bad day Saturday...the MJ let me down:( (long story)

I can honestly say this is the first and only time the MJ left me hanging, ever. I was starting off on a mini roadtrip to NC to swap axles with a guy, and about 45 mi into the trip, she died.

It all started, now that I think about it, on Friday night when I went to fill up the tank for the trip. Put 11 gal in her, and the gas gauge read "E"...I figured the sending unit crapped out and put it on my list of crap to fix sometime down the road (I failed to notice that all my idiot lights were inop also). I leave the next morning, in the rain, and my wipers are barely sweeping the winshield, and skipping horribly as well, on low. If I put them on high, they just stopped dead. Oh well, just add a wiper motor to the list along with the sending unit, I think to myself :roll:

Then, the radio dies suddenly.....the wipers get worse. I momoentarily shut my headlights off (on the interstate in a rainstorm :oops: ) and the radio works again. Turn the headlight back on, radio dies, and engine starts to stumble like I'm loosing ignition. Then the seatbelt warning light comes on, as if possessed (WTF??) I realize something's not good, so I spot a rest stop pulloff and hit it, just in the nick of time. As I'm downshifting into the rest area total system shutdown ensues, and I drift into a parking spot, dead in the water. Pop the hood and feel the alternator and you could fry an egg on it. Yay, I need an alternator I say to myself, but I'm halfway between BFE and Squirrel-Nut, NC and not a parts store within 40 miles.

Call my wife and she drives down 45 minutes to get me (while I pull my alt out). We drive back to Richmond, takes me 3 hours to get an alternator, then drive back down and put it in. Use her car to jump my dead battery, and she starts up unhappily, but runs. No idiot lights, turn signals, and wipers still wonky, but good headlights, so we start to convoy back home. Get about 10 miles up the road and she goes into shutdown mode again, and I grab an exit and coast to a dead stop at the top of the hill in the middle of the road. Jump it again, it starts, and I drive it 1/2 mi down some road to an exxon station. Pop the hood and put a meter on the battery...8V. Crap, need a battery too.

Drive back up another 30 miles, get an el-cheapo Advance Auto battery, drive back and swap it in. Starts strong, but still no idiot lights and gas gauge still inop. Humoungous rainstorm ensues, but by this time I'm smoking, so we hit the road in convoy with cell phone commo between us. 10 minutes later, everything comes back...wipers running like brand new, gas gauge and idiot lights work, and engine is purring like a kitten (FYI, Renix's don't like wonky voltage....) Made it home and proceeded to drink like 4 beers in 5 minutes. All systems have been normal since, and I'm going to try the trip again next Saturday.

Final tally.....$73 alternator, $40 battery, and the wife put 235 miles on her car. Y'all think she didn't like the MJ before? HAH....she HATES it now!

How was everyone else's weekend?

Jeff

ine was grand.

Got married saturday, even worked on the MJ on my wedding day, you think the wife hate's yours?

The the Steelers won the super bowl, so I'm pretty happy.

All I have to say is Yellow top Optima. Last April when I went to Tellico, I fried my Alternator, and pretty much the same thing you describe happened to me, except no parts store open in that Part of NC on Sunday till after 10 or something. So we swapped in a buddies Yelow top, and I drove 400+ miles on battery alone. Granted I wasn't using any accesories, but It brought me close enough to home that one of my buddies could come and get me. Needless to say all my rigs run yellow tops now.

Patrick

Amen Patrick.....but I didn't have an extra $150 on me at the time LOL. My plans were to replace the batt w/ an Optima this summer anyway. Now, I'll just swap the el cheapo into my other vehicle, and replace it with a yellow in the MJ :D

Unless some other disaster befalls me between now and then.....

Jeff

Got married saturday, even worked on the MJ on my wedding day, you think the wife hate's yours?

Just tell her to remember "for better or worse"...."for better or worse".....

Saturday was a "worse" day for us :(

but it did end well w/ the Black and Gold (even tho the game was like a trainwreck).

My wife and I will have a toast to younz tonight at dinner :D

Jeff

Appreciate the thought.

It was wicked nasty here on our wedding day. I thought that taking her camry out in 2 inches of freezing sleet probably wasnt a great idea. Especially since the B&B was on a back road. So I asked if if she wanted heat in the truck, she said yes, I told her be ready in a half hour, I'm going to work on the Jeep.

Jeff give me a holer I have a used yellow top for sale. Less then a yr old. was in my street jeep.

Patrick