Wolf's Den

This is- WAS- the Demon Truck. A 1986 Chevy S10 Tahoe 4x4. This PoS cost me roughly $2500.00, about 4 years ago. Well, that's what I BOUGHT it for.

When it was all said and done, the stupid thing ran me nearly $7,000. Yeah.

Let's break that down, shall we?

Initial price- $2500.00

10 days after buying, front seals on tranny go- $1500.00

A week later, the temp gauge goes out, causing the radiator hoses to need replacing as well as the temp gauge. There's another $50.00. On top of THAT, as we're heading home from North Carolina after going back down to get the fool thing, the starter in the Banshee Car goes out. So by proxy, there's another $300.00. I hate North Carolina.

A month after getting that fixed, the oil pressure gauge, gas gauge AND battery gauge go haywire. Come to find out, the idiots in Warsaw, North Carolina, where the tranny went out, didn't know what the hell they were doing, so the wires to those particular gauges got wrapped around the driveshaft and chewed to pieces. Yeah. And a fuse blew.

That cost a case of beer to replace the fuse, cut the wires and tape to the inside firewall for when/if I ever wanted to fix them. That was the day I was told that the camshaft was walking, and not to bother putting too much money into it, as it wouldn't last long. $8.00 for the beer.

I should have sold it right then.

One year later, as I was getting ready to make the final payment on the PoS, the fuel pump goes out. With a full (22gal) tank of gas. $600.00 right there.

6 months later, after the first really good, heavy snowfall, I get to use the 4 wheel drive for the first time. Less than a week later, the torque converter goes to pieces, causing the tranny to burn out. Another $1600.00.

THEN it develops a brake line leak. Ok, fine, I give up on dumping more money into it. Brake fluid is cheap.

A year after THAT, the distributor gasket seal blows out, dumping all my oil on the ground as I'm driving down the road. I manage to limp it back home with Mark following me.

After trying to get the distributor off, and giving up because it's right against the firewall, it sat, in the driveway for a year and a half.

Not any more.

Yesterday, I called a auto parts place that hauls away old and junk vehicles.

At 745 this morning, they came to get it.



Going...



GOING...



GONE!!

Man is the driveway empty. WooHoo!

And now, I won't have to listen to the FiL bitch that we haven't gotten rid of it yet.



Goodbye, Demon Truck, you pain in my ass. I won't miss you one bit.

So we go out to the car this morning for Mark to go to work, and I can have the car for the day, to go get groceries, etc. And... it won't start. We had to get a jump from the neighbor. I hope it's just the battery, as I've said before, we need to consider getting a new one as this one was looking rather ragged.

We get to Mark's work, he turns it off because he wants to make sure the car will start again for me.

It won't start. The battery should have been recharged by then.

He ended up taking a sick day, so we could go get a new battery. Yeah, there went the extra money we had set aside from this week.


We went grocery shopping with what we had left, got only what we needed or would run out of in the next week. We did good, I must say.

Get home and my damn cell phone is ringing. My father in law had wanted me to call him yesterday, only they weren't home. So he called me back today. Apparently, when the bro and sis in law were up in New Jersey last weekend, they mentioned my thinking of selling the Demon Truck to a junkyard.

He wanted me to consider donating it to Goodwill or an organization similier. I'd already thought of that, when I first thought about getting rid of it. Only Goodwill and similier around HERE, won't take a non-running vehicle and it's not worth it to me to fix it. Kelley Blue Book only goes back to 1988, the Demon Truck is a 1986 model, so I can't even really get a market value on it, essentially it's worthless.

I have also considered calling up the local high schools and seeing if they have any shop-type classes that might be interested in it. Told him all this. Well, he had a name/number of an organization that apparently takes vehicles in any condition, running and non. Hmm. Ok, worth checking into to see if they're in my area.

Then he said, well, you consider donating the Truck, I'll give you $3,000 towards a new vehicle.

I looked at Mark, my jaw dropped. Then I explained that we weren't planning to replace the Truck with getting ME a new vehicle, but that sometime in the next year, we hoped to trade in the Car for a newer vehicle. So he said he'd give us the $3,000 towards that if we wanted.

Wow. Just wow.

So now I need to look up this organization he gave me and see if they're in my area, as well as go get a new title for the Truck.


So lately, I've been really missing Dante. Just her companionship in general. Really wishing it was January already so we can start looking for a Rescue pup. Been trying to come up with a good name for our next Akita as well, one that would sound relatively nice in Japanese, to keep with the naming thing we had with Dante-Inu (French-Japanese for Devil Dog) and to go with the fact that Akitas are Japanese dogs.

Well, I had thought 'Phoenix' would be a good name. 'Phoenix Rising' would be even better. Hmm, let's translate that to Japanese...

Phoenix- Fenikkusu Not bad, ok, not great but, we can work with it. Let's continue...

Rising- Joushou, Kishou, Shinkou, Botsubotsutaru, OR Ryuuki

Err, yeah... No.

Any combination of Fenikkusu with ANY translated Rising just... doesn't work for us. Bummer. Just doesn't sound good.

Back to the drawing board. *sigh*

Patience is a virtue...

In that regard, I finally was able to get a couple good, clear shots of the newest resident. He still needs a name, despite being here nearly a month. He thoroughly enjoys the 30g fish tank-



He is currently mad at me, if fish can be, as I used a flash on that shot. Otherwise he looks likle this when the light is low-



Eventually, I'll come up with a name.

Why must you be hating on me today???

Why???


You've been soo good for months, and hnow, when I have Christmas shopping to do.. you act up.

You knew we had spare money, didn't you? That's why you did it, isn't it?

Damn Truck.

No love,
Me.


So I'm heading over to Mark's work, cause the bank is a pain in my ass (BofA) and I need him to cash the damned Christmas check from the Inlaws.

I get half way there and the Demon Truck starts smoking. So I called Mark up and said I'm pulling it over, something's wrong. Funny thing is, it was right by the same gas station where I'd run out of gas over a year ago. Heh.

I thought I'd found which gasket seal it was. We limped it to the Auto Zone a block away, replaced that seal, and dumped a quart of oil in.

Then we limped it home. It was sounding rough, way worse than usual. Mark calls me up and says whatever the problem is, it's causing the fluid to just 'run out the bottom'.

Get it home, take him back to work after cashing the check, do some running in the Banshee Car, and come home..

In the process of putting a piece of cardboard under the Truck to try to determine where the leak is originating, I realise that the ENTIRE bottom is coated. Just soaked. With what appears to be oil (we hope).

So while Mark is positive it's a gasket seal, and I'm only 75% sure, the Demon Truck is out of commission for awhile. Until we figure out what seal gave out anyway and whether it's worth fixing.

I told Mark, if it's the head gasket, I'm emptying the Truck out and calling a junk yard to come get it, cause it won't be worth fixing. He agreed.

On a good note, 75% of my Christmas shopping is finished. Heh.

I need a Demon Truck icon, methinks.

It's still MY fucking Truck!

Seems Mark was downstairs playing City of Heroes, looks out the front window to see the lights on in my Truck, and a cop coming up to the door.

He comes upstairs and says, Come downstairs, I pause Sims2 and ask why? He shows me a set of keys and says, Are these your keys? Uh, no..

Then come downstairs he says.

Some drunk asshole was trying to steal my Demon Truck!

Had a set of keys in the ignition, lights on, and when the cops came up (props to Roanoke City, either they were following the guy, or somebody who knows me saw the guy trying to steal the Truck and call them, cause we sure hadn't, Mark saw the lights go on and by the time he got the door open, they were there.), he was trying to put it in gear. Of course, he didn't even get the fool thing started.

One of the cops comes into the store. Heh. So he knows for certain it's my Truck.}:P Especially since I had the keys and showed them.

No clue who the drunk asshole was, but damn. Stay the fuck away from my Demon Truck!

You know, I've always said that if someone were to steal the Demon Truck, I'd prefer they do it without breaking any windows. But i wasn't serious about it! Sheesh!

And I told Mark that putting his computer desk near the front window was a good idea}:P

That's a first in 6 years. The mind, it boggles.

Yeah you! The one driving the mini van thingy! Yeah you there who was tailgating me...

You didn't take the hint when I dropped my speed from 35mph to 30mph. So I dropped to 25mph.

You backed off for a few moments.

But then, as sdoon as I get back up to 35mph, you think in your idiotic little brain that means you can tailgate again..

Wrong answer, dipshit.

Hope you like having to clean the shit out of your drawers when I suddenly came to a complete STOP on you.

No love,

Me and the Demon Truck who really would have loved being rear ended cause YOU, idiot, would have bought ME a new Truck.

Moral of the story? You simply DO NOT tailgate someone driving a beatup Truck, especially when they are already going 5mph OVER the speed limit. Unless of course, you have the money to throw away on buying them a new vehicle as well as paying any possible health claims.... in which case, by all means, tailgate away!

Demon Truck has passed State Inspection and has a new sticker. After the Boys' vet appointment, it can gladly break down again or completely fall apart for all I care. As long as it does it at home, mind you.

I guess the Demon Truck was abit miffed at being left out of the fun we had with getting the Banshee Car fixed. Which no longer squeals and runs great according to Mark.

Yeah, I got pulled again for the expired inspection sticker, on my way to get the light bulbs to replace the left turn signal and hopefully make the damned thing work. No I didn't get a ticket, but I have a feeling Mark's ticket will be twice as much now. Oops.

So last Sunday, he and Chris tore the inside of the door off to fix the driver's side handle. Yeah I let Chris and Mark mess with the Truck again. I figured after what they did to the starter, they couldn't mess up an already broken door handle too badly.

4 hours later, they figured out that the handle itself needed to be replaced.

So they replaced that. I'd replaced the burned out bulb and the damn thing still didn't work. They cleaned out the corrosion in the socket and it still refused to work.

But the door handle was fixed, 1 out of 2 wasn't too bad, I guess.

Monday, I'm out running around. Door handle works great... for all of twice.

Yeah the stupid Truck decided that we'd had it too easy. So now we have to tear the inside off again and figure out what's wrong this time. Personally, I think they didn't tighten something down.

They'll be working on that while I possibly run a transport up to Lexington and back.

Oh and the turn signal?
Works great for me. Yeah, it works. Go figure.

Banshee Car is acting up. Won't shift out of second gear. Which, according to Mark(laughs at this part), it could be anything. The last time it did this, it was the altenator. Saturn has a safety feature that when the altenator goes bad/starts going bad, it won't shift out of second gear.

Now, he's describing exactly what happened last time, yet clams "It could be anything."

Well bullshit. You'd KNOW if it was the transmission. Simply because the last time the car was low on tranny fluid, you could tell because it strained to shift. So if it's not doing that, and is acting like it did the last time the altenator went out, chances are, its the altenator again.

He wants me to call the garage down the street and have them come get the car. Umm, why not take it down to Advanced Auto and have them test the altenator first before we fork out 75.00 just for a tow and then who knows how much for them to simply tell us what's wrong with the car? Why? Because that's too easy, of course.

So now, he's driving the Demon Truck, and I cringe every time I hear him not only start it(he revs the engine ALOT), but drive off in it, cause he treats it like the car and I'm sorry but you simply cannot jam the gas pedal and expect it to suddenly take off. Grrr.

Now I gotta talk him into taking the car to Advanced Auto and having them check the altenator and probably take him to work in the morning so I have a semi-reliable vehicle. *sigh*

Edit-9:25- Email from Mark-
"I stopped at the light at Edgewood & Brandon. While I was waiting for the light to turn green, I noticed the sound on the speakers had gone to shit. They sounded like all four blew at once, but the distortion was in time with the engine. When I tried go, the transmission was locked in 2nd gear and did not shift out of it.

I talk to my parents, Dad said to go out and see if it will start. If it doesn't, then take it to a Saturn Dealership (I pass one every morning) and have them fix it. They will take care of the bill."

Sometimes I like my father in law.

Edit-1039- Just talked to Mark. Apparently there's a stipulation on his dad paying for the repair of the car. It depends on how much it will cost. If its too much, then apparently he has said he'll help with a down payment for a new used vehicle. Umm, right. Whatever.

So I wash my hands of it. I told Mark to do whatever, its his car, if he gets another one instead, then its going in his name and I was having nothing to do with any of this. I told him to do whatever. I don't care anymore.

I must be crazy.. no wait, I know I'm crazy. I must be stupid, yup that's it, I was pretty stupid.

But hey, Max needed his dry food, he's simply not a straight wet food cat. So I went and got it.

On unplowed , slick roads. Yeah.

It started spitting around 4am, switched to tiny, hard pellets of snow like ice around 7am. We had roughly 1/2 inch by 9am.

930am I head out to clear the Truck off, start it up and attempt to go get Max's food and possibly Mark's birth day gift.

Should have realised how bad it was going to be when my tail started slipping when I pulled into the gas station to top off the tank.

Seriously debated dropping the truck into 4 wheel drive, but after what happened the last time I did that(tranny burned out, cost 1500.00), I was and still am very leery of doing that. So I decided to limp it in 2 wheel drive.

Note to self- when you think about putting some of your large rocks in the back to give it some weight, DO IT NEXT TIME,DIPSHIT!

I made it to the vet's office, slipped 3 times on the way there, each time when I tried going just a few miles faster up an incline. Speedlimit was 45-55, yeah right, I was glad to be doing 30. Heh.

I get there and Michelle asks me what I was doing, did I really come all the way out there just for food? Well, yup, I sure did. We laughed about the crazy things we do for our pets.}:) They plan to close up early and head home, especially since they are located well out of town and won't really be plowed well until extremely late or tomorrow.

I get Max's food, ask about his sniffles, etc. and head home.
Normally, its a 15 minute drive. It took nearly half an hour to get there, and half an hour to get home.
I slipped trying to take off at a green light. I said the hel with this and came straight home.

So I won't be going over to Fuddrucker's to surprise Mark with the rest of his office crew for a birth day lunch they have planned, if they still do it rather than wait, which I think they should. Although, he is off tomorrow, so no clue when they'd do it. But you know, risking my life or the Truck, just ain't worth it.

Been home half an hour, hood of the Truck is half covered already. Yeah, its still coming down good. Maybe they'll send Mark's office home early or something. Its nasty out there and I've yet to see a damned snowplow that wasn't a privately owned vehicle. That's the thing about the southern states, including southwest Virginia, they simply do not know how to snowplow or how to be overly prepared by having plows out and running the roads before the storm gets good and going. That's the only thing I really miss about Michigan. At least there, the roads would have been cleared, every hour on the hour. Heh.

Still won't move back though, I'll take a paltry few inches over a few feet any day.

Special weather report just came on, we're under an ice storm warning until 9pm tonight. Yeah, great.

Edit-1115am- Mark just called. They still plan to meet at fuddrucker's. I said sorry, I ain't seen a single snowlow, I'm not going anywhere, besides Salem probably plows way better than Roanoke does. He understood.}:) He's going to go pick up his birth day gift on the way home from work. LOL

Off my Truck, you have to keep it because you really don't know what it is, where it goes or if it's important."

"You're right, I forgot it was jerry-rigged from Hel."

Conversation with Mark after getting my Demon Truck back from the mechanic and finding out that when they(Mark and Chris) took the starter off, they lost the shims that hold it snug against the flywheel(apparently it's a Chevy/GM thing, something I've not run into before). When asked, Mark said, yeah something fell out, it was wrapped with electrical tape and the size of a box cutter.

I said, "Mark, that was the shim. What did you do with it?"

He replied, "Well, it's gone now."

I said, esperated now, "What did you do with it?"

He said, "I threw it away in one of your garbage cans at work, it's long gone."

ARGH.

 

Damn ignition module went out on me. I told them repeatedly it was not the starter, but they wouldn't listen. Now, after spending another 300.00 on the damned truck, I'm looking at having to get a starter by the end of the month. Because without the shim in there, it's barely catching the flywheel and will gradually wear out.

Maybe next time they'll fucking listen when I say it's not the starter.

I hate that fucking Truck.

Old people do not need fucking driver's licenses!

Old people don't know how to motherfucking STOP at a red light when I have the godsdamned green and am quite obviously driving in THE FUCKING LANE YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO FORCE ME OUGHT OF.

Yeah, locked my brakes up, dickwad. Yeah my fucking horn works too, you stupid bitch. So do my lungs and I know damn well you heard every single swear word that came out of my mouth, even over the Rob Zombie blaring from my system.

Next time you want to try to sideswipe someone, and force them into the turning lane from the straight lane(yer mother fucking damned lucky there wasn't anyone there, asswipe) and not even give them the courtesy of a fucking reach around first, let alone a wave to say fuck you too, buddy, make sure they aren't a godsdamned Marine who can swear at your ass in several languages.

And then you have the fucking guts to go 25mph in a 35mph zone and keep hitting your brakes. Guess what that just pissed me off more, bitch.

Oh and what the fuck was the little hunched over half wave from the dessicated dick in your passenger seat?? Was that supposed to mollify me after you tried to total my truck, bitch??? (And I would have made damn sure you totalled it too. Of course, the speed you were going would have done the job nicely.)) You are also motherfucking lucky my lunch from KFC that I JUST MOTHERFUCKING BOUGHT and that went onto the floorboards, didn't come out of the boxes/bag or you'd be forking over the 10 godsdamned cursed dollars I just spent for it, you cow.

Yeah what the fuck ever, you shit eating nondriving dried up old prune who should be at home napping instead of trying to drive people off the road.

Get the motherfuck off the damned road.

(Oh and that little swear test I took yesterday? After today, I could have aced it)

Just saw a trailer for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.... need I say more?


Oh and gots me Truck back!

Off work for 4 days!!!


Heh.

The damn Demon Truck *still* is not ready.
They *do* only have one guy to do each fucking step of the fucking repairs.

*headbrickwallrepeatedly*

Demon Truck *still* is not ready for pickup.

We are not pleased by this.

Seems like they have *one* person for each step of the damn repair and the person who does the damn drive shafts called in sick.

We feel this is pure bullshit.

We are extremely unhappy with this situation.

Mark's paycheck did not come today. If there is no paycheck tomorrow, rent check will not go through.

We are extremely displeased by this as well.

Yeah this is shaping up to be a Hel of a week before my 4 day break.


We now return you to your regularly scheduled Live Journaling.

End Transmission.

Demon Truck is costing another 75.00 to replace the transfer case seals that look to have been in there since 1986(the year of the truck.)

I'm going back to my cave now.

No this is no April Fool's joke.

In other news, the man that sold me the P.O.S. in the first place? Karma's biting him on the ass already. Seems he had a chimney fire last week, will have to have the chimney replaced as well as a wall repaired and smoke damage repair.

Its costing me 1350.00 now. Yup, 100.00 *more*

Why you ask?

Well, because apparently the crack smoking, potheads in Warsaw, North Carolina (Danny's Towing to be exact)
saw fit to leave *transfer case and transmission bolts* OUT. Thus causing the gears to burn out, and the bands to be smoked. Which means the gears need replacing as well as the bands.
Yeah, I saw my poor tranny tore down on a table. It wasn't pretty. In fact, it was downright pitiful.

So you stupid drugged out 'nigger'* hating assine redneck onehorse town motherfucking crackheads, I ever fucking find you or see your dumb redneck asses, I'm going to run you over, back up over you and do it again, repeatedly until you are a permenant *stain* on the asphalt.

You think you got the so called 'niggers'* in your backwater hick town to worry about? You ain't never met a pissed off Marine Wolf then.

Karma ain't got nothin' on me in this regard.

You do *not* fuck with my Truck. Only my Truck is allowed to fuck with my Truck.



* their words, the fucking racist country hicks.

Woke up at 530am, let Dante out. It was tiny, tiny flakes then.

Left the house at 6am to go to work to do paperwork for a few hours. Huge, fat flakes.

An hour later, still huge fat flakes, ground is covered, probably half an inch already.

I expect that by the time I leave here in 2 more hours, there'll be at least an inch to an inch and a half.}:P

Yay fun.

Edit- 1052am-
Anyone got a transmission for an 86 Chevy S10 Tahoe 4x4?
Or better yet, 1500.00 that you want to give me out of the goodness of your own hearts?

Keep your fingers crossed that its just the transfer case is loose and not the tranny.}:(

And Dante's playing the 'I'm not eating this stuff' game again. Only I didn't put no stinkin' livers in it, so she has no excuse.

Yeah, there's something wrong with the truck again. Not quite sure what. The tranny's not slipping, so I don't think/hope its that. Its more of a straining noise when it shifts. It does shift smoothly, but the rpm's get high (3500-4000rpm) before it does shift though. And it sounds worse today than yesterday.
Maybe I'll get lucky and it'll be something easy, like adjusting the timing chain/belt. Maybe its just the gearbox wearing out. Maybe its just the linkage is worn out. Maybe it just needs tranny fluid (something I'll be checking when the weather clears, its turned windy and spats of rain). If its the tranny itself, well, we're looking at roughly 500.00-1,000.oo to replace that, seeings how it is a 4x4.
Maybe the torque converter just needs adjusting, or tightening or something.

All I know is that it didn't make this noise before I had to use the 4 wheel drive, and now, suddenly, a week later, it is. Grrr.

Either way, I don't like going too far from home now without the car. Which means no trips across town for awhile}:( Luckily the store, laundromat, etc are all right here within 5 miles.}:P

Monday, hopefully, the mechanic can put the Demon Truck up on a lift and check 'er out.

( I wanna go home.. )