The Van, She is Fixed

Those of you who follow my meandering thoughts are familiar with the trevails of my minivan.  Basically, it's gone through four starters in the past three years. 

I put the latest starter in a month or so ago, and it still didn't want to crank.  I could hear the starter whirring, but it wouldn't crank the engine.  I've been trying to find time to work on it, and using my truck through the summer.  It hasn't been too bad, but not having air conditioning in the truck this summer has sucked the zub kabir.

Last night while chatting with some friends, I mentioned that I was going to take the inspection port off the flywheel and check it for broken teeth.  Several people suggested that I re-check the electrical connections.

This morning, I crawled under the beast and rechecked all of the connections.  All of the bolts and nuts were on tight, so I started feeling around for the inspection port to check the flywheel.  While I had my hand up in there, something sharp and pointy stabbed my finger.  I twisted my head around to look, and there I found that the neutral wire coming off of the starter was coming apart at the crimp to the connector.  I took the connector off the starter, opened the crimp and re-connected the wire to it a little bit farther up the wire. 

After re-connecting the wire and re-checking that all the other electrical connections were tight, I reconnected the battery and tried the key in the ignition.  After a moment of cranking, she fired right up!

Wai, Newbius, and Agripa, I owe each of you a bottle of Kentucky's Finest if we ever meet face to face!

Remember, according to my maintenance sergeant at Huachuca, all equipment is never "right".   It is in one of these states:

1. Broken
2. Fixed
3. F***ed

Now the van is fixed, when I was afraid that the flywheel was broken, and it was f***ed.  Hopefully it will stay fixed for a long long time. 

As a bonus, my Redneck Score is down by 10 points.  No more non-working vehicles up on blocks in the driveway!