Date:         Thu, 21 Dec 2000 22:30:51 -0800
Reply-To:     Bjorn Ratjen <Bjorn@IGLIDE.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Bjorn Ratjen <Bjorn@IGLIDE.NET>
Subject:      roadside adventure (long)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Sometimes things just happen somehow and today was one of those days:

I drove my Syncro to town (Victoria, about 50 kms away) to do several
errands and get some parts for my Jetta Diesel to TD conversion. (This is
just a practice session for my TDI conversion.) The exhaust of the Jetta
consists of three parts. I needed part one and two because the were
patch-welded at their junction and did not fit very well with the new TD
engine. So I drove by my car recycler and he promised me to put the parts
outside of the gate for me to pick up when I returned after his opening hours. 

I did my errands and began my return trip when i noticed that a guy was
waving for help with an apparently broken down car at the side of the 6
lane highway. It was dark and cold. I stopped and offered help. He had a
flat tire and needed a car jack. His car was an older run down Toyota
Tercel 4WD Wagon. The vanagon jack was of not much use for this
application. So he suggested picking up some parts of fallen trees and
construct some levers in order to lift the car. He was not worried about
superficial damage. He - a 50ish man - climbed down the fairly steep and
icy embankment slipping and sliding and managed to get a large piece of a
tree. I helped him but in the end the wood and our forces were not quite
strong enough.

I finally suggested to go to the next exit where I needed to go to a Home
Depot store anyway. Alright, he jumped in and my Vanagon which would not
start due to lack of electrical power. The road was uphill and I had parked
in front of him so there was no way of pushing the van. For a moment he
tried to stop another car. It is interesting how alone you can feel with
all the people in their noisy cars rushing by. 

For a moment we had considered calling a tow truck but he mentioned that he
had never used one so he did not want to start now. I guess that's pride.

He remembered that he had a jumper cable. Mine was in my garage at home.
His was not long enough. He finally decided to rip his cable apart and put
the leads in a sequence to connect the plus ports of the two batteries.
Earlier in the day he had found a strong iron rod which he now used to
connect his battery ground to my trailer hitch. He had to put on gloves
because it was heating up so much. After a couple of tries we actually
succeeded to get my Vanagon started. 

The next stop was Home Depot where I wanted to buy some flooring which was
on sale. In the meantime he struck up a conversation with a female employee
who lend him her car jack. This meant of course driving him back to the
car. I stood buy and helped him lift the car to get the jack underneath. He
took a pick axe out and placed it behind his front tire to stop the car
from rolling backwards. The tire was changed successfully. As he drove off
he felt a bump as he was driving over the pick axe and stopped again. I
handed him the tool and wished him good luck. (This time I had parked
behind his car.)

On my way home I drove by the wrecker and noticed that they had put the
second and third segment of the exhaust against the fence. In the process
they had cut through the connection between first and second parts which I
had needed.

Just before my driveway I noticed that my alternator light began to
flicker. I think I know the culprit of my electrical problem now: the
brushes on the alternator. They can wait until tomorrow. 

Cheers,

Björn


Björn Ratjen
Mill Bay, B.C.

1987 Vanagon Syncro est alia (self camperized, TDI wannabe)
1978 VW Bulli (self camperized)
1995 Passat TD Wagon (hers)
1970 VW Beetle (son's)
1991 Jetta TD (ours)