Day 79, Wednesday, Oct 26, day 31 of layover
The extra parts parcel arrived today. I picked it up at the airport and rushed it out to John's Auto Repair. Included was the distributor gear, the part that apparently caused the whole breakdown. Interestingly enough, although it directly attaches to the engine, it was not included with the engine or the many auxillary parts ordered just in case. Probably it was what caused the distributor breakdown in Quebec and triggered the check engine light. But this couldn't be known until the engine was removed or someone had the Defender computer to check the codes.
But this didn't hold things up because there was plenty else for Olaf to do. But what is holding things up now is that this morning Olaf discovered that they were missing or needed a crankshaft seal. It was too late to order it from Atlantic British in NY for delivery by Friday, so they found one at Land Rover Vancouver and it is being flown here tonight for delivery tomorrow morning. Assuming it takes at least two days to put in the new engine and the other 20 or so parts, and tomorrow's Thursday, and my ferry leaves Monday.....
Another possible snag developed today. Instead of my writing about it here, see my notes at the below link that I sent to various sources today on the subject. Here's hoping. It used to be that these pulleys were connected to other pulleys, etc. Let's hope this one affects only the AC.
I think you are getting some sense of how i have to spend a good part of my days. I would not be out enjoying myself in Whitehorse anyway because i do not leave Donner alone for any reason except for errands, although i had to do that twice on this trip, but never again.
By the way, when Travis at John's Auto Repair first diagnosed the problem, he suspected that it was that distributor gear. I opted to go ahead with replacing the entire engine, however, since the labor involved was equivalent in both jobs and that i needed a new engine anyway before my next long road trip. As it turns out, after looking at the engine when it was removed, i needed one now. The engine was very tired. It served me well for 23 years and 210,000 miles. Very well, indeed.
More tomorrow. And who know's, maybe some good news for once.
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