vgabndo - 3-17-2005 at 03:24 PM
Everything was about as you'd expect, except for this little occurance.
As with many tales of woe, this one started with a bad decision. Perhaps the decision was understandable considering my mechanical background, my
anxiety to ?get going? to Baja, and the fact that I was making the trip for my mental health regardless of the fact that I couldn?t afford this annual
jaunt.
When my little Suzuki Sidekick, which I was driving to save the fuel that my 460 Ford would have burned, showed a couple of unusual little blips of
the temperature gage, the mechanical genius decided it was the thermostat beginning to fail. I tossed one in with all the tools, belts and hoses and
set out.
There wasn?t a whimper for the first 900 miles, but suddenly it happened again north of San Vicente, so I stopped and had the spare ?stat installed.
All went well, and nothing unusual was observed down to San Quintin. However, when I stopped to ask directions, sitting in neutral with the clutch
out, I heard for the first time a very disquieting deep knocking from the engine. My rising paranoia convinced me that I had something VERY bad going
on with the bottom end.
We got a room at the Motel San Carlos, made arrangements for a mechanic friend of the owner?s to look at the car in the morning, and lapsed into
fitful sleep to the sounds of a thousand Brandts feeding on the mud flats below.
The mechanic quickly determined that the engine was not the problem, but that I had a throw-out bearing beginning to make noise. He would replace it
for $80.00 plus the parts, and he could do it on a slab right there at the motel. We jumped into the car and found the bearing in San Quintin,
returned to the San Carlos, with the agreement that the work would be done in the morning.
When the mechanic didn?t show up even on Mexico time, I learned what he already knew. He had stolen my Mag Light and about $50. worth of tools from my
box the night before. I also decided that the throw-out was not going to give up immediately, but it was too late to set out , so we stayed another
night. (The rooms are minimal, but as cheap as $20. They make up for it with TOP DOLLAR prices in the dining room.)
The following day, climbing the hills south of El Rosario, the temp. gage suddenly started heading for the red, and I U-turned and limped back to the
little shop just beyond the propane place. ?Simple? he says, your fan clutch is junk, but there isn?t another one in northern Baja. His ?boys?
worked with uncharacteristic speed and efficiency to make a rubber disc to fit into the clutch, making it spin all the time. We fired up the engine,
let it warm up, and couldn?t detect any circulation of coolant. Quick as a wink, he had pulled the new thermostat, hacked its guts out and
reinstalled the ring. ?You don?t need a heater down here? he said.
A few pesos later we were grinding up the hills toward Catavina sounding like a Mack truck in granny gear. The temperature needle couldn?t be made to
move off of ?C?.
After a night in Guerrero Negro, we arrived in San Nicolas the next day, and a few days later while in Loreto for supplies, we e-mailed our friends
who were flying down to meet us and asked them to toss a fan clutch into their luggage. We were going to need it to get home. If we had foreseen the
future, we?d have suggested they get much bigger luggage. (to be cont.)
David K - 3-17-2005 at 06:42 PM
Thanks for sharing the good and the bad Perry.
Did the motel owner have anything to say about his referal?
Sometimes...
Mexray - 3-17-2005 at 08:25 PM
I've used a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator to keep the 'ram air' away and help keep the engine warmer...a bright yellow Pacifico works
great, with the logo facing forward to give your grille that 'cool' look...
Of course, I gather from your first installment that your problems were far greater than the fan clutch...
I hate vehicle problems on the road, away from home like that...just this last Feb, on the way home from Mulege to Northern Calif, our Bronco's
Alternator gave up the ghost! Two weeks before coming to Mulege, I'd replaced it as a bearing sounded a bit noisy - thought I'd avoid any problems
with the R & R...WRONG. The only good thing was that the parts house in Santa Rosalia didn't need my old 'core' back so I returned it to my parts
house back home and got my $$$ back!
Machines just run till their next breakdown...where you are at that moment makes life interesting!
David K
vgabndo - 3-17-2005 at 11:04 PM
Carlos at the San Carlos allowed as how he knew that his old childhood buddy had had a teenie bit of a problem with crystal meth, but he thought he
had gotten over it. Guess he could have told me that before I let him into my car.