OK. Been a while since my last post. Just to tie up the loose ends, I ended up getting a new cylinder head on eBay from a seller based in Vegas. Installed it with a Fel-Pro head gasket and haven't had any overheating problems since. We'll see how it goes when the temp gets up to the triple digits. I've also since swapped my auto to a 5spd, so if anyone has any questions while it's still fresh in my mind, feel free to ask! Also, after much consideration, I'm officially rechristening the Trooper. No longer will it be
White Lightning, which I've found to be an all too common name. Henceforth, it shall be known as
El Burro, in honor of the feral burros of Death Valley, whose ancestors helped many an emigre cross the barren landscape.
On to recent news, last weekend, my GF, the dog, and I all loaded up to go on a day drive up to Big Bear (6800 ft), then down FS 3N03 down to Pioneertown (4000 ft), hoping to get some supper at Pappy & Harriet's. On the way up the hill, we smelled something somewhat indiscernible. Electric? Rubber? Not sure what. I chalked it up to the old Suburban ahead of us, because we have recently driven the crap out of the Trooper with no issues. We get up the hill, go through town, and finally get to the FS road. It's pretty rough at first, so I air down to 20 psi. This part of the San Bernardinos is really is quite beautiful-- where the snowy pine forest meets the juniper and yucca high desert. About five miles in on this road, I can see the RPM dropping and the gas pedal is not helping at all. The Trooper just dies. I hook up my Noco jumper pack, and the Trooper starts right back up again. Great! Then I disconnect the pack and it dies again. Oh crap. My immediate thought is it's the alternator, but it can't be because it's a somewhat new Bosch reman with less than 5K miles on it. I think it's probably a loose ground wire and check all my grounds. They seem good. Of course I didn't pack a multimeter! We decide to try to head back for the main road. I connect the jumper pack to the battery, turn it on and close the hood, fire up the engine and drive as fast as we can. I'm shocked this is working. But after a good five minute run, the jumper pack runs out of juice and the engine dies again.
The sun is dropping below the mountain peaks, and my GF knocks some sense into me, saying we should initiate trying to contact help. Of course, I can't admit we need help just yet, and fuddle with a couple more things before I agree. Luckily, the last thing I packed before we left was my Garmin InReach which I use while solo hiking. There is no cell service in this area, but we are able text her brother who finds us the number for Big Bear Offroad Recovery. It's dark now, around 7:30 PM and below freezing. The driver shows up within an hour of us texting him our location. He's super friendly and pulls us to the road. i accidentally run over his tow strap (sorry!). From there, AAA tows us to a Motel 6.
Overnight, I charge up the Noco jumper pack, and the next morning we load back in, connect the jumper pack to the battery, and drive the Trooper to Autozone about 2 miles down the road. I take out the alternator and battery and have them both tested. The battery passes but the alternator fails, and alas, they do not have a replacement in stock. However, the store 20 miles down the hill in San Bernardino does, so I take my now fully charged Optima Red Top and reinstall it, and we head down the mountain on battery power alone. We realize that the alternator probably failed when we smelled that smell on the way up, which gives us confidence that our battery can get us all the way down to the next store. We make it to San Bernardino, I change the alternator in the parking lot, and we head back to LA, 24 hours late. Despite the stress and expense of this trip, I felt like I learned a lot on how to be better prepared. ALWAYS take my InReach when going into questionable cell areas. Look up tow recovery services beforehand and record their phone numbers. Bring clothing appropriate for areas you think you'll only be passing through (we did this, fortunately). Bring a solid tool kit with you (I had most of what I needed, but a multimeter is now a must). And bring spares of mission critical parts (is it extreme to travel with a spare alternator? Not for me!).
Anyways, that's my little yarn for this week. Be smart out there!
