scottystills
1/2 ton status
So 6 months ago, I got a phone call from one of my friends that, well, I'll politely call mechanically declined. Is that the opposite of mechanically inclined? Anyway...
Buddy's got an 07 Corvette Z06. NICE car! He's storing it for the winter so wants me to help him pull the battery out. Of course, no big deal, so I go over, pull the damn thing out (which is actually a lot more difficult that you'd imagine). Close it up, and go away to get on with my life.
Fast forward to tonight, and I get another call. He's selling it and has someone comming to look at it tomorrow so needs to get the battery put back in. No problem, hop in the truck and head toward his place. On the way over get a follow up call, "I can't get into it to open the hood". Well, surprise to me, the stupid thing has electric locks, electric doors, and no mechanical backup. There IS however an override cable in the trunk that will open the drivers door and a cut key to get in just in case your battery dies. I tell him to do that and low and behold, looks like the guy that sold it to him completely screwed him and the cut key doesn't work! Now we've got a locked Corvette with the battery sitting on a board next to it and a key that doesn't work. Fantastic.
I get there, and I'm not screwing with this thing, so I call AMA (AAA for you American folks). I figure, get a lockout guy over here, call it a night. Well that failed miserably. The guy shows up and gouges out the stripping along the window buuuuut ya, inside handle on the door doesn't open the door without power either, and of course there's no lock to pull because everything runs off this proximity fob. Send away truck number 1 (it was just a lockout pickup, not a wrecker).
Now I'm staring at the thing trying to figure out how to avoid the thousand or two bucks to tow it to a dealer and have them get the damn thing open. It dawns on me, jack it up, boost it at the starter (hoping the +ve terminal under the hood isn't shorting against something), and Bob's your uncle! Easier said than done. I take a look at the underside of this thing, and of course it's maybe 3" off the deck. That rules out my hi-lift. Luckily I had the Dodge with me with the not-so-handy emergency scissor jack. Slide it under where the A arm connects to the frame and start jacking this thing up. Get it about to the safe point and my 4x4 jacking skills fail me, because this this thing's got no suspension travel so jacking one wheel takes the whole front end up and it teeters. Ok, throw a jack stand under there and go to the other side. Start jacking that and it teeters again because it's lifting the whole thing off the jack stand. So much so in fact that I can't get it up enough to bring the stand up another notch to compensate. Then the worst happens. Whole thing falls. Do you know the sinking feeling in your stomach when you just dropped your buddy's Z06 off a jack? Wow.
That attempt, fail. Get the jack out and it's bent all to hell, go to his truck and get the stupid scissor out of that one and get it up just enough to get the trashed jack and the trashed jack stand out from under it. A couple scratches on the aluminum A arms, but nothing major. Thank GOD.
Enter AMA truck #2. I call back and tell them I want to tow it to the dealership, having the insidious plan to toss the guy $50 or something just to lift it up and let me crawl under. Guy shows up and what do you know? The guy's not only a Corvette fan, but he's a 4x4 guy (Toyota guy, but nobody's perfect)! Ok now we're ok I'm thinking. After 20-30 minutes of trying to squeeze the lift arm under the front spoiler (did I mention I don't like sports cars?) we finally get it, get it lifted up. I crawl under there and find the starter, conveniently a foot or so up the side of the engine, and it's only about the size of my fist. ...and of course with an opening to it also about the size of my fist. My meat hooks didn't like it but got in there anyway. Unbolt the starter and great, it moves but there isn't room enough to get it out. I still have no idea how you'd get that sucker out of there. At least I can see the leads now but it took me a couple minutes of staring blankly at it to figure out the power lead was the 8 gauge coming down. Compared to the 0 on the K5 I didn't see how that was possible, but apparently the engine on these things spins a little easier than my diesel.
No room to get the leads off, no room to pull the starter out, but a fast thinking tow driver with a wrench set passes me one and I loop that thing over the terminal. Hook up buddy's boost pack to it and ground to the frame, and VOILA! Door open! Bolt up the starter again with a quick prayer that I didn't lose a shim or something that might lead to a shredded flywheel. The tow driver's giving the play by play to the guys back at dispatch on his PTT phone who all figure he's going to trash the front end, or I'm going to destroy something. In your face doubters! Still the odds were probably in their favour...
Long story short, I'm sticking to trucks. I'm leaving the sports cars to guys with lifts and small hands...
P.S. - Sorry, I would've taken pics but when I took out my phone to document the ordeal, it creeped my buddy out that I might be expecting disaster.
Buddy's got an 07 Corvette Z06. NICE car! He's storing it for the winter so wants me to help him pull the battery out. Of course, no big deal, so I go over, pull the damn thing out (which is actually a lot more difficult that you'd imagine). Close it up, and go away to get on with my life.
Fast forward to tonight, and I get another call. He's selling it and has someone comming to look at it tomorrow so needs to get the battery put back in. No problem, hop in the truck and head toward his place. On the way over get a follow up call, "I can't get into it to open the hood". Well, surprise to me, the stupid thing has electric locks, electric doors, and no mechanical backup. There IS however an override cable in the trunk that will open the drivers door and a cut key to get in just in case your battery dies. I tell him to do that and low and behold, looks like the guy that sold it to him completely screwed him and the cut key doesn't work! Now we've got a locked Corvette with the battery sitting on a board next to it and a key that doesn't work. Fantastic.
I get there, and I'm not screwing with this thing, so I call AMA (AAA for you American folks). I figure, get a lockout guy over here, call it a night. Well that failed miserably. The guy shows up and gouges out the stripping along the window buuuuut ya, inside handle on the door doesn't open the door without power either, and of course there's no lock to pull because everything runs off this proximity fob. Send away truck number 1 (it was just a lockout pickup, not a wrecker).
Now I'm staring at the thing trying to figure out how to avoid the thousand or two bucks to tow it to a dealer and have them get the damn thing open. It dawns on me, jack it up, boost it at the starter (hoping the +ve terminal under the hood isn't shorting against something), and Bob's your uncle! Easier said than done. I take a look at the underside of this thing, and of course it's maybe 3" off the deck. That rules out my hi-lift. Luckily I had the Dodge with me with the not-so-handy emergency scissor jack. Slide it under where the A arm connects to the frame and start jacking this thing up. Get it about to the safe point and my 4x4 jacking skills fail me, because this this thing's got no suspension travel so jacking one wheel takes the whole front end up and it teeters. Ok, throw a jack stand under there and go to the other side. Start jacking that and it teeters again because it's lifting the whole thing off the jack stand. So much so in fact that I can't get it up enough to bring the stand up another notch to compensate. Then the worst happens. Whole thing falls. Do you know the sinking feeling in your stomach when you just dropped your buddy's Z06 off a jack? Wow.
That attempt, fail. Get the jack out and it's bent all to hell, go to his truck and get the stupid scissor out of that one and get it up just enough to get the trashed jack and the trashed jack stand out from under it. A couple scratches on the aluminum A arms, but nothing major. Thank GOD.
Enter AMA truck #2. I call back and tell them I want to tow it to the dealership, having the insidious plan to toss the guy $50 or something just to lift it up and let me crawl under. Guy shows up and what do you know? The guy's not only a Corvette fan, but he's a 4x4 guy (Toyota guy, but nobody's perfect)! Ok now we're ok I'm thinking. After 20-30 minutes of trying to squeeze the lift arm under the front spoiler (did I mention I don't like sports cars?) we finally get it, get it lifted up. I crawl under there and find the starter, conveniently a foot or so up the side of the engine, and it's only about the size of my fist. ...and of course with an opening to it also about the size of my fist. My meat hooks didn't like it but got in there anyway. Unbolt the starter and great, it moves but there isn't room enough to get it out. I still have no idea how you'd get that sucker out of there. At least I can see the leads now but it took me a couple minutes of staring blankly at it to figure out the power lead was the 8 gauge coming down. Compared to the 0 on the K5 I didn't see how that was possible, but apparently the engine on these things spins a little easier than my diesel.
No room to get the leads off, no room to pull the starter out, but a fast thinking tow driver with a wrench set passes me one and I loop that thing over the terminal. Hook up buddy's boost pack to it and ground to the frame, and VOILA! Door open! Bolt up the starter again with a quick prayer that I didn't lose a shim or something that might lead to a shredded flywheel. The tow driver's giving the play by play to the guys back at dispatch on his PTT phone who all figure he's going to trash the front end, or I'm going to destroy something. In your face doubters! Still the odds were probably in their favour...
Long story short, I'm sticking to trucks. I'm leaving the sports cars to guys with lifts and small hands...
P.S. - Sorry, I would've taken pics but when I took out my phone to document the ordeal, it creeped my buddy out that I might be expecting disaster.
Granted, this is the guy who needed help to take a battery out, and who doesn't own a tool but for one of those multi-screwdriver things his mom gave him for Christmas one year...
