Happy New Year to you all! We had a very productive New Years Day, but the way it’s looking now, the fight with the van is still on. Round 2! Ding, Ding!

Here’s the scoop. We all had Jan. 1st off and I thought it would be a good day to work on the van. Here lately we have only been able to work on the van at night, but with as cold as it’s been, we needed a day to finish it up and not get sick, so Jan. 1st it was.

Paul and I arrived at Ross parents house around 1pm that day. Ross mom ended up cooking, so there was no way we could say no to free food, so we finally got started on the van around 1:30/2:00. Ross had to go pick up Garrett at the end of the road, because Ross parents road was to muddy for Garrett to drive down, but I think he didn’t want to get his newly washed car dirty. Pansy, haha!

We finally started working on the van, it could not have went any better. Everything lined up great where the trans. mounted up to the engine, we had all the bolts, and the van even cranked on the first try after being sit up for almost 2 months. We filled the trans. with fluid and let it run on the jack stands for a while. No leaks and everything looked and sounded great, so we decided to take it for a spin. Ross and I were going to get inside the van and put the cover on while Paul and Garrett let the van off the jack stands. Right now I am glad Ross and I waited. Garrett jacked up the back end and Ross and Paul moved the jack stands. Garrett said, “move your fingers and toes”, and he let the jack loose and down came the back of the van. It was so loud that I thought we broke something. (We have video that I’m going to be posting soon, and we have the drop on camera.) After the drop, Garrett made the front come down nice and easy. We put in the cover and we were on our way. We drove the van up to Ross parents house and had to drop off some jumper cables that we ended up not using, and of course there was even more food than the first time. SO, we couldn’t say no. Haha! (If you ever get a chance to try Ross mom cooking, you are very, very lucky. Jump on it as fast as you can and ask for a bag to take home with you.) After we were all stuffed, we hoped in the van and drove back to our vehicles. Ross and I drove, so we got in our vehicles and followed the van. Paul ended up driving the van with Garrett in the pass. seat. At the end of the road Garrett got out and drove his car to Ross house.

The van made it to Ross house, which was about a 3 or 4 mile drive. On the way Paul said the check engine light came on. We got to Ross house and checked the fluid. It was low, which was not suprising. It needed to get hot to give us a better reading anyway. We filled the fluid and disconnected the battery to turn off the light. After letting it sit, we hooked the battery back up and drove it for another 3 or 4 miles. The light never came back on and the fluid looked great with no leaks. When we were leaving Ross said he was going to drive it as much as possible, so we can make sure everything is ok.

WELL, he gave me a call last night and said that it’s leaking from the same place again. What a way to start out a new year! We have practice tomorrow night and I’m going to get under it and see what’s going on. Keep us in mind and hopefully we will be able to take the van to a show one day.

Read about Round 1!

Van 2 / Hamelin 0

Adam