Alternate. Or.

by Preston

Don't those mean the same thing? So like when two negatives are combined to make a positive, shouldn't an alternator be not some other? Or in other words, an alternator = the original. OK so that was rambling nonsense, but after the day I had maybe you can cut me some slack.

While on my way home from work ast night about 9pm, I noticed that the speedometer and tachometer were both at zero. Strange, since I was still on the highway and the cruise control was helping me move on down the road. Thinking back I also thought that perhaps the headlights were a bit dim, but just figured I probably needed to scrape some of the bugs off the windshield soon. Or not ...

As I coasted closer to the stoplight (there's only one in Monmouth, and they're proud to have it) I thought I had timed it just right, so the light would turn green and I wouldn't have to stop. Ha! Not only did I stop, but the truck died RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE INTERSECTION. I'm talking dead-center. Blocked traffic in both directions. If it had happened to anyone else I might have thought it was pretty cool. The engine wouldn't start - wouldn't even crank - so I opened the door and pushed it (while still steering from outside) out of the intersection and over by the curb.

"Brother Baxter, is that you?" The Elders' Quorum President's wife was yelling at me from the her minivan on other side of the road. "Do you need some help?" She pulled up onto the sidewalk next to the truck (yes that's right - she drove up onto the sidewalk) while I opened the hood and tried to look like I had some clue what I was supposed to be looking for. Since I didn't see raging flames or green gook leaking out the bottom, I was out of ideas. She offered to drive back home and get her husband to help me push the truck into a nearby parking lot, since I was basically still blocking one northbound lane.

Fortunately that time of night there isn't a whole lot of traffic, so we were able to move the truck across the street and into a parking slot. (Well, actually the President pushed while I just steered.) Still nothing when I turned the key. The lights worked fine, the radio was on, and the alarms sounded when the doors were open - so apparently it wasn't a dead battery. But turning the key only resulted in a series of "clicks" and nothing else. Rory was kind enough to come pick me up.

After we got home I fired up the computer and looked up contact info for a guy who had looked at the truck a few months ago. He's a traveling mechanic of sorts, I think mostly doing service calls on farm equipment. But the local tire shop had recommended him and he seems competent enough. So I called and left a voicemail, asking that he call me back in the morning.

It was about this time that I realized that since I was planning to be back to work first thing in the morning, I had opted not to bring home the computer's power adapter. That was going to be a problem if I had to work from home all day.

So this morning I worked for a few hours until both batteries on my laptop were dead. (Apparently batteries don't like me lately.) At the same time I was trying to install my design software on the home computer, but over the VPN connection those programs were taking FOREVER to load. Think of trying to pour 55 gallons of crude oil through a drinking straw - let's just say it's a bit of a mess and takes a long time. On top of everything else, the home computer will periodically turn itself off for no apparent reason. It seems to happen when the girls are working on scrapbook stuff, or when I'm doing modeling & calculations. Maybe the processor fan is dead and it's overheating ... something else to add to our wish list!

So this morning I never heard back from Wayne. About 9:00 I finally called him, and he said he hadn't wanted to call US too early. He figured he'd be back in town about noon and would be happy to take a look at it. About 1:30 I got the call, and rode my bike up to the stranded vehicle.

Wayne has quite a rolling workshop. It's a full-size truck with what MUST be an extended flatbed, and he's installed all kinds of equipment on it. He's got a welding machine, air compressor that drives his impact wrench and other pneumatic equipment, hard-wired connection for jump-starting vehicles, a permanently-mounted vice, and tons and tons of boxes and racks full of his tools. I really should have found a way to take a picture.

Anyway I rolled up and said "It will probably be just my luck to have it start right up!" This comment referred to the first time I asked Wayne to take a look. The truck was idling high no matter what I did. For several days it would "idle" at about 3000 rpm. I finally drove out to his shop, and of course it behaved perfectly as soon as I drove onto his property. And as you might expect, the truck DID start right up on the first try.

Wayne jiggled some cables, twisted some hoses, and generally did nothing. (I'll have to remember that next time I'm trying to look like I know what I'm doing under the hood.) He was "checking the ground connections" in case that had been the issue. He told me stories about a truck he had that behaved the same way, and all he did was "whack the computer" and it would start for him. Nice. I talked him into hooking up his computer scanner, but that didn't give us any information. All he could suggest was that I keep driving it and call him if/when it happened again.

As Wayne drove off I got my bike into the back of the truck and .... it wouldn't start. SWEET VINDICATION! I got Wayne on his cell phone and he agreed to come back. This time when he heard the clicks he thought there just wasn't enough "juice." He got out an ohm meter (just like the ones from high school) and measured the voltage across the battery terminals. There was juice, but only about 11 volts. Apparently it needs about 12.5 volts or more to actually crank the engine to get it started. He turned the workshop around and hooked up his jumper cables, and sure enough the voltage measured almost 14 volts. The truck started right up.

But that didn't prove the battery was the problem, since it was holding SOME charge. But with the truck running the voltage was slowly decreasing. If the alternator was charging the battery correctly, the measured voltage should have been INCREASING. He did a measurement on the alternator itself, and ruled out a wiring problem. Must be a faulty alternator.

For those who might be mechanically dis-inclined (or declined, as the case may be), let me just say that an alternator is important. It's so important, in fact, that every car has one! So of course every auto parts store on the planet will have replacements for such a vital yet ubiquitous part, right? Well, maybe not the NAPA in Monmouth. OK, it's a small town, maybe their inventory is a little bit short. Second call - paydirt! We charged up my battery enough to feel confident in driving for three blocks to Knecht's.

After tearing into the engine, Wayne opened up the box that he had just purchased. "Something's not quite right." The alternator coming out of my engine was mounted with three bolts, but the one he had just bought only had two. Upon closer inspection it was revealed that the two-bolt mount had been BROKEN, sheared right off! And of course that was the only one they had in stock.

No problem, we're not that far away from Dallas, which happens to be the county seat, and therefore those auto parts stores MUST be better-stocked. Or not. I had Rory looking up phone numbers for Corvallis parts stores while Wayne tried the last number he had in his phone, a place in Salem. Whaddya know, they said they had ONE left. Rory was kind enough to pack up all the kids (including Kelsianne who had just barely, finally, gone to sleep!) and come pick me up. I dropped her off, and Colton and I laid rubber towards Salem. Except we got behind some farm equipment, so we averaged about 25mph. Thankfully the place did have the part, and we got back to the truck after about an hour. Wayne hadn't given up on us.

Amazing what the right parts and the right tools can do. He had the alternator installed in about 4 minutes. The serpentine belt was another story, but eventually that was back on, most of the hoses/cables/wires hooked back up, and YES! The truck started. One more voltage check showed more than 14 volts across the battery terminals, confirming that we had (hopefully) fixed the issue. Too bad it took a $165 part and a $165 service call, but we should be back in business.

Well, it's time for me to get back to work, to help pay for today's fiasco. At least the weather was nice and I wasn't stuck inside an office all day!