This morning on my way in a miraculous thing
happened; No I didn't make it all the way down the
Expressway at speed limit, but just as exciting - I
solved one of Redcar's few remaining electrical
gremlins whilst sittng in traffic.
To me one of the most important electrical items
to have functioning well is the horn. Even more so than
lights, as you probably won't drive the car at night
w/o lights, but you probably would w/o a horn. A good
horn is not only a great way to let Mr. Meathead
Motorist who's about to pilot the S.S Land Yacht across
your bonnet that there's someone here !, it is also the
way your car "talks". Hey nice car, see ya later,
outta my way, here I am, etc. It is another dimension
to your car's personality, and IMHO, an absolute
necessity.
So you can imagine my discontent when Redcar's
horn became a very intermittent thing. Sometimes the
slightest touch on the horn push would have her
beeping, sometimes nothing you could do would get her
to talk. I made a mental note to track this short, as I
was getting hoarse having to yell at people all the
time.
Then this morning, while waiting for the
collective reaction times of 22 cars in front of me to
add up, allowing me to move up to the (now red) light,
I jiggled the steering wheel a little. Hmmmm. It
appeared the wheel had a barely perceptible amount of
play before it was translated to tire movement. Hmmmm.
Pop horn push out, and notice that the star washer that
keeps the steering wheel nut tight wasn't doing it's
job since part of it was missing. Remind myself to
replace the washer & tighten nut. TIGHTEN NUT !
Excitedly I pushed down on the steering wheel so as to
make better contact with the splines. Toot horn - horn
toots ! Guy next to me looks over. Let wheel float in
"no contact" zone - toot horn, no toot. Guy next to me
is firmly convinced I've just become possessed. Repeat
this experiment several times until I'm positive that
the lack of good contact between steering wheel & shaft
are the cause of intermittent horn, also until cars
around me are highly irritated. By this time I'm at
work and happy. If I get nothing else done today, I've
finally solved a problem that's long eluded me. And
it's not even 6:30am. It's gonna be a good day.
Toot-toot,
dstone@sc9.intel.com
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