I just keep thinking about writing a post even though there are way
too many other things to do this weekend. Actually I've got to get
my car working again (I'm making a real meal of an attempted rear
wheel bearing replacement, going on now for probably over a month
of weekend disappointments - was sure I'd get it done last Sunday,
but in spite of a strong inclination to deny the fact, that wheel
just looks wonky), and then finish all of the work that I was meant
to finish over the last week because otherwise I won't be able to
place orders before the Christmas / New Year break, and I learnt
the hard way last year just how problematic that can be.
Well actually, depressed about my car servicing failures (there is
a point where even a loner like me would quite like someone
knowlegable around who could shout a few "hey, no not like that!"s
at me - I mean I _really_ try to get the instructions right but
bloody hell do I fail miserably (and sometimes expensively) at
it)...
Geeze, I'm in denial about this post, I just really want a whinge
about this failed rear wheel brearing change. OK, there, I've
changed the title now. You know it's just one of those things where
you have a lot of problems, but slowly you work through them, make
sense of them, and get to the end. But at the end you realise it's
all gone wrong, and even after six days of thinking about it (while
you should be working, mostly) you still don't understand why,
except that in order to figure it out you're almost certainly going
to have to pull a lot of it apart again. At least I can borrow my
father's ute while all of this is going on.
But this is the problem with owning the Jag as my only car - I mean
I was up for it, I knew it would be difficult figuring out how to
do servicing jobs like this with just a Haynes manual (written
mainly for a slightly different model) and what info I could find
on the 'net. But somehow it always manages to just go one step
further than I'm really ready for. Whether it's an impossibly stuck
(or sheared - oh boy was that a job - broke a whole set of new
screw extractors and ended up spending hours drilling all the way
through it, while lying underneath the car) bolt, a replacement
fuel pump that I tightened the wrong way and ended up breaking
(then spraying petrol in my face), oh and don't even mention the
starter motor. How come all of the electic parts always fail
intermittently, by the way (to be fair, this is the reason I've
always managed to drive the thing home)? You know, I'm up for a
challenge, but it's just that "oh shit" moment. Usually "Oh shit,
did I really break that?", followed by, "oh come on I just paid
$200 for that thing!", "oh fuck, plus it'll take another two weeks
to get another one!".
Anyway at worst more like $50 this time, err.. hopefully.
Unfortunately I do tend to forget many details about things
inbetween my weekend sessions, though on the other hand it's
forgetting the emotions of disappointment and being fed up that
also allows me to go back to it - I remember struggling to imagine
how I ever would last Sunday, yet I don't feel nearly so repulsed
now. Still depressed about the whole thing, sure, but willing again
to bang my head against the brick wall a few more times anyway.
Right, well better get to it then I suppose... I'd better find
myself a damn good backroad to drive down after all this. Oh hell,
no I've got to do the other wheel next!...
