Adventures in Auto Maintenance

6:15 AM - I awake to the sound of a whining 4 month old. I entertain him and let his mother sleep some more in hopes that I will get out of the house by 8:00 or so to replace the leaky seal in my truck's differential.

9:00 AM - After playtime and a lengthy mid-morning nap for the boy, I finally hand him off to his mother and prepare to finally start the job I had planned to be half finished with by now.

9:30 AM - I'm finally backing out the drive and head for the shop.

9:31 AM - I turn around before making it to the end of the street and go back to pick up another item I think I might need for the job.

10:00 AM - Finally, the truck is backed in the shop and jacked up to where I can work on it. I loosen the first of 12 nuts holding the differential cover on with relative ease. I'm relieved to find that a decade's worth of corrosion, while looking ugly, has not degraded the bolts to the point of breaking with the torque of my wrench.

10:01 AM - I realize that the gasket sold to me at the auto parts store is nowhere close to the right size or shape for my truck. Luckily, I find this out before taking everything apart.

10:30 AM - I stop at home on the way back into town. I pick up the receipt from the first purchase and head for Springfield.

11:00 AM - I arrive at the parts store and convince the guy there that this gasket really doesn't fit. After realizing that my truck has the off-road package, he finds that my 1/2 ton truck has a 3/4 ton rear end. He locates the correct part for me.... at the store across town.

11:15 AM - Auto parts store #2 produces the new part for me. It appears to be the correct size and shape for my truck. Despite having to drive 15 miles into town to correct their mistake, they still make me pay the $1 difference between the old and new gasket.

11:30 AM - I spend $75 to fill my truck with gas. Surprisingly, this tank of gas is more expensive than all the materials I had to buy to do the repair job in the first place.

12:15 PM - I make it back to the shop, jack up the truck, and finally make it back to where I was at 10:00 AM.

12:16 PM - I find that the new gasket is the correct shape, but is unfortunately about 1 inch too big.

12:21 PM - After 5 minutes lying underneath my truck in stunned disbelief, I crawl out and find the Ford dealer's number in the phone book. I have decided to pay the dealer twice what the part is worth for the knowledge that it is in fact the correct gasket. The parts guy informs me that my truck doesn't even have a gasket, but the seal is achieved with silicone. I'm overcome with rage and relief simultaneously. The parts store has wasted my time thus far, but at least I can continue with the job because they sold me the silicone on my first trip in.

12:30 PM - I begin the messy chore of draining and cleaning the differential. It's slow, messy work but at least it's going fairly smoothly.

2:30 PM - I finally have everything cleaned out and stuck back together. Now I have to wait an hour for the silicone to dry before I can proceed.

3:40 PM - I give the silicone a little extra time and then begin to refill the oil. The fill hole is on the side of the case so I have to squeeze the oil from the bottle through a length of rubber tubing. It's a slow process but there's no better way.

4:00 PM - After draining the 2 quarts I bought into the differential, I realize that there are 2 pints in a quart, not 4. DOH! At least Granddad's truck was there and not being used. Back to town.

5:15 PM - I return from Springfield again with 2 additional quarts of oil at $17 per. (Ouch!) I reach the "full" point at the end of quart #1, so I can at least return one.

6:20 PM - After putting everything away and cleaning up the mess, the job is finally complete. I head home knowing this job should have taken 3 or 4 hours, but lasted all day. I kinda expected as much. At least I get some comfort knowing that I spent about $70 on materials, but probably would have had to pay a mechanic $200 - $300 for this job.

The morals of this story...

1. Nothing is easy.
2. Don't shop at Autozone unless you live 2 blocks away from them, because you'll probably be going back.