A dream woke me early this morning. I was back in Pennsylvania with all of my children, grandchildren and friends. I could only see everyone's faces, especially the grandkids’ — Sula, Sophie, Wade, Henry, Isabelle, and the as-yet-unnamed “wee lass.” But the wee lass' face was kind of indistinct, I assume because I don’t know what she looks like yet (that will change when she is born in early April). I guess I am missing those beautiful grandkids, and my kids and friends, more than I thought.
I have another overdue thank you. Recently my friend Carrie in North Carolina sent me the absolute bestest-ever, most delicious loaf of pumpkin bread I ever had. Wow, Carrie (Carrie1957 on Cyclefish) it was great! THANK YOU.
The downtown photos of Galveston have not yet happened. One thing or another has diverted me. I will get there.
More Mechanical Problems
Mack the Jeep had some mechanical problems that turned into an ordeal and my laptop PC died. At first I was a little frustrated over this, but, in retrospect, I am actually feeling good about all that transpired for several reasons. First is that the Jeep never let me down away from home; he only failed in the driveway. Second, we are in a place that is warm and snow-free, and thereby a much nicer place to do this work. And third, I get a “feels good” sense of accomplishment when diagnosing and repairing problems such as this.
Wednesday
Riley was patiently waiting outside for our daily journey to the local park. Since Mack the Jeep is a bit cold-natured, I usually have to let him warm up for a few minutes. With the engine running, I headed towards Riley to unhook his leash and usher him over to the Jeep. Suddenly this terrible noise started coming from under the hood and from my vantage point I could see liquid dripping profusely under the engine.
When I opened the hood it was clear what the issue was; he had a serious water pump problem. I turned off the engine and investigated. Yes, it was obvious I would have to get a new pump. Sorry, I told Riley, our trip will be delayed. You should have seen the look I got from him.
I fired up the laptop (which I had just shut down five minutes before) and the second dilemma of the day presented itself. There before my eyes was the Blue Screen of Death. Crap, I thought, now my internet PC is dead. Nothing I did revived the balking machine. My third line of defense was my smart phone. That worked and I was able to get a phone number of an auto parts place just a few miles away. Some good luck — they had the pump and at a very reasonable price. Things are getting a little better, I thought.
Roz the RV was now my only means of transportation, so securing everything and unhooking was in order. After that 20-minute chore we were on our way, got the new pump, some fresh antifreeze and other things needed for the pump replacement. We were back at the RV park in two hours. Oh, and Riley and I had our two-mile walk.
Being a weekend mechanic, it usually takes me at least three times as long as an experienced mechanic to do any particular job. With this limitation in mind, and the fact that it was nearly 3:30 pm, I decided to delay the install until the next morning. I spent the rest of that afternoon futilely trying to resolve the PC problem.
Thursday
At 8 am I was outside with a cup of coffee in hand evaluating what specific steps I should take. By noon the pump was replaced and ready for a leak check. All was good, no leaks. I put away my tools and rinsed the driveway while the Jeep idled. Then the Jeep just shut down and would not restart. I knew I was low on gas and a gauge check showed empty. I checked the carb input hose and no gas. OK AAA, bring me some gas. Two hours later they showed up. With that little bit of fuel we headed to the closest station to fill up. He only took 12 gallons; if he were empty it should have taken at least 14. That is strange, I thought.
On the way back from refueling he started overheating and blowing all kinds of steam from under the hood. Back at the park I rechecked my installation. Nothing seemed wrong. I will not go into a lot of hard-to-explain details, but I deduced that the pump was the wrong pump. It was pumping the wrong direction. Another phone call to the parts place and they told me there were two pumps for my Jeep.
“If you bring the original pump in, we can have both in the store for you to be certain you get the right one. Tomorrow around 1 pm,” the clerk offered. What could I do?
Friday
I was able to get the correct water pump and back to work I went. This time, considering the practice run, I was able to install it, fire up the Jeep and leak-check in about an hour and a half. No leaks and, best of all, no overheating.
Then, the engine died and would not restart — again.
Yesterday’s fill-up discrepancy now made sense. The tank was not empty, after all. I did some troubleshooting and discovered that I had a cranky electric fuel pump too. Back to the auto parts place, this time for a fuel pump.
The electric fuel pump is a much simpler installation and was done within 30 minutes. Mack is all better now and Riley is glad to be back to our daily two miles. The laptop is still dead but has been replaced with a new netbook PC for internet. That diagnosis is forthcoming. I may have to hire a PC geek for this one.
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