Miles and miles and miles look like this. Sometimes more barren. Sometimes less.
Last day’s drive for awhile–only 700 miles today. That may not seem like much, but when pulling your house, your belongings, your family, and coordinating fuel and meal and bio-breaks for four people and a dog, anything more than about 500 miles is more than I want to drive.
We’ll need to make things more efficient and find a way to stay in locations longer to minimize travel times.
We were on our way down i80 in Wyoming just past Laramie on Monday … and red lights started flashing ahead: I80 is closed.
A couple checks of weather and news and there was a pretty large pileup, a hazmat burn, and all routes through southern Wyoming are now blocked.
So, we headed back toward Cheyenne to go the northern route.
The flu holds on: I’m all kinds of stuffed up now. My ears seem to be stuck at 6000ft.
Found out UPGRAYEDD isn’t charging the trailer. No idea how long it’s been that way as I’ve honestly never checked. Only noticed when I turned on the house lights and they dimmed noticeably when the water pump ran.
We overnight in Sheridan and pick up some parts to run an electrical bypass.
MINI has chosen the height of the British summer to unveil its new motoring-cum-camping concepts aimed at music festival goers and outdoor types in need of what the company euphemistically describ…
Gizmag brings tell of MINI’s “Overnight Solutions” cars & campers. If you’re looking for a full-time micro-living camper, these might be them.
That teardrop, by the way, does look like it’s well-fitted to the MINI.
Changed out the thermostats and flushed coolant on UPGRAYYED (our 2002 LB7) the weekend before last. While I was in there, I also swapped out the MPROP (fuel pressure sensor), which I suspected was either leaking or failed and was causing the idle lope with which we’ve been dealing for the last year.
That was the culprit: failed MPROP. With that replaced, her idle both in gear and neutral is now silky smooth. There’s also no smoke on the highway. I’m actually somewhat surprised that it’s possible for a diesel to be so smooth.
Then Monday happened.
Fast forward a week and a day to this morning: Just after I started the truck to head off to work, I lost brakes and steering.
Aside from a brief moment of surprise when the thing lurched into reverse, my thought was something along the lines of, “Odd… I was nowhere near that stuff last weekend.”
Segue:
Why brakes and steering? The Duramax — and several other trucks — use a hydro-boost mechanism rather than a vacuum booster to actuate the brakes. The hydraulic power is supplied to the hydro-boost by the power steering pump.
If the pump fails: no brakes and no steering
Differential:
For neither brakes nor steering:
Okay, I added that last one, but I’m sure it’s in somebody’s troubleshooting manual someplace.
Troubleshooting:
Diagnosis:
At a minimum, that’s a failed pump. Could it be something else? Sure, but without any pressure coming out of the pump, there’s no way to know whether the hydro boost is okay or not.
We’re now $170 poorer and at least a few days awaiting delivery of the new unit.
Fortunately, it’s a reasonably straightforward driveway task for a home mechanic.
A micro fifth-wheel and a VW Beetle from 1974:
Pretty neat, but I’d wager you’ll not see anything like that these days.
the rest of me 