I would think with the maneuverability of those properly installed arms, any car should be as easy as the next IF one can bend down to get the pads properly aligned.
I think that this is a good time to tell the entire story.
After an evening of beers, the wife and I decided to hit the hay early in anticipation of a nice drive, a short day of drilling holes and wrenching and an easy drive home for an early dinner.
We got up at about 6:15 and after some basic sustenance, we headed to Starbucks for some real food (coffee). This put us on the road and on schedule. We got into Jasper, Tennessee in moments of the time I told Andy and loaded him in the 100 so he could see how the other half lives. We set off from Jasper with a comment from Andy that we would likely be right on time for the 9AM start though I had said something about, "9AM!? EF that, we will get there when we get there!"
The drive was nice as the sun came up and the 100 handled as it should making Andy envious of the well built and handsome grocery getter. We enjoyed some spirited discussion about lockers, skid plates, being drunk in the Cove with an inbred Boomower, my impending move tot he Pacific islands and the such. Eventually, we left the interstate and stopped at a BP for a pee and a soda. This was the beginning of the end.
After a walk around of the Hundred and approval from the club president, we set off for the last mile an a half to Rogers to get busy. Then it happened - Christmas lights on the dash.
Count them. Five light on the bottom half of the dash glaring at me for no particular reason. A acouple restarts and nothing. Still a bunch of lights. We headed off and made it easily to Roger's. The truck, afterall, was running fine. It just had a s*** load of lights on - I figure to make up for the fact that the "D" for Drive has been out to the approval of most 100 owners.
As we arrived we found Roger, Spot and Todd ready to work. The first step was to precariously raise the power side of the lift with one of the first stand up propane operated fork lift ever made. It went pretty easy and we found we could walk it into position easily. Roger had rented a massive hammer drill and what we though may take the longest - drilling six 3/4" holes in concrete per lift, turned out to be the easiest part. Todd hammered the anchors home and we took turns torquing them in place.
The second side - the slave side was easier as we were becoming confident with our new found skills. Next, I attached the crossbar and then Todd used his long forgotten high school geometry to figure out of the the two lift sides were in fact square with on another. We then drilled another six holes, slammed in six anchors and torqued them too. Just a bit of shimming was needed to ensure the sides were even and true.
I think this is about when we may have taken a break to look at the Hundred. We discovered the battery connections were loose so we took those off in hopes that the ECU would reset. Nope. We messed around with switches and looked at wires and toyed with wheel sensors. Since I have the FSM in the Wagongear hatch in the tailgate, we broke those out and
and Andy started reading about how expensive this could actually be.
Todd, Roger and I returned to the lift install and I went ahead an incorrectly ran some cables so I could do it again and then ran some more cables and ran some hydraulics and then ran some cables properly that I had run incorrectly before.
Lunch. Roger made us some delicious brisket, cole slaw and beans. Of course we had been drinking. And so we kept doing that. At this point there was some important GSMTR discussion and the food vendor was approved. I added my $.02 about having a vegetarian option and that was a welcome discussion. Had the vegetarian wife not been there I am sure Roger would have told me to go sit in my truck. Then we had some beer and looked at the 100 and disconnected some wires, pulled out some relays and put them back in and started it and had some beer.
We all returned to the lift install except MH who had brought a book and was feeling a bit like she might be in the way. We mounted the motor and I put gears on the lift legs. Then it was time to play with electricity. We all shared stories about being sent flying across a neighbors yard or two when either touching, spitting or pissing on something hot with live wires as Andy continually stuck a metal screw driver into a circuit breaker box that had been recovered from a pig shed older than I am. Eventually, after some wire pulling, balancing on a forklift and doing some moves you would only see in Cirque de Soleil (and some beer) we got the wires run through the pvc conduit and to its destination. Andy impressed us with his abilities and it was now time to bleed the system.
1-2-3 nothing. No juice. I asked who wired the service and Andy refused to respond with anything other than a look away. Although Todd was quick to through him under the bus. After some multi-meter work, it was discovered that the breakers were misplaced in the box and - TAA DAA! It all came to life.
We all watched as Roger and Todd squirted ATF all of the new garage slab while forcing air from the sytem and joked about how Larry would have had a heart attack if this had happened on on his new slab
Up and down and lots of squirting - had some beers - now its a party!
We did some readjustments and mounted the big yellow lift arm and all got to take them for a ride. We toasted with some beers and could tell Roger was as happy and a Catholic priest assigned to choir boy school. We toasted with a beer.
What a crew.
Todd sidled out and me, MH and Andy loaded into Penny to admire the nicely light dash all the way back to Jasper. The conversation was mainly about the expense indicated by the newly illuminated dash and how ACC was likely the answer.
We dropped Andy off, used his out door facilities and headed back to Rome were we arrived about 10pm eastern. What a day. We had fun. MH even admitted it was a relaxing day for her.
Great, fun day. As stated by Andy - it is unusual to set out to undertake such a task and actually finish it ins a day, much less with few problems.
