Pete M Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 So the timing belt let go in the Cruiser late last night stranding me in Marion Ohio. I'm awaiting word from the shop as I chill in my motel room, so I'm not yet sure what the plan is. We shall see. But I did get to go junkyarding yesterday and snagged some good MJ stuff ('gates, gas skid, tails, racerback, rear carpet panels, etc) so it's not all bad. but this cheap trip north is no longer cheap. got any good road trip stories? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdog Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 Last road trip I took I went to Vegas, can't talk about it cause it stayed in Vegas lol. But that sucks about the pt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted March 16, 2022 Author Share Posted March 16, 2022 Yeah, hopefully it's just the belt (and timing cover since there's a hole in it) and nothing more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89 MJ Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 One upon a time (it was last July, I’m sure most will remember this), I tried to take my MJ from WI to PA. I made it 40 miles from home and it overheated. We got it home and we took my mom’s Jeep. I did meet a lot a lot of CC members, so that’s a plus! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiNi Beast Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 Once Last year trip to PA, I had burned up some hub bearings and I too was stuck in ohio. Darn Ohio state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 One time heading to Vegas and taking lake pleasant road to hop on carefree highway there was a brand new Chevy off to the side of the road with a smashed in front end, about 1/10th of a mile up from that truck was a bull lying on the ground dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiNi Beast Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 1 minute ago, eaglescout526 said: One time heading to Vegas and taking lake pleasant road to hop on carefree highway there was a brand new Chevy off to the side of the road with a smashed in front end, about 1/10th of a mile up from that truck was a bull lying on the ground dead. That's no bull. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 Lol not no more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scguy Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 Last time I broke down on the road was right after buying my Odyssey. In the middle of the NC mountains, the alternator went out. Took it to a local shop and $700 later, I had a new alt and belt tensioner. Ouch. Didn't have tools or time to fix it myself, but the shop was great and stayed after hours to fix it. The breakdown before that was my 06 Pilot, driving from SC to PA, the alternator upper bolt sheared off in the head and the bottom bolt worked loose until the alt cocked sideways. This was about 11PM on Christmas Eve. No truck stops around, had no tools, no parts store open until after Christmas. After an hour of scratching my head, a guy volunteered to run and get his girlfriend's pink tool set. It was mostly fractional, but I was able to get the bottom alt bolt tight and the belt back on and limp it to PA. Miraculously, the sheared flush bolt in the head turned out with a pick. New grade 8 bolt and all was well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdog Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 42 minutes ago, Pete M said: Yeah, hopefully it's just the belt (and timing cover since there's a hole in it) and nothing more. They are interference motors iirc, I wouldn't worry about the cover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted March 16, 2022 Author Share Posted March 16, 2022 The to threads I looked at describe it as a semi-interference. As in there's a 50-50 shot of not bending anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdog Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 And Chrysler proved me wrong, oh well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87Warrior Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 Wow. How many miles were on the PT's timing belt? I replace the timing belt every 100k miles in my Cruiser (the Mr. T Land variety) as a precaution. Sheering off the trackbar/upper control arm mount on my TJ's rear axle in Colorado was fun. Luckily I had a trailer waiting... The issue was the trailer was 30 miles away. Driving a TJ on curvy mountain roads with a ratchet strap keeping the axle under the rear end was nerve-racking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scguy Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 Wait, we talking Land, PT or FJ Cruiser? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdog Posted March 17, 2022 Share Posted March 17, 2022 How's it going @Pete M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watchamakalit Posted March 17, 2022 Share Posted March 17, 2022 3 hours ago, scguy said: Wait, we talking Land, PT or FJ Cruiser? Pete drives the PT flavor of cruiser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiatslug87 Posted March 17, 2022 Share Posted March 17, 2022 14 minutes ago, watchamakalit said: Pete drives the PT flavor of cruiser. The blandest flavor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustEmptyEveryPocket Posted March 17, 2022 Share Posted March 17, 2022 Two great road trip stories that have a similar theme: I live in the middle of Missouri. Was headed to Vail Colorado with the wife for some R&R. She has family in the area that we stay with. Around Idaho Springs (I think?) there was a freak storm roll in. Air temp was perfect for rain, ground temp was perfect for snow. You know what that means . . . ice. Lots of ice, super thick on the road in literally 10 minutes. Everyone was stuck, and there was no way for the plow convoys to get through. After 4 hours of waiting and almost getting run into 5 times (twice by the same idiot mom in a minivan) we get down the 100yd slope and start looking uphill to the next highway exit so we can turn around and get a bed in Denver for the night. Only problem was our vehicle was a 2003 mini cooper with A/T tires on it. So going uphill after an ice storm was not going to happen. The wife drove, and I pushed that damn car up the hill, up the exit ramp, and across the overpass bridge. Probably 2 miles? Thankfully once going the other way some fancy deicer had been put down and life was back to normal. But man were my nerves shot all to hell for that day. Plus my legs hurt from pushing. Also, the wife roasted those tires trying to help me out. She thought "nice and easy" meant "floor that gas pedal and ignore the smoke coming from the tires". It was a complete mess. So the next year, I was NOT going to get caught again. We loaded up the Comanche (only 4x4 we have) with all the supplies including a set of crappy tire cables. Down the road we go. Right around Idaho Springs again I felt a hard lurch. It was weird, but went away immediately, so I kept driving. Until 1 mile later I feel it again. And then a half mile after that again. Pull over and look at everything . . . can't see any problems. Get back on the road keep driving. Except that lurch is happening every couple hundred feet. Feels like I am stopping on the brakes every time, but I'm obviously not. Start climbing a hill and I have to downshift to 3rd just to make it. Pull over again and feel my hubs/ brakes. Fronts are just fine. Lost my fingerprints with a sizzle sound when I got to the back drums. By then, we were basically to Georgetown, so we pull off, find the one and only shop there, and beg the guys to take a look. They shake their heads and say they will try. Waste the next 6 hours walking around Georgetown (beautiful place, wonderful people, had a great time). Finally, on the LAST supply shipment of the day the shop gets the spring kit for my truck, stays open late to put it in, and I get back on the road. Both times it turned out just fine for us, but I learned that Colorado just doesn't seem to like me for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted March 17, 2022 Author Share Posted March 17, 2022 59 minutes ago, jdog said: How's it going @Pete M My buddy drove down and the Cruiser is on a trailer and we're headed to Michigan. Going to fix it myself this weekend I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiNi Beast Posted March 17, 2022 Share Posted March 17, 2022 28 minutes ago, Pete M said: My buddy drove down and the Cruiser is on a trailer and we're headed to Michigan. Going to fix it myself this weekend I guess. Umm shall I swing by?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdog Posted March 17, 2022 Share Posted March 17, 2022 32 minutes ago, Pete M said: My buddy drove down and the Cruiser is on a trailer and we're headed to Michigan. Going to fix it myself this weekend I guess. If you need any torque specs or instructions just holla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyav8r Posted March 17, 2022 Share Posted March 17, 2022 Several years back I’m on my way to Northern TN to visit a hydro plant to sell some pumps. My wife decided to go with me, so we took her Lexus instead of my GMC Sierra. Weather’s cold but good when we leave AL but around 75 miles from the hotel in TN we run into a lot of snow on the interstate. Front wheel drive on the Lexus and good tires, so we’re not having any trouble. I come up on a semi tanker in the right lane and pull over pass him. Suddenly there’s a flash of brown in my headlights as a deer runs across the highway and hits the tanker trailer wheels. Fortunately, it gets flung behind the trailer toward the right shoulder and away from us. If we’d been traveling just a little faster we would have had that deer through the windshield. After that near miss, driving through heavier snow for the rest of the way to the hotel and then to and from the hydro plant the next day seemed like a stroll on the beach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted March 17, 2022 Author Share Posted March 17, 2022 2 hours ago, MiNi Beast said: Umm shall I swing by?? Don't know when yet. Probably Saturday? Need to get ahold of a belt from the store and intact cover from the junkyard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dante2 Posted March 18, 2022 Share Posted March 18, 2022 Back when I was 18 or so and still had a NM learner's permit ( had been driving at least 3-4 years by that point). I brought a 1979 Z28 from Santa Rosa, CA back to Santa Fe. Can't remember exactly where but I blew the upper hose east of Flagstaff. I was able to get to a shop for a new hose and coolant. Continued on my way without any other issues. Luckily the only LEO encounter I had was when I had pulled over on a ramp to catch a nap and an Arizona SP/HP stopped to ask if everything was ok. Still waited another year to get my actual license after that. Young and not the brightest at that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted March 18, 2022 Share Posted March 18, 2022 Way back when, my buddy calls me up one morning (I didn't start work until 11AM that day). He says, let's roadtrip somewhere today. I call in sick, he picks me up and we start driving with no apparent destination. Then we get the bright idea to go visit Niagara Falls (*germane to the story is that we lived in Johnstown, PA which is about an hour-ish east of Pittsburgh in SW PA). So we headed north. There may or may not have been libations present. He's blowing up the interstate north of Buffalo and gets pulled by a NY state trooper for doing like 90 in a 55, I took over driving from that point lol. He crumbles up the ticket he got issued and throws it out the window (to this day, it is still unpaid as far as I know). Anyways, we get to the falls (Canadian side) and it was so foggy that you could hear them but not see them, bummer. We went to a hotel bar to get a beer and they were phenomenally expensive, so we only had one each, hopped back in his car and promptly drove to Buffalo and stopped at the first place that had neon in the window. Then I decide we should go visit my (now) wife, who was a freshman at Edinboro University since we were in the general area....so we drove to Edinboro, visited for a bit then started heading back home. Coming down I79 with WDVE playing on the radio we hear that the Allman Brothers are playing that evening at Starlake Amphitheater, wihch is a bit southwest of Pittsburgh, so we detoured and went to the concert. Ended up getting home at about 0400 the next morning, and I had to be at work at 8. It was a rough day..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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