Just a quick story to vent a little frustration. My brother had his 68 Charger RT in it's first show this weekend and my younger brother must have started feeling guilty about all the hours he's helped him get his Charger ready because he decided to come up and help me spend the day wrenching on my Challenger. I am ususllay stuck working alone (if you hadn't gathered) which I find leads to less beer consumption and more productive wrench time, but I enjoy my family and was not about turn his offer of assistance down. I am still trying to find way's to get my engine to turn over fast enough under its own power to start and my brother thought it would be a good idea to put a new starter on just to be sure the other one wasn't worn out. I didn't figure it would make much of a difference but WTH, for $40 why not . . .
Everyone out there that has ever changed starters on your Big Block CHallenger knows that this is a drill in contortion abilities & patience, but not a very hard job to do overall - just time consuming. It took a couple of hours Saturday night to pull the old one off & since we were both sunburned & toasted at this point we decided to go to the parts store early Sunday morning to get the new starter before Church & we'd put it on when we got back. Now I usually go to AutoZone though I don't really know why, but they didn't have my starter so I had the choice of driving accross town to their other store or trying out Advance Auto Parts for the first time.
They guy behing the counter is complaining the entrie time about how hungover he is & the store manger & he both still had their hand stamps from the night before (youd think they would at least take a shower before coming to work!) Thier starte cost about $12 more than the one from AutoZone but I'm in a hurry so I agree to the price. I also need a Transmission mount so he brings me out something that doesn't look anything like the one on my car & after much debate as to weather I need an engine mount or a Transmission mount the manager suggests it may be a new design that should still work just fine . . . I promise to take a look & assure him I'll be bringing it back if it doesn't.
After church we got busy and within a couple of hours it was 97 degree's in the garage and the starter was on. Turn the key & guess what happens?
Of course at this point the parts store is about 10 minutes from closing & 17 minutes from my house but I did manage to get them on the phone before they left for the club again. I'll be taking the starter to THEIR other store accross town now to get a replacement that they will test before I leave the store and I suppose I'll get to go round-&-round with that store's manager as well regarding the transmission mount that isn't right either . . .
Remind me again why I usually go to AutoZone . . .
