hobietony
Explorer
Alright, been back from Colorado for a week now, work sucks still. Figured I'd give a brief trip report, and some pics as the van starts the Demo process
Landed in Greenville, SC the Sunday after Christmas, Chris picked me up at the airport in Vanaconda, pretty easy to tell when he pulled up the the passenger pickup, that truck just looms over everything around. Had a weeks worth of cloths, a bag of ski gear, and three pairs of skis. I wanted to be well into Colorado by Tuesday night, so I was hoping to get a good start on Sunday. At Chris' shop, got the first view of AmboVan in all it's glory, it's big! Probably an hour of getting the lowdown on the work done, brief test drive, brief tour of the new shop, and pow, out on the road. I think both Chris and I were a bit leery of starting out on such a big trip, when there had been a bit of a scramble to get the conversion done on time (see earlier posts about getting the new lift in the shop, etc.) With a few warnings about checking the tranny fluid as I drive, since it had really had no miles on it since the rebuild, off I went. First issue is that big storm to hit the Northeast dipped down into SC, and I was into heavy weather almost right off the bat. Locked the hubs, and was down to 25 MPH on I-40 as I headed towards Knoxville. In the worst of the weather, I started having tranny probs, too late at night to call Chris, and I started freaking out that I had already ruined the rebuild, finally stopped for the night outside of Knoxville, decided to sleep in the van since I thought I might have to buy another tranny the next day, and even with all my ski gear on, I froze my *** off - This was interspersed with starting the engine to warm up, and freaking out about Carbon Monoxide poisioning - Not exactly a restful night. Finally called Chris at 6am, who told me to check the sensors into the tranny, and that it didn't sound like actual tranny problems. I crawled under there, and sure enough, one of the wires in the drivers side sensor had corroded, and was pulling out of the actual plug - The first of the corrosion-related problems I was to face.
This narrative needs a paragraph break...
Chris' work was good, it was just all the crappy plugs that connected the tranny to the rest of the rig that was the problem. I sorta pushed the wire back in, which got it to shift a bit better (for a while), and headed off down the road, looking for a Ford dealership to buy a new plug, and hopefully get the tranny codes to clear. Saw a ford dealership outside of Memphis, they got me the part # for the 12-prong plug, sent me to the parts distributer where I could pick it up, and then off to a Lowes parking lot, where I could get the wire tools to swap out the sensor plug. An hour under the van, all hooked up, and shifting pretty good - Not perfect, but enough to get somewhere down the road to someone who could clear the tranny code. Once I got on the road, however, it was running great at hiway speeds, and I just kept making time west. Slept outside of Oaklohama City at a proper cheap hotel this time, had a sleep of exhaustion, woke up refreshed and feeling much better about the whole thing.
Next big town was Amarillo, stopped at the Ford dealer to check out and clear the codes. Turns out my replaced plug was fine, but the OTHER sensor was all jacked up now, and of course the part was two days out. ******? The teck in back agreed to just use a glob of silicon to hold the sensor in place until I could get home. We also agreed that the truck was hemmoraging oil, but the level still showed good on the dip stick. I thank them, give them $100 for the diagnostic work, and set off again, this time north from Amarillo towards Colorado. I get started, and now the engine is surging, and wont idle right! what did they do to my engine? I turn around, head back into town, and making the final turn onto the dealers street, I manage to rearend a truck in front of me. ******! Of course, no damage to the aluminess, but put a pretty good crease in the bumper and tailgate of the truck I hit. I'm starting to not like Amarillo... Exchange insurance info, and get to the dealer. Dealer takes the truck in back again, and states the oil leaks are causing the surging, since one of the leaks is at the oil sensor, and the injectors run off of oil pressure. Again, parts are a day out, and there is no freakin' way I am spending another minute longer in Amarillo that I need to. We agree that just keeping it totally full of oil should mask the problem for a little while, and I get the hell out of town.
Landed in Greenville, SC the Sunday after Christmas, Chris picked me up at the airport in Vanaconda, pretty easy to tell when he pulled up the the passenger pickup, that truck just looms over everything around. Had a weeks worth of cloths, a bag of ski gear, and three pairs of skis. I wanted to be well into Colorado by Tuesday night, so I was hoping to get a good start on Sunday. At Chris' shop, got the first view of AmboVan in all it's glory, it's big! Probably an hour of getting the lowdown on the work done, brief test drive, brief tour of the new shop, and pow, out on the road. I think both Chris and I were a bit leery of starting out on such a big trip, when there had been a bit of a scramble to get the conversion done on time (see earlier posts about getting the new lift in the shop, etc.) With a few warnings about checking the tranny fluid as I drive, since it had really had no miles on it since the rebuild, off I went. First issue is that big storm to hit the Northeast dipped down into SC, and I was into heavy weather almost right off the bat. Locked the hubs, and was down to 25 MPH on I-40 as I headed towards Knoxville. In the worst of the weather, I started having tranny probs, too late at night to call Chris, and I started freaking out that I had already ruined the rebuild, finally stopped for the night outside of Knoxville, decided to sleep in the van since I thought I might have to buy another tranny the next day, and even with all my ski gear on, I froze my *** off - This was interspersed with starting the engine to warm up, and freaking out about Carbon Monoxide poisioning - Not exactly a restful night. Finally called Chris at 6am, who told me to check the sensors into the tranny, and that it didn't sound like actual tranny problems. I crawled under there, and sure enough, one of the wires in the drivers side sensor had corroded, and was pulling out of the actual plug - The first of the corrosion-related problems I was to face.
This narrative needs a paragraph break...
Chris' work was good, it was just all the crappy plugs that connected the tranny to the rest of the rig that was the problem. I sorta pushed the wire back in, which got it to shift a bit better (for a while), and headed off down the road, looking for a Ford dealership to buy a new plug, and hopefully get the tranny codes to clear. Saw a ford dealership outside of Memphis, they got me the part # for the 12-prong plug, sent me to the parts distributer where I could pick it up, and then off to a Lowes parking lot, where I could get the wire tools to swap out the sensor plug. An hour under the van, all hooked up, and shifting pretty good - Not perfect, but enough to get somewhere down the road to someone who could clear the tranny code. Once I got on the road, however, it was running great at hiway speeds, and I just kept making time west. Slept outside of Oaklohama City at a proper cheap hotel this time, had a sleep of exhaustion, woke up refreshed and feeling much better about the whole thing.
Next big town was Amarillo, stopped at the Ford dealer to check out and clear the codes. Turns out my replaced plug was fine, but the OTHER sensor was all jacked up now, and of course the part was two days out. ******? The teck in back agreed to just use a glob of silicon to hold the sensor in place until I could get home. We also agreed that the truck was hemmoraging oil, but the level still showed good on the dip stick. I thank them, give them $100 for the diagnostic work, and set off again, this time north from Amarillo towards Colorado. I get started, and now the engine is surging, and wont idle right! what did they do to my engine? I turn around, head back into town, and making the final turn onto the dealers street, I manage to rearend a truck in front of me. ******! Of course, no damage to the aluminess, but put a pretty good crease in the bumper and tailgate of the truck I hit. I'm starting to not like Amarillo... Exchange insurance info, and get to the dealer. Dealer takes the truck in back again, and states the oil leaks are causing the surging, since one of the leaks is at the oil sensor, and the injectors run off of oil pressure. Again, parts are a day out, and there is no freakin' way I am spending another minute longer in Amarillo that I need to. We agree that just keeping it totally full of oil should mask the problem for a little while, and I get the hell out of town.
