Had a fun road trip with Joseph down to Logan, Ut to join the Novak 50th Anniversary event.
Getting ready to roll out-
Saw this at the local Country Store getting fuel on the way out of town. For the asking price, I was wondering where the rest of the Jeep was...
Rolling through the lava flows near the Ice Cave in Southern Idaho.
About 35 miles south of home, we started to get into the blanket of smoke from all the wild fires burning in Idaho.
After a couple of hours of motoring along in the Southern Idaho desert in 100 degree temps, my wagon started to show signs of fuel starvation... We stopped a couple of times to fiddle with the carb, which seemed to help a bit, but the symptoms would return after a few miles.
Losing power, and only able to go about 40-45mph, I finally pulled over and decided it must be a plugged fuel filter. I have three of them on the wagon, one right at the tank, another that is on the electric fuel pump inlet, and another at the inlet to the mechanical pump. I changed the two at the rear when I installed the electric pump about a week ago, and all was fine. I also left the mechanical fuel pump in the loop, figuring that the electric pump would push through it.
We pulled the fuel filter at the engine, despite the wicked temps of the exhaust manifold... I burned my thumb with a quick brush of the hot manifold trying to reach the filter. I put on some gloves to help, and got the filter off. The pressure on the line (as indicated on my pressure regulator) didn't release when I pulled the filter.
The filter was mostly plugged, so I replaced it with a new one. Then, pulled off the fuel line into the mechanical pump. The mech pump was holding the pressure, and not letting fuel through to the carb. It had gotten so hot that it was boiling the fuel anyway, despite the electric pump's efforts. We re-routed the fuel line directly from the electric supply to the carb, and hit the road. The engine ran better than it has in years, more power and no hesitation from the heat soaked mechanical pump.
Me wincing at the heat cooking my arms...
We took back roads and frontage roads to avoid the interstate. One section was dirt, connecting two two-lane highways.
I had never been this route before, and the valley south of American Falls to Malad was really nice. Motoring along a rural two lane road through the farmlands was a treat despite the smoke.
We rolled in to Logan just in time to get in line for the "Technical" trail ride. We weren't planning on doing this trail, but got there just in time so we decided to go for it.
This was the only other Willys in attendance that wasn't an early CJ. It is sitting on a Jeep JK frame and running gear.
We headed up Logan Canyon to the trail head, and Joseph's fuel pump started having issues... It seemed like it was going to be ok, so we kept going. After a couple of miles up the trail, it quit completely.
We got it turned around, and coasted back down to the trail head.
We let everyone go on, and decided to try and get it fixed before the parts places closed for the day. We drove my wagon back to town, found a new pump, and took it back up to Joe's wagon.
Once Joseph got the old pump out, we discovered that the fittings on the new pump wouldn't work with the fittings on the wagon... So, we put it back together with the old pump and decided to try and limp it the 20 or so miles back to town.
Since the old pump had cooled down for a couple of hours, it started working fine. It didn't give us any trouble the rest of the trip. I think it got so heat soaked in the stop and go traffic in Logan on the way out that it gave up. Once cold, it was fine.
Have tools, will travel...
Friday early, we were back at Novak for the morning trail run. Most of the Jeeps there were modified late model rigs, totally capable of anything. My wagon looked a little out of place...
This Gladiator nose JK pickup has rear steer.
One of the nice CJ's that went along for the trail ride.
Hanging with the big dogs...
Out on the trail, there were around 20 Jeeps that did the run.
Joseph bringing up the rear.
More in the next post-
Pete