Vaquero's Medical Record ;o)

I said in an earlier post that I would tell you what all Vaquero (my truck) had done to him over the weekend. I drive almost 2 1/2 hours to get to my mechanic, but he is well worth the gas and time to get there and back. He is a licensed (you see certificates on his wall) Master Mechanic, so really knows his stuff. He builds motors and race cars as well as other things in this line.

Vaquero is a 1992 Ford Ranger 4x4. It amazes me that I didn't know it sooner, or maybe I did and forgot, but I recently heard that 4x4s need to have their hubs packed (fresh grease packed into their bearings, and new seals) every year. I bought Vaquero 3 or 4 years ago now, second hand of course, and I have never gotten his hubs packed until now. (I don't know what his previous 'person' did for him). Apparently I'm lucky that the bearings didn't 'go' on me. I also haven't had a tune up done in all this time. It's all just so much money that it's hard to get these things done... so I got that done too. New spark plugs with platinum (I'd love platinum jewelry, but nooooo.... now the truck has platinum plugs. Sheeesh!), new plug wires, air filter, fuel filter, all that 'good stuff'. I also had Bubba change the oil (new oil and filter) as well as flush the radiator and refill it with fresh water and new anti freeze so it's ready for the coming cold weather. While he was doing all this he also found a leak in the vacuum system for the brakes, so he replaced the faulty seal and all is well.

Bubba (the name, by the way, has been changed to protect my ass) cut the old fuel filter in half to see how dirty it was inside. There was dirt in there, the filter was clogged and black, and the gas in there was dark black almost looking like thin black paint. It was a bit shocking.

All that work cost me $455 which is a lot to me, but in the scheme of things I know this is nothing compared to fixing the vehicle later on if this maintenance work wasn't done. Also, it is a lot less than what I would have had to pay for this same amount of work here, because Bubba is retired and works in his own home shop, so can pick and choose who he works for, and he works for less than half the hourly rate of what most garages work for... and I trust his work more than others. So even with the $40 or so for gas I saved a lot of money by making the trip. While down there I also visited friends and had a good weekend of it.