I normally am blessed in this regard. I have 3 vehicles with my Cutlass, Frontier and AMC Spirit. Unfortunately, this was not one of those times. I had to replace the original rotors on the front of my Frontier, because they were finally severely warped after 278k miles. So, since my Cutlass has a huge piece of floor missing under the driver's seat, and my AMC had electrical issues and hadn't moved in 2 years, I was without a car. I already had bought the rotors and pads, so I thought I would be fine. On this truck, the rotors bolt to the back side of the hub, so I was just going to switch the rotors and reassemble them. Unfortunately, I managed to pop a caliper piston seal (all of the hydraulics were original, so it is not surprising) when I was compressing it and now I had no car to drive the 7 mile round trip to the local parts store. Plus, it was cold-for Florida-, windy and getting dark out. I had school in the morning and had no choice but to get it running. So, after weighing my options ( and making some calls) I decided I would need to take my BMX bike to the parts store! Yes, there I was, trying to ride a bike 7 miles while carrying a brake caliper (I clamped it to the handlebars with a C clamp), during rush-hour traffic. I did manage to get to the parts store in one piece and fortunately they had the part I needed. Now all I had to do was get home with a brake caliper and 2 cans of brake parts cleaner. Fortunately, I was going downhill this time as the trip to the store did not do my knee (with torn cartilage) any good, and I was very tired from the trip there. Then, after school, I went to do the other side and had the curious problem of the inner wheel bearing getting stuck on the spindle. Of course I destroyed it trying to remove it. I had my neighbor go to get the new one while I prepped everything else figuring I would save time. Yeah, they gave him the wrong one. So, back to the parts store-this time in his truck instead of by bike. Got it right this time, but still wound up taking much longer than it should and being 45 min late to work. The moral of the story? If you are flat broke and need everything to go just right it never will.
