What goes around comes around. Kindness of strangers.

[Salsa Guy]

While driving back from vacation, Hilton Head, SC to Tulsa, OK (1100 miles), in the T&C minivan with my four children and wife. We stopped for lunch just south of Atlanta. My family went in for lunch while pumping gas and doing the fluid checks on my 120K mile minivan, I noticed a guy with his head in the engine bay of his Honda minivan. His wife was tending to the 3 young children in the hot sun. After filling up with gas I parked next to him and was heading in for lunch and asked if he needed any tools or help. He said yes, to make a long story short his minivan wouldn't turnover and there was a wiring hanging by the starter. The battery and all connection to it looked good but we couldn't figure out where that wire w/ a female spade connector went on the starter (he was trying to connect it to a plastic connector off the starter). There was a "boot" for the connector but it was in pieces (he also said he just had Tranny work done on it and was heading to Chicago, IL from Savannah, GA). After staring down the starter for a few moments I found the Male spade connector on the start with a plastic collar around it where the boot would fit. The collar and connector was horizontal so it made it very hard to see. I connected it and the minivan fired right up. He shut it down we disconnected it crimped the female connector down abit, so it would hold better, put some electrical tape around it, check to see if it would start with it off, which it didn't, reconnected it and started up just find. He pulled up, turned it off, got gas, started it and off they went. We passed them down the road and waved. A happy ending! I hope and pray there trip was uneventful to and from Chicago!I'm surprised that it didn't have some type of locking connector on the starter. I could see how someone could have wedged the connector in there and not have it "connected" but touching so it would work until you hit a few good bumps and it would pop out. Things like this always come back to you. Lord knows I've been helped out by strangers in the passed!

[vibenvy]

Great story! Hopefully they made it to Chicago and back without any issues. Hope you and your family had a great trip as well .

[Salsa Guy]

We had a safe trip back, it took 19 hours travel (about 16 driving) to get back to Tulsa. On the way out we stopped over, on the way back we went straight through. Put some 46 hour driving, 2600 miles on the old minivan during out trip. The only issue was some condensation dripping into the van from the A/C system on the Passenger side during the last 7 hours of the trip. Not sure it the condensation line is plugged, broke or just fell off. We'll try to dig into it tonight when it cools off below 100...LOL

[vibenvy]

Quote, originally posted by Salsa Guy »We'll try to dig into it tonight when it cools off below 100...LOLUgh .Glad to hear you guys had a good trip .

[lovemyraffe]

I'm glad there are still people who will help others out.