The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop My 235 revved, died, won't start, and no coil fire or rotor spin.

My '51 (with a rebuilt '56 235) has been as reliable as they come for the last couple of years, but today she threw me a curve. I was doing a project at my daughters house today, and had driven the truck over there, back to our house, to the lumber yard, back to the house, and then a Lowe's 10 miles away, and back to the daughter's house to finish the job. After I loaded my tools up, I got in the truck and cranked it, but as it sometimes does, it didn't start. I tried the choke (It's hot out, I knew that wasn't the answer, but it's always the next trick in line after looking to make sure I had the key switch turned on). So the next thing is to pull the throttle out a tad to give it some fuel. I don't know if I pulled it out too much, or if the pedal got stuck, but it fired up and was screaming, as it does when I misjudge how much I pulled it out, but I quickly pushed the T button back in. It was still going full tilt for about 2 seconds, when I shut it off, and quickly noticed the gas pedal was still down. I nudged it with my foot and it released, but when I tried to restart it, it's not firing up again. It's cranking fine, but not turning over. I tried it a few times, but no luck. I checked the fuel filter to see if maybe the tank had clogged at the bottom exit port, and it looked a little "unfilled" (normally it seems to be full), so I attempted to clear the tank by pulling the fuel line into the pump to blow in it and free up any blockage, but when I got the hose off, it was coming out full force, so that isn't it. (I had just filled up my tank before driving the 20 mile round trip to Lowe's in the next town over. It was definitely full, because I found it dripping out of the tank fill neck as it does when I fill it up and then park with the passenger side low. Anyway, it's a hot day, and even though it started for a second in the beginning, I loosened the fuel line again and caught some gas in a cup and poured a bit down the carb. Still no luck. It cranks strong, but it's not turning over, and this was just after it fired up. I called the wife and told her to come pick me up (today is our grandson's 11th birthday and the party was at our house, so I left the truck in my daughters driveway, figuring if all else fails, I'll have AAA tow it home after the day's heat dies down. I'm really hoping I may have just flooded it, but this has never happened in the 7 years I've owned it, so I'm a little worried. Yeah, I've used the Throttle button many times, and had it screaming temporarily, but never had a problem with it not starting after that. I was a little surprised when I pushed the throttle back in and it didn't idle down, and that's when I turned the key off before I realized my pedal was still down on the floor. (I don't know my daughter's neighbors, so I was embarrassed enough to panic and shut it down before I got the pedal to release.) So- does anyone have any possible troubleshooting tips in case I go back over there and it's not just flooded? This is a new one on me. If I don't get it started, I'll have AAA bring it home so I can start going through the check list. Oh, and I forgot to mention, it's my daily driver. I DO have a 2004 Silverado 3500 4x4 with a duramax. Only, it's in the shop this week so they can find the electrical gremlin that's been causing the truck to kick into limp mode at really odd times. So I'm desperate to get this thing going fast. I need it to get to the ZZ Top concert in St. Louis Friday night that an old buddy is springing for, among all the other more necessary things I do in it every day. Thanks in advance for any ideas, tips or comments. I do appreciate it! Lee

Check to see if your cables and rods to the carb are all in the right places and not jammed up. I managed to do that by pushing the gas pedal and starter too hard once.

Do the basic diagnostic routine- - - -spark, compression, timing and gas. You'll need a helper to push the start pedal while you work under the hood, or at least a pry bar or a long screwdriver to work the start lever from under the hood.

Key on- - - -crank the engine with the coil wire out of the distributor cap and held close to the cylinder head. You should get a strong, rapid spark. If there's no spark, pop the distributor cap clips, move the cap aside and crank the engine. Does the distributor turn? If not, call AAA- - - -you've got a stripped timing gear. If the dizzy turns, check the point gap. A business card or a matchbook cover makes a good field-expedient feeler gauge for resetting the points. With the point rubbing block on one of the 6 high points of the cam, adjust the point gap so that card is a snug slip fit. This isn't precision tuning we're doing here- - - -it's battlefield triage. Close is good enough. With the points open and the ignition switch on, touch a screwdriver to the gapped-open points and check for a spark at the coil wire. No spark- - - -check for voltage from the ignition switch with a test light.

Assuming you've got spark all the way to the plugs- - - -pull a spark plug and stick your thumb over the hole- - - -crank the engine- - - -there should be enough compression pressure to blow your thumb out of the hole. No compression- - - -call AAA!

If you've got gas, spark and compression, check the ignition timing. That involves pulling the valve cover and looking at the position of the distributor rotor in relationship to the position of the rocker arms, and setting the points to fire as the piston approaches top dead center. If the ignition timing is far off- - - - -you guessed it- - - -call AAA!
Jerry

P.S.- - - -Punctuation and paragraphs are your friends- - - -I get out of breath trying to read your text!

As with chain saws & lawn mowers....when they fail to start after a starting struggle, let them sit over night and they always seem to start the next day.....I'm reading a lot of anxiety in your post, at least its at your daughters house, and not in Lowes parking lot..... A good night rest & a fresh start on a new day might solve the problem. I don't think a short over rev did anything.........Good Luck.....Oh by the way 'limp node' I guess we can rule that out.....What rocket scientist invented that?....just can't get past old school technology....

Thanks, guys. I went ahead and hauled it home, where the tools are. Yep, I spent the day building a new crawl space access door at the place my daughter and her three kids just moved to. Hot and tired from doing a good deed, and the ol' reliable failed me, so I wasn't so much anxious as tired and ready to go home. And sorry about the long sentences, Hotrod. I was trying to get it all down as fast as possible so I could get back over there and get it going. I was really hoping it was flooded, as it may be, but it didn't start when I went back this evening. And to top it all off, I couldn't locate my volt ohm meter, so it was pretty fruitless. I will get to the suggestions first thing tomorrow morning. I even took spare points, rotor and condenser over with me, but was surprised at how good the cap and rotor, et. al. looked when I opened them up. I've just gotten too use to this truck firing up every time (although at times it involves the choke or throttle knobs). It's been awhile since I put the coil on, so maybe it's going south. Anyway, I'll give her a shot tomorrow. Would not surprise me one iota if it fires right up.
O3, I agree with the old school technology 100%. I bought the Silverado last fall after we bought 43 acres to build our house on. I needed something to get into the land, haul equipment and supplies down there, pull a 5th wheel we bought for a "break trailer" while working there, and as a back up for my truck. It's got an LLY 6.6 duramax diesel, which is good. But my last 1 ton was a 6.5 Detroit and the one before that was a 6.2 Detroit. I could work on those, but the duramax is an electrical maze. Sensors stacked on sensors ahead of sensors. The sad thing is, it's somewhere in the injector control wiring. The shop found a bare wire rubbing on a bracket, and that fixed it for a while. Then I replaced the two problem pigtails at #2 and #7, which is a bad engineering flaw from the get go, and that helped for a bit. Anyway, I got tired of thinking I had it fixed when it wasn't, so it's off to the local diesel expert (he found the bare wire on it). I'm pretty certain it will be sold soon after so I can find an old model that I can figure out.
MikeE- I will do that first. I actually stared at that area for a minute, but I think I was still in a daze of disbelief at that point that the old bomb had failed me- at the end of long hot day- with a grandson's birthday party to go to- while thinking "But it just started! It was running! How could it not start now???!" Oh well. Now we're home, and tomorrow is another day. Feedle-dee!! I'll report back when I know somethin'. Thanks again, fellas!

Morning update- I went out and checked the linkage and everything seems to be moving fine. Sprayed all connections with PB Blaster just in case, then hit the carb with some carb cleaner. I noticed when I shot the carb cleaner down the throat, it immediately leaked out the lower butterfly's front hinge point. I've never noticed anything coming out of that point so quickly. Attempted to start the truck, but it's just cranking with no sign of firing. It's almost like it's not getting any gas. Poured a little (very little, since I was afraid I'd flooded it) gas down the carb. No help. Since I've misplaced my mutlimeter, I'm heading to the store to get one so I can start trouble shooting the electrical. But now I'm wondering if my fuel pump not be pumping. Oh well. When I get back with the meter, I'll check that first and see what's up. I just ordered a coil and resistor from CP, but even though I'm just on the other side of Missouri from them, it seems to take a week to get anything. Hopefully they'll be here by Saturday. And hopefully I won't even need them and will have this thing running shortly. New spare parts are always good to have around.
I'm still open to ideas, but maybe Hotrod's suggestions will do the trick. Thanks, guys.

Ok, finally got the wife to go out to crank it over for me and the results were good, till they were bad. I pulled the coil cable and got absolutely no spark on the block, multiple tries. New coil!, I thought, and was happy to think it would be that easy. I figured I'd also check to make sure the distributor was spinning before I celebrated an easy fix. Well, the rotor isn't spinning when cranked. darn!
So, since I've never had a distributor go bad on me in my 61 years, I'm ignorant in this area. I'm assuming that the coil has nothing to do with the distributor's function, since it works off the engine's mechanical movement, so I'm assuming my dist. gear is stripped? Ouch! I've read a few other posts on that subject today (one of them yours, Hotrod), and it sounds like I'm in for a learning experience if this is what has happened. I've read about pulling the crank, chiseling the gear hub off and all kinds of mean, nasty things. Am I missing anything that may mean I'm wrong on this? Or is it time to pull the distributor now? Man, I was sure hoping that I just had a bad coil before I pulled that cap. What's everybody's opinion on this. Is it pretty certain? Thanks again for the help and let me know what's next. Lee

Pull the valve cover off, if you cant see the rockers moving. when looking in the fill cap when cranking. If the top end aint moving all together, timing gear issue is where id be looking?

I had a distributor that sheared the roll pinin the drive gear. It wouldn't turn at all, took me a little while to figure out what was going on. I even considers it had jumped time. Just check the drive gear, you may get lucky .

I had a distributor push itself up far enough to disengage itself from the gear on the cam shaft. I had failed to push it all of the way down when I installed it. The distributor gear caught just enough of the cam gear to run, but that did not last very many miles. You might want to look into that possibility before you move on to checking the timing gears.

I've been trying to educate myself today on distributor stuff. Fortunately, up to now, I've been able to avoid any problems past the guts in the housing. I've had the shop manual out trying to figure out what I'm in for and find exactly what I'm suppose to look for aside from the dist. shaft gear. I've been putting off changing all the oil gaskets on this truck for over a year, so I guess it's time to pull the oil pan and check things out. I'm not sure if I've even had it off of this truck. I've got a new oil pump just in case the old one went out, but even just to peek in there spooks me because I've always managed to have a leaking front or rear seal when I finished on other trucks. I guess it's time to bite the bullet and just do it. I read one post on here where somebody got lucky and just had the gear teeth on the dist. shaft broken off. Getting into pulling cranks for gear replacement is, so far, beyond my knowledge level. Sounds like something I could screw up.
But it's my truck and I'm it's mechanic so it has to be done.
One thing about this is I've found on other posts that there is a difference in some gears (fiber vs metal) that means I need to know what exactly I've got before I order parts.

Glenn- That will be my first step, right after I pull the distributor to check the gear and see what I can see on the contact gear.
Craig-exactly what I thought first thing. Did it jump time or is the coil going bad? We'll find out tomorrow,
Carl- That would be nice. But since it's been in there since I bought the truck 7 years ago, I'm thinking I won't be that lucky. But I hope it didn't tear up the gear the dist gear meshes with. I'm one of those "need to see it or a picture of it" guys, and the best I've found so far is a cross section illustration in the shop manual, and I'm having a hard time visualizing what I'm getting ready to look for.

Thanks again for the help, men. I've always looked at problems like this as learning tools. Still too proud to not be embarrassed to ask about something that I figure everyone else on this forum has known for decades. I really want to figure it out and get it done, but I still feel silly having to ask. Thank you all.

Check for rocker arm movement first. If they're not moving, the gear at the front of the camshaft has lost a few teeth. The distributor has EVERYTHING to do with the coil producing a spark. The points are the switch that turns the coil primary winding on and off. If the distributor doesn't turn, you'll get no spark at all.
Jerry

The rockers aren't moving. (Thanks Jerry and Glenn). So it's on to the timing gear. Another first time job for me. The good news is I needed to change the leaky gasket on the valve cover and adjust the valves.
Last time I had a timing gear/chain problem, it was with our conversion van about 20 years ago. And although it was an '82 Chevy, I took it to a dealer to get reamed, (I mean get it fixed), since I sure didn't want to do it, and especially on a van with the engine under a cowl between the front seats. But this will be another chance for me to gain experience with my old truck, I tell myself, trying to keep a positive attitude. Now, for a look at the shop manual and an in depth search on the Stovebolt forum. But nothing will get done today, because an old buddy of mine has invited me to go see ZZ Top in St. Louis tonight.
On a less happy note, I called Andy's diesel garage this morning to get an update on my '04's Duramax mystery electrical problem with the injector control wiring that keeps falsely throwing codes and sending it into limp mode. Apparently, this is when the control module senses a problem and kicks the truck down to 10-15mph to save the other injectors from damage, and makes me "limp" home or to the nearest stop, so I can clear the code with my scanner. Andy says he still hasn't found where the short/problem is. This just ain't been my week in the truck department! Hopefully, that little ol' band from Texas will cheer me up. Thanks for ALL the help, fellas. I really don't know what I'd do without this forum.

Can anyone direct me to a good how to post on this? My search isn't turning up much. Also, where's the best place/manufacturer to get what I need for this. I don't want to get something made in China or a less than credible cheapo parts house. Thanks.

You might be surprised what NAPA can help with. Find the oldest counter guy in the store.

Changing the timing gears is a pretty involved procedure. Always change both the crankshaft and cam gears, not just the one on the cam. You'll need to remove the harmonic balancer (pressed on) and also drop the oil pan to get to the lower two bolts that hold the timing cover on. That's a holdover from the 216's and early 235's where the main bearing clearance had to be adjusted with shims- - - -getting to those two timing cover bolts that go through the front main bearing cap was easier from the crankcase side of the timing cover. The balancer needs to be removed with a crowfoot-shaped puller- - - -don't attempt to use a 3-jaw puller and grab the outer ring of the balancer- - - -you'll destroy it.

Drop me a PM for some suggestions on how to change the cam gear- - - -it involves heating and hammering but it needs to be done correctly or you will do some damage to the camshaft and/or knock the soft plug behind the camshaft in the bellhousing area out of place and create a massive oil leak!
Jerry

Hmmm. At this point, I would pull the engine and take it to a reputable shop. I would ask them to pull it apart and tell me what needs to be done. I'm guessing that they will find that there is more than one thing wrong. Maybe I'm a pessimist....

Wow....All of this from a quick rev?? after using the truck all day for chores??? I was hoping for your sake it got flooded and wouldn't start.....Can't imagine that it would be so delicate.....with age I guess all it took was a grenade to go off....Good choice removing the engine to a machine shop......Best of luck to you.....

Another thought-you will learn a lot and gain confidence for yourself by doing this yourself, 'most everyone here has gone through this. I'm sure Jerry and others will help you through this, after all, we had to learn, too.

Ed

I'm with Ed on this one. Reading your posts, it is apparent that you are eager to learn, but have not as yet, had the opportunity to dig into one of these engines.
Go for it! I cut my teeth on a 216. I still cherish that experience some 30 years later.

You might just consider getting another engine that is in good shape. This sounds like a total rebuild coming on. Take it from me that it is not quick or cheap. parts are available and machine work can be done, but it is time consuming and sometimes difficult to get things done on old stuff with new age approaches to old problems.

Glad to point you in the right direction. Now the fun begins. If the motor run good b4, put the gears in. Its involved, but not earth shattering.

Thanks everybody. At least now I know for sure what is happening. But after hearing Jerry say that I could end up with a massive leak if I do something wrong, along with the fact that until we get our new place built in the country (complete with a shop building to work in) that i'll be doing all the work on the curb, on a hill, in front of our house, I'm inclined to take it to a shop to do.
When I bought the truck, it had about 2-3k on the odometer post rebuild by a professional engine rebuilder, and the odometer is showing 30k now. I'm a little puzzled how this could go at less than 35k, but it is what it is. I'm also surprised, sort of, that it went after driving it all day/week/year without problems. Like I said though, it didn't turn over the first crank or two, so I had pulled the throttle cable out, which when I do it, anyway, can lead to a high rev when it starts. But nothing more than usual. It's not like I pull the knob all the way out, or even half way. But for a couple of seconds, the rpm's were up to "notify the neighbors" level.
On the other hand, the way my other truck has been messing up on me at the strangest times with it's electrical gremlin, sometimes after driving it 300 miles the day before and towing bobcat's on trailers or a bed full of gravel, it doesn't surprise me this is happening to me. Maybe I'm supposed to be getting a message here. I hate to say I even considered it, but I talked with my wife yesterday about selling it. We're getting ready to build a house, drill a well, sell our present house, yada, yada. I told myself I'd have this truck till I die, but sometimes when "major repairs" come along at a time when my plate is full, I get thoughts like that. My latest revised thinking is to get it to the property we're building on, put it on blocks until everything is done and I have a shop, and do the major rebuild I've planned on doing from the start. Just use the other truck until I get to that point. But first, I've got to get the 4x4 reliable, and know that I have something that will not fail me.
On a happier note, ZZ Top was great last night! First time I've seen them since I worked security for 2 nights at the Houston Astrodome back in the early 80's when they warmed up for the Rolling Stones. Beautiful night at the Riverport Amphiteater in St. Louis. And now...back to reality! Thanks everyone, for all the help and ideas and answers. I'm going to have to think on this, but as of right now, I'm leaning toward sending it to a shop. I just have to find one, or someone, who is 'in tune' with the older engines and not a newbie that wants to learn on mine. For now, as a cartoon I once saw said, {Mechanic talking to a preacher about the church van), "What you have here, pastor, is basically a 3,000 pound radio." Or maybe a curb ornament. Thanks again all. I'll report back when the chores die down. Lee Butcher

That one's way too nice to give up on! I've got several pieces of "yard art" that's been waiting 20 years for me to get around to working on them, but I've also got a hundred acres to hide projects on and neighbors who don't object to a few rusty hulks sitting around!

"Scuse me while I drool over your bike a little! My current road-worthy bike is a 97 Harley Soft Tail, and I've got a couple of Gold Wings and a Suzuki Volusia 800 in line for major rehabs.
Jerry

Exactly my thought when I said its a good call to get it to a machine shop.....By reading your initial post I saw you plate was full...Its not like you wake up in the morning & start playing with cars all day without a care in the world...I envy those who do.....Real life is first, and playing is always last....at least for me.....What ever your final decision wish you the best of luck.....

Well all said at this point. If ya decide to part with it, PM me. I might be interested.

Jerry...Sounds like your plate is full too!! lol

showme,

You might want to chat with Thrifty51. He just finished installing a new timing gear and a crank gear.

CLICK

Good luck!

I think we all have something on our plate. Did an oil pan and timing cover seal on my Mother in Laws 07' Impala this last weekend. My 59' just sat there watching in pieces right next to my Yukon, right next to my Moto Guzzi. Hey at least Mom,s car runs . Take a breath and walk away for awhile, everything will have it place in time.

Lose the ground at the distributor?

Showme-

I feel your pain... If your rockers aren't rockin' when you crank the engine, prepare to roll up your sleeves and get dirty.

It's not a hard job to do but you have to make sure you take it slow and get everything just right when you put it back together. While the gear change can be done with the cam in the block--like HRL has said--I think it might be wise to just pull the cam rather than accidentally pop the freeze plug behind the cam and have to pull the whole engine. I pulled the cam and in the process found 3 lifters that needed replaced--you never know what you're gonna find!

I was lucky and had access to some homemade tools that made the job easy. Scratch that--I have access to a father-in-law who's a retired machinist who loves old machinery and had nothing better to do than turn up some homemade tools that made the job easy! We actually made a drill and tap guide to thread the end of the crank, allowing me to attach a threaded rod to the crank to push the crank gear and balancer back on instead of hammering them on. I probably should have taken pictures of the process but it was 88 degrees, I was tired, and I just wanted to get it done. After they were installed a retaining bolt fills the hole and gives added assurance that the balancer will stay in place.

The worst part about the whole situation is that you're gonna need to pull the head--I can almost guarantee you'll find nicely stamped intake valve sized circles in the soot on top of your pistons... Be prepared for new valves and probably new push rods. There's no point in trying to straighten any bent parts; once they get hot again they'll move all over. I got all my parts from the local Napa; all Sealed Power. 6 push rods, 6 intake valves, timing gear set and gasket set was $345.

Is it just me or are those gears bone dry? Did you clean them up for picture day or was the oil nozzle plugged up?

I'm going to show my ignorance of engine innards here. The cam shaft is the lower one, right? The timing gear the larger one to the left? Or am I wrong. This is all a learning experience for me. But I can now see how the stripped teeth could leave nothing turning in there. Thanks, Lee

52Carl- They were oily but probably not as much as they should have been. The hole was open in the oil nozzle and I cleaned it out the best I could while it was apart but, other than a complete teardown, I don't know how I could clear it out if it's plugged further back. If you have ideas I'm open to them.

Showme- the lower gear is the crank gear, the larger gear is the cam gear. Both gears together are the timing gear set.

Thanks, Thrifty. Now I know.

Thrifty- - - -spin the oil pump with a cutoff screwdriver bit in a drill motor and see if oil dribbles out of the lubricator nozzle. If the oil pan is removed, just hang it back on with a few bolts and put 2-3 quarts of oil in- - - -the oil you drained out to remove the pan will work just for testing purposes. If it doesn't flow oil, adapt an air hose to the nipple and give it a squirt of high pressure air to clear it, hopefully.
Jerry

This is not the end of the world. Don't sell the truck and don't take the engine out and take it to a shop.

I have pulled and replaced aluminum timing gears for the purpose of installing offset keys without pulling the cam out of the engine. If you get the aluminum gear good and hot and use oven mitts and are quick about it you should not have to bang on anything.

BUT

Since the gear failed with the engine running, a crank counterweight (or maybe its a rod, I forget which) likely wiped out a cam lobe. The clearances are that tight. The cam must be timed with the crank for the cam lobes to miss the crank. If it didn't catch a cam lobe, you just got lucky. You can check by pulling all the lifters and watching the cam go round and round through the lifter bores. This is less work than pulling the grill on a rusty AD. Don't know about a Task Force.

You might get lucky in the bent valve department too because when the gear starts to strip, the valve timing retards enough that the intake valves will start opening with the piston well into the down stroke and it will quit running altogether shortly thereafter. The exhaust valves are not a problem. When this happened to me it did no valve damage but I had to replace the cam.

BTW

There is a separate part number for timing gears for trucks vs cars. The truck ones are aluminum, the car ones are fiber, which run quieter. Don't replace the fiber gear with another fiber gear. Get an aluminum one. Fiber ones fail in trucks. Of course, use Hot Rod's method of checking for oil flow to the gear. Also, pull the pan and clean all the shreaded gear pieces out of the oil pump pickup screen and anywhere else you find them.

Make sure you get the timing marks lined up properly because you don't get a second chance after the gear cools. IF the timing marks aren't lined up you'll have to get out your puller and start over. Also, when you change the crank gear make sure not to get it on backwards with the timing marks on the back. I did this on an IH inline six one time and horror of horrors, the bolt holes for pulling the gear were blind and with the gear on backwards there was no way to get it off.

showme,

Any progress on your 235?

A bit of a newbie on this particular engine (235)
but I just changed the starter - while reconnecting
the green and purple ( I know they have better
names, but ..) the green wire fell to the ground.
Wait, what ? That was just on the coil ...
Turns out vibration and dry air made that wire
super brittle. Checked the other side of coil - to -
distributor : it too running on 1 strand of multi-strand
twisted wire. ( how was it even running ?)
All good now. Don't overlook simple stuff.

Thanks again, everybody. I'm learning more each time I check back here.

HandyAndy- nothing done yet. Although this has been my daily driver since I bought it 6-7 years ago, I have an '05 1 ton Silverado 4x4 that I'm using. The main reason I haven't gotten any further is that we are working on some property that lies 30 miles south of us, and we've been trying to get ready to build a house and shop on it. Not to mention I've been helping my daughter and her kids get their house together since they moved in to it. Nearly every day I tell my wife, "I've got to get the truck into the shop and get that fixed!", and then the next project on the list comes up and it's put off again. I need to also pull the hood and get it sanded down and painted, due to some surface rust that's starting to pop out. I figure I could just pull the hood and grill and send it via AAA to the shop, to make it easier on them, and have the hood re-worked and then buy the chrome grill I've been wanting to get anyway, and kill 3 birds with one stone. But as of this moment, it's still sitting patiently on the curb in front of our house, waiting. I changed a water pump and thermostat yesterday on my wife's jeep grand Cherokee, which also needs the oil filter 90* adapter's seals changed (damned engineers!), and today we are going to the property to work on burning a brush pile and putting in a new key switch and pulling two wheels/tires off our Polaris ranger in order to put new tires on it this week. Not to mention cutting some trees down, grading the road, hanging a new gate at the entrance, fixing some wires on the 5th wheel that mice have chewed in half, yada, yada, yada. I work harder since I've retired than I did before, it seems like!