Our WC53, “Franklin”

Next day, heading south.

Next morning in Leavenworth. Heat shield installed on fuel pump, spare tire bolted up outside the driver’s door. Driving through this German lookalike town, we felt a bit like part of the occupation force.

The run from Leavenworth to Ellensburg to hook up with Alex (Our Daughter) was uneventful. We figured we had the fuel issues licked.

Not.

What marketing genius came up with a design that looks like a gigantic one star rating?

I snapped this while waiting for Alex to show up.

We started having engine troubles coming up to a roadside lookout point climbing the grade outside of Ellensburg. We pulled over and let the machine cool its heels.

We met a guy here that travels around with a big RV trailer working on road maintenance. He was having similar issues with his modern Chevy Tahoe. I suggested checking his fuel filter for clogging. Maybe our fuel filter is clogging?

And again, closer to the summit, the engine quits. I’m wracking my brain as to why this is still going on. It ran flawlessly all morning. I’m afraid to try any modifications because I fear I’ll break something and just be in deeper doo.

So again, we wait for the machine to cool off.

Up until now, the troubles only crop up while hill climbing. The theory is that everything cools down somewhat on the down hill runs.

I started losing power as we drove into an active forest fire area. Good lord! What can I do? I can’t climb back out of the area. If the engine fails, I can’t get the truck away from the fire either. When Julie n Alex snapped this picture I was down to about half power and was completely stressed out!

Limped it maybe a mile past the fire area and finally lost power completely. Here we are pulled over again letting the machine cool off.

At this time it seems to me that the problem is getting worse. I’m beginning to worry that the fuel pump may be starting to fail. I’m also still thinking about possible clogged fuel filters. So I changed out ours. But when I blew though it, it didn’t seem very clogged to me.

It wasn’t the fuel filter because a few miles later we lost power yet again. This time we were able to find a shady somewhat level spot to park. In final desperation, I decide to attempt installing the electric fuel pump.

It takes maybe an hour for me to pretty much Micky Mouse in the fuel pump. Everything is held together with tie wraps and electrical tape.

I fire it up, and we get fuel pressure. We’re good to go!

But after a few miles everything falls apart again!

At this point I’m kind of in disbelief. I’d figured the electric fuel pump would solve whatever growing problem we were having. It seemed to have no effect whatsoever.

By now we were getting a little used to these stops. Might as well setup camp and relax for a bit.

But this time the truck started and only went about fifty feet. Fifty feet up a narrow section of the road with no shoulders and it died completely. Looking in my mirror I see a semi truck barreling up the road towards us with nowhere to pass! I need to get back to the turn out ASAP!

I hit the clutch and start rolling backwards. Luckily Allie is quick on the uptake. Realizing what’s going on, she kicks her 4Runner into reverse to get out of the way.

We end up back on our turn out, middle of nowhere stuck. Its getting dark and nothing I can think to do gives us any fuel pressure. This includes dumping our spare Jerry can of gas in the fuel tank.

I finally throw in the towel and we call a for a tow. It takes almost an hour for him to get to us, so we have some time to calm down and come up with a plan.

The hotel we are heading to in Hood River is ok with us working on the truck in their parking lot. That was a pleasant surprise. The plan is to tow the truck to the hotel. We can get some sleep and deal with it in the morning.

We did find an excellent Brewery in Hood River that was still serving food at midnight..

Saturday, July 14, 2018

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