So now the trip.
Pre-trip: I arrived and met up with my co-driver, best friend, and trucks mechanic Nathan. We spent the hours the night before doing last minute things. Replacing a snapped speedo cable, installing a new radio, fixing the antenna mount, mounting a full-size spare, gathering tools. After all that we set off home for a few hours rest before leaving at 7am. Right after leaving, the idle was suddenly at 1200-1300. There’s the hiccup for the drive! Adjusted that, and we are good to go.
Hitting the road early, we headed towards Chattanooga. Ran great for a while, but then about 2 hours in the first problem arose. The PCV tube split and blew off, sending oil all over the engine bay. Additionally, it hiccupped and seemed to miss under any load. So, we took off down the road to the closest advance auto parts. Luckily, there was a big jeep park in town, so they had parts in stock. Dizzy cap and rotor replaced. PCV is an unobtanium part, so we Gerry-rigged something there. Took back off, made it 15 miles down the road. Oil smoking bad. Pull off, and into a sketchy parking lot. Oil everywhere, this time out the oil cap. No parts stores in this town, and none down the road. Well, backtracking to the last parts store. Then back off we go! 20 miles down this time… more smoke. We stop, looking for anything. Valve cover is fine. PCV isn’t plugged. Nothing out the oil cap. Wait… the dipstick is sticking up. Its been blowing out there since we replaced the distributer cap. Success! Let’s hit the road. Also, another random breakage at this point- the passenger door no longer opens from the outside.
Nashville comes, lots of traffic. No issues! Post Nashville… missing is back. We pull off and grab lunch. We start calling local shops and figuring out what it could be. Comes down to coil, or fuel pump. Nobody has a coil in stock nearby. Closest is Cookeville, and they have one right now! Great! We take off and install it. Not a mile down, it misses again. Fuel pump it is.
So, we go back, return the coil, and buy a pump. Heading out to a corner of the lot, we unload the tools. I had to buy a jack, and we got the old pump/sending unit out in less than 15 minutes. The joys of side-mount sending units (more on this to come). The PO had this replaced at some point and used any old pump. This thing was LOUD, overpowered the engine and exhaust. And huge, bigger than the Wipro on my Chevelle. Zipties are wonderous. We got it installed, and she started up after a coil adjustment (Pins out of alignment, no spark). Off we went! At this point, it was 6:30. Nathan wanted to keep going and drive through the night to Branson. I said we should stop for the night when it got dark- especially with the issues of the day. We ended up in Paducah, KY. 15 hours driving, we made it 5 hours into the trip.
Day 2:
Started well enough. Got up, had breakfast, went to the gas station. Filled up. And there’s the mistake. Dumping fuel everywhere. The sending unit gasket let go. Which means that anything over ½ will leak out immediately, and anything near that level will leak when sloshing over bumps, turns, and hills. So now we have 3 options: 1) Try to fix. Reuse the old, possibly damaged, gasket. The same one we fought with for 2 hours yesterday. 2) Drive as-is, and gas up ever 50 miles. Unknown what gas stations lie ahead. And how long that will take. 3) Tow it and know we will make it on time. Those of you that were in Branson know which option we took. We picked up a Penske truck, and towed it the rest of the way, and back home. Why a 22-foot truck? It was the ONLY one in the state. Budget and Ryder had nothing until Saturday. U-Haul was too expensive. Penske had that, and gave it at the 16-foot cost. At least it was a diesel.
Finally, we made it out, and I gotta say- you all are amazing people. Wish we could have stayed longer, but we had our buddy’s wedding Saturday in SC. We would be dead men if we missed that!
The drive back was… Long. But uneventful.
Sunday, we put the truck on the lift, and installed the NEW fuel gasket. It took longer to empty the emergency jerry-can than it did to replace that gasket. The wonders of not having to lie under the car. We also were able to swap out the 22-foot truck for a 16-foot for my drive back to New York (and only 11k on it. New by rental standards!).
I left GA Monday afternoon, goal to stop in VA for the night. The drive went slow. Heavy rain as soon as I hit the GA border. Knoxville had bad traffic. And then VA mountains at night are terrifying when you haven’t ever towed before. Finally, I hit the hotel. Literally. Eventually got that sorted out and parked for the night. Time to sleep! Until the 3:30 fire alarm. Bastards.
In the morning, I gassed up, and noticed I had a very low tire. I went to air up, and… nothing. Would not take any air. Had to call Penske roadside, and wait an hour for Wes, god of tires to show up and change the flat. It had about 15psi left, and he told me if I drove on it, it would have popped a bead with the first hardish turn or bump. After that, the trip home went smooth (In terms of breakage, not northeast roads).
Finally, after three years of ownership, and a week of roadkill, zip=tied, Gerry-rigged madness, I had the truck home.
Despite everything, I wouldn’t change the past week. I spent an awesome roadtrip with one of the best friends a guy could ask for. I met some of the best auto parts store workers, who offered help and didn’t care at all about dumping fluids all over their parking lots. In Branson, the motorpoolers were amazing. I couldn’t stop smiling. I had never seen a JP Jeep before this, so it was awesome. Tyler was the first guy I talked to from the group, and he set one hell of a standard! And everyone else hit it! Nate and I can’t wait for next time, when his Comanche JP07 will join in (Both towed next time…). For those of you that I got to talk with, you made the trip worth every second. For those I didn’t, Thanks for letting me share in the festivities! For Ari, Thanks for all you did for this event, the group, and the hobby.
I am used to getting looks when I drive my cars- my mustang stands out to some people. The 69 Chevelle stands out in a crowd too. Even my old crown Vic had looks. But nothing compared to the Jeep. Driving it, so many people were taking pictures, gawking, and giving thumbs up. A biker went nuts at a light the Sunday after. Every gas stop, somebody wanted to take a picture. Be it on its own, or on the trailer. Towing home, I caused backups from passing cars stopping for photos while driving. And once home, I didn’t even make it off the trailer before the neighbors and their kids came for a look. Yes, they took pictures sitting in the truck. And the look on those boys faces made the past week worth it. They didn’t care it wasn’t an Explorer or a Wrangler. It was a Jurassic Jeep.
What’s next? Fixing things, detail work, and driving it. This is far from the end. This is only the beginning.
