Long Weekend - and fuel pumps...Author: jawapro
Date: Mon 01/11/2010 08:35 PM
Now that’s a good long weekend!
Saturday was spent helping the Coles’s move house. Can’t say it was overly fun - but it was productive at least. After that, the day ended with a Nerf war at Tim’s and a movie.
My Longstrike has been modded now. Shoots almost as awesomely as it looks! Still not as good as a Longshot in terms of distance, but it’s a fantastic all round gun, and looks better than any other Nerf.
While we were at Tim’s we used an air cannon to shoot apples at trees (knocked great chunks out of the tree) and to clear blocked drains. I’ll post some video when I get a copy.
The next day, after church, Tim decided to head bush to try out his new bulbar.
After driving over his own bulbar on the highway last time we’d gone, he’d ripped it off and attached a bit of pipe to the font of his bus. Tested it by running into trees - it’s nice and tough.
Little deeper than I really wanted - but the bottom was solid so there was no risk of stopping. Could do with some extra clearance though.
Jason’s Snuffy might be scared of scratches, but it had a breeze on this sort of going. Everything was soft - so no damage to the paintwork.
Remember a few posts back where I went out to the Great Bend? Well, we were back, but this time it was under water. Where Tim’s maverick is turning around is normally a parking area, now it’s part of the river.
Now this is where things went south.
It was a steep hillclimb, that Tim drove up first. Next went Jason. I was last, and due to a combination of bottoming out on the ruts, and a lack of grip on my tyres, didn’t make it all the way. I was sooo close. Nick backed Tim’s Maverick up to give me a slight tug, and then I’d be away.
Remember how my Pajero had issues starting last week? We’d traced it to a dying fuel pump, but decided to see if it kept doing it before we replaced it. Well, it did it twice during the trip, and both times kicking the fuel tank bought it back to life. But on this hill it died for good.
My car stalled, and wouldn’t start. So Nick was trying to tow a dead weight up the hill, which was never going to work. Jason turned around and tried to winch us both up. Started out ok, until the Maverick died too. Like my car, it had lost fuel. Jason tried to winch both dead cars - but that was asking too much of poor old Snuffy.
The hill might not look steep in that photo, but check out the angle of the trees out my window.
I was stuck in the car, with my foot firmly on the brake, so I couldn’t get any better photos.
Eventually we gave up, and backed down the slope very slowly. It’s not fun doing it in reverse with no brake or steering boost (engine not running).
Tim and Jason were my eyes as we backed down, and eventually we made it. Then they left to help guide the Maverick down, while I tried to get Oscar going again.
No matter how I kicked the fuel tank (I’d read about this on the net, it normally gets the pump working again) it wouldn’t start. I took the back apart to get at the inspection point, but even tapping the pump on top wouldn’t get it going again. She was dead good and proper.
The Maverick finally arrived at the bottom of the hill, and once on the level it was able to get some juice into the lines and started again. Mine would have too if the pump hadn’t died.
So once again Jason came to the rescue and towed me back to Tim’s place. Tim would have, but he was running on fumes, and high-tailed it out to a petrol station to make sure he’d make it back.
On Monday, Repco was open (thankfully) and I bought myself a new fuel pump. Between Tim, Dad, and myself, we got the new pump installed, and Oscar was away. Ok, ok, so it was mainly Tim and Dad, but I did what I could.
With Oscar running again, I went for a shake-down with Mum, Emma, and Dad (he had his Maverick - a cleaner and straighter version of Tim’s).
We headed back to Brushy lagoon, and to an old Copper Mine site. Sadly I didn’t take any decent photos today.
Oscar seems ok again, aside from a bit of a noise in the front diff somewhere. Well, that’s something to break next time - can’t have it going for too many trips without a breakdown now can we?
It was a nice day to spend with the family, and to celebrate Emma’s birthday which is in a couple of days, but she’ll be in the wrong end of the state.
So it may have been exciting, and involved fixing my car once again, but I think it was an awesome way to spent a long weekend.
Thanks for the tow home Jason - that’s two now...
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