gallons of very cold antifreeze while being trapped under the van because I could not stop the leak and could not get a grip on anything to pull me out so struggling with my cell phone while trying to plug the engine end of the tube with my finger (which is now bruised up a little) I got my wife to come out and hand me the bucket that is on the side of the house...
...after accessing the damage, getting out from underneath the van and changing jackets, I proceeded to tear into the problem all the while the wind started to pick up and temperature dropped a lot...
...I got into my truck, went to the closest parts store - telling the clairvoyant guy behind the counter I need this hose but two inches longer and he returned with 2 feet of hose so I take it...
...get back to the van, clean the ends up, cut the hose and put the hose on...
...start the van, replace the antifreeze, pull the jack and jack stands out and than pull the van back discovering a bigger leak...
...back underneath the van (now it is 5:30), get the flashlight on the hose and see it is now leaking before the mounting bracket...
...because of the tight spot, I got a hacksaw blade, broke in two and had my wife wrap the end with duct tape then proceeded to cut the tubing off before the leak...
...took the other part of the hose I cut off and didn't need before and used that, replacing the hose I just put on...
...checked everything again, wiped everything down and then pulled the jack and jack stand, filled the radiator up again and started the van up and this time it was leaking from a spot before the hose...
...tomorrow I am getting 3 or 4 feet of hose and running it up as far as I can go to contain any new leaks on the tubing...
...D*nm poor engineering, they use aluminum for most of the piping in the van except the piping to and from the engine to the rear heater core, that is half aluminum and half steel that has no corrosive protection on it at all but is powered coated which means moisture is trapped between the metal and the plastic and rust forms underneath - cheap, very cheap...
...so I am still frozen from being soaked with very cold Antifreeze, have heat packs on my feet and my back and it is sleeting out there now, making noise against my windows here in my 'office'...
...I am hoping I can wake up tomorrow without a lot of pain and find my jack and jack stand still where I left it (I don't want to lose the jack stand)...
... the forecast tomorrow is warm (45) but wet, I will end up working on it on the cold hard cement with the cold wind blowing most likely in the rain....
...So that was my December first, thank God they only come once a year..............
Can't complain! It's funny how one load can turn a rather crappy month into a pretty good one.
