We Have Liftoff ( finally! )

12-15-14 and more thru 12-17-14

We got back to our rig from the motel on Monday 12-15-14 about 1130hrs. Robert was working, intently, on the rig. He had removed the broken engine and had it's replacement installed.( his sister and brother in law, Jason helped him ) He still had to reconnect & install all the accessory components like oil cooler lines and radiator and electrical stuff. It's a lot to me. We decided to stay there til it was done. He kept very busy til about 6PM and was hoping to finish up in the morning.

Bright and early Tuesday he was back at it. Had a problem with the oil cooler lines yesterday, found a cracked spot on one and they definitely needed to be replaced and we had to order new ones. They came into the parts store about noon and Robert went and picked them up. $123 later he found out that they had the wrong fittings on one end so back to the supplier to get that fixed. Did I tell ya my blood pressure takes a rise over this kinda stuff? All of these “ glitches “ eat up time and money. I'm old enough to remember when we ordered a part years ago, it was right the first time. Nowadays, I'll bet 50% of the time you gotta go back to fix it again. Is it just me? Do any of my blog readers have that kind of luck ? Ha ha ha ha !! Oh well !!

Wednesday 12-17-14-- Here we go again at 0800. Robert was in high gear today. I don't blame him ! He's gotten to the point of apologizing for the time this is taking ! I've helped a little and so I've been seeing him being very fussy and meticulous. I told him to not stress out as we don't have any place to be. I think he's been takeing time off from his normal job to get this done. He's quite sure this will be done today. Ms. Heather and I have been trying to help where we could. Not much but we did do a few things to assist him. We poured all the oil and anti freeze from the old engine into gallon jugs for later recycling, picked up and cleaned tools, handed tools to Robert, put oil & antifreeze in the new engine and other trivial things. Finally at 5PM we were ready to start the engine. GRRRRR !! NOTHING !! Here we go again in the dark. After a bit of trouble shooting it was determined that the ignition feed from the starting circuit wasn't getting any voltage to the starter solenoid. Off to the parts store went Robert. He decided to run a new wire to the solenoid. Another hour ! When he got back about 630PM with the parts I wanted to call it quits for the night because it was pretty cool, but OH NOOOO, not Robert !! Down under the rig he went with trouble lights. He disconnected the solenoid wire from the starter and connected the new wire and ran it to jumper around our suspected bad wire. “OKAY”, lets try this startup again ! After a few tense minutes and some sprays of starting fluid the engine came to life !! YAHOO !! We ran it for awhile and it sounds real good. Ran it up long enough to check for leaks and get some temperature showing. The only adjustment was to tighten up an exhaust gasket clamp.This part of the job is fun !! Robert was grinning from ear to ear too !!

Whenever you buy a used engine you never know for sure how it will run. I've had engines completely rebuilt and I've bought used engines in the past and I've had better luck with the used ones.

I won't judge this engine until we put on some miles. We're figuring on staying in the area for a least a few weeks and run around a bit so we can rebuild our confidence in our power plant.

Robert goes back to his primary job tomorrow. Ms. Heather & I have a few wrap up chores to do in the AM. We have to put the front plastic and bumper back on, which will take a couple of hours. Gotta put tools and misc. away. I'll make final & permanent connections of the new wire. Planning on being back at our RVcamp in the afternoon. Gonna have one good Happy Hour tomorrow and a good hot shower if all goes well !!!

Our fixit spot hosts, Jason & Jessica ( Roberts sister) have been wonderful ! I'm so grateful they let this repair happen in their yard. They are wonderful folks. I made sure to donate some $$$ to them too! Robert and I squared up and I made sure to include a good tip too. There was no way I could justify our agreed upon price. He's sure been a “ guardian angel “ to us. ( did I mention my Craigslist ad found him?? ) I'm also grateful that the weather has been agreeable for the project. ( can you imagine if we had been up North instead of in South Alabama ??) Thank You God !

REMEMBER, LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY !!!

Charlie & Heather