Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 Now that the Holidays have passed it's time to get back to work.

Serpentine belt and pulleys.

My Explorer has been making a low moaning sound upon start up for quite a while now. It's intermittent and usually goes away after it warms up. It hasn't gotten any worse so it'd been pretty easy to ignore. I made an inspection of the serpentine belt and pulleys and didn't see any noticeable wear. 

I went to the Rock Auto website to check out the needed parts. They had a well priced belt drive kit. Not only the belt but both the idler and tensioner pulley. I've had some experience replacing only the top idler pulley on a couple of my cars. 

The belt kit arrived in only a few days. I haven't even opened the box yet. It shouldn't be too big a job. I was kind of surprised to see that the motor still has a fan mounted to the water pump instead of the now ubiquitous electric radiator fan. I much prefer the electric fan as it really opens up the space at the front of the motor. I don't know if I'll have to remove the fan to facilitate changing the belts and pulleys. 

I'll check out some YouTube videos to get some tips. 

I'm just not feeling the desire to work on cars. At least I did that tune up on the '96 Mustang a couple of months back. 

One of the biggest problems I'm facing now is with my parking situation. All my parking spots are shaded by large trees. That means lots of branches overhanging my cars.

Lot's of branches means lots of birds, It's easy to finish the solution of the equation. 

I've been keeping the cars covered up which has been a bit of a challenge with the high winds that we've been experiencing. I use a couple of spring clamps to secure the covers to the underside of the bumpers. I use cheap Budge covers, but they've held up for several years. I even washed a couple in the home washing machine with good results. It removed a lot of the dirt from the fabric. The dirt would transfer itself onto the car when exposed to rain. I noticed that they've stayed cleaner. Every little bit helps. 

With less work taking place on my cars, my blog posts have become more about my memories and opinions. I think that these are not as popular as my task related posts. 

Mt. Konocti at Clear Lake Calif.

Last month my Wife and I spent a few days up in Clear Lake. We drove up the day after the "atmospheric river" dumped a couple of inches of snow on the mountain tops around Lake County, not to mention the Sierra.  Since we waited until a day afterwards, all we had to contend with was a lot of rain at the start of the trip. We took a less used alternative for us, driving on northbound US101 north past Ukiah and Hopland. I wasn't going to chance going through Middletown area right after the storm. We found that the snow plows had cleared Highway 20 of the snow and noticed it piled along the sides of the road.  The drive up was very pleasant. The traffic was light, the air was clear, and the views were beautiful. We spent a several days up there relaxing and working on our individual projects, one of which is this blog. 

The drive home was even better, driving along the eastern edge of the lake through Middletown and over the summit. The road had been cleared of debris and landslides and again the views were satisfying. Driving through Calistoga, St. Helena, Rutherford, and the vineyards that surround Napa. No matter how many times I've made this drive I've always enjoyed it. This is the first time in almost four years that we've visited Lake County since the devastating wildfires. It was good to be back. 

My vehicle for this trip was my F150, with the bed filled to the brim, with my Wife's art/craft projects, and other luggage. This was the same vehicle that I drove to Big Bear Lake in the beginning of last November. It is a very comfortable road trip vehicle. The V6 gives adequate performance and very good fuel economy. I made the entire 400 mile round trip on one tank of gas! It usually averages 20-21 mpg. at legal speeds. 

I mentioned to my Wife how it is strange that as an enthusiast I always want more from my vehicles.  More power, more speed, more sex appeal, especially if it is to be one of my "hobby cars." Yet I find myself traveling all over the West in a low spec, run of the mill, work truck. And I love it! 

Why? Because it is always the journey that matters. That's what counts. Anything that allows me to enjoy the trip is valuable. Whether it's a rented Dodge Grand Caravan or my old Explorer. 

Driving back from Clear Lake I was reminded that If I have to choose between driving or wrenching, I'm always going to choose the driving. 

I don't know that this attitude bodes well for my old car hobby plans.