(This is a repeat of an earlier post for illustrative purposes. My apologies to those who have already seen it. It has some corrections, additions, and clarifications.)
There is an old saying from the elder generation. They are too soon old and too late smart. Not to tell on myself or give away my age, but I have a great (read "bad") example of that.
Always disconnect the battery when working on the electrical system of a car. Obvious, isn't it? Who would try to repair the wiring of a house without first flipping off the breaker? Me.
I have changed half a dozen or more generator/alternators on cars, trucks, and vans. (Hey, that could be the name of a movie or something.) I do not recall ever disconnecting the battery before beginning the adventure. Some vehicles place the alternator conveniently underneath the air conditioning compressor. Which, I might add is not "disconnectable" without special equipment and probably even a hazardous materials certification. (Just made up the "d" word.)
But never have I had a problem like this time. But first a praise. My wife took this car to Knoxville last week end. That was a miracle in itself through the accumulated ice and snow from two back to back storms. She drove the car to work Monday through Wednesday, when it started to make a funny sound. But she got home from both trips. No inconvenience and cost of towing.
I checked it when she got home, or tried to check it, and found the battery dead. One of the possibilities for the "whining" sound the car was producing was a defective or failing alternator. Finding a dead battery pretty well confirmed that analysis.
Charge the battery over night and drive to Auto Zone. Special tester announces that alternator is indeed defective. New one only costs $115–in the box. Installation is up to you. (Or me in this instance.) To make a long story short, about five hours later the new alternator is nestled snugly in its bed with the serpentine belt replaced and seemingly ready to go. (The S-belt is a story in itself, but will be foregone.)
Slide into the seat, turn the switch, and be greeted with the lovely sound of dead silence. Nothing. Maybe the battery discharged during the process. That had never happened before, but....
Jumper cable produces...same result. Visions of towing this puppy to a dealer or mechanic and sitting for days waiting for the queue to bring the Toyota into the repair bay. (Too many product placements?)
"Maybe it is a fuse," suggested one of the helpful AZ technicians. Check, sure enough, there under a little cover that said 120 A was a piece of metal lying by itself. A quick perusal of other similar boxes, only with smaller "A" numbers confirmed that Mr. 120 was indeed blown.
Did I mention that I had accidentally touched the two wires connecting the alternator to the electrical system together? There was quick snap-pop and then all was well. No harm done, I thought. Well, not exactly. This fuse is the main one for the entire automobile. It keeps dumbells like me from frying the electrical system, computer, etc. Now the results of my minor oversight of not disconnecting the battery appears. One blown fuse.
Great! Pop that puppy out and we are on our way. Several vigorous tugs later only resulted in removing the top of the little box. The fuse body was firmly in place. A second, more experienced AZ helper informed me that the "big" fuses like this are BOLTED into the fuse box. And the bolts are INSIDE the box.
Again, short story for long process, the fuse box must be removed from the chassis. Before being able to access the bolts securing it, one must remove the battery and the air filter. (One blessing here, the battery is disconnected.)Then the box is fully exposed and can be unbolted from the frame.
Now the box itself must be dismantled and the bottom removed, exposing about 50 wires of various colors and sizes that are "conveniently" located between my socket and the securing bolt. Several minutes of severe contortions and holding your mouth just right allowed us (had a helper by now) to remove the bolt. (Little praise. We did not drop the bolt down into the innards of the engine compartment.)
Bolts out. The second bolt was for some unexplained reason, placed on the outside of the box and so easily accessible that one was almost disappointed at the lack of challenge to remove it. (Again, no drops. It was all of 1/4 of an inch long or so.)
Old, expired fuse slid out with no effort at all. Almost anticlimactic. New one goes in, replace small bolts. (No mean feat, but at this stage, the impossible became merely inconvenient.)
Replace bottom of fuse box. Bolt fuse box back into place. Replace air cleaner. Replace battery. Oh, did I mention that I disconnected the battery before beginning? Guess that was kind of assumed as the battery had to be completely removed to access the fuse box securing bolt.
Put tools away. (Maybe too presumptuous here. Let's see.) Turn key. Engine sputters and purrs to life. IT RUNS! And just as important, no squeal. Success for the weekend warrior. And in fact it basically took a week end. And early week end, starting Thursday morning and finishing Friday afternoon. No work, other than auto related, completed. Just like a week end.
This reminded me of a statement that a Pastor I like makes a lot. "That is so simple it takes a preacher to mess it up." In this instance, this process of replacing a fuse is so simple that an engineer had to mess it up.
My Dad used to comment on how he wished that engineers would have to actually work on the devices that they built. The design would be a lot more "user friendly" if they personally had to make the repairs that they blithely ignore in their initial designs.
So working on my wife's crippled Camry (PP), I was reminded of Engineering Goof Ups 101. I am sure that there were some very compelling, to the engineer, anyway, reasons why the design was made. But to the poor weekend putterer (auto, not golf), they certainly pale in comparison to the difficulty of after production repair.
Thank you for you kind attention. And now I retire to solve my long neglected Rubik cube. A simple task compared to replacing a fuse.
By the way, disconnect the battery before working on any electrical system. Did I mention that? Changing the channels on the radio is excluded from this caveat. But that is about all.
At least you can say that I am a little smarter than I was on Wednesday evening.
Have a blessed day.
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