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| To first explain why I'm junkyard diving, I'm going
to tell, and in some parts retell (not retail), of my distributor
hunt. When I first bought my car, my mechanic, Steve Wasson, told me
that it needs a distributor with vacuum advance instead of the one
it has in it. After asking questions, I gathered that there are 3
kinds of distributors. My car originally came with fuel injection
and a computerized distributor and doesn't need a vacuum advance
since the computer does it. A vacuum advance allows more gas to go
into the carburetor when you press the pedal more. Without it,
pressing it too much can stall the engine, requiring you to put it
in neutral and restarting it. When the previous owner still owned my
car, the fuel injection started having problems, so he had to
replace it. He decided to replace it with a carburetor instead
(carburetor=non-computerized, fuel injection=computerized) so he
could manually set it instead of the computer doing it on its own.
The only problem is, now the computerized distributor doesn't have
anywhere to hook the extra wire for the advance part to, so it was
the same as not having any. What I need is a non-computerized
distributor that has vacuum advance which was made for carburetors.
Steve didn't have any luck finding one, except one that was too big.
I said I'd look online and he said I need a distributor with vacuum
advance for a 2.8 liter V6 small block engine. I searched around and
found one that seemed to be the right one for $200. I ordered it and
had him put it in, only to have him tell me it is for a V8. I looked
back at the website and it didn't have anything about how many
cylinders it was for. I returned it and then searched eBay. No luck
there. I searched the net one more time and found one single site
that sold exactly what I needed, for $295. Before buying it, I
turned to the Chevy dealership and Tracy's dad, who works there, said to
look around auto wreckers. So here I am, searching junkyards for
Chevy cars or trucks that had the same engine and hopefully still
have the distributor. It didn't help to look at wrecked Camaros,
since none of the ones like mine came with a carburetor. The first
place I went to was Pick-A-Part. He used his computer and told me
right away that they don't have any and it would be a pretty hard
thing to find. I guess not many cars were made with that. I then
tried another one and had to wait for the boss to get back. He said
they don't have any. I then tried a third place and he said I'm
welcome to look. Great. It was freakin' muddy and I didn't wear my
grubbies, either. It was all I could do to keep from covering my
shoes in mud, and I have to admit I did a pretty good job, from
climbing on cars to running and jumping over muddy puddles. I didn't
find what I needed, and gave up that approach.
I stopped at The Good Guys for them to look at my car stereo,
since now it was having trouble opening and closing and sometimes
wouldn't eject the CD. He said they don't have any more in stock, so
I'd have to give it to them so they could send it to get fixed. It's
free for me since it's under warranty, but I'll still have to go
without music in my car for at least 3 weeks.
While in the area, I decided my stomach wasn't lying when it said
it was hungry, so I went to Subway and Amanda was there. Man she's
cute. When I was paying for it, I asked if she could take a break
and she said she could, so she came and sat at my table while I ate
and she had some chips. I talked to her a little and asked how
things were going. It turns out she and her fiance broke up and he
moved out. It wasn't very long ago and she really misses him but
doesn't feel it would be the best to call him at this time. I really wish I
could do something. Maybe I could go do something with her. I dunno,
I'll have to ask her next time I see her. Since I wouldn't be
listening to the Linkin Park CD I just bought (Meteora) and I
already turned them into MP3s on my computer, I let Amanda borrow
it.
I stopped by Wal-Mart to talk to Carly about our movie plans
tomorrow. She said it sounds like we can still go and she would
call me when her mom's doctor appointment was over. She said I'd
have to drive because she has like no gas in her car. Andy was there,
too, and I got him to agree to work for me on the 25th so I could go
to the coast with Tracy.
I decided I should return Randy's Linkin Park CD I borrowed
(Reanimation) while I was out. I stopped over there and returned it,
only to borrow a bunch of other ones so I could rip them on my
computer, too. He was having trouble putting the new CD-ROM drive
into his mom's computer, and even I couldn't figure out why it
didn't work. After the basic tests, I still had to try some that
isolated the drive, but I had to go because my mom wanted me to come
home. I still had to paint the bathroom and it was getting late.
(we're trying to refinance our home and we're cleaning out the
gutters, painting rooms, you name it). Well, that's it. Later.
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