It was just last Sunday that 'That Dang Scooter' quit working, Now don't get me wrong, it works most of the time, but last Sunday it just quit. I wanted to put her mobility scooter on the porch, so the lever was flipped from in gear to the freewheel position. When we wanted to use it again I flipped the lever back, nada, zilch, nothing - kaput!
Back to freewheel, and I push Terri to the car. She says she must have it working, it has to be fixed right away. The next day I start looking for a repair facility, can't find a local place. There is one down in the Folsom area, but that's two hours away, they say they will have someone in Chico on Monday, 3/7, and give me a name of someone here if we can't wait. I give a call and leave a message.
On the manufacturer's site there is a local med center, and a repair site about 50 minutes away. The med center won't work on a scooter that they didn't sell, even if you are from out of town, but I am given a number of another place. I call, but still haven't received a call back. The out of town guy can't get us in before Monday.
By now it is late Thursday, something has to be done, although she would prefer a pro shop to fix it, I decide I must attempt the repair. I think it is a micro switch that the gear/freewheel lever engages. The scooter is disassembled to get at it and remove the switch, it is done outside, no room in the motor home. This takes the better part of the morning Friday, then the hunt is on for parts. We luck out and Radio Shack has the exact micro switch but with a lever, later I will forcibly remove it. Now we need 1/8" spade terminals to reattach the wires that were originally soldered, if it has to be fixed again I'm not doing the whole soldering thing each time, but they are not so easy to find.
Back at the shop (the picnic table beside the motor home) Saturday it is reassembly time, not so easy, but it gets done. Soon I'm riding around the RV park on a 'test' drive. Woo hoo it is fixed, and a day and a half before we could have gotten a pro to look at it. On top of everything, it cost less than $4.00 and 6 hours of my time.
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I must take a moment to acknowledge my Dad. Most of his acquaintances think of him as a preacher and pastor, but I know the engineer side of him. Dad, with your gene pool I might have figured how to do this kind of thing, but from my first bicycle you taught me how to figure things out and to take a methodical approach. It has stood the test of time, and has allowed me to know what to punt to a pro, and what is within my capabilities to fix. Usually these are the time consuming tasks what we all hate to spend big $$$ per hour to have done.
