who wants to learn from my mistakes?
 

slid into a curb and bent my upper control arm a couple fo weeks ago. but that isnt the problem

35 bucks for the arm on ebay, 20 to ship, another 60 on bushings and a ball joint at the local parts store and it takes me 2 nights to fix, since on the first night i realized the ball joint had to be pressed at a machine shop

anyhow after all that i get the arm on just fine. The morning of the third day up on stands i drove it to work.

guess what? suddenly its just running like a real bag. Stumbling, revving to high, pulsing, stalling. ****.

a week and a half of this, i come up with theories (snow and water in the engine? bad battery?), change parts (wires, coil, distributor cap, fuel filter), check sensors, vacuum, and so on.

I swallow my pride and take it to a shop. we drive around the block, he suggests a bunch of things, all of which i checked. we pull into the shop and pop the hood.

"didnt throw a code?" he asks.
"nope. nothing. I dont think its the engine"
"hmm...well if you dont think its the engine, did you check the transmission fluid?"

"%@$#!"

bone dry. Just a black sorta sludge that smelled like a tire fire on the end of a dipstick.

Why did this happen? having the nose of the truck on jackstands, at the top of a driveway titled about 25 degrees down towards the back was just enough to put all the trans. fluid above the seal. I guess the seal was ok for driving, just not 3 days of saturation under gravity.

So now after adding fluid it runs fine exept the intermittent grinding in low gear. I figure its like a timebomb now. ill manage the winter before the damage gets so bad that it needs to be rebuilt or replaced.

hopefully now we can all remeber to check the fluid levels after havin up on stands, if you didnt already know. man do i feel like a bum.