| The Homesteading Experience |
| The saga of the Ranch Truck continues. The fuel additive helped a little bit, and next I tried an oil additive. I am afraid that the two years the truck sat at the ranch and didn't get run, the seals have all dried up and cracked. I put two cans of a product called Restore in the crank case hoping it would help. Restore claims to help rejuvenate old rings and seals. After running the truck for about 70 miles the engine smoothed out pretty good. When I am sitting at idle it still misses badly, but once I give it some fuel it smooths out for the most part. When I first start the truck it smokes pretty bad, and if I stop at a red light and have to wait very long it gives a good puff of black smoke when I finally take off again, but it still runs. I've talked to a couple of mechanics about it, but because the truck is so old and beat up, they do not want to work on it. That means it's up to me if the truck is going to get fixed, and unfortuantly I have very limited experience working on diesel engines. I purchased a Chilton manual however, and if I need too I guess I can rebuild the motor. At this point I'm into the truck for only about $1000. so I have to decide if it's worth spending anymore. At this time I don't trust the truck enough to drive any distance from home. I am still using it to drive across town, and to the store for supplies, and it hasn't given me any trouble. I'm afraid that out of the blue one day I'm going to blow a piston, and there I'll be. I recently came across another truck that might be worth investing in. It's a 1996 Ford F150 with 89K miles. The outside is a little banged up, the inside is pretty clean, 4 new tires, automatic, and cold AC. Currently the truck doesn't run, but the owner towed it to the homestead for me to look at, and I'll see if I can fix it. At first glance I believe the problem is an after market alarm that has malfunctioned. If I remove the alarm I believe the truck will start, and if it does I might be able to work a good deal on it. It's not a heavy duty diesel like I wanted, but it's a truck with a bed, and I can use it to pull a trailer. . |
| I finally got the chance to work on the 1996 Ford truck. After lots of line tracing, and some trial and error, I was able to isolate the auto alarm. This is what I know about auto alarms. Depending on how fancy the alarm is, and how diligent the installer was, the alarm can be spliced into the vehicles wiring system in a couple of places, or as many as a dozen. Guess which one I had? That's right, I had approximately 12 wire splices to trace out and restore. The good new however is that after restoring the wiring system, and removing the alarm, I was able to start the truck. A good check of the vehicle, and it appears everything is running good, and the truck starts with no problems now. I was very proud of myself for figuring out what was wrong with the truck, and getting it running again. The next day however, the truck was dead and wouldn't start. A quick check and I discovered that the battery was dead. I put my meter on the battery and it appeared to be alright, just in need of charging. A few hours on the charger, and the truck started right up. I checked the battery again and everything looked good. The next day however, the battery was dead again. Back to the drawing board! It was obvious I had a short somewhere, or something was draining the battery. I double checked all of the wiring repairs I had done to make sure everything was connected and secured. Everything looked good. In my experience I have found electrical shorts or battery drains are usually something small. I checked some simple things that can cause battery drain. I made sure the hood light was going off when I closed the hood, I checked the dome light inside the cab to make sure it wasn't coming on, and then I found the problem. The glove box light was not turning off. The switch inside the glove box that turns the light off and on was broken, so I removed the bulb, and the problem was solved. I recharged the battery, and have not had any more problems. I contacted the owner of the truck and told him I would purchase it "As Is". We agreed on a price of $700., and after a little paperwork the truck was mine. |
| Well every homestead needs a good truck, but now I've got two. I decided that even though the 1996 Ford wasn't a diesel, it was in very sound condition, and the low miles meant it probably had lots of life left in it. The decision was made to sell the old diesel. I placed an ad on Craigslist the next day. I know the truck has lots of issues, and it could possibly have some bigger problems that I don't know about yet, so I made sure my ad was very clear on the condition of the vehicle. I gave a very good description, explained how the vehicle was running, mentioned the black smoke, rough idle, everything I could think of, and included some photos of the truck. Asking price $700.00 Within the first couple of days I had received numerous inquiries, but even though I gave a very detailed description, and explained the problems with the truck, I still had people contacting me wanting to know if it ran good, how was the A/C etc. Finally I sorted through and found two people who were interested in the vehicle "As Is". I invited both persons to come over and take a look at the truck and test drive it, which they did. The first one decided the truck was more work then he wanted to take on, but would give me $250. for it. The second person was looking for a truck he could rebuild and customize, and he really wanted the truck, but did not have $700., so I agreed to sell it too him for $500. All in all, I took a gamble on the old diesel farm truck and it didn't work out so well, but luck was with me and I had the opportunity to gamble on another cheap truck which worked out great. I ended up with a good Homestead truck and my total investment was $1160. I think that's a pretty good deal for a free and clear vehicle that runs great. Now maybe I can get back to working on my house! |
| The photo on the left is the spot were the refrigerator was located. After I removed the refrigerator I discovered a huge nest of fire ants that went up the wall about 3 foot from the floor. I ripped out the sheetrock, exterminated the ants, and cleaned a huge pile of dirt out of the wall. I guess I'm lucky it wasn't more termites. |
| The above pictures show me working on the floors. As previously discussed, after removing the carpet and pad, I had to spray an enzyme solution on the floor to kill the urine stains and odor. What I'm doing at this point is painting the entire floor with a primer. I'm using an all in one primer from Kilz, and rolling it on nice and thick. Once I'm finished I don't think I'll have to worry about the urine stains or the odor coming back. It might be over kill, but better safe than sorry. |
| The photos above and to the left show the construction of the office walls. Originally this house was built with an open floor plan. The family room, living room, dining room, and kitchen all pretty much open to each other. There was a short wall that came out to the right of the front door, extended floor to ceiling about 10 ft. out into the room giving a little separation between the family room and living area. I tore this wall out completely. Since it is just my wife and I living in the house, we didn't see a need for a family room and separate living area. Instead I'm building two walls and enclosing the family room area to become an office. |