The Jeep's First Grown Up Trip

I’m back from the beach, oh glorious beach. The weather was perfect.

I decided to take the Jeep down to the beach for several reasons. Mainly the diesel burning truck is still hooked up to the RV from last Monday, but secondly, I have never taken the Jeep on a long trip of four hours away from home.

Lastly, diesel has spiked here at as high as $4.39 a gallon. I figured I would rather burn gasoline at $3.33 a gallon because they both get about the same mileage.

Really, the main reason I took the Jeep is the Jeep is looking bitchen’ all shiny and red with the trim work on. I wanted to see if it would turn some heads and it did. I saw people staring at my hard work and it made me proud.

The Jeep has a 10 gallon tank and has a variable MPG of anywhere from 16 to 19 MPG. It also has an inaccurate gas gauge. So after 120 miles tops I start looking for gas. I have run out of gas in this Jeep three times for guessing the wrong mileage.

I felt like I was in a fighter jet and needed a fueling tanker following me. Down in the eastern part of NC gets mighty scarce of anything civilized like gas stations.

The gas cap handle broke in my hand from sheer fatigue after about my 6th fill up in two days.

On my second fill up about 150 miles from home I noticed a slight hissing under the hood. I looked and saw a tiny pinhole leak at the top of the radiator. I decided to push on since the leak was so small.

Finally the turn signals stopped working this morning. I used hand signals all the way back. I almost forgot about hand signals…how quaint.

Other than all of that, the Jeep made it just fine. I was no more fatigued that usual although the noise gets annoying after 4 hours.

Today I went by NAPA and bought a gas cap (the wrong size), a rely switch for the turn signal (it didn’t fix the problem), and a couple of tubes of J-B Weld to fix the radiator leak. I hope this works.

I checked the fuse behind the relay and it is okay. Any ideas on what may be wrong with my turn signal smart people?

8 comments:

Ken said...

The J-B Weld should work for the radiator. Make sure you scratch to bare metal.
Electrics are my weak link, did you check all the connectors on your turn signals? Maybe give them a little scratch with some sandpaper.

Don't you just love road trips for TRUE adventure?

Anonymous said...

Glad you had a good time!

My high school boyfriend used to work at a service station. A woman once came in and asked what she had to do because her signals were no longer working. He told her she just needed to refill the signal fluid.

Yeah, he was a schmuck.

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

Terri...I really did LOL. That is funny.

Micky, I scratched it down good and cleaned it.

I'll most likely show up at my mechanic friends house tomorrow with my dog Cedie. He'll start scratching her and making goo goo sounds and I'll ask the question. Then he'll worry about the dog and trouble shoot the problem.

Damn, I sound like a woman.

Ali said...

I'm not sure what to do about the signal thing, but I would love to have seen the jeep looking all hot, and you using your hand signals.
Funny man :)

none said...

Sounds like a fun trip.

Check the fuse for the signals.

JB weld does not work on radiators because of the repeated heating and cooling. It just falls off after a while.

You can get a small coleman hand held brazing torch and a brass rod at the hardware store and fill that hole for under 20 bucks.

TerryC said...

Sounds like all the cosmetic surgery you did, didn't make it a better machine....hmmm...go figure.

Maybe we should start calling it "Timmy" again?

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

Under the hood has a motor with 253,000 miles with a rebuild 70,000 miles ago. Apparently the rebuild didn't included much more that the cylinders, rings, carburetor, and whatever bare essentials.

Just because he is beautiful he is no reason to go back to Timmy.

I must now nurture this old fellow.

Anonymous said...

Well, I'd say your next upgrade should be a couple of beefy metal jerry cans hanging off the back, so you can double your fuel capacity.

If the radiator leak is a very small pinhole, there are some radiator sealant products claiming to fix small leaks, but I've never had any experience with them.

I've just been dealing with signal and brake light issues myself, on the Pumpkin. Both turned out to be related to the bulbs, even though the bulb filaments were OK. The contacts on the signal bulb are a little worn, and possibly the spring in the socket too, so it periodically loses contact and goes out. I take the lense off and wiggle it around, and it comes back to life.

The brake lamp was more trouble. One of the wires had come loose (it may be a ground, not sure, they're such a mess back there). Some DPO had done a crappy job of installing the fixtures, water was leaking in and filling up inside the lense, so it was getting rusty and messy in the socket too. I got it all cleaned up and wired, put back together and thought it worked, but only the taillight did, still no brakelight. Turned out one of the little nubs on the side of the bulb, that hold it in position, had broken off, so the bulb wasn't getting a good connection. I stole... uh, borrowed, one from the green rover and it works now. :)

On the other hand, Dave the Rover Guru says 90% of all electrical problems are because of faulty grounds. Have you checked your grounds?