Everything on a farm doesn’t have to do with dirt under the fingernails. Sometimes it’s grease under the fingernails. The Subaru Veggie Wagon has been letting me know for the past few months that something was going on with the front end. So, like the frugal person I am, I drove it until it had to be fixed. A few weeks ago I did get an estimate from a mechanic and from the description I gave him he thought it was an axle–about $200.
I started to town a couple of days ago and decided it was time–the steering wheel was pulling back and forth so I turned around and went home, got on Google (my favorite “how to” go to place, and Googled the problem. A few Googles later I decided that it was the cv axle, so I watched a couple of videos on Youtube. The job really didn’t look that hard, so I drove the truck to town to get parts–$60–and I had to “borrow” a 32mm socket to take the axle nut off.
Just as I was getting all the parts removed from the car, Shane (boyfriend) pulled up and asked what in the world was I doing. I told him I was making $147.00. He told me I was crazy for tackling that job and started muttering things about transmission and oil, and I politely told him that I had watched the video and would get it done, so he left (yay). The next morning the weather was cold with wind blowing but I donned the insulated coveralls and crawled under the car where it was warm (not cozy, just warm).
I’m glad there was no camera around because I had to keep coming back to the computer to make sure I was doing everything right and I’m glad no one was recording audio, BUT in spite of myself, by 10:00 I was driving my veggie wagon back to town to return the socket and old parts! All I can say is that I love the Internet and Youtube and it gave me the confidence to say “yes, I can” get out of my box and do something I hadn’t before.
Oh, and there was a reason the guy in the video ground down a punch to knock out the pin in the axle–my screwdriver got stuck and I didn’t think I was going to be able to get it out.
Wild Things Farm 