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One of those stories that is funny to tell AFTER the fact
By Anton | December 30, 2008
I know it’s been forever since we’ve posted anything, sorry about that.
I wanted to tell of the joys we have experienced here with our car. All in all of course, the car has served us quite well and we have been super happy with it. So guess it was about time that something went wrong right?
We had been noticing a slight clicking sound when ever we went over bumps at low speed on the front passenger side. It didn’t concern me too much because this country really does a number on your front end! With 70,000 mile, I knew we were due for some front end work soon since the steering was drifting a little to the right.
I had planned on taking it to the shop in another week or too but of course, it had to happen as we were on our way out the door to meet some others to go preaching. There are 2 bumps on our road, opposite sides of the road so I usually weave through them but this particular day I must have hit the one on the right square on. Just as we pulled out of it, the right front side of the car dropped sharply and I knew right away that we weren’t going to be able to meet the group. The one real plus side to this experience was that we were literally a street over from our house so it was a safe place to leave the car.
After preaching for the morning, I started calling around for suggested mechanics and the answer seemed every time to be “I know a good one but he lives on the other side of town”. I really didn’t want to have it towed… So I walked down the street to the small shop and asked for help. This is where I learned a very valuable lesson. When we think of “good” and “bad” mechanics in the states, the “bad” end of the scale isn’t really all that bad once you’ve been down here.
The gentleman that I brought back to the car with me was nice enough, about 50 years old, kind… Borola was his name I think. He did his work quietly, going back to the shop a handful of times to get tools. Then came the problem, he didn’t have a big enough socket to take off the hub… so he called his buddy. Next thing I know, one of the lug nut studs has been bent off and the drive shaft has been pulled directly out of the transmission, tearing the dust cover! For anyone who isn’t mechanically inclined, I will just tell you, these are not “normal” activities while fixing front end problems.
The rest of the afternoon included riding in a car with a drunk man (didn’t realize he had been drinking till we were on the way home), my CV joint being dropped in the mud, one of my floor mats being thoroughly soiled with transmission grease, the wrong part being “altered” to fit and the job still not getting done by 9 o’clock at night.
The job was finished in 2 hours the next morning, just in time for our sign language assembly the following day.
Here is the bad part, lower ball joint or “bola ferica” in Spanish. You can see how badly damaged it is, it should be perfectly round.
Lesson learned, find a mechanic with a reputation, not the neighborhood “wanna be”
… But it only cost me $40!!!
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