We were driving back from Barra de la Cruz, when we heard a
small pop come from the engine compartment, followed by a loud squealing sound
and the smell of burning rubber. Quickly slowing to a halt on the side of Hwy
200, Mexico’s version of PCH, I popped the hood. As I stepped down from BIG
Blue, I could feel the blistering heat of the midday sun on my shoulders. Opening the hood, I was forced to hold my breath as a plume of burnt rubber waged war on my
nostrils. Peering into the engine
compartment, I bare witness to the mess we now faced, all four of our belts were
no longer in their original state or positions on their pulleys. Two were absolutely shredded and wrapped around the fan; one
twisted over on itself and the smallest one was miraculously still intact,
although somehow managed to make its way to the other side of the engine
compartment. What a cluster F@*$!!!
After gathering my thoughts, which consisted of "Thank god we have an entire spare set of belts" (thanks to Diesel Doug and Mikey for suggesting this one) and having a quick pow-wow with
Colleen and our friend Jorge, a local from Puerto Vallarta catching a ride with
us to Huatlulco, we laid out our game plan. Since neither of us had ever done
an entire belt replacement before, we went straight to the Ford mechanic books, which we had fortunately received when we
purchased BIG Blue, and have since used multiple times.
After setting out our orange safety triangles (thanks Tomas
and Valerie for help locating these in Corpus Christi), and setting up shade
over the work zone so we wouldn’t melt, we got started! The next two hours went
by in a blaze, literally, it was about 97 degrees out on the scorching asphalt!
Once we figured out that we could slide the new belts over and fortunately not
have to remove the entire fan/clutch assembly, everything seemed to go on without a
problem. After tensioning all the belts and tightening all the pivot/adjustment bolts we were done!!! With a celebratory swig of water and a quick cleanup,
we fired BIG Blue up and hit the road!
I am so proud to report that we both managed to keep our
cool under those less then ideal conditions, and it is yet another perfect
example of why Colleen and I make such a solid team. Not to mention Torch, who
is our International Ambassador of Fun, reminding us to have as much fun as possible
every day!
Next stop, Oaxaca City for...
No comments:
Post a Comment