It's all good

Too much time has passed since my last blog post. I want to update more often. The time and a good subject haven't coincided before now. Today, however, I had a blog-worthy experience. 

My dear darling daughter Light was in a stage production of some sort tonight. It was a variety show lip sync thing, the purpose of which is fuzzy to me. It was of course for fun, but there may have been other stated purposes. She wanted me to be there and I arranged to go. 

I set out good and early so that we would have time to hang out before the show. The sun was shining brightly behind me and the clear sky expanded in all directions as I drove my beloved truck, Manny, on the country highway toward college town. I had MP3 tunes in my ears and 300 cubic inches of engine at my command. All was good with the world.

Until the klunk. 

Has that ever happened to you? You're rolling along thinking everthing is copacetic when all of a sudden you hear and feel a powerful change in your plans. 

The engine died and I was coasting down a slight hill. I wrangled the ol' boy into the center turn lane. Power steering must have both steering and power to be power steering. Without power it is an upper body work-out. I stepped on the brake to stop the truck, and he stopped. We can't assume too much in these situations, so stopping when I depress the brake is a good sign. I turned the key, and indeed the engine began firing on all cylinders. So far so good. I pushed in the clutch and put that transmission in first gear. That's when things went south. As I released the clutch and gave him some gas he did nothing. Well, not exactly nothing. There was no movement in the RPM gage. That needle was hugging nuthin'. With the increase in gear engagement, however, we had some impressive klunk*, rattle, and roll. That's "roll" as in "sway," not to be confused with forward movement. 

No first gear, so I tried second gear. No second gear. At that point I decided the best course of action was to get out of the middle of the road. Since I'd stopped the truck and the engine would no longer move the wheels I had to provide movement with my raw Java power. Those of you who have met me know that Java's raw physical power is pretty wimpy.** A nice fellow passing by stopped to help me push Manny into a parking lot. 

Superman and I have been members of AAA auto club since 1984. It says so on my AAA card. Since we frequently drive old cars with comensurately old parts, we have had many occasions to be very glad we have AAA emergency roadside assistance service. I called the AAA help line and before too long a very friendly Bubba came with his awesomely powerful superduty flatbed tow truck to carry Manny back to Greenwood. Technically it seems that the flat bed truck is called a carrier. That's what Google leads me to believe, anyway. 

Once Bubba got Manny onto his carrier bed this is what we saw. It isn't pretty.

This is Manny's rear end. No, really, that's what they call it! It's also known as a differential. It isn't supposed to have that big gash in the middle of that plate. You see it there, with the gash that looks like it was attacked by a rabid can opener? Yeah. That explains the klunk and jerk, doesn't it?

Believe it or not, that's a good sight to see under the circumstances. I thought the problem was in the tranny. Yep, that's what they call it. Otherwise known as a transmission.  But since the problem is obviously in the differential, that is much better than having a wrecked transmission. 

Here, let me show you:

On the left is the differential. It is a complicated compilation of gears and associated machined parts. And below is a cut-away image of a transmission. Do you see how much more complicated that sucker is? In Auto Mechanic-ese, complicated = very expensive. The transmission is also more difficult to access. It's located under the front of the car, behind the engine, in the center of the underbelly of the vehicle aproximately even with the dashboard. The differential, centered between the two back wheels, is much easier to access. In Auto Mechanic-ese, "easier to access" = expensive, but not as expensive as "hard to access." Let's face it: in Auto Mechanic-ese, handing the mechanic your car keys = expensive. 

But you know what? It's all good. I had my cell phone and was able to call Light to tell her I couldn't make it, to call Superman and give him the news, and to call AAA to get a tow back to town. The wind was pretty cold out there in the parking lot, but inside my beloved truck with the sun shining low through the windows I was very comfortable. I had my big 52 ounce mug of ice water with me. The hour or so I spent in the truck was an opportunity to clean out the trash. I filled two plastic grocery bags with the trash from my back floorboard. I found my road atlas, too. And I finally found the match to that garden glove that's been in my console box for 2 years. It was an adventure in discovery, actually, but some of the stuff I found is just a little bit TMI for me to post. 

I am sorry that I missed Light's performance and the rest of the show which I understand was side-splittingly funny. But over all I think the evening went pretty well. It's all good.

* A "klunk" is worse than a "clunk." Trust me.

** My awesome Java powers are primarily emotional in nature.