Well, bummer. Didn’t get Dookie fired up yesterday like we hoped, but instead had to load up Klooge so Dave could head back home to Phoenix today. We got pretty close, though.

No pics, as we were super-busy all day. Had to knock out one of the freeze plugs after all, and it looks like it might not be a bad idea to get the rest of them at some point soon as it was paper thin and started dripping as Dave was adding coolant. Fortunately, it was the rear-most on the passenger side, so the engine mount wasn’t in the way – pop the starter off, knock it out, tap a new one in, and we’re all done about 20 minutes later. Easy-peasy. The rest seem to be hanging in there and there were no other [coolant] leaks we could see, so that’s a plus.

I had to chase some 90-degree male AN fittings, since the straight one from the sump kit won’t work with the aftermarket Sanden compressor (as I mentioned in the thread above). The fittings needed to be heated and pressed onto the hoses, which I’d never done before, but it was easy enough… although, I did get a ‘practice run’ in since I cut the sump’s ‘In’ hose (from the lift pump) too short. Fortunately, Edelbrock provided enough hose for me to recover from my mistake.

Dave picked up another set of spark plug wires, but those turned out to be ‘cut-to-fit’ as well, and he already had them made up by the time I’d gotten up around 0900. I’d been up until 0130 the night before trying to get the A/C to blow cold air again. He’d gotten a lot of the final things ready to go while I was chasing the AN fittings and grabbing some breakfast.

The house A/C had also been having issues the past few days, which started out as being a clogged air filter that I’d changed out the night before last. We normally got about 9 months out of our 4″ thick HEPA filters, but since we got the dogs last summer, that’s no longer the case. I’d changed it out a few months ago, but it needed it again and I wasn’t paying attention (a little pre-occupied). The evaporator iced up solid, blocking the airflow to the vents, and I noticed the compressor had iced up as well, so I called a HVAC tech to come service the unit. After explaining what happened, what I’d done, and that my efforts to thaw out the compressor weren’t working, he discovered the compressor’s contactor switch burned up while it was running, which caused the evaporator to ice-up solid, along with the compressor in the outside unit because it just never quit running. That explains why the evaporator wouldn’t thaw out while I was just running the fan, despite ‘faking out’ the NEST “Smart” thermostat (which ain’t so ‘smart,’ after all… it won’t even let you turn on JUST the fan without being in Heat or Cool mode – I put it on Heat and cranked the temp way down, so the furnace wouldn’t kick on). The HVAC tach said I’d done everything perfectly, but the contactor switch failing was the unknown variable I was up again. FORTUNATELY, he replaced the contactor switch (told us to let it all thaw out and call him if there were any issues) and everything eventually thawed out last evening, the house cooled back down to normal, and no other issues cropped up with the A/C, so I got away with ‘just’ a $230 bill for my bonehead mistake.

Later in the afternoon, a friend Harry showed up with Dave’s trailer – he’d been kind enough to let us store it in his [huge] back yard while Dave’s been here. Harry was bummed because he thought he’d lost one of the ramps – there are 2 storage compartments for the ramps with doors on the back end underneath, but one of the doors had lost a locking pin and was hanging wide open. So, we threw in the towel on getting the Jeep fired up and did a quick retrace of the path between Harry’s and my house with no joy. I asked to stop by the trailer one last time to check things out, and I slid my hand into the compartment to find that the ramp had gone in a lot farther than expected. WHEW!! No lost ramp! Dave and I made a run over to Tractor Supply and picked up some new locking pins, so hopefully there won’t be any more issues with those ramp storage doors popping open.

Even later, I made a run to Jason’s Deli for dinner, and they hosed me out of my sandwich on the order – my wife was pissed, but I’m like, “We just avoided a major catastrophe with the HVAC and avoided having to replace a lost trailer ramp… if Karma wants to keep a sandwich for itself, Karma can have my sandwich.” Besides, I still have a ton of sandwich-makin’ stuff in the fridge to finish off – had to keep Dave properly fed and watered while he slogged away on my Jeep, after all.

OK, so now I just need to finish wiring up a few things, install the brake pedal assembly so I can hang the steering column, grab some gas, and give it all another once over before turning the key. But that’ll have to wait until tomorrow, since I feel like a twisted mess right now after crankin’ on the Jeep for the past two weeks straight. I need a break, so I’m just going to chill for today.

I already miss having Dave here (we go back a long way – almost 30 years) and just like with most military folks, it’s always hard to say goodbye and even harder to keep in touch. We’ve done well at that this whole time and get together when we can. I’m just happy Dave was able (and willing) to make the trip to help get Dookie back to good. Hopefully [sooner than later] I can get the chance to visit Dave in AZ, with Dookie on a trailer, and go cruizing on some of those cool trails out that way. Couldn’t have done it without ya, Brother! Thanks again!!