Car Break Down

Where's the worst place to have a car breakdown?

Way out in the woods, on a Boy Scout campout, when it's cold outside and the roads are covered in snow and you weren't smart enough to bring your tools, of course!

Last weekend was the Junior Leadership Training (JLT) campout for James, so on Friday evening we headed off to the woods and drove out across the snow-covered forest trails to the top of the hill where the cabin was situated, and it was a close call just getting up there. {The JLT is an indoor activity, with PowerPoint slides and stuff like that, so we weren't out in the tents. Thank the Lord.} The trails weren't really cleared off, and the ruts didn't help, nor did the ditches on the side of the trails; and the worst part was that we were all in a line like a caravan, so once we had parked, that's where we were going to be for the rest of the weekend, except for the last car in the line.

I'd made sure to be that "last car in line" because I was planning on leaving camp Saturday afternoon to catch a concert back at church and didn't want to get blocked in.

Well, something happened that night, and the power went out around eleven o'clock, and since my car was the last one in line, I was recruited to drive down to the Ranger Station to find out what had happened. Seems JLT doesn't work too well without power. So I hopped in the car and started up the car and -

Hey! What's that? The "Charge" light didn't go out. Is that right? Could that be a glitch? Maybe the snow got up under the car and shorted something out. Y'know, there was a 'pop' sound when the car started; I wonder if a fuse blew or something?

Made it down to the Ranger Station and back (and found out that power was out to the whole area, even the town nearby, so it wasn't just us). Thought perhaps - hoped, that is - that the Charge Light thing was just a glitch, maybe some water or snow got up inside the engine, maybe it'll dry out by morning and everything will be fine.

Next morning, after breakfast, and after the boys had gotten all busy with their training, I went out to the car and checked it out. Same problem. Charge light wouldn't go out. Which usually indicates that the voltage regulator has gone bad. Or the alternator.

Funny thing about these new-fangled alternators. Somebody figured out it was cheaper to build the voltage regulator right in to the alternator, so you get it all in one package. But the problem is that when the regulator goes bad, you have to replace the entire alternator - so instead of a $20 part, you gotta replace a $90 part.

But I wasn't sure. Yet. Needed to run a quick test with a voltmeter to see if the alternator was actually charging or not. But nobody there had a voltmeter, and mine was back at the house. So ... like any happy idiot, I called Cheryl and asked, "What're you doing today??"

Turns out she was planning on doing some shopping, so I just added something to her list. "Grab my voltmeter and bring it up." Which she did. An hour and a half drive later, she arrived with the voltmeter, I checked the voltage, and ... the alternator was definitely bad.



So then she drove me (and the alternator) to the nearest auto parts store (about half an hour away), we tested the alternator (just to be sure), they found out it was bad (duh!), we ordered another one, they didn't have it in stock - but another store in the next town did, so we put it on hold, drove to the other town, picked it up, paid for it, drove all the way back to camp, borrowed some tools to put it back in the car, and ... now it worked fine.

We left James in the capable hands of the Boy Scout leaders, jetted back home, then Adam and I went to the concert, then to the store (to do some shopping for Cheryl that she'd been unable to do because she was rescueing me!), then back home for bedtime.

And then the next day after Sunday School, I headed back to camp to pick up James and bring him home.

What a weekend!