Today could have been an epic fail, but as my friend Bill Bloom would say it was a "shit-cum".
As we pulled away from a stop light we both felt and heard loud sudden jolt, like we had been rear ended. Turns out that we had not been hit, but that something had gone wrong with the transmission/clutch. We limped into a parking lot and reviewed options.
One thing was for sure, we were in the shit.
The first thing we did was climb under the van and look for something obvious. The only thing that became obvious was that neither of us had any idea as to what goes on the underside of a van. We called AAA.
Our next move was to find solace in KFC comfort food and start calling repair shops. It was Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, the first eleven places I called were closed. Call number twelve picked up, I described my situation so poorly that he thought I was driving a large RV that was going to be too big for his little shop. We finally got that misunderstanding figured out and he said sure, bring it, I'll take a look at it. I was stunned with this good fortune - did I mention it was the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend? And he would look at it today. We went from three nights in a hotel and the complete devastation of the planned ride down the coast to a glimmer of hope. Caveman towing was soon loading Stevie onto his truck, Reg and I got on our bikes, and we all headed to Ray Houck Automotive.
I rode with a bit of a sinking heart, I could not imagine that all the unlikely pieces of the puzzle that would need to fall into place in order to creat a picture of us resuming our trip had any reasonable likelihood of materializing. And it was only later that Reg admitted to his own internal battle of staying on the sane side of a positive attitude. Ah... but at that point we had no idea that we were soon to be in the presence of Kurtis and Bjorn, two paragons of genius, persistence, good humor, and integrity.
Ray Houck Automotive was truly a small shop. Just one bay in a cinder block building, on a windy road in a neighborhood in the hills above Grants Pass. Kurtis and Bjorn chatted pleasantly with customers as we waited our turn. Everybody knew everybody in this small corner of Oregon. It was not long before Bjorn was under Stevie and poking around. "You know, the slave cylinder for the clutch is leaking ,that's where I'm going to start" he said when he reappeared. At that point Kurtis stepped in, reaching out to his network of parts suppliers; Reg and I retired into the calming arms of the cribbage board as we waited. After a time it became apparent that no new slave cylinder would be available before Tuesday. That's when Bjorn took over, Kurtis explained that Bjorn was going to take apart the suspect cylinder to see if it could be rebuilt. Back to waiting and cribbage.
Bjorn's investigation showed the cylinder to be in reasonably good condition, he did clean out some dirt and sludge that may have been the cause of the leak and lack of compression. Reg and I waited at the nearby picnic table in hopeful anticipation, doing our best to create the space that could be filled with all possible positive outcomes.
A cleaned out slave cylinder was not the path to one of those positive outcomes. Kurtis and Bjorn were still unable to get Stevie into gear. That was a setback, Reg and I kept our counsel, not wanting to let the air out of our balloon of hopeful expectation. As things unfolded, however, the replaced cylinder was the path to further investigation. Bjorn crawled back under the van and and Kurtis was up front pushing the clutch and jiggling the shifter. Bjorn popped out and was saying something to Kurtis while making expanding/contracting motions with his hands. With a look of incredulous amazement Kurtis mouthed an unmistakable "No shit!" After a bit more consultation with Bjorn, Kurtis walked over to us and, in a perfect deadpan, said "You two look well rested" Reg and I looked at each other, not sure what to make of his observation, Reg looked back and asked "Your point being?" "We need help pushing the van into the bay so we can get it up on the rack" replied Kurtis.
Our hearts soared!
We literally leaped up from the table and humped Stevie into the shop. Kurtis explained that two of the bolts that mount the engine to the transmission presented the problem, one had come loose, the other was completely missing. With Stevie up on the rack, Kurtis extracted the loose bolt, put two new bolts in place, and remounted the engine to the transmission. Stevie was lowered and started up, from my picnic table vantage point I could see the reverse lights come on.
Stevie was in gear and backing out of the shop!
Truly, all four of us, Kurtis, Bjorn, Reg, and Myself were giddy with the thrill of this unlikely victory. Each of us for our own and varied reasons. read more