Day 103, Saturday, November 19, Ranch Motel, Salina, slightly revised
As i wrote in my earlier posting, we made it to Interstate 70 in Salina, Utah, at 2;45, which would put us into Green River at about 4:30, just as the sun was setting. Great. But as important, having traveled at least 250 major highways and biways on this trip, i felt that this particular road milestone, the very last highway we would drive, deserved its own picture. At the end of this highway, we would be home. So i hopped out of the Defender, snapped the photo included in another earlier posting, sent it off to my blog, got back into the Defender, and almost giddily started toward the ramp to that long country road that would take us home, 2130 miles and only a few days away, with the feeling that i should have been home yesterday, as John Denver so beautifully sang.
I spoke way too soon. We never made it to that ramp. Nor will i be home in a very few days. Here's why.
As i started the short drive to the I-70 ramp, which you can actually see in the earlier photo, the Defender stalled. I made several attempts to start it, but with no success. Since it was blocking the entire road, i got out to assess my options and to see what resources i might have down the road before i called AAA to tow me to God only knows where. Three people stopped within as many minutes to help push. the Defender to safety on the shoulder of the road. One of them suggested i call K&K, visible just down the road, as they have a towing service as well as a garage. In fact, he said, his brother in law works there and has worked on Land Rovers and has a Defender himself. For a guy with my luck, how lucky can a guy get?
I called K&K and several minutes later Andy pulled up in his truck and pulled us down the road to his garage, less than two blocks away. He immediately went to work with his tools and within 15 minutes told me it was my fuel pump. To confirm, i turned on my ignition and heard no fuel pump start.
Incidentally, on Thursday, , in Ely, before David found the ignition coil problem, he told me that my fuel pump was problematic in that it was pumping at a higher pressure than the specs called for, but when the ignition coil was changed and the engine started, there was no further need to pursue the fuel pump matter since the Defender was running. I did, however, make a mental note to order a new fuel pump soon. In fact, I almost ordered one before I set out on this trip to have a spare on hand, as i had with the ignition coil and a number of other hard to get parts, but i ran out of time and decided to get on the road and take my chances instead of delaying the start of the trip by two days. After all, my first fuel pump lasted more than 15 years and this one was no more than 8 years old. What i failed to consider, though, was miles...about 105 thousand for the former, 99 thousand for the latter by the start of this trip and a projected 115 thousand by the end. Oops. However, this is no big deal, just a possible trip-delayer of a few days before or during the trip, if that is the only issue.
Back to Andy.....For the next hour, Andy confidently tried to locate a fuel pump here or in Salt Lake City, 139 miles north, but no one had one, knew of one, or was open until Monday. He was 100 percent confident though he would find one then and have it couriered or shipped from. Salt Lake City on Monday or Tuesday. In the meantime, i needed to find a place to call home for the next few days.
Let me tell you something. If you ever get stuck on the highway, you want to find a guy like Andy, if you cannot call Andy himself. Not only does he exude the confidence that there is a solution for every problem, but he exudes the confidence that he will be the one to find the solution quickly. And he not only knew i needed a place to camp out, but that i could not be separated from the Defender. So he pulled the three of us just down the road to the Sundance Camp, the only camp in town, but they were closed. Then he pulled us farther down the road to the Ranch Motel, a quaint place, where we got a cozy, bare-bones room for $50 a night, right across the road from some stores, which was just perfect. And here's where we will stay until the Defender is back on the road with my confidence that it will get us back home safely and without any more interruptions. In the meantime, i have my work cut out for me dusting off Plans A, B and C, although the variables are less complicated this time, the distances less vast, and the temperature considerably warmer. And so that's how i will spend the day, maybe next few days.
A few comments just so i can crystallize my thinking.
On Thursday morning, i had to be towed mote than 80 miles to Ely because my two-week old ignition coil failed. What is the probability of that happening in isolation of any other upstream problem? My guess, close to zero.
Then, the next day, less than 200 miles down the road, my fuel pumps fails. I admit now that the probability of that happening was pretty high given my above miles-numbers and David's findings the day before, but happening the next day after the coil problem? My guess is pretty low, unless there is something else going on governing both these things. My guess here is that the new 4.6 liter engine, which replaced a 3.9 liter one, is expecting too much from these auxiliary parts and taking them out one by one. If that's the case, fine, i accept that, and will do something about that when i get home. But the question i need to answer quickly is, how do i get home if there is even a slight chance that over the remaining 2500 miles the Defender will break down at least another several times if my theory is correct? And i am not so much worried about the logistics or costs of future breakdowns, as i am of the safety issues involved. Thursday's breakdown and yesterday's were child's play compared to the engine stopping when i am driving 60 mph through that rat maze surrounding, say, St Louis. So, i not only need to concern myself with getting the Defender back on the road, but the matter of whether I have confidence in it to continue driving it the remaining 2500 miles home. Right now, as I wrote yesterday in my blog, i have no confidence in it, and i was proven right to feel that way. At least it shows my judgment is working, more than i can say for the Defender.
Of course, if i do not drive the Defender home from here, i need to figure out how to get home ourselves and what to do with the Defender here.
So, this is why there has been an unexpected - and unwelcome - change of plans and why we never got on that I-70 ramp after i posted that photo yesterday. But i will deal with this one the same as all the others, solve it, figure out how to prevent it again, and then move on, hopefully to home and not the next problem, at least not the day after.
Photo is of the disabled Defender sitting outside room 19 at the Ranch Motel in lovely downtown Salina Utah.
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