Monday 25 August 2014

Good News Everyone!

Happiness is fickle.

As comedian Louis C. K. points out, "Everything is wonderful and nobodies happy". It can be easy to forget that you once were content with the status quo as your perspective shifts and you establish a new baseline.

Apart from his block heater incident - I've been very happy with Walden. He dutifully performs his side of the bargain without incident (knock on wood!) - that said, a list of niggling problems has grown over the past month as
 I've got to know him.

Still, non of them were deal breakers, so I learned live with them. Life in general is pretty adaptable - we can get used to a lot of things. Opening the passenger door to talk to hitch hikers gets to be normal. The inoperable 12v plug in the dash is simply forgotten about and unlocking each door manually becomes second nature.

After a month and half of living in a vehicle - fix one such nuisance, by fixing your power window for example, and you'll find yourself having small orgasms lowering and raising it with a push of a button. Then again, I've been known to be easy to please.

I'm currently up the Valley in Chilliwack - which is home to my friend Darren. Darren is a talented mechanic, so together we set about trying to solve some of the aforementioned issues.

Mission successful!

Here is a list of things that we fixed:
  1. 12V plug (in the dash): One of three, so having one that didn't work wasn't a huge issue. Easy fix though - turned out just to be a blown fuse. 
  2. Mud flaps: They were barely hanging on and rattling so we removed them.
  3. Interior lights: I've been wanting to disable them for stealthy night time entry/egress. At first we just pulled the fuse - but it turns the windows are on the same circuit. Ended up pulling the relay, which worked perfectly. Another perk is that I can leave my doors open without worrying about the battery. I am going to look for a sheet and some magnets so I can make a 'breathable door' for when I boondock in the sticks.
  4. Power locks: When removing the interior light relay - we decided to check the other relay of systems that were U/S. Turns out the power lock relay didn't exist! No idea why it was removed...popped in a new one and bobs your uncle...power locks functioned again.
  5. Passenger power window: This was the biggest, hardest and most satisfying of all the fixes. Turns out Ford doesn't want to make it easy to swap window motors. It was easy enough to remove the door panel but the motor and regulator are riveted into the door. So Darren drilled out the one rivet that held the motor and wiggled it free. After establishing we could actually replace it - we rushed down to Pick-a-part wreckers and Darren ripped one out of Walden's distant relative (I was tempted by his leather seats!). Replacing it turned out to be a bother - the helix gear didn't want to mesh. After much cursing, we finally got it to mesh and the rest went together rather easily. SO AMAZING!
The funny part about all of this - is that this all shouldn't be a big deal. Vehicles are supposed to have functioning windows!

Thanks Darren! You are my hero!

Judging by the amount of hot glue and broken tabs...someone attempted this repair earlier but were stumped by the rivets.
Darren drilling out the bracket rivet.


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