Posted by Tim Way on Wednesday, May 04, 2005 at 1:52AM :
I ended up installing the locker myself (with the help of my good friend Frank) and it worked without a hitch. I was VERY impressed with my new found traction.
I went with my friend Frank who drives an '04 Rubicon and my second son Chris. This was Chris' 16th birthday present. We spent 4 nights and 3 days in Moab and 3 nights and 2 days in Arch Canyon.
Arch Canyon is south of Blanding and absolutely gorgeous! All in all we had a GREAT time!
We arrived in Moab around 7pm on Saturday the 16th. We stayed at the Slickrock Campground on the north end of town. Not a lot to say about the campground other than it was a typical campground....a bit cramped, like all campgrounds, but nice. I do have to give them props on the bathrooms; they were VERY clean. We unloaded the M and set up camp Saturday night.
Sunday we got up early and headed to Gemini Bridges. Not a hard trail, but I wanted a shake down run in the M before hitting the tough trails. We finished Gemini Bridges without issue and headed to Kane Creek Canyon for the second shake down cruise. That's where it headed south......
The new 24v electric fuel pump I installed quit working 8 miles in on the Kane Creek Canyon trail. I had left the mech pump on the truck, so a quick field plumbing job had the mech pump plumbed in and the we were on our way again. 30 mins later 2 issues combined to ruin my day; the mech pump diaphragm failed and the electric fuel pump started working again....resulting in a crankcase full of gasoline. I didn't know the crankcase was filled at the time, I just knew the truck was coughing, had no power and was belching black and blue smoke.
Since we were already 8 miles into a 12 mile trail, we decided to continue with the M strapped out by the Jeep. We got to mile 10 and hit the "big" obstacle on the Kane Creek Canyon trail. It was a long grade with a few steps on it. It wasn't all that tough, but it was covered in loose rock and the Jeep couldn't get traction with a 5200 pound anchor....otherwise known as my M.
After several hours of attempting to winch and strap up the hill, we gave up and turned around.
I had to be strapped out 10 miles....got back to camp ~0330 in the morning. I have a new respect for the Jeep Rubicon that pulled me out. That thing had no issues pulling me over some pretty nasty obstacles....just not the big one :-)
The next morning I got up and diagnosed the problem. Ran into town to get the necessary supplies, drained the crankcase, refilled with clean oil and, since the electric fuel pump was working again, I plumbed the mech pump back out of the system and ran electric only. Truck restarted and ran great, like nothing happened. Oil pressure is still good! It did smoke a bit which had me worried. After running for 5 minutes, it died again.
This time the electric fuel pump died for good. I ran back into town and ordered a new mech pump and had it installed Tuesday morning before 0900.
The truck was smoking like a chimney all the way down to the meeting point with the boys Tuesday morning, and then all of a sudden it cleared! It was oil burning out of the exhaust system. Frank has a new respect for the flathead 6.....we both agreed that if the crankcase of his Jeep had been filled with gas...and ran for 15 minutes, the results would be different.
Tuesday morning we met up with Carl B, Cheyenne Dave, Terry A, Rick Sultan and Carl's friend Jeremy and headed out to do Poison Spider.
Everything was going pretty well on poison Spider when the M was sputtering and flooding a bit on the steep obstacles. I thought it might be the float level so I decided to adjust it on the trail....bad idea.
After 1 hour of doinking with it, we decided to leave it set and pick it up on the way back out. I rode with Frank.
Within 1 hour of leaving the M behind, Jeremy broke some teeth off of his rear ring gear while trying to climb a pretty steep rock face. We spent the next few hours getting his Toyota in a safe state to drive out in front wheel drive. Jeremy's Toyota is a VERY well built rig and the ONLY reason he broke the truck was a heavy right foot.....and the incredible traction of the slick rock.
We didn't get to finish Poison Spider...sigh. We picked up the M on the way back out of Poison Spider and once again I came into camp on the end of a strap being pulled by a Jeep....heavy sigh.
I had the M running like a top within 30 minutes of returning to camp.
The next day was Wednesday and we broke camp tired and disappointed that we didn't complete a single trail in Moab.
We headed south to Arch Canyon Wednesday ~1200. The weather was pretty bad and we got caught in a spring snow storm while driving through Monticello. This REALLY sucked for Frank....he didn't have his top on and didn't bring his doors.
We arrived in Arch Canyon just as the weather broke. The skies opened up and the sun shined through. I went to unload the M from the trailer and the throttle linkage broke. 20 minutes later we were on the trail and heading down the Arch Canyon trail. We camped at the end of Arch Canyon....SPECTACULAR!
The Arch Canyon trail is over 6 miles to the camp site with ~60 creek crossings. Frank had been down Arch Canyon before, but never after a REALLY wet winter. The spring snow melt left the creek pretty high. Too high for the Jeep at one crossing....and it took on water pretty bad. The M was high and dry :-)
Thursday we did the Hotel Rock trail. The research we had done on this trail said that it was a pretty rough trail, and it was, it just wasn't as bad as the descriptions we had read. We took the "easy" way back to camp. The "easy" way turned out to be longer and WAY boring. It also took us up over 7800 feet and the M vapor locked....sure wish that electric fuel pump had worked...another sigh.
Removed the hood side panels and off we went. Returned to camp feeling pretty good that I actually completed a day on the trail with being strapped back to camp!!!
Friday we broke camp and headed back to Albuquerque.
I will have power steering before my next big outing....this Armstrong stuff leaves me plum wore out at the end of the day.
Tim Way
Albuquerque, NM
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