Recent Chronology:
[yesterday]
-Battery light comes on after departure from Davenport.
-Stubbornly drive up highway towards 300EVIL
-Airbag light pops on, then transmission goes into "limp-in" mode
-Waited, pressed on.
-Car completely dies, conveniently, under a nice railroad bridge. (snowing furiously)
-Police show up and kindly insist that I have the van towed to the next exit where the towtruck driver introduces me to the O'Reilly staff who sell me an alternator which I somehow install in a furious snow storm. (nice bright parking lot lights save the day)
-False Utopia achieved! Everything is better. It's like nothing ever happened! (Hey Adam, I'll be there in like two hours! Let's eat some ribs!)
-Somewhere between 30-40 miles from Adams, I decide to pass someone who doesn't like driving on ice and I allow the wheels to spin, causing my speedometer to reach somewhere around 50-60MPH and right at that moment, the demonic battery light strikes again!
-I decide I can try to make it since everything's been so peachy keen for a
while. FAIL. 15 miles away and no dice. I park the van at a BP and Adam picks me up. (in a van with the exact same problem ironically)
[today]
-We run all kinds of tests (Adam has the real-deal Snap-On graphing automotive scanner with all the bells and whistles), clean all kinds of terminals, remove and reinstall all relays and fuses, threaten the car with all sorts of punishments, but nothing.
Yep, fun times. This is definitely building character and stuff, but I'm getting sort of tired of the whole fix-the-unknown-issue-thing. I'm tempted to assume the issue is a speed-sensor, given that the problem came up just as I reached 60MPH (virtually) for the first time since putting the alternator in etc.
Anybody in he Wisconsin area want to buy a Dodge Grand Caravan? It runs great! (for 10 minutes, once you charge the battery up)
-Jonathan
Sounds like my projector...
Hey Jonathan -
Wow, dude - I feel for ya man (ask me sometime, preferably with a nice bottle of SoCo, about the time we were haulin-@$$ to TX for a gig, and right in the middle of Nowhere, OK - the driveshaft (...only the driveshaft, mind-you..) on the rental-truck (not a Uhaul, btw ) 'explodes', blowing a 12" 'shotgun-blast-hole' thru the 1" thick floor of the box, and procedes to disperse itself all over the highway at 70mph... fortunately, NO ONE was behind us but - it was SUNDAY NIGHT, ~8pm.... the very definition of 'SOL'!!) - anyhoo, I 'feel your pain', man...
Well, too-bad our 'timing' was off! - I actually have one of our Techs picking up an I-400 in OH tomorrow, and he - JUST YESTERDAY - left from visiting his Mom - in WISCONSIN!! (he prolly could have at least got you back to Cali...
Not sure how all this is of any comfort to you BUT I can tell you that it is now 99.9% confirmed on our gig for NYE, that will take us right thru MA, with a nice, big truck (...and, it's NEW, don't worry! ), so, again, don't fret about your 'new bride', there - if ya want it picked-up and tested / stored - heck, even crated / prepped for shipping to ya, later-on, well, you've got a friend in ROC!
Point is, don't worry about the CV, (not like you are... ) just take a deep breath, and somehow, your 'PL-brothers' will pull-together and do what we can to get ya home!
Call me up to chat...
peace...
And three-cheers to 300 for being such a Gentleman and a true-friend!
j
....and armed only with his trusty 21 Zorgawatt KTiOPO4...
Very generous of you Jon. Well done.
QUEST RESUMED!
Apparently, the alternator plug terminals were loose and the plug was basically hanging there. After tweaking the terminals with some pliers, it seats in there like new!
My van decided to throw one more curve-ball after that -a ruptured transmission gasket. This was ok though. We went to NAPA, got a filter/gasket kit and fluid and changed the fluid etc. (my tranny has no drain-plug; we also verified it was the gasket when we noticed where it was leaking through)
So anyway, Adam and I are going to head out tomorrow morning and go grab the laser, then I'll return from here in a few days.
What a week!
-Jonathan
You're gunna miss the snow here!! (not like you dont have enough there already )
So now you're going back to Mass.? Didn't you have a person riding with you from the start and they had to go back home?
I have a spectra physics 164 and 165 shipping out of Detroit tomorrow... think you could swing by on your way and pick them up for me since you're already over that way? (kidding of course... haha)
I'm glad to see that the trip is still on... good luck and keep us posted!!