Lost in Transmission

[kevin_standlee]

Yesterday's chore here was the remove the transmission from Lisa's 1972 pickup truck. As I previously reported, while she was driving back from Marcon earlier this year, the truck lost 5th gear and reverse when she was within four hours of getting home (so she just kept going and didn't stop anywhere she would have to back up) and it has been sitting in the garage awaiting repair. The plan was for us to remove the transmission and take it to a Datsun/Nissan specialist in Portland tomorrow who would rebuild it. My help primarily consisted of fetching tools and holding a rope tied to the transmission while sitting in the cab of the pickup while Lisa worked underneath to free the transmission.

Unfortunately, things did not go well. We got off to a bad start when she was unable to loosen two of the bolts holding the transmission to the engine. She thinks that a previous mechanic must have used an air wrench and over-tightened them. In the process of straining to loosen the bolts, she let out a cry of pain as she bruised one of her ribs. I was worried she might have broken one, but it doesn't appear so. Still, it hurts.

Eventually, she got the two stubborn bolts off without breaking them, for which we are both relieved. She then stationed me inside the cab with the rope so that the transmission wouldn't fall on her as she put a jack underneath it and started to try and work it free from the engine.

It wouldn't come off. She couldn't get it into the right position to actually lower it. This is extremely frustrating, because she has done this twice before on this truck. She says that she can't remember what she may have done differently before, and she does say that she doesn't feel as strong as when she did this years ago. "It was much easier when I was in my twenties," she says.

After several hours of frustration, we gave up. Lisa has pushed the transmission part-way back into place. Once she gets it back completely secured and all of the parts reattached, she will have to have AAA tow the whole truck up to Portland and have the specialist do all of the work, which will of course be far more expensive than simply rebuilding the transmission.

I've tried to reassure Lisa that we are getting some things accomplished this week. In fact, I feel like we've been very productive. That still doesn't mean Lisa has to be happy about the setback with her little pickup. As she puts it, her confidence isn't at a high right now. Not being able to get any decent sleep doesn't help at all.

In about an hour, we'll go into Salem and see the ENT specialist to see if he has any more suggestions about what to do about the tinnitus.

Comments

[crookedfeet.livejournal.com]

I hope the specialist can give her some hope for relief.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about the transmission and everything else that's been negative and glad there are a number of good things in there too ...

... one of the things that has worked with some of the UK tinnitus suffers is to play white noise through in-ear headphones ...

for example this site has some downloadable MP3s of "noise" including the background noise from the USS Enterprise TNG :-)

My own personal tinnitus is a higher pitched sound much like a TV set left turned on but with the sound down, just that high capacitor(?) sound and it can get very noticeable if there aren't other sounds around to mask it ... I'm sure it's at least partially responsible for my needing to get people to repeat stuff they are saying :-(

[bindyree.livejournal.com]

Me too, what you said. The doo-dingus in the television that is emitting that sound is called a 'flyback transformer', and that's my particular affliction as well. As for phone usage or dealing with crowds? I have several friends who by now must certainly think my family motto is HuhWahJahSay.

I sleep with headphones on, and my drug of choice is talk radio. Thanks for the links and the good advice!