Thank you for the kind words of encouragement. Lately I have felt a bit of urgency for a few reasons, 1) the city coming after me as they always do after week #2 of bringing down the neighborhood homeowner values, 2) my license plate was stolen before I could even transfer the title. Holy heck, I live 1/4th of a mile from the police station. I have some Wyze cameras coming tomorrow and they are going up ASAP. I have a club for the steering wheel too. My registration sticker is still good though.
Today more discoveries were found while I was reinstalling the starter, and maybe some past discoveries I forgot to mention.
This tired body-to-engine ground strap has been ripped for who knows how long. How does this happen exactly? Was it off-roaded?? Why is all of the wiring hanging down in the same area. It might explain the quick left and right turn signal flashing, and lamp off light on the dash. Pretty sure I didnt mention that before. It begs the question which some of you may be asking: what IS NOT broken on this thing?
After learning new ways to contort my shoulders and arms, I installed the new starter in 1/4 the removal time. I was pretty excited at this point, reattached the battery cables, cobbled the starter trigger wire back together, turned the key and... click.
The 30A fuse for the starter solenoid was blown. When did this blow? I dont know. Did I check it before replacing the starter? I dont remember. I dont need wipers at the moment, so swapped that out.
I have a video to share. Enjoy.
After this startup the engine came up to temperature, no leaks, no issues. I drove it around the neighborhood as folks were coming home from their evening commute testing things out. Everything works at it should...except..
As I drive into my own driveway, habitually I'm putting on the parking brake and put it in neutral, and the truck starts going backwards. My driveway is at a slight incline. I put it in reverse, chocked the wheels, and came inside the house victorious.
Adding the parking brake to the repair list.