Finally, the waiting, waiting, waiting is over. There was a different song playing on the radio this morning. No more Sunny and Cher “I got you Babe”. …good bye ground hogs day, good bye Twin Falls. We are rolling down I84 with Moab in our sights and Willie is serenading us. Typically we like to drive around 5 hours or 250 miles a day but today Wally has the pedal to the medal. We are going to be on the road for 8-9 hours and will travel about 450 miles.

 

 

The coach is running great and the final diagnosis for the issues we were having was the aftermarket performance module which was installed by the prior owner. The service tech, stymied by the low pressure in our HEUI pump finally thought to disconnect the module and reconnect all the sensors directly to the engine. Bingo, no more low pressure issues and the fault codes stopped appearing. WOO-HOO!!!

This HEUI pump is kinda a big, damn deal when it comes it comes to the operation of the Cat engine on our coach. The Hydraulically actuated Electronically controlled Unit Injectors (HEUI) use a hydraulic pump and engine oil to generate fuel injection pressure, and an ECM to control the pressure and amount of fuel injected into the cylinders. No pressure = No fuel which is why we couldn’t get the coach started back at Bruneau Dunes.  My non-professional summary is that the performance module was going haywire and sending erratic signals to the HEUI.

 

What is super frustrating is that the tech spent 11 hours (at $128 an hour) troubleshooting other issues and actually had disconnected sensors from the module to test them. He never thought to bypass the module until yesterday at 3:30 pm. Well, he got an education and so did we to the tune of $1,935 …ouch. I suspect that the HEUI pump that we had replaced before we left Anacortes hadn’t failed and it was this damn module all along.

Yesterday was mentally exhausting with all the waiting and wondering. The upside was it was warm and sunny so we spent the day walking the Canyon Rim Trail and playing ball with Bentley in Centennial Waterfront Park as Sucia watched from her crate. Poor buddy, she was in her crate again for 12 hours and it will be another long one for her today.

 

 

We also got to watch two base jumpers, attached to parachutes dive off the Perrine Bridge over the Snake River Gorge and glide to the ground below…wow, that takes some nerve!

 

 

I had a fabulous birthday lunch at Chipotle Mexican Grill, a hot shower later and a nice bottle of wine! Life is good…..On the road again…just can’t wait to get on the road again.