If Not for Bad Luck…You know the rest! February in Arizona

Where to start...  I still didn’t have a camera, so this will mainly be text.  Let’s start with my mom.  She finally lost her battle with lung cancer on February 3^rd.  I was at a friend’s house when I got the first call. Jeff, Robin and Dad were with her, and within an hour and a half she was gone. Even though we have been dealing with this for more than a year and even though it really was a blessing for her, it was still hard, really hard. I was still pretty numb emotionally when we left Quartzsite a couple of days later. I miss her, even if she hadn’t been able to talk on a phone for several years, I miss talking to her.

Patti and her Mom

At the end of January, while the big RV show was going on in Quartzsite, Wayne had a performance chip added to the coach.  We did this to our last coach and loved it. Wayne had spoken to John Brazel of Brazels in Centralia.  We thought they were going to put it in but it turned out to be Redlands Trucks out of California.  We didn’t drive it until after my mom died and we headed to Wickenburg for our next group ride.  Wayne got about 10 miles down I-10 and thought he had an exhaust leak.  We stopped in Wickenburg and ordered new gaskets, but 12 miles later, at camp, it was obvious that we had major problems.  Wayne changed the gasket in case, but it was actually fine.  He and some of the other guys in camp tried to troubleshoot it during the next week, to no avail.  So we called a shop we had found in Wickenburg and made an appointment to be towed in.

The day before our appointment I was in town doing laundry so I stopped at Craig Motorcraft where we were taking the coach so I could confirm our appointment, and spoke at length to Terry Craig.  He said that he thought we would have to replace the motor, which would take a week, just to have the motor shipped from Colorado (the closest one).  But he wasn’t sure, so after work that day he drove out to where we were camped; just to listen to the motor.  Yep, it sounded like the crank or something in the bottom end.  So I called the tow company.  Since tow trucks usually don’t like to go off the pavement our friend Bob actually towed us out of the desert and onto the shoulder of the paved road.

The tow truck hauled us into Wickenburg (thank you roadside assistance, if you don’t have it you should!). Of course it was nowafternoon on Friday February 15th, so it was Monday before we got the bad news.  Four pistons were destroyed due to detonation, which is what our mechanic says was the problem.  He feels it is completely a chip installation problem, that they did not change the timing as they should have. 

3 bad pistons

Clear down to the ring

We spent 4 nights living in the coach at the shop, leaving during the day so they could work on it.  By Tuesday, the group had been at that camp for the limit of 14 days so they moved as scheduled to Lake Pleasant in Peoria.  We however headed to Quartzsite.  Lake Pleasant was too far for us to go back and forth each day, and we have some of the nicest friends.  Bill and Kris offered to let us use their little 1 bedroom house in Quartzsite. They were going to be at Lake Pleasant until the end of the month, so we had the place to ourselves, well us and the cats. Before we left we got some more bad news, once Terry gets the motor in, he can’t run it with the faulty programing in it and the Chevy dealer can’t reprogram the brain without the coach, so we get to pay for a tow to Phoenix after the motor is installed.  Cha-ching!  More money going out. I didn’t know whether to cry or puke, it was so awful.

Bill and Kris's house

Trailer parked in front

Once in Quartzsite we called Brazels, what a joke.  Of course John was not available and the guy we talked to had what Wayne would call a ‘silver tongue’.  He spoke in circles and never accepted responsibility for the issue. He kept saying that he wanted to do anything he could to help us, but it wasn’t their fault that the motor blew up.  Yeah right.  10 miles after having the chip put it and it isn't related?? who is he kidding.  He wouldn’t even give us our money back, getting them to cover the engine is never going to happen.  It was supposed to be 100% satisfaction guarantee, obviously we aren’t satisfied, so …    He said that Redlands had actually taken our money so we would have to go to them for a refund.  Yeah, he’s a lot of help.  He did ask that we have our mechanic call him.

They work on anything at Terry's shop

After a week, the motor is in and Terry finally has some good news.  Brazels is going to reprogram the brain, at no charge.  That will save us about $1000.  So Terry sends it off next day air and expects it back on Friday.  Next call comes, and Terry says that the new motor needs different bolts for the head and just to make it fun, Schwan’s the Ice Cream trucks have corralled all the extra 8.1L Chevy engines and parts to repower all their trucks.  The bolts are in Pennsylvania, they will take 2-3 days. On Friday March 1^st we get a call, none of the parts are in so it will be sometime next week.  Enjoy your week end.  Yeah right…

Monday comes, and Linda from Terry’s shop calls, Brazels sent out the brain, but instead of next day air as agreed, it is coming ground.  Shouldn’t be here until Wednesday.  Finally while we are out riding on Thursday we get the message, the coach is ready!!!  $10,000 later and it is running and ready!  Finally! 

The original plan was to pick it up and continue east to Mesa, then go south to an RV park north of Tucson where we have won 7 days free stay.  However our luck is still the wrong kind, and we have to come back to Quartzsite as we are expecting parts to be delivered Friday or Monday.  See, while all of this was going on, Wayne’s Gas-Gas 250 has still been laid up. 

Working on another bike!

It started when we were waiting for parts and tools from Chaparral Motorsports for the KTM 525. (See Shipping Woes post)  While the 525 was apart, we went on a couple of dual-sport rides, rides that he would normally use the KTM for.  However with it laid up he rode his 2-stroke, the Gas-Gas 250.  On the way back from the ride to Bouse AZ, we came back on the Sunquist Trail.  This is a very straight, flat gravel road.  I had pulled over and waved Wayne by, knowing that while I might do 45-50 MPH down this road, he would go much faster, and he had been stuck behind me all day.  So off he went, having a great time sliding the rear wheel; that is right up until he stuck the piston.  Quick reflexes meant he pulled in the clutch and slowly let it out, and the motor started up and he continued on.  When we got to the end of the road, the 250 died.  He couldn’t get it to restart, so he rode my bike the half mile to where we were staying and got the truck.

The next day he checked out the piston through the intake and exhaust ports and it looked fine, but no spark.  This was right as we were leaving to go to Wickenburg, so he ordered a new stator from Trail Tech because the old one tested bad.  We had to have it sent to Quartzsite because we knew Wayne was going to come back (200 miles round trip) to get the package from Chaparral, once it finally arrived. (See Shipping Woes post)

So there we were, the coach is broke down in the desert and once the stator is installed, the bike doesn’t start.  So Wayne decides to continue working on it in Quartzsite as we were headed back there the next day. Once here Wayne orders a CDI from Go-Fasters (the major parts importer).  They say they have 2 coming from Spain and they should be here on Wednesday. On Thursday Wayne calls and finds out that although it is in the country, it is not at Gofasters. The next time Wayne calls a box has arrived at Gofasters, but the parts guy is in Vegas at a conference, so this guy on the phone doesn’t know what is in the box. Sheese!! Parts guy should be back either Thursday or Friday.  So Wayne decides to install the new springs he bought for the shock and forks.  He gets the bike apart, unwrapped the shock spring, and it is the wrong size.  And it appears to be miss-marked at; wait for it …Gofasters! Wayne has had it.  This bike, while he loves how it works for him, it has absolutely no support from the importers.  It took 2 months last summer to get a fender, and 6 months to get the electric starter working right.  Wayne calls up the shop he ordered the springs from and asked if he could return them, as he is going to sell the bike.  Nice shop, they said we could return them. 

Once he gets the bike back together he tries the e-starter just for kicks and giggles, and the darn thing sounds like it wants to start, go figure it has spark!   Next he calls Gofasters, and although the parts guy is back, he hasn’t sent out the CDI. So he cancels his order. 

But what is keeping it from running???  Wayne decides to tear apart the cylinder to see how bad it seized.  Turns out it stuck at the wrist pins, which Wayne says is very unusual.  Now the cylinder has to be sent out for recoating, and to do this he needs the new piston and rings he ordered to arrive from Skeeter’s shop in San Diego. That is why we are coming back to Quartzsite instead of heading to Tucson. We want to send the cylinder to a place in Henderson NV to be recoated.  They are very busy and it will be about 2-3 weeks before it will be done, and we can pick it up on our way to a ride in Nevada in early April. Even the order from Skeeters gets delayed.  The original order was on Friday, the parts guy says he'll send it out the next day.  Of course there is no UPS on Saturday and they are closed on Monday.  When they try to send it on Tuesday, UPS doesn't like the street address in Quartzsite.  When they try to send it again on Wednesday, it finally goes.  It arrived here on Friday, while we were picking up the coach.

And if this all wasn’t enough, we spent a day running errands in Parker AZ; about 30 miles from here and Wayne slowly went through an intersection and didn't see the stop sign, was pulled over and got a ticket for $184.  Will it never end???