yesterday was the longest, most arduous day i’ve had in a long time. i would go so far as to say it was a day only found in nightmares.
it started when i dropped lady friend off at work and decided to stop at autozone to pick up a burned out bulb. i also decided to get a new fuel filter since i’m pretty sure the one on there is original.
i got home and got cracking. i removed all the items in the engine compartment that were in the way and jacked up the car in case i needed to get a bottom view. after some fighting with the bottom pressure fitting, i finally got the old filter out and was ready for the new. i got it ready and started screwing in the pressure fitting.
by this time, i had to go to class, but i was going to come home between classes and get it done within that hour. or so i though.
when i got home, i kept tightening the fitting and it kept getting tighter and then too tight. so tight that my wrench was starting to strip the bolt. getting scared, i talked to stemshul on the online and got a few pointers. i then went to autozone to find a flare nut wrench in hopes that it would allow for more tightening without strippage.
now, you must understand that i didn’t think this would be a difficult job and when everything started to cascade out of control, i started to lose my composure. not only is this our only vehicle to get anywhere, but i had just gotten $600 worth of repairs the day before. my mind was racing with all the possible scenarios: buy a new fuel line and install myself…put on old filter and be happy that the car runs…tow it someplace and have them fix my blunder…crawl into a hole and never come out.
at that point, i had run out of time, so i went to work for three hours and tried not to think about how i messed everything up. when i got out at 6pm, a friend came over to help me out and we tried desperately to get the new filter on. it was determined that the new filter was unusable. i don’t feel like i threaded it incorrectly, but that’s the only thing that makes any sense. we ended up putting the old filter back on and calling it good.
the car runs and that’s all that matters. and, next time, i’m not doing anything on that car until there are at least four other cars in the driveway. also known as “larry style.”