Truck Adventures Continued

The truck started to die on me in the middle of the road while driving. I would be driving, and suddenly lose all power. I would have to stop the truck, often still in the middle of the road, and restart it. Thankfully, it always restarted. However, this is when I started to get nervous driving the truck around. I stopped driving it on the freeway, and we stayed home a lot more often.

PE was sure that it was another short in the wiring. He ended up replacing the ignition wiring, and we think that fixed it. We're not 100% sure, because then we started having another issue. The truck was sputtering, and the engine block would shake sometimes. The truck has had a history of getting water in the fuel tank when it's really wet outside. Usually we use some Heet, and then the truck is fine. This sputtering was different though, and wouldn't go away. I ended up getting stuck at Lowes with the kids. I called my dad for help and he came, and then suddenly my in-laws pulled up too. They went to Lowes to buy a snow shovel. We managed to get the truck home, but it was still a bit shaky.

PE ended up replacing the fuel filter and pump. And that seemed to help the truck drive better. I drove it around one day, and felt like it was running really well. We made a few stops, and then came back home. We were in the driveway, and the garage opener wouldn't work. I tried the keypad on the garage, and that didn't work either. So, I turned the truck off and grabbed my keys to unlock the house. I opened the garage, climbed back into the truck to drive it into the garage. I turned the key, and heard that lovely clicking sound (which I haven't heard for a long time actually). In the 30 seconds it took to open the garage, the truck battery had completely died! I found that whole incident rather humorous, and was just grateful we had made it back home.

We got the battery recharged, so we felt like the truck was in working condition. A few days later, P1 had a doctor's appointment at 1 pm. I went out earlier to shovel and make sure the truck would start. Everything seemed fine. At 12:50 pm, I loaded the kids up and backed out of the driveway. We drove a few feet and then the sputtering and shaking started. We made it a few more feet before it completely died on me, in the middle of the road. I tried several times, but could not get it to start again.

Once again, my dad came to the rescue. I'm glad his office is 5 minutes away from where we live. He helped me push the truck to the side of the road, and he drove us to the doctor's office. After PE got home from work, he was able to get it started and drive it back into our garage.

So, on Saturday, PE and his dad worked on the truck some more. They noticed that the carburetor would get stuck, either in the open or closed position. So they lubricated that, and fixed a connection with the fuel pump. They drove it around, and they felt like it was driving well.

So, fingers crossed! The real test is to find out whether or not it will work for me!