What I learned by changing a drive belt

My family took the Jeep for a 10-hour trip to a water park.

We hauled a 1975 camper behind the Jeep, and all went reasonably well.

Until the car would not start.

It made the kind of clicking sound that an empty battery does, as I learned from having changed the battery already one time after the first battery, already installed in the Jeep, went dead.

So, I called the road service and they came to Frankenstein the shit out of the XJ's battery. Having the car now working, I loaded the family + our dog (Hugo, a Toller) in the car, and drove back home. Two hours without the headlights = lots of lights blinking at us on our drive back home.

However, we made it. The morning after, I ignited the car, and it seemed to work. Never mind that the battery light had come on during the return trip, and the battery voltage was lower than usual. I drove a short journey around a block or two, came back, and let the car sit on our driveway for a couple of hours.

Then I did what I have done an inordinate number of times during my now three-week-Jeep-ownership: I opened the hood.

Lo and behold: the ALTERNATOR BELT was gone!

Now, a brief intermission.

Three weeks ago you could've pointed a gun at my temple, threatening all that was nearest to my heart, and asked: "What is the alternator belt?".

Lots of shots would have been fired.

In brief: I did not know SH*T about cars, how they function, or what they contain - besides myself and some other souls sitting inside the vehicle.

After buying the Jeep, I decided I would learn at least the basics about how a car works.

So here's what happened:

...I called my dad.

My dad is 78 years old, and knows a lot about cars. Being not that wealthy, he has owned a lot of cheap cars in his life, which usually - nay, always - translated to a lot of maintenance and repair work.

In his youth, he actually studied some of that stuff. Electronics, mostly.

Anyhow, I called my dad, and asked what should we do.

Then, I posted something on the local Jeep Driver's Forum, and got a a good response: get a new alternator belt, and put it on.

Easier said than done.

To cut a long story short, after a harrowing week without a functioning Jeep, I managed to:

• actually put a new alternator belt back on
• remove the power steering pump (P/S) belt that was blocking the access to the alternator belt
• attach the P/S belt - and tighten all the belts so that they are not slipping, sliding, or whatever too loose belts inside a car do...

WHAT I LEARNED:

If that is what I did - and I DID THAT, AND AM REALLY, REALLY, REALLY PROUD OF IT, since I have, for Pete's sake, did an actual repair / maintenance on a car!!! - this is what I learned:

1. It pays to be patient. When trying to screw a screw that is in a really tight spot, you need to be really patient. It'll get there, but only little-by-so-little.
2. If something feels like it's impossible, you can always ask for help. There was a particularly tight screw that I just could not loosen, so I did what every newbie in this business does, and called my dad. He came by with a piece of vacuum pipe, used that as leverage, and we were good to go again.
   
3. Beginner's mind. I have came to this spot - Jeeping - with an intention to use it in lieu of a spiritual practice. I have practiced Zen, Vipassana, and Gurdjieff Work intensely in my twenties and thirties. Now, being a full-fledged householder with a mortgage, three kids, a dog, several gerbiles, and a yearly membership at the local Chamber of Commerce, I needed something fresh to approach the Only Thing that's Going On (to paraphrase Fred Davis, a South Carolina-based nondual teacher). Hence, the Jeep.
   

To use one's hands and the whole of one's body-mind, instead of concepts, which have been the coinage of my realm, and the de facto tools with which I have managed to develop a growing business in consulting, and being the author of five books (the sixth one is coming later in 2020), and having my PhD waiting for approval, it is indeed a fresh start to be at a place of not knowing. And, from there, learning something. That something is the thing - the outer physical vehicle - that gets us to places.

Those places are empty and full, and that is all I am going to say about it.

Because, you know, I get my mojo working again. And "I" did it.

:)