Many thanks to my buddy Ron! He and I spent about 4 hours on Saturday replacing the fuel pump and fuel filter, along with cleaning the throttle body. All of the parts cost me just under $200 and it looks to be money well spent. The car has more power, it responds runs more quietly, and hasn’t stalled!

For those of you who are interested, Autozone is where I bought my fuel pump from, and they were from $30 to $100 cheaper than anywhere else. Too bad Schucks didn’t have one in stock or I could have got it for 5% less… I am sure they would have loved that! =)

So if you have a 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan that is having trouble with stalling, I would suggest cleaning the throttle body first, and if that doesn’t solve it, replace the fuel filter, and lastly change the fuel pump if nothing else worked. The job isn’t too hard as long as you can get your van a couple feet off of the ground and you empty the tank out pretty good.

Should I get the time, I will make these last two posts into what Wordpress calls a ‘Page’ and see if I can’t make this information more google’able.

My wife drives a 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan SE mini-van. Well, at least she does when it is not stalling. The stalling used to just be an occasional annoyance, but now it is becoming a serious problem. On Tuesday we got left on the side of the road while driving to AWANA and I had to call my buddy Matt to come pick us up. We let it sit for a few hours during AWANA. After club I got a ride home for Beth and the boys with my buddy Pat (THANKS PAT!) and my buddy Vince gave me a lift as we tried to get it home. The oil was low so I added two quarts (yes, ouch Phil!) and I was able to drive it home with no problems. A BIG thanks to Vince for following me home. This has become a serious problem, and one that I either need to fix or trade in the van for a different one.

Lord willing we will be able to get this solved the cheap way (not buying a new van). Should I find a solution to this problem I will make sure to document it here.

After having talked to a very experienced mechanic buddy, he things the problem is with the fuel pump and filter. We did a test last night and it showed that the fuel pressure was ok, but I recall that before we replaced the fuel pump the first time, we were having similar problems to now. I think the first thing that I am going to do is replace the fuel filter and clean the throttle body. He was rather surprised that the fuel pressure was good, but suggested that I try those two courses of action. It looks like tonight I am going to be under my car again.

Well, it looks like I have some trouble with getting the updates to my blog updated on ORblogs via ping-0-matic, so I went ahead and added a direct ping to the ORblogs ping page and we will see if that works any better.

*edit* Well it worked, so if you use Wordpress 1.5 and are having the same trouble I was having, add the ORblogs ping page to your list of ping sites. That list is available from the management console under “Options” and then “Writing”. The option you want to change is labeled “Update Services”. Good luck!

Wow, if this isn’t a telling site about the integration of the internet into our society. A young gentleman who is projected to go in the first round of the NFL draft has his own website. His name is Shawne Merriman and his website is here. You can read about him and his prospects in the draft with this ESPN.com article. The article mentions that he is even going to have some games on his website where you can use him to sack the QB. Isn’t life interesting!

Today is a day to be careful when reading community news sites. Sites such as Slashdot always have all sorts of fun stories this day. In fact, today slashdot will look more like the onion than the new york times. Enjoy this wonderful day!