Let me tell you my Christmas story
This happened yesterday.
So I finally got pissed about not being able to figure out what the hell this noise was coming from my tranny at about 1500 to 2200 rpm. It was killing me going from zero to 30 in five minutes thinking my tranny was going to blow up. I haven't been out fishing for a month. This is my fishing rig that has sand from every river in the state on the floor boards. I was just sick to my stomach that I couldn't fix my baby. So I finally went to a local transmission shop and asked for help. The first guy I talked to was an older fellow and very grouchy. He started talking 3200. Oh no, I’ll pull it out for you and hand it to you. So he calls someone in the back and says 1800. I asked another question and he says, what a minute I’ll have Leland come up and talk to you. Leland is younger and way more friendlier than the transmission grinch. I am explaining the noise again and he says, I’m just not understanding this noise. Can we go for a drive? Hell ya. So he grabs my keys and we take off leaving the grinch at the shop. He finds a side street and runs the tranny through it’s paces. Slams it in four wheel, stomping on the brake and gas at the same time, getting my baby to hop all over the middle of the road. I mean he is really working it and listening to this high pitched whine. He looks at me and says, you know I don’t think it’s your tranny. He says remember as a kid you used to take a reed of grass and blow through it to get it to squeal. Well that is what it sounds like. I think you have a vacuum leak. We get back to his shop and he says, let me put it up on the lift real quick. I said, Dude I should be getting to work. Oh it will only take a minute. So up goes my baby and he checks the lines underneath. Lowers her back down and pops the hood. He starts poking the vacuum lines on the engine. He touches one coming off the intake manifold which cracks open and a gush of air can be heard like the emergency door being opened in orbit on the space shuttle. I said, Oh that is a major problem. So he horns it on there real tight so it wont leak and he points out some other lines I need to replace and parts to fix here and there. He says, you know a fishing rig like this Jeep should run forever. I said, Man I owe you my left nut. What do I pay you? He says, Nothing. Merry Christmas. I couldn’t believe the luck. I was driving 55 and 60 down highway 99 without a squeal and I haven’t even made all the repairs I need to make yet. For thirty years, I have never let a mechanic work on my rigs because they were such rip offs or couldn’t fix a damn thing. I guess I was wrong. It was a great Christmas present.
Merry Christmas My Friends