02 Base for my son

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Snowbound

Snowbound

Jim
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Jack got his license on April 23rd and he took sole possession of the vehicle. I do miss driving it. It rides good and reminds me of my Denali in a way. But that’s what I bought the truck for, he’s mobile and I don’t have to pick him up or drop him off places anymore.
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So one week later, it’s Saturday evening and I’m getting ready to sleep so I can go to work at 3am. It’s storming pretty bad, hail and high winds and I get a call from Jack saying he’s having issues with Caddy. Said the battery light is on and nothing is working. No radio, no wipers no power windows but it’s running. He said his mom is on her way with jumper cables but was wondering what he should do. I asked where he was and he said Orland Park mall. “What in the £¥<% are you doing at Orland Park mall on a night like this when you’ve only had your license for a week?” He said he went to Joliet mall with Josh but they had to be 17 to get in so they went to Orland. Still couldn’t get in, too young so they went to Five Guys to get some food. When they came out the hail and heavy rain hit and they made it across the street into Petco parking lot and stopped because no wipers or nothing.
“What is your mom gonna do with jumper cables if the truck is running?”
So I called the ex. I gave her an earful. Why the HE LL would you let him drive to Orland in this weather? Are you dumber than you look? I was tearing into her and told her to just go home and I’d clean up her lack of parenting like I always do. She said her husband Dave was with her and they could take care of it. “Dave’s not an idiot ya know!”
“When I need a pole barn built I’ll let him know but there’s no way I’m gonna let someone else put their hands on any of my vehicles because I’ll have to fix what they screw up.” But a lot more curse words in there. That was about when I hear Dave say “let him take care of it”. I was on Bluetooth over her radio and Dave and his son were both with her. Hahaha. I don’t care! And he knows it.
So I grab some tools and head to Orland which is only 11 miles from me but 23 miles from Plainfield where she lives and that’s where Jack started from.
I get there and the truck was off and I jump in and try to start it. The ignition tumbler had some resistance to it which I thought was odd. So I messed with shifter and rocked steering wheel but no change. Let me see what happens here. I turn key to start and click click click. Wtf!! I grab my jumper cables and get it hooked to my truck in the pouring rain and same thing. Click click click. Check connections and same thing but I notice smoke coming from right side of engine from under the hood. Starter is smoked! Tell them to grab their stuff and get in the truck. I called for tow and had to drive them to Plainfield to drop them off. Get back home about 9:45 and waited for tow truck. Dropped vehicle off just before 11pm and I went to bed to get my 2 hr nap before work!!!
I get off at 11am and Jack comes over in his moms car to help me work on the starter.
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First things first, hooked up battery charger after disconnecting the battery and took the column apart to see what the issue was with the tumbler. A while back I replaced the gear shifter because the spring was broke not pushing the shifter forward when shifted into park. There’s a small cable that clips in under the tumbler that keeps the shifter locked in park until key is turned. That clip slid out some which put a bind on tumbler. I was able to slide that back in and I had to put a small piece of tin like a shim in behind the locking tab to keep it from sliding back out. Sorry, I didn’t take any pics because I was tired, crabby and just wanted to get this thing done.
After that, the key turned like normal and everything worked as it should so I put the covers back on the column. Got the truck in the air and pulled the starter. Fought me a little because there wasn’t much slack in wiring but I got it out and seen the back of the starter motor was twisted on the nose cone. Them long 4mm bolts that hold the motor to the nose were twisted at a 45° angle.
So what happened was the key stuck in the start position and kept the starter motor engaged until the stator locked up in the housing and it twisted the motor. Thankfully the ring gear on the flexplate wasn’t damaged. Ran and got a new starter and put it in and truck was back up and running. Another $240 later.
So now it’s 2:30pm on Sunday, I gotta be back at work at 11pm that night so I called Chrissy and told her Jack was on his way back to her house with her car and I would appreciate it if she could run him back out to get his truck. She had the audacity to tell me she doesn’t feel like it because she’s laying in bed watching Ozark. I’m like the Hulk when I’m running on fumes and she’s already not my favorite person so of course I blew up!!
“I’m on 2 hrs of sleep because of yesterday, I brought them back out to you last night, I paid $200 for a tow, $250 for a starter and fixed the thing so I think it’s your turn to step up!” CLICK, she hangs up on me.
So Jess had to go get Jack and bring him back to get his truck. She used my truck and my fuel all because his POS mother couldn’t be bothered with any of it. I’ve never loathed someone as much as I do her.
So yeah, that was an ordeal but we got thru it. For now. Sorry about the lack of pics, I wish I would have gotten one of at least that starter.
 
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Snowbound

Snowbound

Jim
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So week 2 of Jack having his license. It’s Friday, May 6th about 2:35pm and I’m in and out on the couch trying to stay awake as long as possible on Fridays so I can get on a somewhat regular schedule for the weekends. Jack calls.
“Dad, I just got into an accident.”
“Are you ok? Is anyone hurt?”
“Nobody got hurt, I just bumped into this lady as she was turning into the school parking lot.”
“cheese and rice Jack, is it bad?”
“no, just some scraped paint and maybe pushed her bumper in a little bit it popped back out. I offered her $250.”
“Can I talk to her?”
So this lady gets on the phone and I apologize for the stupidity of my son and she was very understanding. I asked if she would mind if we didn’t go thru insurance and I would just pay for any damage to her car out of my pocket. She was fine with that. I told her to take my name and number and also take a picture of my insurance card that Jack had with him just to cover her butt. Her phone was dead so I had Jack take picture of card and text it to her and she was good with that.
Here’s what Jack sent me later, I didn’t see the damage in person until this past weekend.
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I’m not sure what this is gonna cost me, maybe $2000? Could be more depending on structural damage behind bumper. I swear, I can’t catch a break for nothing. But at least she’s being cool about it. I’m still waiting to hear back from her.
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Snowbound

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Jim
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On a side note, I bought another 2500hd Duramax. My buddy’s truck. Car got rear ended in oncoming traffic which send a Lexus spinning into his lane and he smacked it. Ripped the wheel and spindle off his truck taking out the bumper and fender. Hood and door aren’t touched.
So he found out the other day they are gonna buy him out on it. Buy back was $3000 so I’m grabbing it. I can repair it for under $3000 so I’ll have another LMM Duramax with 152k miles on it for under $6k. I’m running out of driveway really fast.
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Tonyrodz

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On a side note, I bought another 2500hd Duramax. My buddy’s truck. Car got rear ended in oncoming traffic which send a Lexus spinning into his lane and he smacked it. Ripped the wheel and spindle off his truck taking out the bumper and fender. Hood and door aren’t touched.
So he found out the other day they are gonna buy him out on it. Buy back was $3000 so I’m grabbing it. I can repair it for under $3000 so I’ll have another LMM Duramax with 152k miles on it for under $6k. I’m running out of driveway really fast.
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Hell of a deal for you. Will it have a salvage title?
Glad your boy is ok. As you know it could've been much worse. All par for the course with a new teenage driver sadly. Your ex sounds better then my ex! BOTH of mine are lower then a POS.
 

adventurenali92

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Dang man you’re a freakin machine!! So much work! Glad the kid is ok!! I’ve been there… totaled my first truck at like 20…. That phone call to my mom was probably the worst one ever lol. But looks like the caddy kept him safe!
 
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Snowbound

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Jim
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Hell of a deal for you. Will it have a salvage title?
Glad your boy is ok. As you know it could've been much worse. All par for the course with a new teenage driver sadly. Your ex sounds better then my ex! BOTH of mine are lower then a POS.

If I can get the title before the insurance company it won’t be salvage title but it’ll be on the carfax report. I’ll get it fixed and inspected so I can get full coverage on it otherwise the insurance will only give me liability. At that point I think it’ll be considered a rebuilt title.
 
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Snowbound

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Jim
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Dang man you’re a freakin machine!! So much work! Glad the kid is ok!! I’ve been there… totaled my first truck at like 20…. That phone call to my mom was probably the worst one ever lol. But looks like the caddy kept him safe!
Thanks. I hope it’s out of his system. Nothing scares me more than thinking about what can happen to him while out driving. I don’t care about the vehicle, but the little things that can be avoided do get me mad.
He’s complaining about price of gas and threatened to only put regular in it. Told him his fuel mileage will drop off and when he hurts the engine he’s walking. With gas prices this high you shouldn’t be out joy riding, school and work. Kids!
 

adventurenali92

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Thanks. I hope it’s out of his system. Nothing scares me more than thinking about what can happen to him while out driving. I don’t care about the vehicle, but the little things that can be avoided do get me mad.
He’s complaining about price of gas and threatened to only put regular in it. Told him his fuel mileage will drop off and when he hurts the engine he’s walking. With gas prices this high you shouldn’t be out joy riding, school and work. Kids!
Haha. Complaining about fuel…. Yeah been there and done that… tell him to work harder and keep that rig cleaned up and running lol.
 
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Snowbound

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Jim
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Oh I should also mention that I did end up removing the 5% tint on front windows before he took it over. Those windows were way too dark for him.
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One more thing I was told to remove was the emblem on the rear hatch.
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His mom said he’ll get shot with that on the back of the vehicle. Whatever. I removed it.
 
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