I accomplished yet another item on my small list of things I have done inside the engine of a car. This list includes changing the oil, filling up the windshield washer and…I think that’s it. Dad pointed out my headlight was out when I left Kap back at Christmas so I figured I should get it fixed before heading to Toronto tonight.
I pulled the car up halfway into the garage (because it can only make it in halfway when you use your garage for storage!) and popped the hood. It was a crisp -25 degrees out so I knew I had to get cracking before my fingers starting atrophying.
With manual in hand, I examined diagrams and realized they were useless and I should use some common sense. See the headlight? Check. See the wires connecting to the headlight? Check. Unplug ’em.
In the end, it did take me 40 minutes because everything is so crammed inside the engine that I couldn’t get a great look in behind the light bulb where I was digging my hand into and the spring was giving me a hard time because I couldn’t visualize how the mechanism operated. I ended up figuring it out (natch) and voila! I have a working headlight.
While this isn’t revolutionary by any means, it’s just another thing that I have in my mind of things I have accomplished. One day I would like to be able to rip apart an engine like my father or Uncle Greg, but until one of them lives twenty kilometers away from me, is isn’t happening anytime soon.