Rausch July 2010

[Carl McFly]

So while the big dogs played at Rock Creek my wife and Daves wife Hillary got in some seat time in our rigs.
they both got to go over some green, blue and a small heap of black trails around the property while Carl, Jayson and Mark helped play tour guide
so meet the newest associate member of Baystate:
Kristin

and Daves wife Hillary!

the ladies did AWESOME!!!! Kristin and Hillary both went from driving dirt roads to navigating blue and black trails. In a few hours!

[Hoodoo Man]

Basysate invades Rausch: had the place to ourselves mostly on Thursday night upon arrival

Comp course

Dennis shaking the OFR curse


JW on a hard line

Dave C ( I was proud of how good i did until I saw Dave do this forward and then backwards


Killer views

Dave with the first stuck and it was an interesting extraction...

this was his ancor for getting off his bumper...



need to add Ryan to the list of people Im not ready to follow

Carl

John

and his second breakeage. lost a brake line in the comp course first.


Ryan


and that is what we did to get out of the parking lot.

Photos didnt finish loading last night, will post up more later.

[nostaw]

I think the concrete on their comp course is almost as sticky as the slickrock in Moab...

That was a great trip! I finally dropped off John C last night at ~8:30pm... After we stopped for fuel in northern CT I didn't expect to see anyone else, but we passed Kurt (who was stuck in traffic at the tolls, we had EZ Pass) and then when we got on I-495N from I-290 we met Dave Coye, coming north, like we planned it.

JW

[ChrisD]

I finally dropped off John C last night at ~8:30pm...

So what happened to John's XJ??

[Hoodoo Man]

I finally dropped off John C last night at ~8:30pm...

So what happened to John's XJ??

It died and wouldnt start on the trail day 2 was towed most of the way back to the camp and then started up OK in the moring for the trip home. Then in southern CT it chose to die again in the third lane with no median strip. It was a bit hairy but as I understand it a state trooper pushed him to safety. We unloaded JWs XJ and John drove JWs XJ and Jon trailered Johns XJ home.... Its a bit of a mystery at the moment what caused it to kick out like that but if anyone can figure it out its John...

[ChrisD]

Ok ladies... it's been about 24hrs now where are all the photos??

[johnsxj]

I finally dropped off John C last night at ~8:30pm...

So what happened to John's XJ??

It died and wouldnt start on the trail day 2 was towed most of the way back to the camp and then started up OK in the moring for the trip home. Then in southern CT it chose to die again in the third lane with no median strip. It was a bit hairy but as I understand it a state trooper pushed him to safety. We unloaded JWs XJ and John drove JWs XJ and Jon trailered Johns XJ home.... Its a bit of a mystery at the moment what caused it to kick out like that but if anyone can figure it out its John...

Day 1: About 5 minutes into playing on the Comp Course, a front brake hard line popped a hole (had it patched up before most people knew I was broken). Got back to see NHDave stuck on an obstacle. After he and Ryan were back safe on level ground, we all headed out for the trails. First obstacle was a sloped ledge climb. Some ahead of me made it, some didn't. I tried a line, failed. Tried another line, heard a loud BANG! and thump, thump, thump. I knew something in my rear drive shaft let go. Didn't know it was going to be the 32 SPLINE YOKE OFF MY SYE!!!!!!!!!!!! (along with snapping an ear off a Tom Woods gold seal u-joint!) Pulled the rear shaft and front wheel drived it back to camp. Nobody local had that part, Lou is closed on Fridays, Quadratec didn't have one, ended up calling Advanced Adapters to have one shipped out overnight priority. Ended up spending the rest of the day riding biatch with Kurt.

Day 2: The guy at AA was talking about a possible 11a.m. delivery on my part, so it was back to riding biatch with Kurt with visions of a new yoke dancing in my head. Wasn't until a little after 1p.m. that Mark got the call that my package was in at his hotel. Kurt and I headed out to pick up the package (along with more ice), a short time later we were back and I had the new yoke and my drive shaft back in the Heep and ready to go! Kurt and I caught up with Ryan, Dave, Dennis, and Edrick over at Rock Creek. I stuck to the trail that runs along side while Kurt joined the others running down the "Creek". Dave ended up pulling off the "Creek" at the cross over I was waiting at 'cause he was hearing some funky noise. Turned out he pulled the bolts holding the tranny skid off on the driver side. A few minuets with my welding gear got him back together enough to make it the rest of the day. While working on Dave's rig, a guy with a broken down buggy came over and asked if he could use my welder to fix a control arm break......................


Man this is getting long!!!!!!!!!!! Short wrap up........ buggy guy got fixed, my steering box blew the o-ring seal on the top cover plate when we were leaving from helping buggy guy, bypassed the lines on the box to keep going, Heep wouldn't start, fiddled with things, it started back up, I stalled it 40 feet later on a rock (no power steering now remember!), wouldn't start again no matter what we fiddled with, Ryan strapped me back to camp, Heep started right up when back near camp, got a bit P.O.'ed and stabbed fender of Heep! Spent rest of night drinking beer and helping Carl with his steering issues.

Day 3: Rained overnight, packed up wet camp site, Heep was firing right up but "check engine light" was coming on. Heep was running fine all day, at lunch stop noticed the C.B. antenna had a funky bend to it, at another stop for Jeff to play musical tires noticed my C.B. antenna was pointing South, swapped on 2' antenna Dave found on trails, got to just before exit 11 on I84 in CT when engine gave good backfire and died in the left lane! called 911, trooper car pushed the Heep over to the right lane, Jon W. came back around with his trailer and picked me up, drove Jon's Jeep back to NH, Jon brought my Heep back to Townsend, discovered I had left my wallet in Jon's Cherokee and had to drive back to Nashua to get it. Finally got myself back home at 9:45ish.

Day 4 (today): Heep wouldn't start in the A.M. used the starter to crank it off Jon's trailer, moved the trailer, starter cranked the Heep in front of garage, pulled upteen codes off computer, checked several components on code list, TPS wasn't working but that has nothing to do with no spark, checked through power circuits to ignition, could some relays clicking while wiggling out big 60A fuse marked "ignition system" to check it, tabs were dirty so I cleaned them down and slid the fuse in and out a few times, that got the Heep to have spark and it fired right up but wouldn't rev, swapped TPS out, now starts right up and revs fine Steering box is out (o-ring looked REAL sad), tent is dried and packed back away. Now I need to find a new seal for the box, a clutch for the cooling fan (think I found my start-up squeal), and DOES ANYBODY HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS ON A GOOD ELECTRICAL CONTACT CLEANER

[Carl McFly]

..... Spent rest of night drinking beer and helping Carl with his steering issues.

John is an ANIMAL! Even after ALL the chit that happened to him, he STILL doesn't hesitate to crawl under my heep and almost single handedly tear out my stock tie rod, TRE's and drag link and install my new RR assembly AND steering stabilizer AND do a front end alignment. Oh yeah..... all this work started at 10 PM

If it wasn't for John, I'd still be driving back from PA, unable to go over 30 MPH



re contact cleaner, I always use(d) CRC

[Eve]

..... Spent rest of night drinking beer and helping Carl with his steering issues.

John is an ANIMAL! Even after ALL the chit that happened to him, he STILL doesn't hesitate to crawl under my heep and almost single handedly tear out my stock tie rod, TRE's and drag link and install my new RR assembly AND steering stabilizer AND do a front end alignment. Oh yeah..... all this work started at 10 PM

If it wasn't for John, I'd still be driving back from PA, unable to go over 30 MPH



re contact cleaner, I always use(d) CRC

John - you ROCK!!

[nhdcoye]

A few more pics. from my camera phone as I have not yet found my missing Camera.......
Who says you need bead locks ......


I small obsatacle in the play area....

Rear view

Side view

This was a shot of the top of an obstical in the play area that Curt made it all the way to the top but was not sure if he could fit over. As you can see from the pic he would not have fit

The famous Baja ledge that only allows Baja Claws to pass over it's ridge without a cable







And for those of wondering , this is what a pile of coal along side the trail looks like. ..... This stuff was everywhere and the black coal dust gets on everything and makes a messy black mud


More available at
http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa24 ... ly%202010/

[ChrisD]

Jeff - are u done uploading yet??

[johnsxj]

..... Spent rest of night drinking beer and helping Carl with his steering issues.

John is an ANIMAL! Even after ALL the chit that happened to him, he STILL doesn't hesitate to crawl under my heep and almost single handedly tear out my stock tie rod, TRE's and drag link and install my new RR assembly AND steering stabilizer AND do a front end alignment. Oh yeah..... all this work started at 10 PM

If it wasn't for John, I'd still be driving back from PA, unable to go over 30 MPH



re contact cleaner, I always use(d) CRC

The little bit of alcohol abuse was kinda sad (my bottle of Sam's fell over on Carl's bumper giving me a beer shower) but the steering set up was fairly easy to do (except for the Chinese to English translator that did the instructions )

My Heep is on the road to recovery Picked up a seal kit that had the o-ring I needed today and got the steering box back together, adjusted, and installed Got to cycle the system a couple more times to get the air bubbles out but it should be about good to go. My new fan clutch will be in tomorrow so I'll hopefully have no more squawks.

Carl, where can I get CRC

[Carl McFly]

My pics. All pics are from Friday...... before the flood took out my camera
http://s977.photobucket.com/albums/ae25 ... ek%202010/

[Carl McFly]

Carl, where can I get CRC

Well John, you have options. I used to just pull it off my bench but that was back in the day when I did component level repair. Really good stuff, you can't beat it.

If you want to save a few bucks, Amazon has it. But that means waiting for it to ship. If you want it TODAY, try an Ace hardware store. But call first, not all of them carry it. Or order it on line and have Ace ship it (free) to a local Ace HW store and you pick it up (a la Wal Maht)

[Kurt]

John,

I have a couple of cans of contact cleaner here.
You are welcome to use one

I still have your 8.8's & spare-spare from RC