Todd's First Post or Oh Crap What did I do To My Truck

So as you may know we are getting ready to leave, first to visit my sister in Tallahassee then to Ft. Lauderdale to sell xmas trees.

Well you may or may not know we tow our Travel trailer with an 1998 dodge 1500 with over 200000 miles on it. Since we are getting ready to drive a total of 1000 miles I thought I would give her a tune up.  Well I have never changed the plugs in this truck so when I started pulling the wires they began to break, well no biggie we just have to find a ride to the parts store to get a set of plug wires.

I get to the last plug and they all have come out really easy although they looked terrible, the last plug was a stubborn SOB, I broke the ceramic and eventually stripped the plug.  I hate to do this but I had to call a mechanic for help, we are getting ready to leave, I need my truck.

About an hour later and a mechanic shows up and comes out with the same tools I was using, I knew this wasn't going to end well.   After he struggled for about 5 minutes he said he needed to go get a different tool.  Long story short the extractor he went to get didn't work either.  I suggested since the ceramic was broke to use my short well 12 sided socket instead of the 6 sided deep well he was using.  It worked, he got it out and put the other one in. (could have done it myself for free)

You would think that would be the end of the story, nope.  He put the wires on in the wrong order, (then left) the truck sputtered and spitted and lurched.  By now its dark and I said forget it I will get the firing order off line and fix it in the morning. 

This morning I went out and checked all the plugs for snugness, made sure the wires were on tight and then found the mistake my $55 an hour mechanic made.  I switched the plug wires and fired her up.  She sounded so pretty, and ran so nice I drove around like a madman making sure the check engine light was not coming back on.

All ended well and we are a day behind (but who cares) and back in packing mode.  I'll tell you something I did not let Amanda know, I was seriously worried we weren't going anywhere.