The dragging saga continues.

[Stoney]

On a positive note. It's been what 4 days? Still no problems with the truck. The only time it acts up at all is sometimes when you take off from a stop sign or a red light. It will feel sluggish, then it makes that first shift and it's good to go. Or occasionally you have to rev the engine and a tiny bit which seems to make it shift down and then she takes off good.. so I'm pretty sure I'm finally on the right track with her.. keeping fingers crossed.
Mother nature decided to have PMS today, so the boss said we're not working. So I'm going to change the sway bar bushings and brackets, because the one bracket broke, but they sell them in sets so I figured change both sides at once.. they were only like 12 bucks. Although I'm kind of leery because the ones I bought the bushings seem to be out of a harder style of plastic, they are not like the rubber ones I usually get.. so I'm going to see how they hold up.
Going to take it over to the car wash and blast out in the front of the engine area. One of the oil cooler hoses has a little leak at the fitting where it screws onto the cooler. So I'm going to pull the cooler out and see if I can figure out why it's leaking. Should have done it a long time ago. My next minor project is going to be trying to find a good transmission pan, I think this one is just been banged up so much it doesn't want to seal good. So it constantly drips fluid..
One of y'all said something about the tranny shifting could just need to be adjusted to stop that hard first shift. Not sure if you were referring to the linkage or to the little black box everything plugs into... I remember when I changed the transmission somebody said that box is adjustable..
Oh that reminds me the glued is on the plugs for the transmission, I found a good way to get it all off and out of the pins.. soak them in a cup of kerosene for about 10 minutes.. just make sure you're in some off really good with some brake cleaner or something.

 

[jrsavoie]

Be careful messing with those cooler lines.
A lot of engines have been ruined by not being stuck back in properly

I think there's new pieces to be replaced,that you might want to have on hand before you touch them .
I believe you will also need to change an oring on each line.

It's been a long time since I messed with them.

I paid to have lines changed twice. Other than that I upgraded everything to the braided. Stainless kits.

 

[Stoney]

@jrsavoie I have the updated braided line kit from quadstar not the stock ones.. where the braided line screws onto the cooler it's where it's leaking

 

[jrsavoie]

@jrsavoie I have the updated braided line kit from quadstar not the stock ones.. where the braided line screws onto the cooler it's where it's leaking

Is that an AN, orings seal or npt?

If it's npt, tape and dope

 

[Big T]

@Big T I appreciate the understanding. I'd say we probably grew up similar. I was pretty much raised by my grandparents, my parents were in my life, but they were usually more interested in fighting with each other. Grandparents were not The wealthy by any mean, just Great depression era farmers, Grandpa worked at the feed mill, Grandma worked in the local school cafeteria. Never had a lot but it was a happy home.
I think a lot of why I'm the way I am is because of things they taught me, like never finance anything, if you can't pay cash for it you don't need it. Grandpa always said he'd rather fix the old tractor that was his, rather than by the new tractor the bank could take if he had a bad year. It would be nice to have a second vehicle to fall back on, and hopefully that day will come.
I guess my mindset is my house may need a s*** ton of work and my truck maybe older and a little worn out but they're mine and nobody can take them from me.. I like having that security.
Now that covid is pretty much over, and life is trying to get back to normal I figure things will start going up and up again it's just been a matter of riding out the storm. I've had people make smart comments about my truck or my house or even my equipment, and I tell them all the same thing, 9 years ago I walked out of a prison with 50 bucks to my name and literally the clothes I was wearing nothing else. So if I got as far as I have a 9 years from literally zero I think I've done pretty good. The funny part is it's usually people that have a quarter million dollar mortgage on the house that run their mouth..lol.
Like I said earlier I really do appreciate you guys sticking with me through it and appreciate the support.

I shared that message because I do understand and also for advice.

Based on your location in Elmira, NY, we share a common background. My mother was from Endicott, NY and my father was from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, PA. Both grew up during the depression with not much. That imparted memories/habits which were passed down to their children, principal among them was frugality. The other was the value of education.

My mother graduated from Penn State. She was a self-taught tennis player who went on to become a Conference Champion at Penn State. She also was a pre-med student with a 3.95 GPA. School counselors persuaded her to become a teacher because back then "women don't become doctors."

My father went to Lafayette as a wrestler where he studied electrical engineering. He was truly a "rocket scientist" and worked on the flight systems for Apollo, Space Shuttle, B-1B, DC-10. However, the aerospace industry was cyclical, driven by the next big program contract. As a kid I remember at least two mass lay-offs where my father was out of work for up to 6 months. We struggled and went hungry. I swore I would never pursue a career as an engineer. I also was determined to do well financially.

As a young kid I had 4 different paper routes to make some money. My parents transferred me out of public school because I was running with the wrong crowd and getting into trouble. They enrolled me at an all boys Catholic prep school where I would follow my brother. Tuition for 2nd son was 1/2 off and ended up being $475. My mother said she would scrub floors if necessary to pay for it. I came from the gifted programs at public school where both my lab partners ended up going to Stanford on athletic scholarships, but the academic rigor of private school was a rude awakening. I was smart, but there were at least a handul of guys in my class of 40 who got perfect scores on the SAT. Kids in my class went to Ivy League, Stanford, MIT. Needlesss to say, I got my ass kicked on grades because I F’d around and found out. I wanted to become an orthopedic surgeon, but I was afraid I would never get the grades to get into med school. I changed up, went to a State school where I ended up in finance gettting good grades so I could attend a top MBA program.

Did all that and all along I trained my self in investing. Not trading, but investing in the stock market. I’ve been an investor since the age of 14 and I can say that if you take the slow, but steady course, do it in a smart way and over time you can build up a sizeable pot.

I’ve been through tough times. After the crisis, I was out of a job for two years. I never filed for unemployment because I did not want to take hand outs, especially since I already had a sizeable Net Worth. I continued onward, remaking myself with a 2 year appointment with the FDIC cleaning up failed banks. After that I was out of work again and volunteered to help a friend rebuild his consulting business which was devastated from the financial crisis. In two years I doubled his income and we tripled the staff, but I was getting paid a fraction of my worth plus medical. Literally, entry level employees doing the line work (labor compliance) I was winning the contracts on, we’re getting paid more than me. It was not a great fit as I’d never do the line work. I was just putting together proposals in response to RFPs and winning the contracts, then hiring the people to do the work on them.

So when my current position showed up at the Federal Reserve, it was an exact fit for my banking and finance skill set. Proof of that is that I’m getting paid 4x as much. That is still below market and they know it.

My point in all this is never give up. America is full of opportunity. It is up to you to seize it and make something of it. We are the cumulative result of the decisions we make, so make good ones.