Wild Adventure

Boring Car Stuff...

If I bored you with the corn grinder post, you should be fully satisfied after reading this post.

I was getting multiple things done on the computer yesterday morning and was feeling like I was making progress. I was going to chill out for the afternoon before going to a Christmas dinner at Pastor Rob and Patti's house at 6 PM. At 11:30 AM, I got a call from Pastor Rob and he asked me if I wanted to go on a trip. Always willing, I said "Yes, what do you have?" He told me that Mr. Kyrk had a problem. He did not hit a cow this time. The truck's front, upper, driver's side A-arm came apart and punctured the oil filter. The truck was DOA on the side of the road about 4-5 hours away. They sent one of the Haitian guys they were with to go see if they could get a new oil filter and find a mechanic to replace the bolts. My mission: To try to find the right bolt by bringing a bunch that should fit (one bolt was missing and the other was stripped out) and bring an oil filter.

I have been doing a lot of oil changes lately and have not been so good about throwing them out (probably because I have been so used to recycling that stuff instead of throwing it away). We had no new oil filters, but did have one used filter sitting near where I change oil, so I grabbed that. Pastor Rob was deciding what vehicle to take (what was left for the day was NOT the cream of the crop for vehicles). He suggested taking a newer Nissan Patrol that is sort of a prized possession here. I thought it was a good idea (of course because it's a nice, new, cushy vehicle). We gassed it up and I asked if it would be OK if I drove instead of one of the Haitian drivers we have. He didn't see a problem with it. Mr. Jeff is the driver that came with. Of course Carter wanted to go, so I let him come with, too. That made: Mr. Jeff, Carter and Me in the truck.

We started driving and I called Mr. Kyrk after about an hour to see what's up. He told me that they found an oil filter and some bolts that would go through the hole with nuts on the other side. (By the way, I very much dislike the way Ford designed the front suspension setup, but I won't get into that here). He was on his way back and he told me to meet him at the Mission's beach house which is 2-3 hours away from the Mission.

We arrived there and I called Mr. Kyrk. He told me that he was about an hour away. So what do you do at a beach house with an extra hour of time on your hands - go swimming of course. Carter and I stripped down to our boxers and took a nice swim (making sure to look out for sea urchins and jellyfish). Mr. Jeff went to one of the guys who stays at the property (not at the house) and borrowed some of his swim shorts.



Our time was up - Mr. Kyrk called and we got packed up and waited along the road by the entrance to the property. He came and they had to fill up with oil every so often and they topped it off before we took off. The "cow catcher" from the Landcruiser was in the back of their truck because they picked it up after leaving it at a pastor's house - they had no room to bring it back with it not mounted after hitting the cow earlier in the week. The cow catcher was wearing a rather large size hole in the paint on the outside of the bed - oh well...what to do?

We got about two-thirds of the way back when their truck started to smoke from underneath. Then it started to really smoke. I mean REALLY smoke.

Picture a Ford Ranger.

Picture a large white billowy cloud in the sky.

That's what the truck turned into (only it wasn't in the sky). The engine was racing and the smoke was pouring out. After a couple seconds, Mr. Kyrk comes running out and away from the truck with something in his hand. It's the key. The truck was still running (i.e., RACING) and the key was out. And the smoke was pouring oil. The engine had a mind of it's own and was revving really high and then slows down. Revs really high and then slows down. We were trying to think of what to do. I toss out the suggestion of pulling fuses thinking that we'll pull one that stops the fuel pump or something. We pulled a couple and nothing. By now there was about 50+ people that came to watch our show (we should have charged admission so we can pay for repairs). One guy from the crowd came and jumped in the drivers seat. He put the car in 3rd gear and popped the clutch - the engine finally died. (Note to self: when stuck in Haiti or anywhere else with a manual transmission vehicle, with an engine that continues to run wildly, without the key in the ignition, while it is smoking so profusely you can't see your hand in front of your face, kill the engine with the transmission - I never claimed to be a know-it all mechanic, but now I know yet one more thing - I feel humbled).

As God would have it, this all happened in a fairly safe area. We did go through an area where we were called by the lead truck and told to lock our doors. This was not that area. Where we stopped, we were able to get a tow strap to tow the vehicle back (we bought it without delay on the spot - how's that for quick delivery Christmas shopping). That was the good news. The bad news was that it was a short strap. If you have ever towed a vehicle (and I have towed a lot - right Mr. Dorr?), you know that a strap on the longer side is better than one on the shorter side so the person being towed can have time to brake and the person doing the towing can see the strap to know when there is slack.

We started to go and Mr. Kyrk called me on my cell phone to tell me that his brakes don't work very well (because the engine wasn't running there was no vacuum assist) - go slow.

I don't have a whole lot of detail here, but just know that if Haitian traffic isn't bad enough with the poor, narrow roads and all the possible distractions, imagine doing it at night, in rush-hour like traffic, while towing with a short strap, without good brakes in the towed vehicle, up a mountain while using the parking brake so you don't roll back when letting off the brake (I could have used a third leg), while trying to search for the right combination of gear, speed and power, and a whole mess of other things. There were a couple times where I thought I was going to hit another vehicle on the side of the road or coming towards me (and some of them were large dump trucks). There were a few times where I thought Mr. Kyrk was going to have a reverse impression of the Nissan logo on top of the Ford logo. We did have a couple of rough jerks with the strap, but all in all it went very well (considering). Mr. Kyrk is a great driver with lots of mechanical sense - he made sure that tension was on the rope as much as possible and did everything right (he knows A LOT more than just that - this part of what he knew made it a bit easier to do the towing).

We got the truck back to mission without further mishap - for that, I am very thankful. We even got to start eating our Christmas dinner with everyone before they all had finished eating. Now it's Sunday. The Lord's Day. The day of rest. Then comes Monday - the day to try to figure out what happened. I have a few ideas for where I want to start looking. There is certainly no shortage of work here.