We went for a ride Sunday and picked up a nail in the left rear tire. Damn!
This morning I get up and was going to find the nail, remove it and plug the hole. No problem, right? Wrong. Car was in garage and I had to air up tire to move car out for room to work. Did that.
Next I had to move the riding mower to get to the floor jack. Done. Jacked car some and broke loose the lug nuts. Done. Raised car on up and tried to pull tire. Stuck. I let car down, replace lug nuts hand tights and roll a little bit. Then jack car back up and rim still would not come off. Damn! Now, after all this effort, and I am old, fat, bald and disabled, and I am worn out and in need of a break. Maybe for a few days.
I come inside to recliner, feet up and resting. Wifey says "what's going on". Being honest I explain my predicament. Her simple solution? Call AAA. We have been members since 1987 and only used it one time for another flat tire away from home.
I break down and call AAA. All the phone BS and I finally get a live person. She was nice and understanding and tells me a service truck will be here in a hour and fifteen minutes. Thank you very much and I am back in the recliner.
About time for the service truck, so I go outside one more time. Car is jacked up, spare is off the hook and by the side of car. Service man should have little to do if he can break the rim loose.
Here he comes in a small pickup of some kind. It smelled like it was overheating. He gets out, walks over to flat, kicks it with his foot, walks back to truck and returns. I was expecting some kind of big rubber mallet or something but not to happen. It was only a can of WD40. He sprays around rim at center and lugs, and waits a couple of minutes. Then he simply reaches up and pulls the damned rim off as if nothing every happened. Manure!!!!
The major problem for this old man was handled in a minute by a real serviceman. He spent more time putting my spare on, flat inside car and taking jack out of the way than actually getting the stuck rim off.
I end up taking the flat to the tire store for patching and had tires rotated while at it. $26 and change and we were back on the road again.
Now, this taught me a lesson. First off I cannot do what I used to could do. Second is that if I want something done quick I should call younger people to handle it. Then I started thinking about "how hard can it be to fix a bad light bulb"? Really????