Thursday, February 10, 2022
Brake Caliper Completely Loose
Caliper again
Brake Fluid Leaking
Psalm 115:16
The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he has given to human beings.
Luke 12:48
From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.
Words of Grace For Today
I don’t know about the earth belonging to humans, but creation is God’s.
Sometimes it breaks, or in this case the brakes need fixing. Badly.
I drive all the way to Sherwood Park for new tires. They need replacing and the last km into camp is getting worse, so I’m looking for tires with a grip. Canadian Tire has some Motomaster tires on sale, more than $500 less than the next option. It makes the trip worth it and it’s warm enough that my camp will not freeze over through only one warmer night before it gets below minus 10⁰ again.
Then Canadian Tire in Sherwood Park notices the back brakes needed replacing, shoes gone, calipers, emergency brakes … the whole shabang! So they did the works the next morning, along with a front lower control arm for $270 and a windshield with a crack coming across the driver’s side. More than $3k for everything, tires included, which is about 1/3 my annual income last year and this. They work until 16:00 the second day. The first afternoon they’ve gotten the new tires on the summer rims and kept the truck overnight to start inspecting the next morning, promising it can be done that day. I’m hoping I get back mid afternoon so things are not too cold, that is,s not completely frozen in camp.
But I finally pickup the truck at 17:00, having helped with an idiot MS Outlook email problem for the last hour (settings that will not stick, accounts that will not select, the works. Finally I reset the .pst file to which the accounts download by creating a new subfolder in the inboxes and pointing the account to that subfolder, then resetting it to the proper inbox. Gotta wonder!) It’s a long trip home in the dark.
Halfway into a 4 hour trip home, when I pull off to re-torque the lug nuts, the brakes go spongy. It’s dropped from above zero to -7⁰ and started to snow. There’s no place to stop. Even if there were as I drive on camp is freezing up. Left overnight there will be thousands of dollars of damage, something I cannot even start to contemplate how to pay to fix. So I drive on using the manual setting to gear down in order to slow down the few times I need to, thinking the brake fluid is leaking and getting lower each time I use the brakes. I’m saving fluid for when/if I really need brakes.
I arrive at the drive entrance to camp with 1 km of slogging through snow to go on slippery packed tracks. I gear down and then try to stop using the brakes. No brakes at all! Fortunately I’m going slow on a gravel road with no one around. I let the truck roll to as slow as it will and then put it in park. It clatters and clicks to a stop. I shift to low 4×4. When the truck slides off the tracks to the outside of a corner I get stuck in the slippery and deep slush-snow-ice. It is fortunately the only time when I need to shovel to get out in the wet, dripping wet melted 2 feet of snow. I slog on with care on those corners to stay on top the tracks … and finally I’m home. It’s snowing heavily. It’s -11⁰ and I’m tired and cold and hungry, but the camp is not frozen yet! That’s nice.
The next morning I pop the hood. Yep, the brake fluid is empty!
I look under the back and there is fluid dripping down from the driver’s side onto the tire and then on to the snow. I look more closely and the driver side rear caliper is flopped on top the axle as one does for service, completely left unbolted (or broken loose?) the piston completely extended with fluid pumped out freely.
Not sure what it takes to leave a brake job like that, or if it were even possible that it came loose and the caliper flopped itself nicely on top the axle?
Now for the fix: a tow into Canadian Tire in Cold Lake, and see if they can fix/finish the brake job so that it works? But when? Tough to figure out all the logistics and not leave camp to freeze!
This is God’s creation, God’s people, and God’s mess, right?
Well maybe this is a human mess, and God is watching, laughing or at least smiling, keeping me safe, shaking his/her head at the mess we humans make for ourselves and each other.