A few months back, maybe during the summer, I bought an old truck. I got it cheap but it needed a few things. That's to be expected I guess, she had 311K miles on her so there's bound to be some issues right? I began the transformation by "prettying" her up, and taking care of a few mechanical issues but it was still a "cheap" truck. She has a new motor and trans but everything else on her is old so I guess gremlins can still pop up, and they did.
I bought the new redesigned plugs (horror stories abound about Ford's 4.6 and 5.4 engines and the stupid plug design) and coils for the truck and was going to do it myself but decided to have my mechanic do it as changing the plugs on said 5.4 is a total pain. Once I got it back, I felt all was good. Hahahaha, not so! My wife and I had a dinner scheduled with my sister and brother and his fiancee a few Saturdays ago and I had a mower deck from an old John Deere yard tractor in my bed that I had picked up for my brother who lives 2+ hours North of me and the plan was to get that to him, to put in his truck and also meet up for a late Christmas get together, a full month AFTER Christmas (yes, my family is weird, lol).
My sister drove her husband's truck to my house as she had my brother's appliance dolly and wanted to get that back to him so she met up at my house, I put the dolly on my truck and off we went, to meet at this Pizza and Pasta joint called Avellino's, which was referred to me by a customer of mine. The truck drove beautifully, ran like a top. We got to Avellino's, went inside, had a lovely meal and conversation. Laughed and reminisced. Settled up and went outside to offload the stuff for my brother.
Here is where the fun starts!
It was a bit chilly so I decided to go ahead and start up the truck to warm the girls up. It won't start! It's not even trying to start. The battery is brand new with 850 cold cranking amps but it's like I had the battery disconnected, the turning of the key does absolutely nothing! I am not a mechanic but I know that the starter can be jumpered with a screw driver to start so my brother gets under the truck with a BORROWED screw driver that my sister went inside the pizza place to ask for, lol, and we try it. It sounds like a drill going off under there but no fire at all.
I was sick to my stomach! The Spaghetti Bolognese I ate was threatening to come back up I was so stressed out! After an hour of tinkering with it, sitting out in the cold I caved and called a tow truck. There's a whole OTHER long story about that mess but I've kept you captive long enough already (and we've got a LONG way to go still, lol) so I'll skip that part. I had the truck towed to my mechanic, arrived at 12:30am Sunday morning. I called the shop when I awoke, not that I really even slept and told them what was up. They originally thought it was the key switch but it wasn't. They proceeded to keep it for 2-3 days longer. I can't remember exactly, it's all a blur now
Finally got a call that it was ready. Starting every time like it should. The kicker was that Brad, my mechanic, did NOT want to charge me for the repair. He said they found remnants of an old alarm system tucked way up the dash and the thought was it would randomly disable the starting on the truck. He said the wiring was a mess and they cut it all out and spliced it back and all was well BUT he said that he couldn't charge for it as he didn't KNOW 100% that what they did was THE permanent fix! With that said, he said they started the truck 30 times over 2 days and it started just fine each and every time.
I went and picked it up, offered to still pay as I felt bad but he wouldn't let me. Like any of us on here would, I offered to pay in food
I told him "Not THIS Friday but the NEXT Friday, I am going to bring you and your crew some lunch" I had warned them to not eat breakfast because I wanted them to save their appetite for lunch. They seemed happy at the news, I am Facebook friends with 2 of the guys up there so they know that Stephanie and I cook (based on pics I post on FB) and I think they were looking forward to see if I
could cook, lol.
In the time since I got it back, it's been roughly 2 weeks. I don't drive the truck much honestly, just have it for truck stuff, but I have driven it to the store a couple of times just to make sure it was running right. I have had the fear that it would leave me stranded though! I didn't trust it since they seemed to not be sure about the repair and wouldn't charge me. In my mind, that meant they didn't want to see it back under warranty! I am in the service business so that's how I read the situation and pretty sure I was right.
I didn't sleep much Wednesday night, my brain doesn't shut off sometimes and I spend all night thinking about the next days work, or in this case, planning out timeframes of when to cook the Friday lunch items. I had MAYBE 3 hours of sleep, got up and went to work Thursday, got home about 5:30ish that evening and ate dinner and TRIED to make myself take a nap. I couldn't though. I had too much to prep and cook. Luckily for me, Stephanie helped me by making up coleslaw and potato salad, I keep my recipes on the computer and told her where to find them so she made that for me which was a big help. While eating leftover pizza for my dinner, I told her how to make the cookie dough as I have it memorized at this point. That helped as well.
At about 10:30 Thursday night, I took myself down to the basement and fired up the KBQ. I had already cut the wood the day before and had it in a wheelbarrow waiting to go. I had brined 2 pork butts and Stephanie had them rinsed, dried, coated in mustard and rubbed and ready to go on a rack (she's indispensable). I stayed down in the basement all night, watching HULU and tending the fire every 20-30 minutes. I really had to watch it because we had heavy rain that came in after I cut the wood and got some of it wet and I was afraid to let the coal bed die down too much. Normally I can go 45 minutes between reloading. Due to that, I didn't even have a chance to take a cat nap in between loads. Normally, we use the KBQ during the day, maybe a 5:00am wakeup to get going but not overnighters. Those days ended when I sold my Smokin-It #3 and got rid of the Kegs (technically I still have one keg but he doesn't get used AT ALL, sad really). I don't like pork butts on pellet grills, it's okay but if I want to do my best, the KBQ gets the nod.
I went upstairs about 7:30 and began making Brunswick stew and baked beans, I soaked the beans overnight so they were ready to go. Luckily, my wife got up about then and took over KBQ duties while I spent the next 2.5 hours making stew, beans, bbq sauce and baking cookies. At last, it was all ready. We loaded up the butt, texas toast, slaw, red potato salad, baked beans with brisket, stew, pickles, bbq sauce and cookies and drove the truck down to the shop. I took gloves and a pan to pull the pork onsite so it would stay nice and hot.
Now, here's what you've been waiting for. I appreciate you making it this far, you're a trooper!
Once inside, I told the guys that we brought the truck just to mess with them, making them think "Oh Lord! What's that truck doing back here?"
The funny thing is, they all DID think that something else had arisen and here she was AGAIN, lol
We went into their break room and set up everything and while pulling the meat the aroma in the place was awesome! It wafted out into the shop and smiling mechanics began to investigate. Once we had it ready for them, I shook their hands and thanked them again for all they've done to help me out over the years and told them to enjoy.
Here's where I should've kept my mouth shut. We were on the way to get that new grill I ordered from Wal-Mart and I joked with Stephanie that it would be funny if we got it loaded and the truck wouldn't start. Now folks, this is what is called a jinx. That little voice inside my head said "Don't say out loud what you're thinking" but I did. The devil is ALWAYS listening and he heard me loud and clear. There's a Wendy's on the way to Wal-Mart and we were hungry so we decided that we'd get lunch there real quick before getting the grill, so we did.
Once done, we went out to the truck, got in, I turn the key. I bet you know what's coming right? Yep. It was BAAAAAAACK! Stephanie thought I was joking. I wish! About that time, Brad texted me thanking me for the lunch, said it was the best bbq he'd ever had, the meat, the sides, all of it. While happy to hear that, I again was getting nauseous. I had been awake for something like 30 hours at this point and couldn't even think straight. I texted him back saying "That's great! Ironically enough, the truck isn't starting again and we're stranded at Wendy's" He thought I was joking, I am sure REALLY hoping that I was. I asked if he could recommend a tow truck and then he knew I was serious, lol.
My wife ordered an Uber to take us home and I had the tow truck take it to his shop yesterday afternoon (a service Goodyear does for cheap as long as you tow it to a Goodyear) and they found out that it was a bad relay. I think that was the issue all along. Sometimes it would work, sometimes not. The old relay would rattle when shook. We think that closing the passenger door would jostle it and make it lose connection inside. Both times it left me stranded, I had a passenger. The fuse box is on the passenger side floorboard.
I got the truck back, was going to get the grill but it's been snowing and raining so I decided to get it in the morning. When I went and got it today, everybody there thanked me and shook my hand and dished out compliment after compliment and I even got asked if I cater, lol! A lady that works there wants me to cater a party. I have to say, that made me feel good! I am SO glad they enjoyed the food and even happier that my truck's gremlin has been found
Hopefully there are no more hiding in it!
I sincerely apologize for the long read but that's about as abbreviated as I could make it
Here's the old girl that's been a pain in my side. I hope she'll behave from now on
Thanks for sticking it out till the end
