Van issues

After a couple of weeks trying to fix our van, last Thursday I finally had a breakthrough. I went to two different places that day, first to a GM dealer looking for an alternator (they didn't have it, thankfully), and then to an electrical mechanic, who proceeded to inform me that if my problem didn't happen when he was looking at it, he couldn't fix it...and of course the van acted like new when someone wanted to fix it.

Later that day a random visitor, Mardonio (interesting name) showed up at the church looking for singing classes for his son. On thing led to another and he told me that he had worked as a mechanic in the U.S. for a couple of years. I showed him my van. He said that my van doesn't have a booster (for the brakes) but rather a hydro-booster, meaning, among other things, that when my voltage when low, I would lose the brakes (which was what was happening...I'd see the voltage meter go down, my lights would dim and I'd lose my brakes--scary, I know). Mardonio invited me back to his place and his wife invited me to eat some very spicy enchiladas. I then took two of his sons back to the church for keyboard classes...

Anyway, the next day I went back to his house, and his son took me to an electrical mechanic that they knew. I the mean time it occured to me that I only lost charge in the van when I turned to the left. Yes, I know, sounds weird. The mechanic though so too...but that was apparently the clue necessary to figure out what was wrong. A cable underneath my motor rubbed and caused a short every time I turned to the left. A little bit of electrical tape and viola!, problem solved! Glad I didn't buy an alternator. He also fixed another minor AC problem I had. Charged me a whopping $7.