Of Serpentine Belts and Sticky Buns (part 2 — the epic conclusion)
Of Serpentine Belts and Sticky Buns (part 2 — the epic conclusion)
- Refuse to pay $650 for new or refurbished alternator installation by Triple AAA mechanic
2. Get new bid from trusted, local, non-Triple AAA mechanic. Again refuse to pay $650 for new or refurbished alternator installation
3. Attempt to jack up 2000 Honda Odyssey with hydraulic jack. Don’t know how to turn the small cylinder and get the jack to work. Drive to hardware store and ask how to use it. Nice hardware guy at Strosnider’s tells me without making fun of me, as he should have.
4. Since the Odyssey is parked on a slanted hill with grass and dirt and we have no jack stand, we then jacked up the car about 10 times and put 4 inch x 4 inch wooden blocks under it to hold it up.
5. Finally get the car suspended high enough and remove front passenger tire.
6. Visit the swear jar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgOfAgFJktI
7. Try and reattach tire after proper jacking of car.
8. Realize the sloped hill wont’ allow us and rejack up car in muggy, humid, swampy, hot summer weather.
9. Watch DIY Jeff’s video on replacing Honda Odyssey alternators and revisit the swear jar
10. Remove plastic casing over engine block after moving brake fluid and window washer fluid reservoirs.
11. Remove forward alternator bolt with 12 mm wrench. Easy-peezy.
12. Attempt to remove rearward alternator bolt with socket wrench, flat wrench, Serpentine Tool Belt. None of these even budge the bolt.
13. Drop each wrench on accident while trying to loosen bolt. Compare my work to DIY Jeff.
14. Revisit the swear jar
15. Use the Serpentine Belt Tool (bought on Amazon) to try and loosen the rearward alternator bolt.
16. Discover the rearward bolt was attached in the year 2000 and the all wrenches used have rounded and stripped the corners of said bolt.
17. Revisit the swear jar
18. Purchase 14 mm flat wrench (only sold in a set) that contains teeth in the circle end of the wrench. We didn’t purchase this on Amazon but at the second parts store we visited in Bladensburg, MD while one of our family members was rowing with the crew team.
Our family member voluntteered to serve as the Coxswain:
19. Slowly and very, very patiently remove rearward bolt and alternator
20. Wait for new alternator to arrive from Home Depot as Amazon did not have the specific alternator for our model
21. Drop every bolt and nut and wrench used due to the angle of the alternator and the lack of space to work with. Luckily, less than half the time, the dropped pieces didn’t land on the slanted hill full of grass, weeds, and mostly dirt or mud depending on the daily deluge.
22. Out of frustration, hit the frame of the car with the Serpentine Belt tool so hard the ball bearing falls out and is lost.
23. Go back to hardware store and ask for another ball bearing.
24. Nice hardware store guy explains the tiny spring under the ball bearing, it’s function and form, and the physical difficulty / impossibility of inserting a new ball bearing. He suggests welding to fix the problem. I don’t have that type of equipment.
25. Drive home, trying not to revisit swear jar.
26. Arrive at home and revisit swear jar anyway.
27. Use pink and purple flowery masking tape from my wife’s sewing kit to ensure the Serpentine belt tool and the 14 mm wrench end stay connected.
28. We had to use a ½ sized socket wrench on the forward alternator bolt and a slightly larger than 10 mm wrench to attach the wired metal ring to the new alternator.
29. Attach serpentine belt tool extension arm, and connect that extension to the 14 mm flat wrench to loosen the pensioner pulley thingy (3:10)
30. Jumped the battery with our 2004 Honda Odyssey which just failed a safety inspection since it has no O2 sensor nor catalytic converter. (Apparently the mechanic we took it to, before we bought it, didn’t notice these missing parts. No more car purchases off Craigslist. Enough is enough.)
31. “Sound my barbaric YAWP over the rooftops of the world,” as Walt Whitman put it, and to relieve lower back pain from working on the alternator for hours. Wave at neighbors who look out of their windows to see if someone’s dying.
32. Bask in the savory sweetness of success, knowing my mother in law laughed at the idea of me replacing the alternator.
33. Cash out the swear jar
34. Eat sticky buns purchased by mother-in-law? PRICELESS. 😊
The Bottom Line:
Homemaide lets you buy what makes you smile and sell your style. We understand that one of your pictures is worth 1,000 purchases and we’ll help you earn the money Facebook, Linkedin, twitter, etc. have been making off of you, for years.
If you update your status with an experience you’ve had working on cars, or listening to music that you love, or eating food that is beyond delicious (think: sticky buns, Cinnabon, Key Lime Pie), Homemaide lets your friends upload a pic of your status and buy the item they love the most. For your friends who are cooks, chefs, and Maître D’ positions, they might love the sticky buns part of your story. For your mechanically-inclined friends, they might like the tool products in your status update. For your other friends, they might love the music you posted or the shoes you’re wearing, Homemaide lets them purchase what makes them smile and sends YOU a commission from each purchase. That’s the magic of Homemaide!