Wish I had a horse!

I swear that the days before cars had to have been easier. I spent this past weekend working on both cars. My wife and I have identical vehicles. We bought them the same day. For some reason, despite hers having lower mileage, her car is in worse shape. In any event, I worked on it over the weekend and finally got it running like new again. No more misfiring. No more exhaust leak that made it noisier than a jet. She was very happy. So was I......until yesterday.

She called me to tell me that her car died. She had stopped at 7-11 and now the engine won't turn over. She ended up walking the last two blocks to work. After she got off, she walked back to her car and sat in it waiting for 2 hours till I could get there to get her running. I got there, jump started the car, filled the gas tank, and she drove home without incident. I noticed a lot of corrosion on the battery so when we got home, I replaced the connections and cleaned the terminals. That should do it.....NOT! While running the engine I noticed if I turned on the headlights, they would dim if I turned on the blinkers. Uh oh. Alternator troubles. This was confirmed when I looked at it and saw that the back of the alternator appeared melted.

I let her take my car to work and figure I will take hers to work myself and fix it later. Well, this morning the car wouldnt start. With no one around to give me a jump, I ended up staying home. I walked in the rain to the autoparts store and $230 later I have a nice new alternator. I was not able to get the old wires off so I ended up cutting those and rigging new. It was not exactly fun fixing it in the rain but I didnt see much choice.

I am now sitting on the couch waiting for her to get home with my car so I can jump the battery on hers. Boy that shower felt good.......tm

This is the new one I put in:




This is the one I took out: