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In the words of DNA: "I've never gotten the hang of Thursdays." Well, I've never gotten the hang of Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Even more importantly, I've never gotten the hang of September and April, either.
Yesterday, after getting back from school, doing some stuff, and talking with celia, I decided to go watch a movie. Called a friend, he wasn't home, left a message saying I'd call later that night.
None of the movies really interested me, so I just decided to go heckle "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star", which was a pretty slow movie as far as the jokes go, but was entirely worth it just to see the video during the credits. The video was an entire chorus of former TV stars, including Screech (my favorite of the child stars), singing about the life of a former TV star, which had me cracking up.
So then I get home. I was trying to build up enough guts to talk to my dad when the phone rang. It was my friend. We decided to go see a dollar movie. I chickened out and decided to just write my dad a note which he would read in the morning.
So my friend and I are driving to Trolley Square in Salt Lake at 9:15 when we realize the clock isn't on, and the lights are very dim, followed by a really slow accelleration. After parking a block away from where we were going, I yelled at the car, and decided that we would just deal with it after the movie.
Came back out, it started back up, I'm happy, we start driving, it starts dying again, we pull into Taco Bell on 400 S. We then found a pay phone, and called my dad who wasn't too happy to come down there. So here it is, 12:30, and its raining pretty heavily, and my dad is trying to charge the battery up. When the cables were connected, things ran smoothly, but when we took the cables off, it died again. I remember thinking at the time that this was almost like trying to motivate me to be happy.
We left Hermes in the parking lot. We got home after dropping my friend off. I went downstairs, wrote the note, and left it on the counter.
I went to bed feeling alone. I woke up breathing heavily, in a nervous fashion, and my heart was already racing. He had already left for work, though. I'm glad he didn't try to wake me up.
Celia, you owe me that story. Get to writing.
Edit: If anybody cares to know, I was wearing the infamous brown jacket. Ya, it was cold enough to dig it out of the closet.
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Oh, and once upon a time I thought it would be fun to just submit some random piece of poetry to a web site. I looked on the counter today and there it was with the mail. It made me smile. I took it to my room and tossed it in the closet.
"Someday my friend I shall die And if that someday should come I'd like it if you'd be so kind To say I was the kind of guy Who dreamed of canning pickles"
The reason that made me smile, is it sort of has a pessimistic wit to it, knowing that things come to an end, but that doesn't mean people can still stop laughing.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Continuing wishes of good luck. Don't die. But if you do, I promise to remember you in conjunction with pickles, though by that time I will likely have forgotten the reason... So it might be kinda wrong...
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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My family is full of expert mechanics and automotive buffs.
I am not one of them.
However I do remember having similar trouble with my car once. If you are lucky, your alternator belt is loose. The alternator recharges the battery as the engine runs. When the belt is loose, it doesn't charge up fast enough.
If you are not as lucky they battery needs to be replaced.
If you are having terrible luck, the alternator is bad and you can shell out big bucks to get a new one.
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Yeah, sounds like it's either the battery or the alternator. Alternators typically run about a hundred bucks. That'll teach you to go to movies!
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Another (in my opinion very strange) possibility is that your battery may need to be clamped more firmly. I was having battery problems for a while and it turned out that adding a couple of L-screws to clamp the battery down completely fixed the problem. The battery must have been discharging against the hood or something.
(((((T))))) Hang in there, man.
Posts: 4534 | Registered: Jan 2003
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When the car is running, the battery is not being used to power the car. The battery is only used to give the starter it's juice to turn the engine over. Then, like Dan said, your alternator charges your battery (from the running of your engine) while you drive around. So, if after your dad hooked up to your car and jumped it, you were still having problems, I think the battery is probably the least of your problems. I don't quite know what to make of what was going on with your car - it's not anything that I've encountered before and doesn't really jive with what I know about cars. The lights/clock are indicative of an electrical problem, but the slow acceleration could be a different beast. Is your car carburated, or does it have EFI?
I'm sorry you've had such problems with your car lately. And I'm sorry your week has been somewhat crappy. *hug*
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Hmmm... I'm no mechanic but I thought the spark plugs were run from the battery as well. Are those run off the alternator?
Posts: 4534 | Registered: Jan 2003
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all true, but if your battery is hosed enough it will suck all the juice from your alternator leaving not enough to run the car, causing it to shut down. I can assure you that I have twice had the exact same symptoms described here (on 2 seperate vehicles) fixed by no more than replacing the battery. Considering how much cheaper batteries are than alternators, it's worth looking into.
Posts: 2112 | Registered: Sep 1999
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Spark plugs are connected to the distributor. I'm not sure whether during motor operation the power to fire the sparks plugs is drawn from the battery (through the distributor) or if the power is drawn from the current produced while the motor runs.
And I agree that the battery may need to be replaced, but you can have both it (and your alternator) checked for free to figure out which is the culprit.
Here in Phoenix, we go through batteries very quickly (because of the heat). I'm a fan of the batteries guaranteed to last a certain number of years (or you get a replacement free). Usually you can tell when your battery is going bad. It doesn't work fine and then suddenly die.
I loved your pickle poem. I might have to use it scrapbooking my son's make a wish trip to the pickle factory. Is that okay? Or is it too much for a scrapbook?
Posts: 1132 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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Can I make a guess, too? I had the same thing happen with my old car once, too, and it was the alternator... specifically the "brushes". It was really cheap to fix.
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Wendybird, it would be more than alright if you wanted to use it.
To everyone else: we managed to tow my car from Salt Lake back to where I live and got it to a car place to check/fix it. Power breaks my butt!! It takes an elephant foot to make any difference with the break when your engine is not running. And the same goes with the steering!!
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Just think of all that extra exercise you got pushing the brakes and steering without the power. I remember once driving my father's '49 Willys pickup (definately no power anything there). After a few miles I made him drive because my legs were hurting so bad they were shaking from stomping the clutch and brakes. Those were some SERIOUSLY hard pedals.
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Usually you can tell when your battery is going bad. It doesn't work fine and then suddenly die.![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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