"gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee" (gogmorgo)
08/12/2016 at 10:54 • Filed to: None
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"gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee" (gogmorgo)
08/12/2016 at 10:54 • Filed to: None | 6
| 3 |
Officially today is the first day of my road trip. Yesterday was technically the first, but I’m going with another team (friend from school and his girlfriend) and so yesterday was just getting to Saskatoon, where they live.
Originally I was slated to take my ‘96 Lada Niva, which would have been awesome and butt-turrible at the same time. Unfortunately despite putting so much work (and almost $2000 in parts, including a reman transmission) into it, as of Tuesday afternoon it won’t hold oil in the engine. It’s entirely the previous owner’s fault, because he’s an idiot. It’s a long story that’s caused me grief for a while.
So now I’m driving my 500,000km ‘91 MJ. This has its pluses and minuses. Most of them are pluses, to be honest, and in some ways I’m a bit relieved. I definitely won’t score as many points in the Rally with it (something something Jeep 4.0 reliability) but it has a/c, cruise control, and a stereo (now with Bluetooth) and parts actually exist on this side of the Atlantic.
But back to yesterday, which if you cast your minds back was Thursday. We got off to a late start. This was mainly because instead of spending Wednesday packing and getting ready to leave for a couple weeks, I spent it getting the MJ ready to go. Two new ball joints, the new head unit, and basically checking everything over. Plus a super late start that day because I had to stay up till 2am to pick up my co-driver (my sister who I haven’t seen in forever) at the bus. And then we wandered around a bunch looking at the sky.
And back to yesterday again. Thursday morning was spent packing, tools, clothing, etc, in that priority. Then I had a couple things I needed to stop in at the office to mention to people, and we finally hit the road around 12:30. Sort of.
We make it about an hour and a half down the road, and suddenly it hits me that I haven’t touched my passport. So I turn around. And almost immediately encounter mechanical trouble. I pull out to pass a string of gravel trucks, put my foot down, trans kicks down, but the Jeep just kinda stumbles a bit. No acceleration. This is no good, but it cruises at 60mph just fine, so I figure I’ll just head home and mess with it there, where I’ve got a spare 4.0 to pull sensors and stuff off. But then I remember there’s a (small) mountain between where I am and home, and as I approach h it I realize there’s no way I can make it over when the truck won’t do better than 2500rpm. I turn around again and run back to the small city, and hit up every parts store (there are two) but no one has a fuel pump or even a pressure gauge for sale. So I mess around, unplug some stuff, wiggle some wires, and the truck’s now working great. Huh. So I fill the tank (it’s around half), make it the rest of the way home, and grab my passport.
New starting mileage.
The rest of the trip into Saskatoon (only around 500km) went reasonably well. Fuel and washroom stop in Yorton SK where the pay-at-the-pump couldn’t read my card. The fuel pump (maybe) started acting up again about 100km out of Saskatoon, so my first stop when I get to the city was Canadian Tire. No fuel pump in stock, it’s late and nowhere else is open. Figuring it’s something that’s heating up and slowly failing (because its fine when I start it back up again) I bypass the fuel pump ballast resistor. Seems to be running great again, so we’ll see how it goes today.
Hoping to make it to Waterton Lakes/Glacier National Park tonight. I’ll keep you posted.
ShrimpHappens, née WJalopy
> gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/12/2016 at 11:11 |
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I have nothing witty or poignant to say.
I just love MJ’s.
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gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
> ShrimpHappens, née WJalopy
08/12/2016 at 11:18 |
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Me too :)
davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
> gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
08/12/2016 at 12:16 |
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Jealous - have fun. Glacier is awesome.