I figure for my first tale i would share a story with you about a poor college student (AKA me) and his car. So i was driving home from my apartment for Christmas. As i am driving all of a sudden my radio started turning itself on and off, and instantly thing well S*** my alternator is going out on, me that is just great. I keep on driving to get myself closer to an automotive parts store. I get about 6 or 7 more miles out of the dying battery until it does not have enough power to even set a spark to ignite the fuel in my pistons. I grab my snowboarding jacket out of my trunk (did i mention the high for the day was 36 degrees F and this was at 8:00 at night) lock the car and start jogging/running the remaining 4.5 miles to the nearest car parts store. I get there right as it is about to close (around 8:45) purchase a new alternator, car stands (the kind you drive up onto) and a flashlight just for good measure because I could not remember if I already had one in my trunk, though I did have a whole tool set. (It seemed like the only thing I had going for me next to my determination to fix that d**** car) I thank the guy at the parts store and head off carrying this big box of car stands and the alternator, which are not heavy but they do get heavy when you are jogging 4.5 miles. Finally I return to my car around 9:15 (it was faster coming back because it was all downhill) and start attempting to put it up on these car stands. Good thing I had parked on a hill so I would have an easier time rolling my car up onto these stands, bad thing was my car was facing the wrong way. Proceeding to turn my car around on this hill though slight it still hindered my ability to turn this car around, so after about 15 min I finally complete my 12 point turn and get my car facing down the hill. Now to get it up onto the stands, I don’t know how many times I went back and forth to build up the momentum to get the tires to the resting point on the stands, but I was exhausted when I finally got it up there so I took a break to eat some rice crispy treats. Starting on removing the alternator I easily get the 4 bolts removed from it though if you have ever worked on foreign cars (this one being an Infinity G20) you know everything is crammed into a very small space. In order to get that d**** alternator out of the car I had to loosen the radiator move it out of the way and drop the alternator out of the bottom of the car. Finally the bad alternator is out!!! By this time it is around 10:40, I can not feel my fingers and it is probably in the low 30’s to high 20’s. I shove the new alternator into place and start putting bolts on. Now if you have every tried to thread a bolt when you can not feel your fingers you know how hard it is, but for those who have not it took me about 10 min per bolt to get them on and tightened. Get the belt tightened so it turns the damn alternator so it will recharge my battery, put the radiator back in place, roll the car down off of the stands, and throw everything into the trunk of my car then just sat in the drivers seat eating another rice crispy treat. By this time it was 11:50 I figured my parents were probably worried about me so I get out and start pushing my car down this hill and get a compression start on it. Blast the heat, tunes, and my accelerator, got to my parents place in no time flat. Ate some leftover dinner tell my parents about my story then crashed.
Kelly Skinner "KS" Carefree - 14 years, 11 months, 2 days ago