Pick-Up Follies

Sometime after Thanksgiving, I was out in the parking lot at work my supervisor and a bunch of co-workers around trying to replace a serpentine belt in my truck. As the seemingly simple task of replacing the belt was becoming more daunting and difficult it started to dawn on us that maybe the auto parts store made a mistake and gave me the wrong sized belt. Before that concept could sink into my head, my supervisor who at the time was giving it a try sheared off the bolt to the tensioner pulley (note: in order to remove the belt you have to relieve the tension on it by applying leverage to a bolt that moves the pulley away from the belt). "Fuck" was the first word that came to mind and my mouth. Step 2 at this point was easy and all to familiar when it came to problems with this truck: I got a ride to my house (in our ambulance in this case), picked up my other car, and had the truck towed at a later day. The 7 weeks following that day were spent swearing and sweating as I attempted with all of my might to remove the pulley bolt and eventually the entire pulley tensioner assembly off my engine block with the intention of replacing it. Two things proved my downfall in a speedy repair of my truck: the first was the lack of the appropriate tools to do the job and the second being my reluctance to pay someone to do what I at first thought would be a simple job. It being a new year and 6 months since I've been able to drive the old girl, I finally swallowed my pride and had the truck towed to a diesel mechanic who had the entire tensioner assembly replaced in a few hours. Since she was in there I had him take care of a few other minor problems. Hopefully I'll be swinging by Monday to pick it up. As much as I love that truck, my new year's resolution for 2010 is to again own a car newer than 2000...