God Is Practical
One of life's problems
Like you, I live a life that has more than it's share of problems. I mean down to earth every day material problems. And many of these are beyond my ability to solve. I do not have time to run around with my head in the clouds looking for "pie in the sky". I need help here on earth, and I need it now, not after I die. That is the very reason that I have found God to be so practical.
Over the years God has answered hundreds of prayers for me, and I mean about everyday stuff. It is because he is interested in everything I do and wants me to bring my problems to him. So, I do.You should too.
This time it was a motorcycle problem. That photo above is the oldest motorcycle I own. It is one of the early Honda Gold wings - STRIPPED DOWN. Not being a Gold wing type guy, I bought it to strip down on purpose. I have put it through at least four revisions. This last one was to hide it in the woods when I ride it into the National Forest. It really has been a great, dependable bike. I enjoy the old thing. But after only thirty four years the starter went out. But then, they just don't make stuff like they used to.
Experience has taught me on another one of this model that you cannot pull the starter out, then put it back in. It just won't work. And both of my repair manuals on this old bike say that to replace the starter, "Pull the engine". That is because when you pull the starter out, the splines on the starter shaft come out of the starter sprocket. Then the sprocket and chain fall down into the housing, meaning you pull the engine to fix it. [Honda has fixed this problem on later models.]
Now I am 81 years old. And pulling engines on anything is not as much fun as it used to be. I knew how much trouble it would be. It made me think about just giving it away for parts to someone. BUT GOD. That is where he entered into the problem, In other words - I began to pray.
Need to do the impossible
God put an idea in my head. And several ideas along the way that definitely did not come from me. My mind was somewhere else and he would just pop the ideas in my head as I went along asking guidance along the way.
Do you see that bolt in about the middle of the picture. It is just behind the shinny new starter and sort of bluish around it. Well, God put the idea in my mind to drill a hole there where it is not supposed to be. Then take a stiff piece of wire, reach into the hole and support the sprocket and chain.
Simple is best
I ended up using a piece of welding rod, after taking the flux off. And I had to try bending it several different ways until it would reach around under the chain. But I found that I could not hold the rod and lay down underneath to unbolt the starter. So, dummy here tried bungee cords and stuff. But it would keep flipping around.
Back to prayer. I was walking up the hill to the house for something with my mind somewhere else. Then when I was not even thinking about it God posed the idea into my head to use vise grips. Hey, that worked great. I clamped the rod with the vise grips so it could not slide down in, and by leaving the handles hanging down, it did not twist and turn. Thank you Jesus.
Old one out
Just a view of the old starter and sprocket so you can see how it goes together - well, comes apart.
Task done - Praise God.
View of the new starter installed. The bolt that I mentioned before shows also. This was to plug the hole that should not be there. At this point the housing is rather thin. So when I taped it to put the bolt in, there were only a couple of threads. I fixed that by coating the bolt threads and under the bolt head with JB Weld. Worked great. Oh! I also shortened the bolt so it could not possibly come in contact with any thing.
By working very slowly and praying my way along, it only took about two hours rather than pull the engine.
PRAISE GOD. He is so practical and helpful.
