In 2020 I wrote about the stereo deciding not to work now and then. I’d need to pull the perfectly good fuse from the main fuse block in the engine bay then reinsert it. Presto, music again. Cutting power to the stereo would reset something. (Like the tech guys say, “Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?”)
I hadn’t had that problem since I whined about it four years ago. Then, “I’m baaaaaack!” There was a difference this time. Previously the stereo would cut off during use. This time it wouldn’t come on when I started the van, even though it had been playing when I parked the night before. I thought the stereo might be dead this time. Hmmmmm.
Getting to that fuse is a dirty and frustrating project. The fuse cover is hard to reach and harder to untangle from other stuff under the hood. So I thought it might work to briefly disconnect the battery instead. That would also cut power to the stereo.
It didn’t work. The fuse hokey-pokey is such a pain in the ass — and fingers — that I decided to just live without music while driving. And I’ve been doing that for a couple of months.
But today I had the hood open to check all the fluids, saw the fuse block, called it a few vile names, and decided to do the fuse routine.
With the engine replacement, shifting of tectonic plates, and a solar eclipse things under the hood must have gotten ever-so-slightly rearranged, because I struggled and struggled more than ever before to get the #/*@$x\* cover off. Then, after pulling the fuse, seeing that it was perfectly fine, and reinserting it, I had to wrestle the cover back into place.
But it’s working again. And none too soon. Without the variety of my playlist I’ve been getting songs I don’t particularly like stuck in my head for days. Yesterday and today it had been “Walk Like a Man” by the Four Seasons. For some reason (youthful ignorance?) I hadn’t realized the peppy, confident ditty was a breakup song with a slightly misogynistic attitude.
Anyway, now I need to clean the greasy engine bay dirt from my hands.
Wash like a man
Washing my hands
Washing away the goo-oo-oo-ooo…
Living on the Texas coast with all the warm salt water corrosion in the air I learned that many electric contacts needed to be cycled through the sliding connecting motion to scrape the corrosion from the contacts. The plugs where you connect trailers to the vehicle wiring were particularly susceptible. Yep it was a pain in the neck.
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