Temper -Temper . . . . . When the repair got the best of this dad, he let the car know....

[Gonzo]

Temper – Temper

 

 

 

 

The front office door swings wide and a mom holds it open for her son who is carrying in a steering column. The column is out of her sons little S-10. From the general appearance of the column it looked like somebody was trying awfully hard to steal the little truck. Everything was distorted and bent out of shape. The steering wheel was even bent, and the horn pad looked like someone had taken an ax to the center of it. There was hardly a part of the steering column that wasn't damaged in some way or form.

 

"My husband tried to change the turn signal switch but couldn't figure out how to get it off," the mom tells me.

 

"Yea, I brought another column with us if you could use the parts off of it to fix this one," the son said while sitting the bent column on its steering wheel in front of me.

 

"So what actually happened here? I see the turn signal switch is still in place but the whole column looks like it went through a war zone. Is this a theft recovery?" I asked.

 

No it wasn't stolen, it was dad. Seems dad had the idea he could fix it, and wasn't going to let some little steering column kick his butt. He had seen it done a number of times and even watched a video on how to do it. But it looked like the column was way beyond repair; at this point I'm thinking that good old dad didn't know what a non-mangled steering column looked like... if he would have known, he probably would have just replaced it instead of trying to bring this bent up piece of junk back to life.

 

The key was still hanging out of the ignition as the column sat on the counter; even though the column was bent and contorted completely out of shape it did somewhat remind of the leaning tower of Pisa with a lot of pieces missing. While the ticket was being filled out I reached for a pocket screwdriver and removed the key and tumbler so that I could install it into the other column. The look on the sons face was pure shock as to how easy it was to remove the key and tumbler.

 

"Dad worked on getting that key and tumbler out for hours, look mom he took it out with a pocket screwdriver," the surprised young man said to his mom.

 

The son brought in the replacement column. It had all the correct parts in place and was in fairly good shape except for a problem with the hazard switch. (Pretty much what was wrong with the other turn signal switch) It too had the ignition key hanging out of it so I showed the young lad how to push in the retaining button and remove the key and tumbler.

 

Mom was pretty impressed and had a big smile on her face as she watched her son maneuver the key and tumbler into the replacement column.

 

"The tow truck was right behind us with my sons little truck. How soon can you have all of this back together?" she asked.

 

"Oh, a couple of hours should do it if I don't run into any problems. I'll change out the turn signal switch with the new one you brought since the replacement column has the hazard switch broken off of it too," I told her, "But how in the world did the original column get in such bad shape if it wasn't from a theft?"

 

It was dad, good old dad had been working on the little trucks steering column all weekend and had finally given up on repairing it. Mom went on to tell me the whole story.

 

"He came inside the house, grabbed a beer and mumbled something about a sledge hammer. He headed back out to the garage and came back out with a hatchet. He was determined to get it apart no matter what. We all watched as he proceeded to go ballistic on the little truck. The next thing I know he was a cussin' and a smackin' that steering column. Parts we're a flying everywhere and that steering column still wouldn't budge for him. He kept at it until he was too tired to swing the hatchet one more time and then he just gave up, sat down next to the truck and drank his beer," she told me while trying to hold back the laughter.

 

The son had that look of agreement on his face as if this was nothing new with good old dad when it came to something he didn't understand.

 

"Dad always tries to fix things around the house and after he gets done breaking things up pretty good mom will take over and save the day," the young lad told me.

 

When I finally got to see the little truck you could tell somebody was really having a go at destroying that steering column. With a few marks in the headliner and some obvious missed blows whacking the dash panel there was no doubt he had made up his mind that the steering wheel and the column was going to come off one way or another.

 

The install was no big deal, luckily it was an old enough truck that there was no security system to worry about or any air bag system installed on it. Just bolt it back up, line up the shaft and put all the trim back together. (The trim needed a little TLC though)

 

With the replacement column (which was untouched by good old dad) and the original key and tumbler installed the repair was done in no time at all. I gave the mom a call and a few hours later the boy had his truck back on the road again.

 

"I told my husband his temper was going to get him, and it sure did this time. He's really a sweet guy, but you should see what he does with plumbing... we keep that number handy at all times." (Chuckling as if this was nothing new with the family.) "I guess it's a male ego thing or something. He's really sorry about it all, just can't seem to get it through his thick head that he doesn't know everything." she told me.

 

The son then tells me, "Yea, I don't think he's going to try that again."

 

"Ma'am you know it would have been a lot cheaper if you would have brought it to me before it was torn apart," I told her.

 

She knew that already, but like I said, it seems to be the norm at their house. Let dad have a whack at it first until his temper gets the best of him and then call the pros. Well what can ya say, he tried, he failed, and he took more than a few whacks at it… chalk it up to a lesson learned I guess.

 

The mom backed up sons comment that "dad" has sworn off car repair forever, and wasn't about to try anything remotely like auto mechanics ever again. Well, time will tell about that... temper, temper mister... why don't you take up basket weaving, model ship building, or perhaps some yoga. Maybe it's time for a mountain retreat to work out your aggressions. One thing is for sure fella; your mechanical expertise is just one big hatchet job. Do me a favor there … "dad"… have another beer…………… but don't mess with the cars anymore OK?

 

 

I've been known to have a temper at times, yea, I've thrown a golf club or two... but this guy... he takes the Grand Prize! Leave a comment, leave a thought... I really enjoy your comments. You keep reading them, and I'll keep writing them.

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[xrac]

Gonzo, we had a car towed into us with a steering column all tore apart this spring. The gal's fiancee had tried to fix it. We decided we had to replace the column because he had lost parts. It was an 84 Cutlass Ciera and we couldn't get one locally (they've all been crushed). It took LKQ about 4 weeks to come up with one for us. We finally got it all back together and figured out the original problem was not the switch like they thought but the starter. They had a $700 bill on this piece of junk that could have been fixed originally for less than $300. So much for DIYers.

[Gonzo]

Been there, done that. Last week had a guy call me and tell me his factory alarm was going bad because thats what happened to his other car. He described the problem and what it sounded like to me was just a bad battery. He didn't want to do that, what he wanted was for me to look into what it would take to remove the factory alarm. Really,,,, I said tow it in, let me look at it first. .. .. .. .. I put a battery in it. Case closed. Don't help people... I can take care of it without your help. It is only going to piss ya off anyway... LOL

 

Gonzo, we had a car towed into us with a steering column all tore apart this spring. The gal's fiancee had tried to fix it. We decided we had to replace the column because he had lost parts. It was an 84 Cutlass Ciera and we couldn't get one locally (they've all been crushed). It took LKQ about 4 weeks to come up with one for us. We finally got it all back together and figured out the original problem was not the switch like they thought but the starter. They had a $700 bill on this piece of junk that could have been fixed originally for less than $300. So much for DIYers.

[Joe Marconi]

This is another case that we can all relate too. We diagnosed a faulty shift solenoid on a Pontiac a few years back, gave the owner a price and he said he would think about it. The car came back to us on a tow truck a week later with the entire interior gutted and ripped apart. The cost of repair was four times what the orginal estimate was.

 

What really bothers me is no so much the attempt by some people, but why can't the see the complexity in what we do?

 

Do they think a You Tube video is all they need? I wonder if there is a You Tube video on removing a brain tumor? I'll get back to you on that....

[xrac]

This is another case that we can all relate too. We diagnosed a faulty shift solenoid on a Pontiac a few years back, gave the owner a price and he said he would think about it. The car came back to us on a tow truck a week later with the entire interior gutted and ripped apart. The cost of repair was four times what the orginal estimate was. What really bothers me is no so much the attempt by some people, but why can't the see the complexity in what we do?

Do they think a You Tube video is all they need? I wonder if there is a You Tube video on removing a brain tumor? I'll get back to you on that....

 

Don't you just hate getting a hold of this stuff after someone has butchered it. We had a Lexus this week from a small time dealer, mostly this guy buys cars with problems fixes them and sells them. This is a Lexus that was loaded with everything electronically: TV, climate control, security system, etc. you name it. He couldn't get the AC to work and had some backyard guy working on the wiring. We were reluctant to mess with it but Sam our Master Tech with 30 years experience is a pretty good electrical guy and he thought he could handle it. What Sam didn't realize was what a mess this guy had the wiring in all cut and taped up. Sam worked on it off and on over three days and than finally gave up. We called the guy and didn't charge him anything. It was in just too big a mess and would take to long to straigten out. It probably needed a whole new wiring harness. Sometimes you live and learn.

[Gonzo]

I had one several years ago on an Oldsmobile, mid 80's... the guy couldn't get his park and dash lights to work. He had the entire dash pulled free, the glove box dangling, instrument cluster was laying on the passenger seat, and the steering col. wasn't bolt in.

 

I took one look at it and knew exactly what was wrong, I disconnected the radio he just put in that weekend and changed the fuse. The hardest part was getting to the fuse box because the dash was laying down on top of it.

 

Never ceases to amaze me of the stupidity of people and their cars when they think they are saving a buck by doing the work themselves. And, to think this guys problem all started over installing a new radio.... dumb, dumb, dumb....