GreaseMoney

We had an alternator failure on our drive to Minnesota. It died and quit charging the battery somewhere near the WI/MN border. As we attempted to continue driving through the Twin Cities the dashboard lights started wigging out; thats when we figured out it was the alternator.
We quickly turned off all electronics we could to preserve the battery.
We made it as far as Plymouth, MN before the engine started to stumble. We pulled off the road and called my folks for help. Dad hopped in the truck with tools and a spare battery. Me and my oldest sun walked to a nearby Napa Autoparts Store and bought a new alternator.
Given the outside temperature was 6F, when my Dad arrived we decided to just swap in the spare battery he brought on the bet that it would have enough juice to get us back to the house. Only problem was the battery and cables didn’t quite line up. The positive cable was too short and we could only hook it over the threaded post, but it was on there tightly. We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and figured it was worth a try. I hopped in the Expedition, turned the key and it fired right up; and off we went!
We made it back to the house, about 25 miles, just running off the battery. Just as I pulled into the driveway the dashboard light and chime came on to warn that the battery voltage was dropping.
We’d made it. Thank you Lord!
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‘‘Twas the night before Christmas Eve and all through the house...” were crazy kids exited for presents so I went outside and changed the oil on my wife’s 2010 Expedition.
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There are now just over 310,000 miles on this bu**er and ready for another drive over to Minnesota today.
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Avoiding depreciation, one high mileage vehicle at a time.
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A couple months ago I was able to apply my frugal approach to vehicle repair to our Yale forklift at work.
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The forklift had been running fine, until it wasn’t. Classic crank, no start condition. Our maintenance guys began tearing into it and discovered that the timing belt had snapped.
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This issue was not on the radar for repairs the maintenance guys were planning to tackle so I decided to take it on so they could work on other equipment for production.
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Through much searching I was unable to track down a Yale specific timing kit. Knowing that the forklift’s engine was a standard Mazda 2.2l unit I began to compare components to Mazda timing kits. After counting the ribs on the snapped timing belt and comparing images of the timing gears and idler pulleys I was fairly confident that a timing kit for a 1990’s Mazda B-series pickup would swap right in.
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After a long weekend afternoon/evening install session it was confirmed that the Gates Timing kit for the Mazda pickup was a direct replacement for the Yale forklift.
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Forklift downtime at work was a day and a half and the out of pocket cost was a mere $125. Monday morning production was able to continue without missing a beat.
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Problem solved.
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Best deal of the year!
Hands down!
Best deal of the year!
$800 for all three machines!
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2005 Polaris Sportsman 700
2005 Polaris Sportsman 90
MY?? Chinese Machine
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This deal was graciously extended to my brother-in-law by one of his neighbors.
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My nephews had been going door to door this summer offering to do yard work and chores within their neighborhood in order to earn some money.
When one of their neighbors asked what they were planning to buy with the funds they earned, one of my nephews spilled the beans, “four wheelers”, he said.
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I had gone with my brother-in-law to check the machines out and give my opinion on their conditions. When asked how much the neighbor wanted for the machines he simply said “how about $800?”. To which, we almost fell over.
My brother-in-law clarified the price and asked if that was fair to him. “How couldn’t it be fair?”, his neighbor replied, “I set the price.”
Not seeing a reason to argue with that kind of logic, handshakes were extended and the deal was done.
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None of the machines were in 100% running condition at the time of purchase.
The 700’s battery was dead but ran when jumped.
We had the 90 running by noon the following day.
The cheap Chinese machine didn’t have a battery or backup starting so we let it sit for the time being.
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Deal of the year, yikes!
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