Alan Gets Beat Up By Ninety Three Year Old, Henry.

 

My arm is bruised, my ribs and knees hurt, but I eventually won. In my garage is a ninety three year old Ford that is... or was one hundred percent stock as it came from the factory. Over the weekend I changed one thing. I removed the generator and replaced it with an alternator. The reason was that I want to add some extra tail lights. Henry Ford built these cars with only one small, dim light in the rear. Also, my headlights will work better. Anyway, on Saturday I watched the video on how to install my new alternator. It looked so easy. The guy removed the old generator and slapped the alternator in the car in only eight minutes. So easy... so easy. That's the giveaway right there. If it looks easy, It will not be. Removing the generator was easy, but the old Ford just didn't want that new fangled part in him. First of all, the bolt was too long and rubbed against the fan belt. That's how I got my arm all bruised up, banging it against the radiator shell. Which is another point. I kept going back to the video to see what I was doing wrong and about the third time through it I noticed that the guy was installing the alternator on a stripped down Model A. No radiator shell, no fenders, no hood. He had great access to do the job. They probably also made sure everything fit before they even turned on the camera. At one point I was instructed to insert two washers between the engine block and the alternator bracket. Out of the four washers I had on hand, I lost three. I saw them slip out of my greasy fingers and disappear into thin air. When the cursing got too loud and I worried that the neighbors would complain, I gave up. I would continue the fight on Sunday. Early Sunday I went to Home Depot to find a shorter bolt and buy more washers. In the screws, bolts, and nuts aisle Home Depot had rows of flat drawers. On the outside is a description of what is in them. All orderly, and color coded. Then when you open the drawer that says what you need is inside, you find a jumbled mess of nothing that you need. Torn open bags of bolts, washers, and nuts, all the wrong size.

Long story too long now to make short, I got the alternator installed. It actually works and I now will feel a bit safer driving my old Ford at night. Hopefully nothing else will need attention for a week or so. I need to heal.