* * * * *
Them ol' Lake Lumina Blues
Last night I said I'd drive to the movies [1].
Only I didn't end up driving. Jeff [2] did.
And therein lies a tale.
As I was pulling out of the driveway, turning the steering wheel suddenly
felt a lot like pulling on a brick wall. Obviously the power steering was no
longer power steering and there was no way I was driving to the theater (even
if it was about two miles away). I was barely able to shove the [DELETED-
brick wall-DELETED] steering wheel the other way to get the car back up into
the driveway.
Anyway, today being The Game Day™, my friends and I huddled around Lake
Lumina, looking into the engine block for reasons why the power steering
wasn't.
“That doesn't look good,” said Tom. I looked to where he was pointing.
[This flywheel should be over this belt] [3]
[Actually, in the graphic above, where it says “flywheel” it should say
“pully” as that's what the mechanic called it—Sean]
One of the many flywheels driven by the one large serpentine belt winding its
way along the side of the engine had shifted a few inches away from the belt.
“No, that doesn't look good,” I said.
I pushed on the [DELETED-flywheel-DELETED] pully, seeing if it would push
back into position, but it wasn't budging, much like the steering wheel
wasn't budging. After looking up the Blue Book value for my car [4], the
consensus was I might want to drag Lake Lumina behind the shed (or in this
case, it might be eaiser to drag the shed in front of Lake Lumina), put it
out of its misery and start visiting some automobile dealerships.
Sigh.
[1]
gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2010/12/18.1
[2]
http://spinthecat.blogspot.com/
[3]
gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2010/12/19/flywheel.jpg
[4]
http://www.kbb.com/used-cars/chevrolet/lumina/1999/trade-in-value/pricing-report?id=5144&equipment=197326
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