I WAS Afraid to Look....

Dear Jimmy,

Things are rather annoying right now, so I figured I'd post a photo of a decent enough looking tractor to lighten the day up....ok, enough of that crap....

I am sure I have dozens of things more important in life to do than to fix another old truck. Cracker Apollo has all the basics in place, but like I mentioned before...has been hacked at by untrained monkies. Today I got to looking under the hood...well...after I tried to tighten the simple between-the-seats storage box that was loose in fitting the floor. Turns out the monkies had used some bigger size bolts for something that left wear patterns but was now missing. The poor box itslef is covered with holes made with a Demel tool or worse. Whatever, it ain't bolting down solid...and the floor of the truck is what it mounts too. Time to go get more, larger, self-tapping sheet metal screws to drive into it and solve the issue.


THEN I looked under the hood. Coming off the battery is a wad of nasty looking wires running every which way under the hood. Guess every time they wanted more power they ran yet another wire to the positive cable and put in a longer bolt. I will have to search out a terminal block of some sort, and run a cable to it, and then split up the wiring in a more professional manner for sure. It would scare me to depend on things right now. "Truck Fire" comes to mind if something goes wrong.


Then there is the wonderful K & N air filter. They are good for a million miles...unless, of course, you drop your truck under water while running, in a muddy river, and never clean it up afterwards, and don't care about the truck in general....well...you get the picture. The filter is almost solid packed with mud. Its amazing it runs at all, and how it passed smog is beyond me. The local auto parts store has no clue what number the replacement filter is- but there is one on-line that might be it. I am going to toss it in the Miata when I run south for class tonight, and stop at K & N Copr HQ. They have been helpful in the past in getting the correct number for me and others. Guess you really don't want a guy with a grimy filter with no options standing in your lobby when bigwigs from other companies are due to drop in....


It appears there are actually speakers in all four places there are supposed to be speakers. However...the wiring under the dash seems to have been hacked for some sort of amps or what not. Just why in the hell would idiots put amps in and leave the stock Ford speakers anyway? I am hoping that the set of speakers from my little old Escort will fit (I think they will), and I will install them and wire clean from the start..rather than using existing wires. I mean, have you ever seen 3 splices in the space of 1 foot or less...instead of just using a longer wire.....?!?!?!?!??


Speaking of the dash, the right side bounces when I drive along. I found a broken peice of a plastic thing that the rest of the dash mounts to. It will have to be replaced for sure, and its a good deal that I have a perfect one from Cracker Skylab to use.


Lastly, on wiring...I had water in one of the fancy off raod lights mounted on the front. Took it apart to clean it, and found it had been submurged at some point ( got me guessing why the rest of the truck looks the way it does under he hood). Now, I need to get new connectors, paint the housings and polish out the netal reflectors before putting them back on. At least they will be solid then!

All in all, its very frustrating to have lost a PERFECT Truck with no issues. I will set this one right as I go along, but I didn't need the extra work to do right now!

Wish me luck..I am going to need it!