Okay, this update is actually for last week, when I finally put insurance back on the truck and resumed driving it after the winter. I've mostly been driving my TDI Jetta. I had an NHRDA race this past Saturday, and I figured I should drive my truck since it is normally more consistent than the Jetta. Bringing the truck also allowed me to bring my camper so my daughter could go to sleep at her normal time (it was a late race).
First step was to charge the batteries. I had run my truck about once a month through the winter (usually had to move it for one reason or another). The batteries were fine through the coldest part of the winter, but this time they were completely flat. After a few days of attempting to resurrect them (mostly running desulfation), they appeared to be fine for the races. In the late rounds at the race, the truck started to do some weird things (drawing a lot of alternator current). Turned out I had an intermittently shorting cell in one battery, and it was dragging the other one down in a hurry. After loading the camper (after everyone but track employees had left) I found out the truck was unable to crank at all. After a track employee gave me a jump start (had to disconnect the bad battery before even that would work), I was back on the road. Next day - new batteries from Wal-Mart, and replace my stress-cracked front rotors and repack the front wheel bearings. This was a miserable job since it was raining, and I didn't really want to take the camper off so I could do it in the garage. To top it off I was sick as heck. Also added a post-turbo thermocouple back on. I had previously stolen that thermocouple to put on my Jetta, as I had good access to install it when I had the transmission out a couple of months ago.
The brakes are noticeably better. I had thrown new pads on just before the winter, and noticed the stress cracks in the rotors and consequently ordered replacements. Last week I drove to the beach (over a mountain range) then to Southern Oregon (through more mountains) with the camper on, and it was nice to have better brakes!
Late last night I decided to move the truck back to its parking spot in my backyard (a graveled area). When it's wet back there I usually back it into place so I can keep the tires on the gravel. It looked dry enough that I just drove down and figured I could venture off the gravel to turn around. Big mistake. I'm waiting for this upcoming dry weekend to get it out of the mud...
Regards,
Michael Pliska
