Backlog 2

September 11, 2006

 

Masset, Haida Gwaii

 

As you can tell with this double upload to the Blog (perhaps it might be more than these two?) we never stopped in Queen Charlotte City but went right through to Skidegate so never got a chance to go live. We stopped into a little Gift shop there, came back to the van and it would not start. Looking at the mileage there a lack of gas was the most likely cause, so pulled out the reserve Jerry can filled it with that. Waited a bit for the gas to cycle through then it started and we hit the next station and filled the both of them back up. We headed to Masset, stopping off at the Balancing Rock a 96 KM trip, then 4 clicks out of Masset the beast lost all power, started to bleed of power and RPMs. Stepping on the gas seemed to make no difference. The engine's Rev would not increase.   I ended up having to unload much of our gear just to access the engine and my tools. I removed each of the spark plugs (a little wet and dirty) Air cleaner box (some moisture, oily and dirty – not the filter which was in good shape), and the Distributor cap, none of these seemed to make a difference. The entire time it seemed like either it was not getting fuel or a spark, by the time I had replaced all the items I removed it then started up no problem. It almost seems as though there is an overheating issue, but that being the case the thermostat should have alerted us to this before hand. The coolant level is within range. I am also wondering about the fuel pump, but again it should be consistent rather than these out behaviours occurring, as we had already drove from Victoria to Prince George without issue. Hey but we are here, just not sure if this is going to effect my trip further north next Friday, we may instead need to visit our old mechanic in Terrace.

 

OK enough of that. We are really enjoying our visit here, I could not believe the amount of deer that we have seen on our trip to the Northern part of this Island. We have also passed over the 54 Parallel although it was not marked anywhere physically, I did note it on the map before head this way. The place we are staying in is a duplex, that used to be family quarters for the military before they pulled out. You can tell that the area and may of it's buildings were built by the military especially the local Rec Centre and hospital. After a couple of days camping it was really nice to come here and have a hot shower as well as kicking back watching a little football. Well more to come and hopefully both the internet issue and the van issues are not an entry in the next post. ;-)

 

EOF - LC