Something not planned. Took youngest minion Jacob to med center yesterday to have a mess of teeth pulled, so took Bessie the 72 Ambassador SST station wagon. Today though, Bessie was grumpy when I went to Citgo to get her some $3.21 gas as she was almost out. When I tried to start her she went "RRRRRRR!!!!!!" that is the Bendix spinning on flexplate. The starter is a Ultima which is a O'Reillys "lifetime" warranty, but Ultima means "ultima piece of sh*t" starter." So hand pushed Bessie back (I'm a big guy so 4200 lb car no problem) and sure enough, Bessie's flexplate had moved a little, enought that the bendix hit, caught and cranked her up quickly. So went to bank, but decided to go thru drive thru. Keep it running just in case. After bank, drove up Bunker Hill into Spring Branch, lots of places to eat around there, Mexican, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Polish, you name it, there is a restaurant for it. One I had my eyes on though was off Blalock at Clay so about 3 1/2 miles thru Spring Branch, called 'Fish Fillet' which is supposed to have a all you can eat catfish buffet, and I happen to like catfish, so figured would try it out. I decided to kill Bessie, although it crossed my mind she might not have liked the Venezuelan dictator gas I had put in here, and starter my be iffy....but decided to turn off key. Went inside only ate one plate of catfish (didn't see that coming, thought for sure 2-3 plates) but went back out and sure enough RRRRRRR!!!!!! darn it. No startee again. I had parked on small incline so pushed back a little, thinking my Citgo trick would work again, no, not this time, so called Paige to come rescue me, she packed up Noah & Jacob in the 88 Eagle, and drove over to me, picked me up, and I headed over to O'Reillys to 'buy' another starter for $70 even though this one under warranty. They didn't have it in stock, so had to quickly do 'plan b' which was go home, pick up tools, jack, and drive to Long Point & Wirt 8 miles away to pick up my 'new' already paid for at another O'Reillys starter. Was quickly in and out, and drove back up Long Point to Blalock to Bessie...Paige decided to take boys across street to Jack In The Crack especially to get Jacob a milkshake since he has enough metal in mouth to set off most airport detectors and looks like a damned jack o lantern with teeth now, so would feel at home since can't eat anything solid for few days. Sort of like me after I tangled with some Bhut Jolokis peppers. (Go look it up, mouth was Chernobyl south). So I jacked up Bessie, the wind whistling under the car as a cold front came in this morning, but felt rather nice under there except my hair getting caught in jack...it's down to my belt buckle now, really long, look like a fat Sting of Police fame. Took 5 minute to change out new starter, and behold, inside on front floorboard was my iced tea I had left, no homeless stole it. Bessie cranked right up ready to go. Got a wave from Harris County constable shooting radar on Kempwood as I drove past, that was nice, cops dig old cars. Went back to O'Reillys and got my $70.35 cash back and found out the Ultima starter with bad bendix was only 8 1/2 months old. Some, like the one on my 82 Eagle, have over 100K on them go figure. Bessie is back at home now safe with her 13 other AMC siblings, but she did have a adventure today, otherwise uneventful. Could have thought of another way to spend those hours driving back and forth to pick up starter and work on car though, but was not about to leave Bessie in that crappy neighborhood overnight as she would have been turned into homeless shelter and someone might have stole my 8 tracks. Eddie Stakes 713.464.8825 eddiestakes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx www.planethoustonamx.com ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BaadAssGremlins/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BaadAssGremlins/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: BaadAssGremlins-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx BaadAssGremlins-fullfeatured@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: BaadAssGremlins-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/