Car Trouble #4

Jennifer and I made it to Cali with me racing around her with my Focus, as she slowly chugged away in the van. By now the van was missing and not running right at all. We found out from the Bishop of our Ward in Fairfield of a place to take it for repair. To make a long story short we spent over $300 for a distributor and the problem persisted so the mechanic changed the spark plug wire and oh my gosh it resolved the problem. That guy cost us big time!

Some time had gone by and I sure was missing Sherry. But I knew that I had to get her fixed before I could bring her to Cali...or so I thought. I found this guy who would rebuild the engine and R&R for a decent price so I went a head and gave the ok. Sherry was now under the knife and getting a heart transplant. Jennifer and I decided to take a little vacation and pick her up. I was so excited when I drove her, until she seemed to be lagging a little. Come to find out this guy had a hunch that there was a bolt to long, there was, and it ended up bending a push rod. Now we are down for the count again. He repaired it and still didn't seem to be like before. But I took her anyway.

We were on the way back to Cali with Sherry, how fun. I was driving her and Jennifer was driving the van. It was loaded and the car was loaded with stuff and kids. but we were happy and ready to get home. Everything was going great, till we got out of Salt Lake City I heard a grinding noise and the oil light came on. So I immediately pulled over and checked out the engine. It sounded ok and I continued on. Didn't get very far and pulled over for good the engine wasn't getting any oil. What a bummer!

I was mad and Jennifer was mad we sat on the side of the highway for about 5 hours until a cop showed up. Then another hour for the wrecker. We were towed 90 miles to the Nevada line and dropped off at another mechanic shop. Come to find out she was dead, no oil pumping through her veins. So there she sat for a few months as I paid rent for her to sit there until my dad came with a trailer and pulled her back to Wyo. The mechanic and the guy who rebuilt the engine agreed to do it all over at no charge, but very reluctantly telling me I ran her out of oil. The guy didn't rebuild her like he did the first time and skimped by replacing only the things he wanted and didn't machine the way he should have as I found out by a mechanic in Cali. So they got the engine back in and started her up. NO oil pressure again they were baffled.

Partly my fault I skimped on price and didn't replace the distributor and the oil pump gear on the bottom end of the distributor was shot. I learned my lesson in a hard way and very expensive way. All I want to do is drive Sherry! Is there a problem with that?? But wait it gets better; tune in Monday and see how it could get better than this.