blueswede

family fun with the Buick

And now, a story about car repair.

The Buick had been making some ugly noises, so my dad took a
look at it. Turns out the fan belts were loose...again.
So, we had to fix a few things.
Well, things weren't that simple. For instance, one part
had a little handle to lift up, with a little hole in the
handle. We couldn't pull it up very far on our own, so we
ran a wire through the hole, tied it around a breaker bar,
and torqued the living hell out of it. Needless to say, we
got that belt tight.
We also had to pry up on the alternator with a screwdriver
in a little notch. That got the other problem belt
tightened.

This was probably the easiest repair we'd ever done. It was
also roughly the sixth repair in the year and three months
that we've had the Buick. Repairs included:
- Getting the A/C repaired
- Replacing the shocks
- Replacing a tire (my fault)
- Replacing the water pump
- Replacing the alternator
- Tightening the fan belts (which we just did)

My grandmother never drove this car much, so I don't blame
her for not knowing about the problems. In a way, it's a
good thing. There's nothing quite like bizarre,
pain-in-the-ass fix-it jobs to promote family unity.