Bragging Dad - daughter repairs 80 2000 miles from home

[IdahoDoug]

So, our daughter is at college with the 270,000 1997 Cruiser in Michigan. It will remain there for 4 years because it costs more than an airline flight to drive it 4300 miles round trip for summer break. I did some heavy maintenance before we drove out there with her. memo: Gee, I wonder what she'll drive back home here for the summer (see signature below)? Hmm, tappity tappity tap? What could she choose? Heh.....

After Christmas break, it began an intermittent no-start. I grabbed an EFI relay and mailed it over right away. She swapped it out while we Face-Timed. Truck started, problem solved. It did the no-start again a couple weeks later and I jumped on Mud (thanks, all) to see what the popular fuel system components being replaced are these days. EFI relay, fuel pump relay, no-current relay in the driver's footwell, and the fuel pump itself came in a distant 4th.

I mailed these parts to her a week ago with a socket wrench, extension and 10mm and told her to get a metal butter knife from the cafeteria to round out the tools.

The appointed day arrived and I led her through replacing the fuel pump relay in the left fender, and prying up the driver's threshold with the knife to get at the no-current relay behind the plastic trim, using Face-Time on our phones. Took about 30 minutes, and I'm cautiously declaring victory as I suggested she drive it whenever she could to stack up successful starts when its not critical. So far, so good.

Pretty cool how it worked with modern technology. We were making small talk just like you would together in the driveway. In fact, I bet she learned more without me there to lean in and do everything which is my tragic version of "instructing". I'm stoked!

So, another generation of LandCruiser wrenching begins. Somewhere out there is a guy she hasn't met, and I hope he sees her changing the oil on old Lucy in the dorm parking lot some day - risking the ire of the college rules. And I hope he values that she drives a classic LandCruiser, can do her own work, and that forms the basis for a relationship based on traditional values, respect and mutual admiration. It would be a great start, eh?

- A Proud Dad

 

[lastresort576]

Sadly, most guys in college now a days have no desire to do things for themselves. But cheer's to you and your teachings!!

 

[McDowra]

Congrats on raising a great daughter!

 

[LINUS]

Something tells me "that fella" will be bringing her a beverage of choice & she'll be the one who eyerolls him when he come home saying "....so then a blinky light came on the dash, but since there wasn't a siren I thought it was safe to drive anyhow..." -while she stands over an open hood secretly hoping for immediate silence.

You did your part Doug, -with any luck that boy will be a man & not just a male.

Something tells me she knows the distinction though - not like she grew up surrounded by pavement & subways.

 

[newbtrayback]

I have two girls myself.
You obviously raised a very smart and capable young lady. You have nothing to worry about. SHE will pick the right man.....sounds like she had a perfect template to model one after. Cheers!

 

[sea bass]

excellent work coming from a dad of 3 daughters.

 

[tominboise]

Good job - I am in the midst of a similar remote repair on the cooling system of a german car and my college student son.

 

[decoco]

I read all this without a picture of the daughter in college?

*glad she knows how to work on cars better than I *

 

[Comet]

You should be VERY PROUD of her. All those years of watching your head gasket video finally pays off! Seriously though, it is very refreshing to see that there are kids (I know, a full grown woman) out there who are taking the same curiosity in wrenching on their own vehicles. My kids aren't far behind for college. Wasn't it just yesterday that they were born? Another proud papa standing in support of your accomplishments.

 

[Malleus]

@IdahoDoug, I recently bought a '94 for my daughter, because her mother insists she be able to commute from Alabama, where she's going this fall. She has worked with me for the past two months, doing things like repairing the antenna, power window auto-up mod, stereo upgrade and general tune-up. We're currently troubleshooting an intermittently noisy drivetrain. I've been impressed with her desire and abilities as much as proud of her affinity for the LC (we've had at least one since before she was born). Hopefully the other three turn out as well as she has.

I'm going to share your post with her. Congratulations on your efforts!

 

[Golgo13]

I dated a girl in college whose father was a service manager at a Mopar dealer. When I went with her to meet her folks, we ended up spending a couple hours in the garage looking over the two Road Runners he was working on with her brothers. She was more than capable of changing her own oil and was generally a good person. It didn't work out for other reasons, but a few years later, when I was living in town and she was passing through, she had an overheating issue with her Intrepid.
She called her dad to find out what needed to be done and his first question was "Is Lex still in town? He will be able to help..." She needed tools that most people don't carry in their trunk and I always had mine with me. Over the phone, was able to crack open a breather in the coolant neck and bleed air/bubbles from the cooling system. 30minutes later everything was done and I was off on a date with a new girl and she had to go back to her boyfriend who couldn't change the oil in his own truck...

 

[Aloha Jen]

What a great story, I hope my little ones learn a thing or two along the way. My sweet little girl will get this as her first vehicle in about 11 years....hopefully she will know it inside and out by then!

 

[decoco]

jesus, that 60, i love the license plate too.

 

[bicycleagent003]

Teaching competency is teaching confidence, and the latter might be the more important of the two.

Bravo to you and your daughter!

 

[FloydtheDog]

...After Christmas break, it began an intermittent no-start...

Don't want to jinx anything here, but in the event she continues to have intermittent starting issues... Have you replaced the contacts & plunger in the starter, or the starter it's self in recent history? I had intermittent starting issues that started out of the blue one day. I'd turn the key & get a click & nothing else. Repeat anywhere between 2 & 20 times & it would finally fire up. I replaced the fusible links & EFI relay to no avail. Changed out the contacts & plunger with new parts from @beno and like magic, intermittent starting issues were gone.

Nice to see a youngster taking interest. My daughter is barely 5 and wants to help with virtually every project I have whether that's refinishing the basement or any type of service on any of our 3 'yotas.

 

[Heckraiser]

My daughter is hopeless. Thanks for rubbing it in.

 

[ajax1]

Where is this no current relay location? Is it the circuit open relay?

 

[IdahoDoug]

So, the circuit open relay (correct name as noted) is in the driver's footwell behind the hard plastic trim against the sidewall. Several mentioned replacing it and its cheap - 9 bucks. Same part number as the EFI relay up under the hood. On the starter parts - yep, though I think I got mine from CruiserDan 'cause I'm so old he was the only quality source. And yes that makes him REALLY old. Those plungers and copper contacts have been replaced about every 100k on my rigs just as PM. Over the 500,000 miles combined that's about 5 cycles (!). Also the alternator brushes, as they're like $9 and come out the back of the alternator in 5 minutes with a single screw. Once each rig so far - somewhere I think I wrote they were 50% used at 200k. I also put new fusible links in it before we headed off to college.

The no start was the engine turning over healthily but not starting - a likely fuel starvation issue. I never got that confirmed as the day we face timed and she opened the air cleaner to spray some starter fluid in it, the mangy beast started. She got a quick lesson in statistics. Confirm the no start still exists before seeing if the starter fluid would start it. Had we not done that, we'd have had a false confirmation that the starter fluid started it, when it might not have been the factor. I told her to keep the starter fluid around until we confirmed victory.

Great comments all. I'm pretty fired up that worked out. And I'm excited that she's into it. I am also excited that the college she chose has its own very nice gun range for the students and parents, and they have an annual parents shooting day, etc. The current "safe space on campus" horse**** crystallized her college path, so I should thank all those morons for the perfect timing of the state of today's nanny state college campuses as she finished high school. For once, history played in my favor!!!

The only thing I'm bummed I did not do to the Cruiser is install a battery turn off switch. It's going to sit for months of every year and I should have done that and connected a battery maintainer to it so she could just disconnect it and plug it in at relatives back there.

 

[Irish Reiver]

You know, i dont really want to push sunshine up you arse, but cudos to you and your daughter. I have just sat and taken abuse from a woman who threw a tantrum because the band in a bar didnt know any bob marley. Im not in the band but i still copped the abuse.
My 9 year old can change oil, spark plugs and a whole bunch of other things and i pray she ends up like your daughter and not the pretentious little **** i was sat next to....

 

[e9999]

Good to see you around, Doug. Where have you been? MUD needs ya!
And cheer up, you can't be that old, I have a Birf kit on my shelf from Dan that's probably as old as your daughter. Well, almost...
Anyway, she can probably disconnect the battery leads with one or 2 bolts, no? Even add a disconnect with just one more bolt than that. I like the ones with the round green knob from Walmart and the like, $5 or so and not too obvious.