Wind, tranmissions, Found On Road Dead.....FORD
Photo by Terry
It has been windy for the last few
days, 5.2 to 5.7 conditions. Terry and Colette arrived on the 13th and it has
been blowing every day with the days being warm and sunny. Colette went out
yesterday for her first session. I carried her rig to the water, the local
sailors seeing this made a few disparaging remarks about Colette being a rookie
and ending up doing the "walk of shame". Colette being Colette just stepped onto
the board. Jump onto a plane instantly, went out a couple of hundred yards,
jibe, ran up wind, to where she put in, jibe, went out again leaving the locals
eating their words. Terry hasn't been sailing yet, he is just getting over a
nasty cold. Today the winds have back off to big sails and boards (boring).
Andy, Colette and Terry went for a bike ride. I am taking the day off to recoup
from the van fiasco and catch up on my blog.
Terry being Terry has been shooting up a storm. His shooting has been a bonus for me. I have never had any photos of me jibing. Didn't have a clue as to what my style or form is like. Now I have a SL of me jibing. Great, what am I doing right? Wrong? Mostly right, but I see one thing that is driving me nuts when I see it. Look at my front arm, it is hooked in, bent at the elbow. I am not letting my arm extend out. Not a big deal, my jibes are still smooth and fast. So what? Well if I straighten my arm out I will be able to do a real clean lay down jibe. You know the kind were the sail skims across the water for a second or two.
FORD, Found On Road Dead. My van had a major problem on this trip to Mexico. (2200 miles from home with a dead tranny) When we first arrived in Los Barrilies the van was running great. There was no hint of any trouble with the transmission on the trip from home, 2200 miles from home, a long way. A couple of days after we arrive Andy and Kathy drove the van to the Pemex trail for a hike. When they start the van to return to Kathy's the van would not shift out of first gear. Only when I revved the engine up and back off would the van shift into 2nd and then run normally. No Ford dealers in Los Barrilies, nearest Ford dealer is in Las Paz, an hour 1/2 away. So I did what I always do, post a plea for help on line (see link). Ford had a better idea, take a good transmission and screw it up for the cost savings of four dollars per transmission. Bottom line profit goes up. For a six month period Ford was installing this transmission in all of their Super Duty trucks and vans. The gassers were failing immediately. Ford called the gassers back and replaced the bad part right away. Ford did not call the diesels back because "the transmission will not be revved up as high and the part will not fail". Well now it turns out that the diesels are failing when the miles are getting over 50K. I have 70K on my van.
Knowing than my tranny is trash I drive my van to La Paz. It is the week before Christmas, nothing gets done in Mexico between Christmas and New Years. My van is not ready until the 13th of January. On Friday the 14th I bum a ride to La Paz with Wayne. Terry goes along for the ride so he can see more of Mexico, a real Mexican city, La Paz. When I pick up the van I do a quick walk around and look under the van. No apparent problems the transmission looks new the van looks the same as when I left it, only dustier. When I go to office to pay for the repair my Visa is rejected! Nobody in the office speaks english. The office manager points to the back of my card at a toll free number to Visa. I call, the Visa agent ask for my account number, my password then tells me that there is an attempt to charge $4600.80 on my card in La Paz Mexico. Thats me, Ok tell the Mexican cashier to run the card again. The card is approved while I am still on the line with the Visa Agent. COOL. I get my van with old transmission in the back cargo area.
Terry and I are off to do a quick tour of La Paz. There are a lot of stop signs in La Paz, in any town in Mexico. Some can be seen easily, some not so. Terry spots one I don't see, I hit the brakes, the tranny flies from the back of the van and hits Terry's seat. ATF (automatic transmission fluid) pours out of the tranny all over the inside of my van. Terry is frantically wiping it up while I am trying to pull over. You know those geek rubber mats you put down to protect your carpet? They work. We used up a roll of paper towels sopping up ATF from the floor. The drive back from La Paz was other wise uneventful. At home someone told me it would be a good idea to check my new transmission ATF level. I do, It is high, WAY HIGH, over the top high, transmission trashing high.
Some one suggest I get a length of thin hose and a hand pump and pump it out of of the transmission though the skinny tube that you check the level and fill the transmission. Off to the local hardware/auto parts store to find a pump and hose. I pick up a hand pump with hose for $2, the pump has picture on it showing how to transfer gas between two tanks, perfect. Get back to Kathy's, insert hose, start pumping, pumping, pumping and pumping, nothing. Try as I may the pump will not pump. Terry suggest that I use a drill pump, a lot sucking power. Ok, back to the hardware/auto parts store to get a drill pump. Not so easy, the drill pump is designed to be used with garden hose. Garden hose will not fit into the transmission fill tube, no how, no way. So we scab together several reducers and various lengths of hose to fit into the skinny little tube. Back to Kathy's, insert the hose, turn on the drill pump, wait for ATF to come gushing out. Nothing, it's a self priming pump, what's wrong. Air leak. Check all of the fitting and try again, nothing. When I first tried the cheesy hand pump I did suck on the hose to prime it, ATF did appear into the tube, tasted really bad so I quit that idea. Terry being Terry said "screw the drill pump, its not working I am going syphon it out". Nick being Nick said "ya right". Terry started sucking on the hose, a little skinny hose. HE does it, red, blood red ATF come out and over the engine compartment and down into a bucket on the ground. Ok how much should we take out? A pint, a quart? A pint and a half should do it. At a pint we lose our syphon, shit. Check the ATF level, still high, too high. I'll get out said Terry, so suck he does only this time he get some in his mouth, blood red fluid is coming out of the transmission again, over the engine compartment into the bucket on the ground. Terry runs into Kathy's compound to find some cub soda, anything to wash his mouth out with. I just sit there on the ground watching the ATF flow very slowly into the bucket. When we lose our syphon this time we quit.
Today I drive the van to do the full check for the level as Ford says. Drive 20 miles, keep engine running, set brake, shift into 1st, shift into 2nd, shift into drive, shift into park, check dip stick with engine running. The ATF level is in the normal range, I think. I am not sure, the bulb at the end of the dip stick is wet and shows ATF all over it. It is darker and heavier in appearance in the normal markings. So I find Jerry, the go to guy for anything mechanical. We do the full check minus the 20 mile drive, (I already did that). The ATF level looks good, we check it twice, it still look good. We check a third time, no change, the ATF level is in the normal warm operating range.
Terry being Terry has been shooting up a storm. His shooting has been a bonus for me. I have never had any photos of me jibing. Didn't have a clue as to what my style or form is like. Now I have a SL of me jibing. Great, what am I doing right? Wrong? Mostly right, but I see one thing that is driving me nuts when I see it. Look at my front arm, it is hooked in, bent at the elbow. I am not letting my arm extend out. Not a big deal, my jibes are still smooth and fast. So what? Well if I straighten my arm out I will be able to do a real clean lay down jibe. You know the kind were the sail skims across the water for a second or two.
FORD, Found On Road Dead. My van had a major problem on this trip to Mexico. (2200 miles from home with a dead tranny) When we first arrived in Los Barrilies the van was running great. There was no hint of any trouble with the transmission on the trip from home, 2200 miles from home, a long way. A couple of days after we arrive Andy and Kathy drove the van to the Pemex trail for a hike. When they start the van to return to Kathy's the van would not shift out of first gear. Only when I revved the engine up and back off would the van shift into 2nd and then run normally. No Ford dealers in Los Barrilies, nearest Ford dealer is in Las Paz, an hour 1/2 away. So I did what I always do, post a plea for help on line (see link). Ford had a better idea, take a good transmission and screw it up for the cost savings of four dollars per transmission. Bottom line profit goes up. For a six month period Ford was installing this transmission in all of their Super Duty trucks and vans. The gassers were failing immediately. Ford called the gassers back and replaced the bad part right away. Ford did not call the diesels back because "the transmission will not be revved up as high and the part will not fail". Well now it turns out that the diesels are failing when the miles are getting over 50K. I have 70K on my van.
Knowing than my tranny is trash I drive my van to La Paz. It is the week before Christmas, nothing gets done in Mexico between Christmas and New Years. My van is not ready until the 13th of January. On Friday the 14th I bum a ride to La Paz with Wayne. Terry goes along for the ride so he can see more of Mexico, a real Mexican city, La Paz. When I pick up the van I do a quick walk around and look under the van. No apparent problems the transmission looks new the van looks the same as when I left it, only dustier. When I go to office to pay for the repair my Visa is rejected! Nobody in the office speaks english. The office manager points to the back of my card at a toll free number to Visa. I call, the Visa agent ask for my account number, my password then tells me that there is an attempt to charge $4600.80 on my card in La Paz Mexico. Thats me, Ok tell the Mexican cashier to run the card again. The card is approved while I am still on the line with the Visa Agent. COOL. I get my van with old transmission in the back cargo area.
Terry and I are off to do a quick tour of La Paz. There are a lot of stop signs in La Paz, in any town in Mexico. Some can be seen easily, some not so. Terry spots one I don't see, I hit the brakes, the tranny flies from the back of the van and hits Terry's seat. ATF (automatic transmission fluid) pours out of the tranny all over the inside of my van. Terry is frantically wiping it up while I am trying to pull over. You know those geek rubber mats you put down to protect your carpet? They work. We used up a roll of paper towels sopping up ATF from the floor. The drive back from La Paz was other wise uneventful. At home someone told me it would be a good idea to check my new transmission ATF level. I do, It is high, WAY HIGH, over the top high, transmission trashing high.
Some one suggest I get a length of thin hose and a hand pump and pump it out of of the transmission though the skinny tube that you check the level and fill the transmission. Off to the local hardware/auto parts store to find a pump and hose. I pick up a hand pump with hose for $2, the pump has picture on it showing how to transfer gas between two tanks, perfect. Get back to Kathy's, insert hose, start pumping, pumping, pumping and pumping, nothing. Try as I may the pump will not pump. Terry suggest that I use a drill pump, a lot sucking power. Ok, back to the hardware/auto parts store to get a drill pump. Not so easy, the drill pump is designed to be used with garden hose. Garden hose will not fit into the transmission fill tube, no how, no way. So we scab together several reducers and various lengths of hose to fit into the skinny little tube. Back to Kathy's, insert the hose, turn on the drill pump, wait for ATF to come gushing out. Nothing, it's a self priming pump, what's wrong. Air leak. Check all of the fitting and try again, nothing. When I first tried the cheesy hand pump I did suck on the hose to prime it, ATF did appear into the tube, tasted really bad so I quit that idea. Terry being Terry said "screw the drill pump, its not working I am going syphon it out". Nick being Nick said "ya right". Terry started sucking on the hose, a little skinny hose. HE does it, red, blood red ATF come out and over the engine compartment and down into a bucket on the ground. Ok how much should we take out? A pint, a quart? A pint and a half should do it. At a pint we lose our syphon, shit. Check the ATF level, still high, too high. I'll get out said Terry, so suck he does only this time he get some in his mouth, blood red fluid is coming out of the transmission again, over the engine compartment into the bucket on the ground. Terry runs into Kathy's compound to find some cub soda, anything to wash his mouth out with. I just sit there on the ground watching the ATF flow very slowly into the bucket. When we lose our syphon this time we quit.
Today I drive the van to do the full check for the level as Ford says. Drive 20 miles, keep engine running, set brake, shift into 1st, shift into 2nd, shift into drive, shift into park, check dip stick with engine running. The ATF level is in the normal range, I think. I am not sure, the bulb at the end of the dip stick is wet and shows ATF all over it. It is darker and heavier in appearance in the normal markings. So I find Jerry, the go to guy for anything mechanical. We do the full check minus the 20 mile drive, (I already did that). The ATF level looks good, we check it twice, it still look good. We check a third time, no change, the ATF level is in the normal warm operating range.
Posted: Mon - January 17, 2005 at 04:10 PM
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Published On: Apr 16, 2005 05:32 PM
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Published On: Apr 16, 2005 05:32 PM