John Colter Trail 1807 — 1808

Day 4: August 17th, 2005 Pittsburgh (Car Work)

After breakfast I drive to Pep Boys as first thing in the morning to correct my bill. As I am already there, I double check again on my rim options. The employee suggests to check with Summit Racing. In the internet I am able to find a rim from U.S. Wheels for only $40! According to their web page, it could already arrive tomorrow! That would be great and I order them immediately.

In the meantime it is noon and Helen must leave. She should be back around half past one. I drive over to David and meet Lisa, his girl friend. First I do the engine oil change. As usual my oil drain plug is broken and I have to use a new one out of my stock. Then I start working on the automatic oil change.

As I already know what must be done, I am much faster this time. But even then I have big problems to get the oil pan past the exhaust pipe. At some point I loose my patient and use brute force. Without any warning, the oil pan passes me and I have know chance to stop the flight. After it almost hit my head, the pan smashes to the ground and it bends one edge. Now I have to straighten this out first before I start to clean up all the oil mess.

Instead the filter together with the seal comes out really easy. After inserting the new filter I prepare the pan with seal and silicone sealant. Then the fight starts to get the pan back in. This seams to be worse than getting out. Eventually I use a rubber mallet and also adjust the bent edge better. After more than an hour, the pan is back on.

Then it is time to fill in the oil. I start with the transfer case. But the plastic of the syringe, I used last year to fill in the oil, has hardened out. That’s why the handle at the rear broke and I have a real hard time to fill and empty the syringe.

So it takes almost another hour, until I have filled up the transfer case. The next turn is the automatic transmission. To fill this one up goes really quick. Then I start the engine and fill in the rest. Around half past eight I am finished and drive back to Helen.

As she did not knew, when I will be back, she has nothing prepared for dinner. But she is so nice to make a big sandwich for me right away. Totally exhausted I fall this time in my bed — I hate to do transmission work!