JBweld
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Ferndale, WA
It's been a couple years since my first experience at Reiter trails, and I finally made it back there today. That first trip consisted of only the Lake Issabel trail, so I have been waiting to get back out there and see what the rest of Reiter has to offer. Well...it started out pretty good today, as Hans(Xjourney) and I made the Journey south towards Monroe to meet Michael (2extreme) and his brother Marc, for the rest of the short ride to the trails.
Michael and I had planned out, and fabricated (with Marc, Hans, and Ryans help) similar roll cages a while back, and had planned on a trip to celebrate finally finishing the tube work. Weeks of hard work, was briefly awarded with a couple hours of cool obstacles/trails, followed by mechanical problems. Michael can chime in with the trails we ran today, because I have no idea what they were named! The problems started with Michael tearing a valve stem early on. No big deal, right? Well, we were surprised to find that none of us had spare valve stems or cores, and had to make a repair using rubber cement and a piece of hose pushed over the ripped stem. It worked for a while, but pressure from rocks and roots forced air past the band aid. This repair was attempted again and got us another hundred yards down the trail, towards the parking lot, when it failed again. Help came from the last place we expected, a couple riding in a Polaris ATV. When we in desperation we asked for a valve stem, the driver pulled out a box and gave us 2 of them from a collection of several. Turns out he works for Les Schwab. How's that for service. After making the necessary tire repairs, we headed back out.
We didn't get too far, and on a sandy hill climb, my clutch pedal went to the floor without any resistance, followed by a woosh and a puff of smoke from under the hood. I popped the hood and we jumped out to find a small fire on the wiring harness loom above the injectors. Marc blew it out, and then we discovered the problem. The high-pressure poly line that runs from the clutch master cylinder to the slave had split, and sprayed fluid onto the header. The atomized oil then briefly caught fire. We made some trail repairs on the tubing, again involving sleeving the leak with rubber hose to contain the high pressure, and limped off the trail. None of the parts houses in the area had what we needed, so we were done wheeling.
The clutch repair didn't last long, and before we reached Monroe, I couldn't use the clutch anymore. Starting the truck in gear at intersections and matching revs to slide it into gear was an adventure. But the Jeep did it's job and got me home safely.
I didn't manage to get many pics, but here's what I got:
Here's Marc stuffing Michaels front spring back in after it fell out:
Michael and I had planned out, and fabricated (with Marc, Hans, and Ryans help) similar roll cages a while back, and had planned on a trip to celebrate finally finishing the tube work. Weeks of hard work, was briefly awarded with a couple hours of cool obstacles/trails, followed by mechanical problems. Michael can chime in with the trails we ran today, because I have no idea what they were named! The problems started with Michael tearing a valve stem early on. No big deal, right? Well, we were surprised to find that none of us had spare valve stems or cores, and had to make a repair using rubber cement and a piece of hose pushed over the ripped stem. It worked for a while, but pressure from rocks and roots forced air past the band aid. This repair was attempted again and got us another hundred yards down the trail, towards the parking lot, when it failed again. Help came from the last place we expected, a couple riding in a Polaris ATV. When we in desperation we asked for a valve stem, the driver pulled out a box and gave us 2 of them from a collection of several. Turns out he works for Les Schwab. How's that for service. After making the necessary tire repairs, we headed back out.
We didn't get too far, and on a sandy hill climb, my clutch pedal went to the floor without any resistance, followed by a woosh and a puff of smoke from under the hood. I popped the hood and we jumped out to find a small fire on the wiring harness loom above the injectors. Marc blew it out, and then we discovered the problem. The high-pressure poly line that runs from the clutch master cylinder to the slave had split, and sprayed fluid onto the header. The atomized oil then briefly caught fire. We made some trail repairs on the tubing, again involving sleeving the leak with rubber hose to contain the high pressure, and limped off the trail. None of the parts houses in the area had what we needed, so we were done wheeling.
The clutch repair didn't last long, and before we reached Monroe, I couldn't use the clutch anymore. Starting the truck in gear at intersections and matching revs to slide it into gear was an adventure. But the Jeep did it's job and got me home safely.
I didn't manage to get many pics, but here's what I got:
Here's Marc stuffing Michaels front spring back in after it fell out:
but it was great to go wheeling again!
