My New Signature .gif and a Story

Inspired by an Elvis Costello album cover, I had a celebratory photo shoot with a few of my most used guitars around sunset, and giphy-fied the results.

A tale of vehicle maintenance:

It all started a few months ago. My van started to not want to start, and was misfiring occasionally. I knew I was overdue for a tune-up, and dragged my negligent, procrastinating ass down to the parts place and grabbed plugs, wires, cap and rotor, fuel and air filters and went to work. For a couple weeks it was starting better and running smoother, but still it was misfiring and backfiring now and then, and one day it decided to stall on the road. I replaced the worn distributor gear and it didn't start. Somebody recommended an ignition control module, so I replaced that and the coil, and it started (the old ones are still good) - it didn't solve the problems, and about a month ago it started running so rough that I barely chugged it into the yard on one or two cylinders. The priority list of things to check (as suggested by some OBDII code sites) had me punching up through my catalytic converter with a heavy metal rod, effectively bypassing it. A clogged catalytic converter was also not the problem. The EGR valve was clogged and filthy - maybe a contributor to this failure, but also did not fix it. I got on social media and cried out for help as I was now in unfamiliar territory and knew little to nothing about fuel injectors. I didn't expect much from the mostly musicians on facebook that see what I post, and therefore was not disappointed at the lack of response. Replacing the fuel meter assembly was an obvious necessity, and I was a little surprised that upon completing the replacement it still would not start. After talking to a boat motor guy, I was paranoid that I had over-tightened the plenum, so I was off to the auto parts store for another gasket and did it all over, ever so delicately. When it was time to reconnect the throttle cable, I find that I have tightened the plenum down on top of it and probably ruined the second gasket. No start. I got a new plenum gasket and proceeded to do it a third time, with a level of care and precision that would make my uncle proud. When it didn't start after that, I knew I had probably done it right the first time, and it dawned on me that I was living in the past. Used to be fuel, air and spark was all you had to understand - these days it's fuel, air, spark, and permission from the computer. Not available locally, I went to ebay for a re-manufactured ECM, and it was here in a few days. Started it up and it ran like a dog. Back to the parts guy for a MAP sensor, and holy crap I have a van that runs like new! It was around sunset.