Extreme Carpool!!

Today is Shaun L’s birthday and on the ride to work we got a special treat: There was an accident on the on ramp to 91.

Not wanting to delay the trip to work, I did a quick 180, ran over a short section of curb, and started down a new route to work. Things were looking good. And then: THUMP THUMP THUMP… the tire went flat.

I brought the pulsing car to the breakdown lane and got out to survey the damage. Shaun and I (both highly trained mechanical engineers) were able to determine that yes, the tire was flat.

I opened up the trunk and pulled out the donut spare. I also got my toolbox and the pipe of justi—- “OH NO!” I gasped in both shock and horror “I don’t have the pipe of justice*!”

Shaun L. was the first to take a stab at the nuts. He threw the wrench onto the nut and cranked… to no avail. It didn’t budge. We jumped on the end of the handle… still nothing. Also, the tool for raising the jack seemed to be missing… this was going to be a challenge.

we took inventory:

Toolbox full of various small tools
Ratchet set
Deep socket set
Two shovels
Two Double Dutch T-shirts
Frisbee
Giant block of wood
Two gloves
Climbing rope
Box of Tissues

First we tried the ratchet with the deep sockets. Still, the nut didn’t budge.

The shovel! By jamming the handle around the end of the wrench we could increase our leverage by 3 feet! We tried it… and the shovel bent to the point where we feared it would break. Giant block of wood?

Shaun L. stepped back… I raised the block of wood high over my head and pounded the handle of the wrench. It moved.

And with another 40 or so slams, all the nuts were loosened. Who knew that the giant block of wood would prove so useful?
We then took a small screw driver and jammed it through the end of the jack. By twisting the screw driver we were able to raise the car inch by inch. 25 minutes later… the donut was in place. Success!

We made it to work about a half hour late. Not too shabby considering the circumstances. And really, we were quite lucky. The weather was beautiful and the breakdown lane was vast. Unfortunately, it looks like my lunch will be spent seeing if I can get a patch for the tire.

*a pipe, that has saved my butt on numerous occasions by providing serious leverage for removing stuck nuts.

13 thoughts on “Extreme Carpool!!

  • 9/5/2007 at 10:01 am
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    You didn’t mention the numerous times you missed the wrench with the block of wood thus proceeding to pummel your car.

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  • 9/5/2007 at 10:30 am
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    at least you didn’t have to experience the traffic on the merritt due to a car that ran off the road into the woods (i think they closed down a few miles of the merritt to clear the accident)…. i think some people forgot how to drive over labor day.

    so now i am at work, after having left hartford at 7:15 (the time is now 10:30), going down the merritt till exit 60 (after having spent an hour only going 7 exits), driving through new haven, past southern connecticut state university, then 34 west, BACK onto the merritt at exit 57 where there was NO traffic… and finally ending in Fairfield.

    Today was a journey, I will tell you that

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  • 9/5/2007 at 10:40 am
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    This weekend, I had to fashion my own Pipe of Justice to remove the rear hub off the scooter, which I had torqued down to some unholy amount of foot-poundage. After digging through the shed, I found what can be best described as the most medieval, the most heavy metal, the most extreme hoe ever created. It is about 5′ tall, and the hoeing element itself has a huge, jagged blade. I believe it is used to pry wooden shingles off roofs and walls. Regardless of its intended usage, coupling it with a 1/2″ drive ratchet yields an unstoppable combo that makes nuts and bolts wither in fear.

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  • 9/5/2007 at 10:45 am
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    ha ha! While this is definitely a bummer, I think I’d take traffic over a busted tire any day… despite Shaun L. and my incredible problem solving skillz.

    I guess the roads just didn’t want to treat people kindly this morning.

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  • 9/5/2007 at 10:45 am
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    The car took it like a champ though. This is certain.

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  • 9/5/2007 at 10:46 am
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    How did you torque the rear hub down in the first place?

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  • 9/5/2007 at 10:49 am
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    Well, the recommended torque is 90 ftlbs, but someone on the internet message board says “basically you can’t over-tighten this nut”. Not having a torque wrench, I put my half inch ratchet on aforementioned nut, and figuring that the handle of the ratchet was slightly less than a foot long, I stood on it…

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  • 9/5/2007 at 6:37 pm
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    Ha, awesome. I love it when you can improvise your way out of a problem like that. It’s so satisfying.

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  • 9/6/2007 at 7:41 am
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    The T-shirts! Next time you should rip them apart and tie them ogether to create a rope, and then tie that to the end of the wrench. it should work just like a pipe of justice giving you the extra leverage that you need!

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  • 9/6/2007 at 10:03 am
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    well, presumably I could have also just used the rope.

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  • 9/6/2007 at 10:04 am
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    It was also rather hilarious. two guys in shirts and ties slamming a block of wood against a wrench on the side of the road.

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  • 9/6/2007 at 8:06 pm
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    Come now, even with the lack luster performance of the jack you could have put the wrench in the 3 o’clock position and used the jack and the weight of the car to break the nuts free.

    Time for a torque wrench, maybe? 75 ft-lbs of torque is surprisingly small when using a 1.5 ft torque wrench.

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  • 9/11/2007 at 9:15 am
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    Fantastic idea about using the jack to break the nuts free. Probably a lot of work, but I’ll definitely remember that trick!

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