Last week I was driving through Knoxville when all of a sudden I heared a faint 'pop', power dropped considerably and when I looked in my mirror all I saw was a huge cloud of black smoke behind me. So, while I pulled over to investigate, lots of thoughts went through my head. The first thought was, how were we going to get to NC and deliver this straight through load on time? I hated the thought to put more work on Murray's shoulders to find another van and a place with a forklift to transfer the load, but also driving in the mountains in TN-NC on I40 with half the power and 1600 lbs in the back did not sound too good. Another thought was: Is the Old Lady done? I looked down at the odometer and it red a bit over 705k. Has the time come to get that shiny new van I have been eye-ing for a while?
So, after what seemed like an eternity, but probably only 30 seconds or so, I pulled onto the shoulder and popped the hood. Heart started beating faster in anticipation of what I would find under there. Lo and behold, the intake hose popped off, most likely caused by my mechanic not tightening enough the hose clamp. It took more time to find my screwdriver in my tool box than in did to reattach the hose and tighten the clamp. After I put the screwdriver back in the toolbox I took my mechanic behind the van and kicked him in the arse a few times for scaring me like this.
No more than 3 minutes after the ordeal began I was back in the driver's seat and the Old Lady was purring like a kitten again. She was not done yet. She was still running with the big dogs. How long? Who knows, but it sure is nice not to have that monthly payment that the new shiny van comes with, so hopefully she will keep running for a while longer.
