Fall weather is amazing isn’t it? The cool mornings and bright sunny days are hard to beat this time of year. My morning starts when I get in the car at 5:14 AM, we are not on long hours yet so I don’t get to work until 6:30. Mornings are cool and nice with a bit of dew on ground before the sun comes up.
We are still liking Baton Rouge, or at least I am… Linda has been in Houston helping with the baby for a few days now. This weekend I brought dad’s truck back and picked up Linda’s Mustang. It hadn’t been driven much since we left for the Bahamas the first of this year so this was a shake down run of sorts. A few weeks back I put a new battery in it, drove it to town, aired up the tires and washed it because I knew we would need it soon. Before we left I’d been fighting the cooling system, looking for a leak because the system kept getting low on coolant. It wasn’t bad, but it was definitely losing water. I did all the regular things, had the radiator checked, changed the hoses, water pump and radiator cap but it was still a nagging issue. Saturday the slow leaking problem revealed itself by becoming a large flowing leak! The 3/4″ fitting that brings heater water from the engine to the heater finally became dislodged rather than remaining slightly drippy.
This fitting is deep in the back of the engine so any moisture that leaked vaporized on the back of the hot engine before it hit the ground. Anyway… the leak became very apparent due to the large smoke cloud behind the car and lights flashing on the dashboard that was lit up like a Christmas tree. Suddenly this 3/4″ hole in the system validated that the new water pump was working well….. it pumped coolant out onto the exhaust pipes at a high rate of speed. I was only about 12 miles from the RV, so it wasn’t hard to temporize a fix that would last 15 minutes. Luckily where it happened there was a water hose available next to a business that was closed on Saturday and a fellow stopped by in his Jeep to check on me, and he had some basic tools.
Sunday morning I removed the fitting completely and tried to hammer it back home into the back of the manifold but it wouldn’t stay so I needed stuff from the parts house. Unfortunately the car was apart so I had to put it back together with the temporary fix and go for my repair parts. After buying what I needed the repair went well and I seem to have solved the long term mystery of coolant loss, this mornings trip to work went well.
Linda’s car is a 1998 Mustang GT Convertible. This fall weather makes it super nice to ride around with the top down. I look forward to driving around after work in the RV park, visiting with folks and stopping by the pool. It’s like having a golf cart to go visiting on…. but nicer.
There is a large public park behind the KOA campground. Every evening I hear kids playing ball back there. It will be nice to make an evening drive with the top down, take in the sights, sounds and smells of the cajun culture. I’m anxious to get Linda’s car on it’s feet and ready for when she gets back. I feel like the engine problem is fixed, I need to find a local upholstery shop that does convertible tops, our is getting a bit worn. I guess that will have to wait until we have 2 cars in Baton Rouge.
Well, lunch is over I better get back to work. I’ll be glad when my sweetie gets back but she’s where she needs to be right now, helping with her new grand baby.
SYL Rusty