I wanted to work on my car today so I spent half an hour getting it up on ramps so I could replace the shift position sensor. It was supposed to be an easy repair, but I couldn't stand the thought of laying under the car long enough to do it. (If the car fell on me it'd be days before I'd be missed...) It also looked like I'd have to drop the exhaust and that was too much effort. So I carefully drove back off the ramps and looked under the hood for something else to do.
The plug wires had 70k on them so I figured I'd replace them. That'd be easy enough. I also noticed that the belt needed replacing. I hopped into the recently washed car and drove to town, where it was raining. Finally found plug wires at NAPA on my third stop. Went home and took all the stuff off the top of the engine so I could get to the wires. I carefully replaced the wires one at a time until the 5th wire, which came apart leaving the metal thingy still attached to the spark plug down deep in the engine. Rats. Number 7 did the same thing.
I was off to Sears to buy a very long, very skinny pair of needle-nose pliers. No luck. The salesmen started out by asking what my husband had done. Hmmm. When I explained the problem they kept trying to convince me I really needed a little magnet or claw pick-up tool. I have those. Won't work. It occurred to me that maybe I could remove the spark plug if I had a long enough socket so I bought some other stuff and went home to try idea number two.
Sockets not long enough. Industrious neighbor welded three 5/8 sockets together so the offending metal part could stick up through the sockets without hitting the ratchet. (I didn't expect my plug wires to become a neighborhood event...) That didn't work either, but at one point it occurred to me that a coat hanger with a bend at the end could pull the stupid thing off. It worked beautifully. If I'd only thought of it a couple of hours earlier... I didn't have the heart to tell the neighbor.
I got the car back together and it ran. After I remembered to plug in the MASS AIR the check engine light even went off! I didn't take it out in the rain to really test it.
I changed the belt last, which was uneventful.
I'm surprised the car has survived me this far. It must be a blonde thing.
The plug wires had 70k on them so I figured I'd replace them. That'd be easy enough. I also noticed that the belt needed replacing. I hopped into the recently washed car and drove to town, where it was raining. Finally found plug wires at NAPA on my third stop. Went home and took all the stuff off the top of the engine so I could get to the wires. I carefully replaced the wires one at a time until the 5th wire, which came apart leaving the metal thingy still attached to the spark plug down deep in the engine. Rats. Number 7 did the same thing.
I was off to Sears to buy a very long, very skinny pair of needle-nose pliers. No luck. The salesmen started out by asking what my husband had done. Hmmm. When I explained the problem they kept trying to convince me I really needed a little magnet or claw pick-up tool. I have those. Won't work. It occurred to me that maybe I could remove the spark plug if I had a long enough socket so I bought some other stuff and went home to try idea number two.
Sockets not long enough. Industrious neighbor welded three 5/8 sockets together so the offending metal part could stick up through the sockets without hitting the ratchet. (I didn't expect my plug wires to become a neighborhood event...) That didn't work either, but at one point it occurred to me that a coat hanger with a bend at the end could pull the stupid thing off. It worked beautifully. If I'd only thought of it a couple of hours earlier... I didn't have the heart to tell the neighbor.
I got the car back together and it ran. After I remembered to plug in the MASS AIR the check engine light even went off! I didn't take it out in the rain to really test it.
I changed the belt last, which was uneventful.
I'm surprised the car has survived me this far. It must be a blonde thing.
