Easter, Caitlyn's Birthday and XJ Woes

It seemed almost an impossibility, but we finally got Caitlyn's car back together with much agony and suffering. We tested it out by driving down to San Diego to begin breaking in her new gears. We met up with Christian's dad and had an Easter luncheon to celebrate many things including Caitlyn's birthday since she will be back at school when it comes around. 

The car ran very well. In fact, after Emily and Christian cleaned the throttle body and gave it a top engine clean, the misfires that plagued the vehicle went away. We had hoped that her engine stalling problem would go away as well, but more on that later.

When we came home, we had our own little birthday celebration with her with cake and presents.

We didn't do much else since Christian was absolutely exhausted from too many nights burning the midnight oil trying to get her car back together in time for them to leave for school. At one point, we thought that they would have to take my car back to school as we were afraid that we would not be able to get it up and running in time.

On Monday, I took the girls out shopping for supplies at the asian markets and so that they could visit with my mom one last time before they left. We still had to put many more miles on the new gears so that we could change the differential fluid before they left. All went well until we headed home and ran into a bunch of traffic. We got off the freeway to take the streets but ended up running into a lot of traffic and stop lights that didn't seem to work anyway. After sitting for several cycle of lights with our hot engine because the lights would not change for us, the car started stalling again. Once the car cooled down a bit, we can get it started but every time we had to idle for a length of time, it would stall again. It took a good 10 minutes or so for it to cool down so meanwhile, we were stuck in the middle of a road blocking traffic. We stalled a couple more times before we made it home.

Christian was home from work before we finally made it back. So once again, he had to burn the midnight oil trying to diagnose the problems with the XJ. We have tried many things thus far in trying to figure out her hot engine temperature problems. On top of cleaning carbon deposits in the throttle body and top part of the engine, he had spent a couple of evenings wrapping her fuel lines to prevent heat soak that we thought was causing the stalling issues.

After staying up late researching and using his pico scope to test her sensors, he found that the crankshaft position sensor would stop working when it got hot. It worked fine normally until it got hot. Luckily, he was able to find and quickly order a new sensor and had to pay extra for them to ship it out overnight.

On Tuesday, the girls spent some time packing and then regardless of the condition of the vehicle, we needed to attempt to put some more miles on it to finish breaking in the gears. All went well at first but eventually, we ran into more traffic and it began, once again to stall when we got behind the long lines of traffic. We eventually made it back home, but we were pretty frazzled and was not able to get as many miles on the vehicle as we had hoped. Most of the traffic went around us and did not have too much of a problem but Emily noticed that the only cars that had a problem and got mad at us were all the shiny new cars who just sat there in back of us even though our hazard light was on and wasn't moving.

On Wednesday, the girls finished packing. The new sensor arrived and when Christian got home from work, had to work again until nearly midnight, taking off and installing her new sensor and then testing to make sure that the problem was fixed. It was very stressful and exhausting. But basically, hours before the girls had to leave, the car was finally fixed. 

March

March was a frenzy of activity that I can barely remember. The activity mostly surrounded Caitlyn's XJ. Thus far, we were mostly trying to test the fuel system for problems. We had a heck of a problem getting the right fittings. Christian spent hours looking for the right fittings only to order them and get sent the wrong part. We ordered one part 3 times and they kept sending us the same "wrong" part. Either their bin is mislabeled or the same incompetent employee keeps grabbing the wrong part. We also worked on collecting other parts that we knew we needed.

We finally got around to hunkering down to take apart her axles this month. They were cleaned and painted by the girls while Christian worked on the differential gears. We were supposed to put in the TJ gears since they were more appropriate for her bigger than stock tires.

We were prepared to replace the bushings since after the nightmare problems we've had with them in Terry's Trooper and the TJ, Christian wanted something rebuildable. He did learn some tricks after the last bushing wars about how to get them out though and it worked pretty good. 

He also had to machine some custom tools to make some of this work possible or easier. 

We didn't get to do anything over Christian's Spring Break. He was actually sick through most of it. He couldn't even work on the car much. Christian and Emily, however, decide that they wanted a 3D printer. We had ordered a couple of 3D printed parts for the vehicles from Etsy and there were some other ideas they had in making stuff. So Christian spent most of the first part of his break fiddling around with that.

Emily was already somewhat familiar with 3D modeling from her CAD software for class. Christian kind of had to learn it all from scratch. Emily made some custom roof rack brackets for the Jeep. Christian made custom storage containers for his tools and parts to upgrade the printer itself. You can basically get the cheaper model of printer and print parts for itself that upgrades itself into the more expensive model!

They were originally going to build one, but decided that they needed to start with a ready made kit to get some knowledge about how it works.

When we finally got back to working on the XJ, we had run into some additional problems. We found that we had to replace the spider gears in her back axle. We found that we had to replace the pinion yoke on her front and back axles. As we finalized the differential gears and was ready to finish the back axle, we tried to "crush" the crush sleeve (collapsible spacer) to lock in the differential gears with all the new shims, bearings and seals, the new spacer we got from Yukon simply would not collapse. In the process, it ended up destroying her back pinion gear. So we had to stop yet again, to order her a new ring and pinion. On top of that, we had to scrap all the bearings we pressed into it and order new ones. Plus we had to start all over in measuring the pinion depth and all the shims to get the housing back where it needs to be. We also did not ever want to use those collapsible spacers again. Christian had to come up with some way to get around it. We did not have any problem when we did the TJ axles, so this was completely unexpected. We finally came up with a solution and found that something like that actually does exist but only for the back axle and not the front and one of the few companies that make them was Yukon. We vowed never to give them another red cent if we could help it and decided to machine our own solid spacer. It took some time to figure out how to go about that and to get the shims that would make it work. It was all just a nightmare at this point. This whole project was way over budget, monetarily, as well as, time wise.

Ordering parts is a complete crapshoot these days. It is a regular problem now of finding the parts, having them in stock, shipments getting lost or just delayed in transit, shipments getting stolen in transit, not getting the actual parts you ordered or finding something wrong with it or the way the packaged it.  It is a pretty awful experience when you are trying to get something done and not just casually buying junk off the internet.

Other than that, the girls and I got to go visit with my family. We got together for the Ching Ming Festival and went out to eat afterwards. It was good to see everyone. Christian stayed home to keep slaving away on the XJ.

Emily

Emily turned 20!!!

It's crazy to think about how old she is now. Terry and Jackie came up to celebrate with her. We had Carne Asada tacos and Tres Leche cake. 

She got an Amazon gift card from Grandpa Terry.

The next day was her actual birthday so that's when we did the rest of her presents.

She mostly got a pair of TIG welding gloves and a bunch of clothes.

Emily is doing great in her online classes. She gave up trying to get a job last month. It's probably just as well, as her English class has been giving her a lot of trouble. They seem to assign way more assignments for these online classes. It's been a bit frustrating for her. She has four weeks to go and she won't have to write another English paper in her life.!

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We didn't get to go out and do anything as we are in the middle of fixing Caitlyn's XJ and Christian hasn't been feeling that well. The original plan was to go to Oregon to visit with Christian's mom the week after. Just the girls and I were going to go during Christian's Spring Break. As Christian had way too much to do  on the XJ before the girls can go back to school. 

She was thinking of moving to Nevada so the girls and I were going to help her organize and pack. Unfortunately, she has been sick on and off since Mark died, so her health has not been very good. Any amount of stress seems to set off her illness. We ended up cancelling the plans but Christian was worried about how she has been doing, so we decided that we would still visit, but we would all go together.

Unfortunately, the weather has not been cooperating and various sections of the 5 freeway has been closed on and off because of the snow. Another weather system was supposed to be moving in on the day we were going to go up, so we decided that we should, yet again, cancel our plans. It is probably a good thing too, since the road closed into Oregon the evening we were supposed be there. We would have driven all the way up there, only to have to turn around.

February

The month came and went fairly quickly. We didn't get to do much and we didn't get much done. We were tired of having a driveway full of cars and Terry kept lamenting over missing his Trooper, so we decided to set everything aside and get it done so that we could return it. He kept telling us not to worry about it and to just work on it when we had time, but we never have time and since the kids came home with another vehicle to fix, there wasn't going to be any time any time soon.

The girls drove the car back down to them and he turned around and drove them right back up. Traffic was horrendous though, so it took a lot longer to deliver it and get them back up here. He took us out for a late lunch when they finally made it back.

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For Valentines Day, the girls and I decided to clean Christian's TJ for him since he is always too busy fixing everyone else's car to take care of his Jeep. Except for spraying down the undercarriage and engine compartment when we work on the vehicle or went out wheeling, it has never been cleaned. So, we cleaned it inside and out, treating plastic interior parts and exterior fenders and hard top. It was a bit more than we bargained for so we didn't get to polishing or waxing the vehicle. It looked so different when we were done! It was weird. 

I also got him a neat little 3-D printed tray for his center console. The center console is just a huge cavernous space that everything gets lost in. It is nearly impossible to find anything in it...especially small things like the tire gauge or a pen. The tray sits on top so you have access to those things while you can still store bigger things in the cavernous space below.

We really didn't know how much we would be able to get done on it anyway because a weather system was threatening to come half the day. Luckily, Christian got home and got to see his Jeep before it started to rain...just barely!

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Besides that, we just did some maintenance items on some of the other vehicles that had been needed. 

The girls and I went to the dentist for cleanings and checkups. Caitlyn has never had a cavity in her life so far and although Emily had a few on her baby teeth when she was younger, has not had any since. So far so good!

Christian was just working on surviving work and the kids were doing their online classes. They gave up on trying to get a job, there's not much time left now anyway. We were all trying to survive the weather. It's been really cold this winter. We even got a bit of snow and sleet a couple of times.

The first time, Caitlyn and Emily ran up the Two Trees Trail to catch the snow on the mountain.

January

Once Christian went back to work, the girls hunched down to look for jobs in earnest. They are also taking an online class from BYU. Actually, Emily is taking two. They are both taking a religion class and Emily is re-taking an English class.

Besides that, both girls have been trying to help in whatever way they can with cleaning parts and stuff for the things Christian is currently working on, which includes re-gearing Caitlyn's differential's on her XJ and trying to finish working on Terry's Trooper so that we can get it out of our driveway so that we can concentrate on our own vehicles. Christian has also been trying to troubleshoot the stalling problems with the XJ.

We celebrated my mom's birthday this past month. My sister was in town and getting ready to take my mom on a Caribbean cruise for her birthday.

They spent about a week on the cruise, but my mom came back kind of sick. She had a dry cough when we got back together to celebrate Chinese New Year.

We spent the majority of the day making and eating dumplings. It's everybody's favorite past time!

We were supposed to go back a week later to take my mom to the doctor. She has been having problems with numbness in her fingers in both hands for the past year and her doctor finally decided to try to operate to fix her nerves in her hands. Of course, she would do them one at a time but she ended up having to postpone until March as she still hadn't completely recovered from her sickness.

Back in California

After gassing up and leaving Arizona, we hopped back into California thinking that we would stay in the Mojave area, but it looked like a new storm system was going to be coming in. We still had some daylight left, so we decided to continue on and maybe find a place in Death Valley that might offer a more hospitable campsite. We made it into the Panamint area before we found a place to stop. The weather was not great. We got rain on and off through the evening but there was so much wind in between that it would dry off the tent shortly after. 

The clouds did provide some beautiful views in the morning, however.

Our ultimate goal, however was to cross over to see the snow in the Sierras. Unfortunately, we could not see much when we got there. The snow did not make it down to the lower elevations and the clouds covered the higher elevations where there were snow. 

We decided to head up to Mammoth to see the snow even though we did not plan to go that far North, but after we made it most of the way there, we found out that the road to Mammoth was closed from Bishop! We ended up having to just turn right around and head back down the 395. We were pretty frustrated as we had driven a very long way out of our way to go see the snow. 

In the end, we decided to go investigate the Cerro Gordo Mines. It is a privately owned collection of old mines. The people that own it have been working to improve the road and build a kind of resort up there. They have had several set backs because of the weather this past year. We wanted to go up and see it before it became crowded with tourists.

They fixed up the road pretty good, otherwise it would have been pretty rough and sketchy to go up the steep and narrow road that was usually there. It afforded some beautiful views, although most of it was still covered in clouds. The XJ was still giving us problems. It was a bit frustrating that the engine would keep cutting out on us when it became hot while we were idling. We then had to sit for about 10 or 15 minutes waiting for it to cool down enough for us to continue. 

What is left of the town was pretty neat, but you have to sign in in order to explore it. I think that they make people sign a waver or something in order to go look around on the land. But it was bitter cold and windy out. We even got a bit of hail towards the end and we did not want to disrupt the people there, so we took a few pictures and left.

We then continued back down the 395 heading home. We stopped by Olancha Dunes to have a bit of fun. Caitlyn had been there with us before but Emily had not stopped there before. The Dunes were soaked in water so the sand felt more solid than usual.

We drove up and down and around a few times. It was pretty fun because there was no one there. We stopped to make dinner while we aired up our tires and then continued the rest of the way home. We were basically out of time. Christian needed to get back and clean up and get some rest as he needed to head back to school on Monday.

Kofa National Wildlife Preserve

After the smoke from all the fireworks and gunshots settled throughout the city from New Year's settled, we once again, headed out for another adventure. Once again, the weather would not cooperate for a long enough period to make going to Utah feasible, so we searched for yet another alternative. We decided to try something different and chose to go to Arizona to explore the Sonoran Desert. We settled on exploring in the Kofa National Wildlife Preserve in the Yuma Desert region. 

When we got to the area, we had some serious regrets. The place was just packed to the brim with snowbirds. Also, a lot of the maps we looked at were not really helpful as a good amount of the trails we traveled down was closed off at the end. We wasted many hours not getting anywhere. We did stop to take a look around though at one of the closed off sections and it was really beautiful.

We stopped to walk around and take some pictures but because we didn't know where we were going to be able to stay night since we could not find our way into the wilderness area.

It was quite frustrating that we drove all this way out to Arizona and were having trouble entering the area. We did not want to stay on the outskirts as there were too many other campers, RVs and such everywhere and we had no idea what they were going to be like. We generally stay away from people because out experiences with them around is never good. Our atlas wasn't very helpful, nor the posted maps. None of it seemed very updated or accurate. We finally found a place to camp that was relatively away from other people and settled down for the night. 

In the morning, we again, went in search of the road that might take us through the wilderness area. We picked up a park map and finally figured out a way in. The trail was pretty rough, but the area was quite beautiful. I can't say that it was peaceful as we had to pull over to let a train of at least 15 side-by-sides full of clueless snowbirds through.

We took more video footage than pictures. Our trail led us in and out of washes. Some even had some water in it. I don't know why it seems to be a common thing to put signs where the trail is obvious and you are just left to wander where the trail is obscured, but we made our way through. Caitlyn's XJ kept dying on us while idling and after it heated up. We spent some time trying to isolate the problem and come up with possible ways to fix it. After the vehicle sits and cools down, it starts right back up without any issue. At one point, the TJ was complaining of not having enough gas, but there was at least a quarter tank the last we had checked. We figured that it was because we were driving on some steep roads but the low fuel light didn't go away once we leveled off, so we were a bit concerned as we pulled over to camp for the night.

The next morning, we broke down camp and headed back on the trail. The fuel light went away but we were a bit wary still of how much gas might be in there. Once we got back on the main trail, we whipped around on a different trail that would take us back out of the wilderness. We knew we would need more gas but we didn't know how much was left.

We made it back out without any problems, while playing and splashing through some muddy puddles since we planned to take the XJ apart to work on the axles when we got back. We got to the gas station with gas to spare. We decided to work our way back to California afterwards though. I think if we come back, we need to come back with extra gas tanks. We had one small gas can but it wouldn't have been enough for us to stay out there with two cars. It takes too long to get anywhere so you don't want to have to stop to get gas and go all the way back in, even if you take a more direct route.