Ah.. Talk about a weekend that couldn't have possibly been worse...
We planed a "go get the Deuce / Take the Pinzgauer / go hunting trip" this past weekend.... It should have been called a "dehydrate / feed the mosquitoes / OD destruction / have a heart attack trip"....
We were going to Orlando Friday afternoon... The Pinzgauer was loaded on a tilt trailer, I had to rebuild the axle, rewire, re light, and re tag the trailer for the trip... That took about 4 hours Friday AM to get done and though later than we wanted we got on our way at about 345pm... 10 minutes into the ride we turned around to flip the hitch on the truck because we didn't like the ride... 10 miles later we stopped to shift the Pinz forward to put more weight on the ass of the truck... Thats when we noticed the tongue cracking... *sigh*...
We off loaded the Pinz and headed for the next exit.. Mind you its 93+ degrees that day and I was exhausted between setting up the trailer and running like an idiot as was... Going back to reweld something that someone else didn't do right was at the bottom of the list... So... I decided that driving the Pinz up was going to be better than going back, rewelding and hitting 5PM traffic with a loaded trailer... So onward we went...
20 miles later I have lights flashing behind me... My friend whom is following... *sigh*... I call him on his cell screaming my brain out (you think a Deuce is loud on the highway, try a Pinz)... I have a oil leak... So off the road I go... (Southern Blvd, I waved hi Ken)... Another rear axle leak.... which was just fixed mind you... At this point I am coming up with new cuss words not yet invented...
Again we turn around... 10 miles later the rear end locks up at 65 miles and hour... The ass of the truck passed the front and it was sideways down two lanes on the Turnpike... After somewhat straightening it and getting it off the road without rolling end over end or hitting anyone I calmly picked the vinyl from the seat out of my butt crack... When the wheel locked up it was pure suction keeping me planted in the seat, not a seat belt!!! The rear pinion brake had seized, one of the friction plates came unriveted and lodged itself between the disc's which in turn locked up one of the rear tires... Fun.. Fun... Fun... I thought I was dead... my friend whom got to watch the whole thing thought so too... After beating the snot out of the brake linkage and getting it freed up we got the truck (renamed you piece of $hit) back to the shop, dropped the broken trailer and again headed back north at 630pm... and don't get me wrong... After almost a year of having a Pinzgauer I think they are proably one of the best off road vehicles (if not THE best) ever made... However... asphalt is a whole different story...
We got to Orlando at about 10pm (my dads place)... Spent the night out in the woods... My buddy hunted... I laid in a hammock feeding the misquotes (due to forgetting my tent earlier that day while loading everything) and tried to sleep...
The next morning I got up debating on even driving to get the Deuce... Seems sliding sideways in a MV does wonders for OD fever... After discussing it we decided that there was no way today could be as bad as yesterday, however... Maybe it was better to go get it and drive it across Orlando to where we were hunting and THEN try for the 200 miles home... So we drove the 60 miles to my friends place to pick the beast up...
Fluid check... tire check... off we went... damn what a great feeling driving that down the road... ran like a top with 30 gallons of fresh diesel poured over the old stuff in the tank... Stopped to check it over again after about 40 miles... things seemed to be going right today!!! A few hours later after getting back to the old mans place and having everyone poke around at it I noticed my front diff housing was wet... hu? ... Further digging and I found my head gasket leak was back, only this time it was there to stay... *gurrrrr*
Just to set the back ground for this... I HAD it at a huge shop with air, tools, heavy equipment, etc... now I am on a farm in the dirt 2 miles off of the nearest paved road and 20 miles from the nearest store with a well planed but limited set of tools... I proably could have made it back down south with a lot of stopping and refilling the radiator but I figured it better to leave it be and pull the heads... So... while my buddy went chasing after pigs... I was up till 1 am feeding the mosquitoes again while turning wrenches in the dark with a flash light...
Sunday morning... I have no swivel sockets so the driver side head bolts were near impossible... an hour of driving to the nearest auto parts and a stop for Advil and coffee I got back and pulled the heads and manifolds off using 2 come'alongs hooked to the rafters of a pole barn (2 minutes later a fork lift showed up to help)... Saying "Irony" calmly is just the sarcastic way of expressing ones self v/s screaming the F'word at the top of your lungs while your father is clicking away with his camera capturing your whole little event for historical photographic evidence.
So... all said and done with the head loaded up in the back of the truck we headed home... Stopping at a pizza joint we cleared the room... 2 guys... one whom had a pig in the cooler and the other covered in grease, mud and mosquito bites... both whom have not showered in 2.5 days... It was fun... gotta do that again!!!
About the head gaskets... In a earlier posting I had said that it started leaking coolant when I first got the truck cranked up... Then stopped about 2 mins later... I had guessed storage and old style head gaskets and fully planed on changing them as soon as I got the truck home mostly because I wanted them shaven at a shop that knew what they were doing... After sending them to the machine shop and getting them back today the heads were both warped (see pics) in the same direction... One had to have .007 removed... the other .009... If I remember correctly the TM calls for them to be within .002 so I was .005 and .007 out... The TM also says not to go over .005 when surfacing... I am playing stupid on this one... I doubt the .002 and .004 over will make a difference... What is interesting is that both heads were warped in the same direction with the ends bowed upward... which is where I had my coolant leak and on each end there was slight, but noticeable oil seepage from the gasket running downward... Just a hunch but I would say this bowing is proably due to the head shape and is proably why most of the Deuces I have seen and worked on leak in the front, middle and back of the engines.
Anyways... Pinz parts are coming... Deuce parts are coming and oh by the way... I didn't mention that my leather seats came in... AAA Cooper broke the packing open and put a fork through the passenger seat for me... Something else to deal with!!!! *ugh*... Im thinking its become OD flu... not fever...
