Tad's Life

I’ll try not to whine. But that is my cam shaft there in that picture! Broken in two pieces. And, no, we do not abuse our vehicle with fast driving. I don’t know why it happened. Friday, the mechanic, Ousmane, called to say that he had forgotten to tell me something. He went on to explain that on the way back from the car’s yearly inspection on Thursday, there was suddenly a cloud of blue smoke. He pulled over and discovered that the cam shaft had snapped. He managed to pull it out there by the road and get it welded so he could drive it back to the shop and eventually our house. But I really needed to get another cam shaft.

Well, yes.

So he took $140 from me and headed out looking for a cam shaft. Mechanics here are really parts finders most of the time. A job that takes them an hour to complete at the shop requires 4 hours of wandering around town searching in stores and junk yards looking for the necessary parts. I’m not exaggerating on that. Ousmane found a cam shaft Friday within several hours. He called me to say that the guy wouldn’t accept less than $320 for the part. Was that OK? “Well, no, I’d much prefer $140, but the alternative is no car. So, go ahead.” By now it was too late to complete the job. He’d have the car to me by noon Saturday. The next morning I got another call. The cam shaft he had bought was not the right one for my car. He had to take it back. He had found one that was right, but the guy wouldn’t sell it separately. He would only sell the whole top of the engine. Which, of course, would cost $750. What should he do?

Ouch. But what are you going to do?

Well, the car is running. It has a functioning cam shaft. And I now own the top half of a Land Rover engine as well!

Anyone want to buy a used Discovery?