Oh the toils of maintaining your own personal fleet of motorized vehicles. Yes, in typical gluttonous American fashion, not only do we have the big four-wheel drives (x2), we have the fun cars — the TA and the Grand Prix. Since Tyler Robert showed up, the TA has been sidelined a fair amount, reserved for occasions such as when one of the main rides is in the shop (which rarely happens, knock on wood), or the weather is nicer and one of us has to head into work earlier/later than the other. So, come about late October, the TA goes into hibernation for the most part, getting a final bath for the year, and then bundled up in the third bay of the garage under the car cover (damn cat(s) love to climb on that thing).
Since Nora has arrived, the TA is even more of a neglected ride, and the thoughts of parting ways often cross our minds. However, since we are married, over 30, have kids, and its paid off, it really does not cost us much to keep it around. Anyway, this year, I apparently neglected her more than in the past. I usually try to fire it up every so often, make sure it starts, and perhaps take it for a little spin. I thought I had been doing this, but, the Ada County emissions card was due in February, and oopsie, I still had not taken it in. Sounds like an easy project.
Tyler and I took the air compressor out around noon, as a few tires on the TA needed refueled, and I figured I would top off the Grand Prix tires as well as the pickup while I was out there. Tyler was interested in the air compressor for about two minutes, and then he was off, playing in the garage, finding sticks and limbs in the backyard, and doing a pretty good job of staying out of my way and entertaining himself. He was in one of his ignore everything anyone says type moods, but he stayed out of the street and I did not see any stand-offs with any squirrels or other pets, so no harm, no foul.
After a bit, I finally had the TA tires up to 32psi, as well as the pickup at 60psi, and maneuvered the pickup around so I could back the TA out. I threw off the car cover in a dash, and plopped in the key. Nothing. No dings, no lights, no movement on the instrument cluster. Ut oh, I know this gig…
Simple enough, the TA needs a little jump. I kicked it out of gear, dropped the emergency break, and rolled her out into the driveway. Then, slung the pickup back around and nearly touched noses with the two, and dug out the jumper cables. Most of you are probably aware of my immense fear of anything electrical, which includes car batteries, so what usually takes a few seconds takes me a bit to handle. Nonetheless, about ten minutes in, I *thought* I had the two hooked together and ready to crank on the TA. I hop in, I get some lights, I get some action, I crank it over, and…nothing.
Ok, not the first time this has happened. I let the TA charge a bit, and tried again. When I cranked, nothing, again. Ok, maybe it has been a little longer than I thought. Well, for the next 90 minutes or so, I fought the stupid thing. I finally gave up, parked the pickup, and waited for Flossie and the Tahoe to come home. After she arrived, brining a freezer, fridge, and pantry full of goodies, and letting the Tahoe charge up the TA for about 10 minutes, I tried again. Nothing. At this point, the engineer mindset kicks in. Something isn’t right. After poking around, I am pretty sure my ground on the TA side was intermittent. I found another spot which to attach the jumper cable negative cable, and gave the TA another few minutes charge. This time, golden. Well, it started, but the TA moaned at me like I was trying to get Eros out of bed before noon on a cold winter day.
After a few minutes, the TA was up and idling on its own — probably stale gas contributing to the roughness as well as a lack of juice at idle to keep the ignition system happy with the other demands of an electronic automobile. Either way, I put the Tahoe away, and off I went to put some miles on the TA and get the battery back into somewhat normal condition. Hitting stop lights and stop signs was a little bit of an issue as kicking out of gear and slowing down nearly killed it a few times, and I am pretty sure it would not have come back. However, I swung back into town after a 25 minute jaunt, and swept into the emissions test place and she started up like a charm after that. Whew.
Arriving home, I fetched Nora, and let her partake in one of her favorite activities these days — driving the car(s) into the garage (to park them, of course). This was her first time in the TA at all, and she was quite excited.
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