ODO: 309,272 (that’s right, we haven’t moved….)
Tuesday: As we start Day 2 in The Shop, we are still finishing up some Day one tasks. Our list of Day two tasks may end being things we complete on the road. All of them are smaller tasks, like adjusting headlights and swapping fuses. Maybe rewiring our horn….
Wednesday: As we near the end of Day one tasks and start to feel good about being able to get back to Baja, disaster strikes. We were all hands on deck buttoning up the truck when it was discovered one of our rear axel shafts is being eaten by the bearing assembly. Now we have a large repair on our hands that does not fit into our schedule. This was a very demoralizing discovery, but ultimately better to find here, than when it fails spectacularly somewhere we can’t easily find parts.
Thursday: We spent the morning brainstorming, researching, and calling parts suppliers, distributors and other shops to see how quickly we could get parts in hand. It was a rollercoaster of emotions. We were finally able to locate a single spindle within driving distance. This part would allow us to get started on the work we needed to do to be able to order new axle shafts, so on a drive we went. Six hours later we were back, and had a plan for the next day.
Friday: Let the work begin! Berne got to work taking measurements so he could mock up the new spindle/hub assembly. This had to happen before we could order axles. KoKo woke up with a sore throat, so everyone was worried that the stress and the cold temperature were going to make her full blown sick. Instead of heading off on our yearly Nevada trip (we purposely planned this maintenance around seeing our friends one more time), we cut the driver’s side end off our axle housing and crossed all our fingers that this would work out.
Saturday: We had some errands to run, and KoKo was feeling more under the weather so we decided on a semi rest day and trying to keep her warm in the hopes that she won’t get worse still.
Sunday: Today is the day. If we want to order the axles tomorrow , we have to finish our mocking up our assembly today. Berne got everything finalized, and took measurements so we were ready to go in the morning. Now we just have to hope everything shows up by Wednesday at the latest. In exciting news, KoKo woke up much less sick, hooray for rest day! We spent the evening watching the semi finals of girls club volleyball. Unfortunately our team didn’t advance to the finals, but it was a super close, nail bitter of a game
Monday: With today being presidents day, we were worried about places being open. Luckily, the automotive industry doesn’t seem to celebrate this holiday so we were able to get our axles ordered. The first place we tried quoted us six weeks, but Berne kept looking until he found us a set that could show up by Tuesday (thank you Kartek, you guys are the best!!). Our fate was now in the hands of UPS.
