After reading @tofutruc-3393 adventures on the McGrew Trail, and his trip ending with a tow truck, it reminded me of an earlier trip I had which ended much the same way. I wasn't active on this forum when this occurred, so it was never posted here. The story had a lesson to be learned regarding old broncos and new centech wiring harnesses, so it was posted on the classic broncos forum. It's an interesting story that you might find entertaining, so I'll repost it here. It also predated the iPhone satellite service.
Trouble in the Desert
We love our Bronco, so my wife and I decided to do a 5 day camping trip in the southeastern deserts of Oregon. We would be driving 600 miles total, a couple hundred miles of dirt roads, some high speed gravel, some in 1st gear 4Lo. Everything went according to plan until the 4th day. We were 35 miles from Frenchglen heading to Hart Mountain on a gravel road when we decided to take a short break. When we tried to start the Bronco, it would crank just fine, but it wouldn't fire. I thought it might be flooded or vapor locked or something along that line, but it didn't smell like it, and didn't act like it. I swapped in a spare Duraspark module, but it still wouldn't fire. So there we were, on a hot day at 3pm with no shade, 95 miles from the nearest tow truck, with both our dogs. And no cell service. Shit!!
About 30 minutes later, a 4Runner comes down the road. Nice guys, more than willing to help, but they were loaded with gear and only had room for one person. My wife insisted that I go. I was reluctant, to say the least. But we didn't have much choice, and we were well stocked with water and food. I'd have to hitch a ride back to Frenchglen to get a tow truck from Burns, another 60 miles north. Although we have always maintained AAA 200 mile towing I was advised to not try that, considering the time of day, my wife being alone out there, not to mention we were on a nasty washboard 25 miles from the nearest paved road. So I opted to pay a local company to bring a flatbed to the rescue.
Several hours later we get back to the Bronco on the side of the road. My wife tells me that several cars drove by and didn't even make eye contact with her. I was shocked! But a ranger from Malhuer Wildlife Preserve stopped, tried to start the truck again, which it didn't, and decided we had the situation under control. Tyler, the tow truck driver, was a super nice guy about 35, knew the area well, and had even bought and sold a few early broncos in his day. He loved working on old cars, and had a spare coil with him. We swapped in a different coil, but that didn't solve the problem, so we loaded up the flatbed and headed back to Burns 95 miles away. Trevor, his brother in law, had a shop in town and was willing to help us out, but it wouldn't be until the following day. So we pitched the tent out in the weeds behind the shop and crashed. By then it was 10pm.
Trevor arrives at 8am. I try to start it, and it fires up! And in ten seconds it dies. We're scratching our heads. We start it again, it runs for 2 seconds and dies, and after that, nothing but a cranking engine that won't start. I pull the sight plug on the primary fuel bowl, plenty of gas. It's got to be an electrical problem. We put a timing light on #1 and crank it. No spark. We start hunting for any signs of a rodent that chewed through the harness somewhere. Nothing unusual. We test for power at the coil positive with the key on. No voltage! Trevor downloads a wiring schematic for the Duraspark. We start tracing the power from the IGN switch. We have power at the module input, but none at the coil. We're swearing at the rodents that love engine compartments, even though we haven't found any indication of damage. We don't have a clue where the problem is.
Now this is getting weird, because on one hand, the truck just fired up, but wouldn't stay running, but now there's zero voltage to the coil positive! For lack of something better to do, I decided to check the fuses in the glovebox. New Centech harness. Why would I even bother? The problem was intermittent, fuses are not! But I checked anyway, and guess what? Being in the glovebox where we have a habit of storing things, the IGN fuse had been knocked sideways "just enough" to make intermittent contact. I pushed the fuse back in and the truck fired right up! We all looked at each other in disbelief.
Not to mention the time and trouble we went through, it was an expensive lesson. Fortunately we're in our 70's and retired and can afford such mishaps. We weren't through with our trip, so I asked my wife "so where do you want to go?" She said HOME! But she was a good sport through it all. And the best part, now that it's all over and we know what caused all the grief? We can still "trust" our Bronco to get us in and out of remote places.
The other lesson learned: NEVER travel without satellite communications. I've had a Garmin InReach active year-round ever since, and I think it's a cheap insurance policy to cover your butt when things go askew. And not just for off-roading trips. For example, less than a month after this trip my wife was on hike with the dogs, and Murphy (115#) crashed into her and broke her ankle in three places. Fortunately she had cell service and called me to the rescue, but that was not a given!
Trouble in the Desert
We love our Bronco, so my wife and I decided to do a 5 day camping trip in the southeastern deserts of Oregon. We would be driving 600 miles total, a couple hundred miles of dirt roads, some high speed gravel, some in 1st gear 4Lo. Everything went according to plan until the 4th day. We were 35 miles from Frenchglen heading to Hart Mountain on a gravel road when we decided to take a short break. When we tried to start the Bronco, it would crank just fine, but it wouldn't fire. I thought it might be flooded or vapor locked or something along that line, but it didn't smell like it, and didn't act like it. I swapped in a spare Duraspark module, but it still wouldn't fire. So there we were, on a hot day at 3pm with no shade, 95 miles from the nearest tow truck, with both our dogs. And no cell service. Shit!!
About 30 minutes later, a 4Runner comes down the road. Nice guys, more than willing to help, but they were loaded with gear and only had room for one person. My wife insisted that I go. I was reluctant, to say the least. But we didn't have much choice, and we were well stocked with water and food. I'd have to hitch a ride back to Frenchglen to get a tow truck from Burns, another 60 miles north. Although we have always maintained AAA 200 mile towing I was advised to not try that, considering the time of day, my wife being alone out there, not to mention we were on a nasty washboard 25 miles from the nearest paved road. So I opted to pay a local company to bring a flatbed to the rescue.
Several hours later we get back to the Bronco on the side of the road. My wife tells me that several cars drove by and didn't even make eye contact with her. I was shocked! But a ranger from Malhuer Wildlife Preserve stopped, tried to start the truck again, which it didn't, and decided we had the situation under control. Tyler, the tow truck driver, was a super nice guy about 35, knew the area well, and had even bought and sold a few early broncos in his day. He loved working on old cars, and had a spare coil with him. We swapped in a different coil, but that didn't solve the problem, so we loaded up the flatbed and headed back to Burns 95 miles away. Trevor, his brother in law, had a shop in town and was willing to help us out, but it wouldn't be until the following day. So we pitched the tent out in the weeds behind the shop and crashed. By then it was 10pm.
Trevor arrives at 8am. I try to start it, and it fires up! And in ten seconds it dies. We're scratching our heads. We start it again, it runs for 2 seconds and dies, and after that, nothing but a cranking engine that won't start. I pull the sight plug on the primary fuel bowl, plenty of gas. It's got to be an electrical problem. We put a timing light on #1 and crank it. No spark. We start hunting for any signs of a rodent that chewed through the harness somewhere. Nothing unusual. We test for power at the coil positive with the key on. No voltage! Trevor downloads a wiring schematic for the Duraspark. We start tracing the power from the IGN switch. We have power at the module input, but none at the coil. We're swearing at the rodents that love engine compartments, even though we haven't found any indication of damage. We don't have a clue where the problem is.
Now this is getting weird, because on one hand, the truck just fired up, but wouldn't stay running, but now there's zero voltage to the coil positive! For lack of something better to do, I decided to check the fuses in the glovebox. New Centech harness. Why would I even bother? The problem was intermittent, fuses are not! But I checked anyway, and guess what? Being in the glovebox where we have a habit of storing things, the IGN fuse had been knocked sideways "just enough" to make intermittent contact. I pushed the fuse back in and the truck fired right up! We all looked at each other in disbelief.
Not to mention the time and trouble we went through, it was an expensive lesson. Fortunately we're in our 70's and retired and can afford such mishaps. We weren't through with our trip, so I asked my wife "so where do you want to go?" She said HOME! But she was a good sport through it all. And the best part, now that it's all over and we know what caused all the grief? We can still "trust" our Bronco to get us in and out of remote places.
The other lesson learned: NEVER travel without satellite communications. I've had a Garmin InReach active year-round ever since, and I think it's a cheap insurance policy to cover your butt when things go askew. And not just for off-roading trips. For example, less than a month after this trip my wife was on hike with the dogs, and Murphy (115#) crashed into her and broke her ankle in three places. Fortunately she had cell service and called me to the rescue, but that was not a given!
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