Category: family

Posted on

Forty Nine

Imagine cruising down the interstate enjoying the view through a big glass windshield. The stars are bright and your destination is miles away. You are driving along with out a care in the world. Everything is going well and you expect to arrive at your destination at exactly the scheduled time. Music plays softly in the background and the clatter of the engine combines with the roar of the tires on the pavement to allow you to settle deep into the warm comfortable driver’s seat.

Then suddenly your vision is blurred and glass shatters in front of you. A large lump of something lands in your lap as you try to control your bus and protect the precious cargo of passengers behind you. Someone has just gotten their jollies by dropping a large object from the bridge above you. You safely pull the bus to the side of the road and inspect the damage. Miraculously you are still alive. Just a few cuts and scrapes.

Glass is scattered through out your bus but none of the passengers are seriously injured. Everyone is OK but you will not make your destination on time. And your bus is going to need some serious repairs. It could have been worse. Like it was for a woman a few years ago who had a stone dropped through her from possibly the same bridge. She died from her injuries.

So it could be worse, but still it is pretty bad. What fun it must have been for the hoodlums who tossed the weight into the bus wind shield? Did they even get to see the crash in the darkness? A whole bus load of students returning from a trip are jolted from their peaceful ride by a senseless act.

This story is from this week’s news. A bus load of Lee University students was attacked as it cruised home on I 75 this week.

I read somewhere that life goes through seven year cycles. If so, then this is the end of my seventh cycle. Tomorrow I will be fifty.

I feel like this cycle of my life began with something crashing through the windshield of my life. I was comfortably cruising along in my career as an engineer for Westvaco Corporation. I had comfortable pay. I was good at what I did. People respected me and I was surrounded by friends. While there were many things I did not like about corporate life, I was very comfortable. I had challenges to keep my mind occupied and a comfortable office to go to each day. I was ready to cruise on auto pilot to retirement.

Then, suddenly, my dream was shattered. The plant I worked at was closed. There was some fall out but I was not really injured. Just a few scrapes. The impact reverberated through the other parts of my life.

Suddenly, I was faced with struggling for finances and not feeling very useful. Much of my self worth was wrapped up in being an engineer for Westvaco. When I was not that anymore, I felt like I was nothing.

I tried a few other jobs but none of them gave me any satisfaction. I was not good at them so my self worth went down even more.

My old friends drifted away as they moved on to other jobs. I found my self in a very bad spot. I was alone and felt pretty useless.

In the process of rebuilding myself, I discovered the new thought movement. I discovered it entirely by accident. Or so it seemed.

I began reading books about how to make money and I discovered that there was a common theme in all of them. The idea was that we each create the circumstances that surround us rather than being manipulated by them.

As I studied concepts that were foreign to me such as the law of attraction and the law of mind action, I began to see evidence of their truths. I remembered times when I worked at Westvaco when I had observed this very phenomenon. But not having any basis for causal relationship, I dismissed it like any good engineer would.

I had once made the statement that Westvaco should pay me to be in a good mood because when I was, the presses ran better and if I was in a really good mood, we would set production records. If I came to work in a bad mood, then we had nothing but trouble.

But even after reading the Tao of Psychology, I refused to acknowledge the relationship between my moods and the circumstances. There was no way my emotions could cause outside circumstances was there?

During the last few months at Westvaco, I met a faith healer. The stories he told and the things I observed caused me to believe that there really was more to the universe than what I had learned in school. But I still but my faith in science. But to the true science of mind, just the traditional observational science.

As I studied more and read books by Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Charles Filmore and others I began to realize that there was something to this science of mind. I began to see that everything I observe is first created in my mind. I also began to understand what Wallace Waddles meant when he said that controlling the mind is the hardest and most import work any man can do.

I am still working on learning to control my thoughts. I often don’t feel that I have the freedom to create with my thoughts. My upbringing in a guilt based religion pops up often causing me to feel that I don’t have the right to even want certain things.

So as I begin my fiftieth year tomorrow, I am moving forward with excitement and wonder. I wonder what will happen next. I have moved way out of my comfort zone and most of my life lines are gone. I will be on my own to create the life that I desire. I can’t rely on anyone to do it for me. I am excited and scared at the same time.

I feel like I have wasted a lot of years getting to this point in life. I have always prided myself on being a fast learner, but in this most important area of life, I feel like I have been very slow on the uptake. Hopefully the pace will pick up and I will learn to release the old constrictions and begin to create a truly happy life that I want.

But first I have to feel like I deserve it.

Posted on

Torque Converter Lockup troubleshooting – The Red Jeep Saga

Torque Converter Lockup troubleshooting – The Red Jeep Saga

Scott’s almost has the red Jeep ready for paint. But there has been one nagging problem that he wanted to resolve before he put in the effort to paint the truck – the transmission seemed to refuse overdrive and the torque converter refused to stay locked up.

At first the trouble was intermittent. It was especially frustrating that when I drove the Jeep, it shifted fine but when Scott drove it, it would refuse to stay in forth and the converter would not stay locked.

For those of you new to this story, this is a 1989 Jeep XJ Cherokee. It was bought for parts with a burned up wiring harness. Scott has put it back together and it runs and drives better than any other Jeep in our fleet – except for its weird electrical problems that occur from time to time.

Scott first tried swapping the throttle position sensor. No change. Next he tried swapping the whole transmission computer. No change.

We tested the resistance across all the transmission control solenoids. All were within spec.

Next we decided to use the diagnostic procedure for the later model Jeeps even though this is a Renix Jeep and uses a different transmission computer. It does however have the same model of transmission, the reliable Asin AW4.

We test-drove the Jeep with the transmission computer unplugged. It worked exalt as expected with first gear only in the 1-2 position, 3rd only in 3 position and OD only in D position. Of course no converter lockup is expected with the computer disconnected.

Next, I rigged up a jumper wire to test the converter lockup. I probed the white wire to the solenoid and the yellow power wire to the computer and made a jumper and had Scott drive us down the road. As I connected and disconnected the jumper we watched the rpms jump and we could feel the converter locking up. So it worked mechanically. Just the computer was telling it not to lock.

This test confirmed my earlier suspicions that the Transmission was actually shifting into over drive and the converter was locking for a second and then as if commanded by the computer it was unlocking and sometimes shifting back to third gear.

Next we brainstormed things that would cause the converter to unlock and read more in the manual about how the converter worked. We found that pressing down on the accelerator should unlock the converter as well as stepping on the brake.

As these two circuits are very different we had to resort back to the older manual with its less specific wiring diagram. We saw that a blue and yellow wire was supposed to carry the brake signal trigger. Having already changed the throttle position sensor we decided to work on the brake circuit first. Inspection of the brake light switch showed only pink and black wires. We took another test run and found that if the brake input wire was grounded, the torque converter would indeed lock up. This test confirmed our theory of the brake input being the trouble.

The wiring diagram was less than helpful has it simply showed the bleu/yellow wire going through a switch to ground. It gave no clue as to the physical location of this switch.

Scott crawled under the dash again and searched until he found the blue/ yellow wire. There was a second switch on the brake pedal above the brake light switch.

We probed the switch and found there was no change in it as the brake pedal was depressed. The switch indicated that the pedal was down all the time.

He pulled the switch out and we found that it would work intermittently out of the Jeep. So I took the switch apart and cleaned it with contact cleaner. Once back together, it worked reliably.

Scott reinstalled the switch and adjusted it to properly indicate when the pedal was depressed. We reattached the original transmission computer and buttoned everything back up.

A tryst drive showed that it work just as it was supposed to. So far the transmission continues to operate properly. A simple solution to a problem that had frustrated Scott for a couple of months now.

Posted on

Black Mountain Adventure

Black Mountain Off Road Adventure

The XJlist folks met once again for their Annual Fall Crawl at Black Mountain in Harlan Ky. The trails of Harlan County offer a wide variety of trails and fun. This year however a new varied element was added to the mix: changing weather.

The group began arriving Thursday morning coming from east west and south to meet at camp 3 half way up Black Mountain. Most traveled in rain all morning to reach the park where the skies were clear. But the morning rain had made the step gravel climb to the camp site very slick.

After paying for camping and buying a Harlan County Sticker, I asked the guy about the road. He assured me that it had been graded since I had been there in the spring and if I made it up then I should have no trouble. Note that he drives a Sentra.

I put the Suburban in Low Range and headed up the hill. I noticed a bit too late that it looked like someone had had a hard time getting up and had done a lot of spinning. I got on the throttle to build momentum but it was too little too late and I came to a stop with all four wheels spinning. Then I started moving backward.

I tapped the brakes and the trailer brakes helped hold it in place. However moving backward turned up not to be an option either as I started to slide toward the edge of the road where there is a huge drop off. I did however slide far enough tot the right for Jenny to squeeze past and hook a strop to the front. With a tug from her Jeep, I made it up just fine. I looked back and saw Neal’s Jeep parked on the side and realize that he must have made it to the same spot with similar results and unloaded his Jeep to make it up the hill.

Once at camp, we set up our tent and greeted our friends. The weather was quite warm and then suddenly a breeze popped up. Matt’s tent was set up but not staked. He looked up juts in time to watch it float over the edge of the cliff into the kudzu below. He managed to catch it before it got out of reach unlike a few years ago when he had to don his repelling gear and be winched down and back to get his tent from a similar incident.

After a leisurely time of unloading, airing down and disconnecting sway bars, we headed out to explore some new trails. We began with a new cut off form trail 45 called Pappy’s Bypass. It was a narrow muddy trail with lots of switchbacks and great views of the fall leaves in the valley below.

We reached White Tail camp and the weather shifted. It went from warm and clear to thunder and hail. We sought cover under the shelter and watched as the storm blew over quickly and then shifted to snow. As the snow died down we began to play on the rocks and hill climbs there.




After some play time we headed back along trail 15. This trail is fun when dry and very exciting when wet and slick. The very last section consists of a couple of very steep switchbacks where you just have to make a controlled slide down. Lots of fun to end the first day.

Back at camp Evan had arrived and started a fire. We sat around and caught up with our friends and cooked supper.

The next morning we saw snow on the upper parts of the mountain but none in our camp. We headed up to Middle Fork and considered a run up 15. Several of the group played on the first steep hill. Some made it and some did not. Knowing the second hill is the one that is really a challenge in the wet, we split into two groups – Swampers and other tires.

We met back up where 15 and 12 come together. Surprisingly we arrived at the rendezvous point at exactly the same time. We merged the groups back together and headed to ward the stadium area which has several hill climbs. Along the way Neal noticed a small rock garden so we went back and played on it and posed for photos on the hills there.

Matt noticed his cross member had come loose and his transfer case was dangling. We made a very temporary trail fix and left his Jeep there while we explored further down the trail.

The snow was really coming down at this point. Those of us with out doors were getting our seats soaked as Matt sat in my passenger seat and soaked his pants. Cold and wet we made out way to the Truck Challenge course and the soup bowl.

We quickly found a pile of rocks to play on and Josh and Evan gave a go at swimming in the soup bowl. I started to explore the area a bit when I heard a strange noise. The noise turned out to be my front drive shaft separating from the front yoke. One of the strap bolts had sheared off and I lost a cap in the process. I pulled the shaft and prepared to make my way back to camp in 2wd.

Back at camp, Matt started work on his cross member while I worked on extracting the broken bolt from the yoke. Once it was out, Wayne Sr gave me a spare bolt and a strap. Evan donated a U joint. I pressed in a new joint and waited for daylight to install the shaft.

Matt had no luck fixing his cross member so he elected to leave his Jeep at camp and ride shotgun. We built a huge fire and enjoyed telling stories well into the chilly night.

The next morning it was cold and clear with lots of snow visible o the mountain. The plan was to go back up the twisty trail 15 and then work our way back through the massive park on trail we have not run before.

Trail 15 took most of the morning as Mitch G got scarily sideways near the top and required a strap and assistance from Frosty’s Toyota to get pointed back up the hill.

Josh made a run and his Swampers pulled him up easily. So we staged him with a strap near the top to give a tug to those who needed it. Jenny made a run and had a huge mudslinging fun time making it look easy. I followed her up and made it without assistance as well.

Once we had all the Jeeps to the top, we headed on to White Tail for lunch. We ate lunch under spitting snow and then headed out for a trail ride. Neal and Evan headed to town for fuel while I lead the group toward trail 22. We had planned to run T.R.O.U.B.L.E. but when we got there it was covered in very slick leaves and it looked like no one had run it in a while. The consensus was that it would be more fun to go up than down so we elected to skip it for the time.

I lead the group on to 18 which has two fun climbs back to the main trail. The first had a big log on the side that was impossible to avoid in the slick conditions. I think Jenny’s bumper cap was the only casualty of the otherwise very fun climb. The second climb was fun as well with a big rock that scraped a few wheels as we climbed.

We all collected at the Lower rock garden and played there for a while. Jenny made good use of her new Crusher tires and crawled easily through the lower section while frosty and Josh ran the garden backwards toward her.

After getting our fill of the Rock Garden we headed off to let Jenny redeem herself on rail bed. Last time here, she slipped on the exit and had to be extracted.

This time Rail bed was even more intimidating. The rocks were wet and slick and most of the smaller ones and even some of the big ones had washed down the hill.

Near the three quarter mark of the trail, Mitch popped a tire off the bead and Neal drove backwards down the trail so his onboard air line would reach. After the tire repair, Neal positioned his Jeep to use the winch to help people over the nasty V notch made by two big rocks.

There are three exits to rail bed. One requires a lot of clearance to get over a huge boulder. The other is the one that Jenny slipped off of last time and is now even more narrow and dangerous. The only viable option for most of us was a steep muddy climb. We positioned a winch at the top and another Jeep with a strap to assist.

Jenny made it over the V notch fine and was almost up the muddy hill when she hung her diff on a rock and had to have a strap to help her get the rest of the way out. I got hung on the same rock and had to have a bit of a tug as well.

Once every one was up and out, we gathered some fire wood and made a dash back to camp. The sunset on the snow covered mountains made for a beautiful drive back to camp.

The crew made dinner in record time and we enjoyed our huge steaks and potato boats as darkness settled in. Me enjoyed looking up at the bright stars and enjoyed another evening of fellowship around the camp fire. For desert, we warmed up some apple and pumpkin turnovers that my mother made for the trip.

Sunday morning dawned crisp and cold and we all fought ice as we packed up our tents and gear. A heavy layer of frost covered out trailers and everything left outside. We took our time loading up and the remaining group made a final stop at the Harlan Huddle House before parting ways.

This trip was one of the most adventurous yet for me even if we did not conquer as many obstacles. The cold wet weather made simply driving the trails a challenge. Three days of sliding and sliding has defiantly given me a better feel for driving my Jeep and improved my confidence. Black Mountain Adventure area sure lived up to its name this trip!

Posted on

1998 Chevy Pick up won’t start

1998 Chevy Pick up won’t start

My Dad called the other day to say that his Chevy Pick Up would not start. We began by checking the usual suspects, spark and fuel.

I used my inductive spark checker held to a plug wire and it indicated that we had spark. I put my hand over the exhaust pipe and it smelled like we had fuel. Hmm.

We tried the clear flood procedure even though it did not seem flooded. Still not start.

The next night I returned with my fuel pressure tester and timing light. We checked the fuel pressure and found 50 psi. We guessed that was enough even though the spec is 55 to 60.

We had noticed that the spark was intermittent on the tester which could have been form the way I was holding it or maybe from a bad cap or rotor. So dad bought a new cap and rotor to add to the new spark plug wires and air filter he had installed previously.

We tried to check the timing and could not find any marks on the damper. I hooked up our antique timing light anyway and found that it does a poor job of insulating the voltage from a modern high energy ignition system.

He called a mechanic friend of his who came over and hooked up the OBDII tester. The tester shoed no error codes and showed the timing to be correct. Glad to have our fears of a broken timing chain put aside. But it still would not start. His friend suggested that 50 psi was not enough fuel pressure to start the truck but I was doubtful.

I went back to help Dad move the truck to his shop so he could begin the process of removing the bed and swapping out the fuel pump. I checked to see if it might be a problem with the idle air control circuit but that seemed OK as well.

Once we had towed, tugged pushed and pulled the truck into place in the shop I decided to try one lat thing before I left. I poured some gas down the throttle body and sure enough it fired up. In fact it stayed running and ran just fine.

I went to hook up the fuel pressure tester again and the engine instantly died. I hooked it to the test port and again the engine would not start. We hit it with another splash of fuel and it started and again ran fine. Seems the low fuel pressure was not low enough to keep it form running but was low enough to keep it from starting when cool.

We tried it several more times and sometimes it would start without assistance but most times it would not. So Dad is now pulling the bed to swap the fuel pump.

Posted on

The Red Jeep Saga – Update

The Red Jeep Saga – Update

Scott has now taken possession of the Red Jeep Cherokee Limited. He reports that it is running well and he has scrapped plans to sell it and is now planning to keep it as his daily driver replacing his XJ Wagoneer.

He is in the process of sanding it down so he can repaint it. I think he is even planning an ambitious color change. A color change on a Cherokee requires a lot of attention to detain to get it right. My off road Jeep used to be purple and is now white but it is easy to see the purple interior when it is not covered in mud.

Changing the color on the red Jeep will require pulling all the door panels and painting the door jambs as well as the hatch and under hood areas. Lots of labor and masking tape will go into this project.

One last electrical glitch has been sorted out. The light in the clock would not work. After tracing the wiring, it turned out to simply be a bad bulb. Now the clock is visible again.

It is amazing that this Jeep that I thought would never run again now drives and runs better than some of the newer Cherokees in our collection.
[phpbay]jeep cherokee, 10[/phpbay]