Cactus Camper
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What an adventure! Subscribed to follow along
Respect the 40
- Thread starter samatulich
- Start date
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- 1976 2f fj40 land cruiser toyota
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Ahem. You all rolling Marlboro cigs?
Great read so far.
Great read so far.I actually stopped by and saw the FJ40 and your brother yesterday. I've seen it in town for the last couple weeks and had to stop by and say hi. Awesome rig. Hard to believe it's been all over North and South America. It's still in its original paint and looks great with lots of street cred.
Thanks for sharing this story. I got a good portion of it from your brother now I get to read the rest of the story with pics.
Thanks for sharing this story. I got a good portion of it from your brother now I get to read the rest of the story with pics.
Beer and Hotcakes @ 0 Dark thirty.GO CANADA!!
David70FJ40
Older Than Most
Subscribed.
samatulich
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #26
Yes, I talked to my brother last night and he mention that there was a guy from his neighborhood who stopped by to check out the cruiser. Thanks for checking out the thread, hope you enjoy the rest of the story. Stop by later in August, I’ll be up there.
thecrazygreek
A.K.A. TheCraftyGreek
Great read... Sub'd...
samatulich
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #28
We are now beginning our third day of this road trip. Having driven BC-97 to Dawson Creek we now are starting the World Famous Alaska Highway. Our goal that day was to make it to the Yukon, Watson Lake to be exact.
So we head out on the Alaska Highway towards Fort St John. We stop to pickup food for the day and more gas.
The scenery has changed. It is less mountainous, more open and long, straight roads. From Fort St John to Fort Nelson is one of the longer, if not the longest stretch of highway between towns with services. There was a fuel station somewhere in between, but not much else.
Here is my brother filling up at the last station before Fort Nelson
From this filling station to Fort Nelson was 300 Kilometers if I remember correctly. Easily covered with a full tank in the land cruiser. However, make sure you fill up, just to be sure.
With the weather starting to clear up and the sun above it’s getting hot. We kept the heater valve open and had the defrost blowing. Trying to help keep the old 2F at a reasonable temp. The kick vents are open as well as the windows, even then the air flow is just ok. With my brother at the wheel, we stay on course and get to Fort Nelson by 330 that afternoon.
It’s along this highway that we begin to see more wildlife. Bears to be specific. The black bears were out, mid day, feeding right off the shoulder in the grasses.
I take over and get us back on the Alaska Highway, headed to Toad River, BC. This route takes us through the Northern Rockies. This is also where we begin to experience more fuel delivery issues.
As we cruise down the highway and begin to climb short grades, the old 2F starts to hiccup. By letting off the accelerator and slowly pulling on the hand throttle, we can get through these symptoms. However, the more climbing we do, the more frequent we experience the fuel starvation. We both think it’s as simple as vapor lock. As we crest the summit (4,200’) and begin the down hill portion, the cruiser begins to run just fine.
Now we’re back up to speed, driving through the winding, two lane mountain highway. It’s gorgeous, with rivers, creeks and streams that look great for fishing. We see caribou, and sheep along the way.
I pulled over at one point in the Stone Mountain Provincial Park, it was incredible. We gave the 40 a short break.
We jump back in the rig, get moving. Things are running good, so no reason to worry. We’re thinking with the cooler mountain air, the vapor lock has been resolved.
We stop in at the Toad River Lodge and fuel up. Next stop, Liard Hot Springs.
This takes us through the Muncho Lake Provincial Park. Again, the area is beautiful. Mountains, peaks, rivers and gravel bars. As we cruise through the park, we crest a rise in the road. At the top of the rise, are two police officers. Each has a car parked on either side of the road. I slow down, shift into second ad we approach. One officer signal to me and I figured he was telling me to roll on through. My mistake. A mile down the road, my brother look in the mirror and says “ you’re getting pulled over”. I take a look and the patrol officer is getting right up on me. I pull over. We remove our hats, shades, pull out our IDs, get the registration and insurance card out. With windows down, I hear the officer talking. He explains to us “out of towners” that we rolled through their sobriety check point. He never asked us for ID, registration, insurance or even if we’re sober. He just starts to ask us about the ride. What year, model, where are you two headed? He tells us it’s a “nice ride” and let’s us go.
“Respect the 40” is all my brother and I say to one another.
At this point we are booming with confidence. The cruisers running good, the country is amazing and the law is respecting the 40.
So we head out on the Alaska Highway towards Fort St John. We stop to pickup food for the day and more gas.
The scenery has changed. It is less mountainous, more open and long, straight roads. From Fort St John to Fort Nelson is one of the longer, if not the longest stretch of highway between towns with services. There was a fuel station somewhere in between, but not much else.
Here is my brother filling up at the last station before Fort Nelson
From this filling station to Fort Nelson was 300 Kilometers if I remember correctly. Easily covered with a full tank in the land cruiser. However, make sure you fill up, just to be sure.
With the weather starting to clear up and the sun above it’s getting hot. We kept the heater valve open and had the defrost blowing. Trying to help keep the old 2F at a reasonable temp. The kick vents are open as well as the windows, even then the air flow is just ok. With my brother at the wheel, we stay on course and get to Fort Nelson by 330 that afternoon.
It’s along this highway that we begin to see more wildlife. Bears to be specific. The black bears were out, mid day, feeding right off the shoulder in the grasses.
I take over and get us back on the Alaska Highway, headed to Toad River, BC. This route takes us through the Northern Rockies. This is also where we begin to experience more fuel delivery issues.
As we cruise down the highway and begin to climb short grades, the old 2F starts to hiccup. By letting off the accelerator and slowly pulling on the hand throttle, we can get through these symptoms. However, the more climbing we do, the more frequent we experience the fuel starvation. We both think it’s as simple as vapor lock. As we crest the summit (4,200’) and begin the down hill portion, the cruiser begins to run just fine.
Now we’re back up to speed, driving through the winding, two lane mountain highway. It’s gorgeous, with rivers, creeks and streams that look great for fishing. We see caribou, and sheep along the way.
I pulled over at one point in the Stone Mountain Provincial Park, it was incredible. We gave the 40 a short break.
We jump back in the rig, get moving. Things are running good, so no reason to worry. We’re thinking with the cooler mountain air, the vapor lock has been resolved.
We stop in at the Toad River Lodge and fuel up. Next stop, Liard Hot Springs.
This takes us through the Muncho Lake Provincial Park. Again, the area is beautiful. Mountains, peaks, rivers and gravel bars. As we cruise through the park, we crest a rise in the road. At the top of the rise, are two police officers. Each has a car parked on either side of the road. I slow down, shift into second ad we approach. One officer signal to me and I figured he was telling me to roll on through. My mistake. A mile down the road, my brother look in the mirror and says “ you’re getting pulled over”. I take a look and the patrol officer is getting right up on me. I pull over. We remove our hats, shades, pull out our IDs, get the registration and insurance card out. With windows down, I hear the officer talking. He explains to us “out of towners” that we rolled through their sobriety check point. He never asked us for ID, registration, insurance or even if we’re sober. He just starts to ask us about the ride. What year, model, where are you two headed? He tells us it’s a “nice ride” and let’s us go.
“Respect the 40” is all my brother and I say to one another.
At this point we are booming with confidence. The cruisers running good, the country is amazing and the law is respecting the 40.
samatulich
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #29
Continuing on our way toward the hot springs, confidant, running good and cruising. We are still in the Provincial Park when we look ahead and crossing the road is our first bison spotted. We slow down and pull up next to him. A big bull, I’m mean a huge, powerful looking beast. My brother gets out to get a better pic.
This thing is a monster
We are both truly amazed at his size. He’s about 15 or so feet away. Not a care in the world. After a few minutes of appreciating the animal we move on.
We eventually get to the Liard Hot Springs, there’s a large sign and kiosk on the side of the road. There are dozens of people headed to and from the springs, so we decide to pass it by. It was late in the evening and we wanted to get to camp before dark.
There’s a filling station there across the road from the spring, so we pull in and fill up. We pop the hood to let the engine cool down. Meanwhile the attendant comes out to get the amount of fuel we purchased. He asks what’s wrong, I tell him nothing that it’s just cooling off. He starts to talk about the land cruiser in general and how great they are. He mentions that he’s got one himself. So we settle up and he asks if we’re interested in seeing his 60 series. We say “yes” and drive to the back of his lodge to have a look. Back up in the trees, is a mid 1980s diesel 60 sitting there. Trees growing up through it, windows smashed in, it’s a mess, but it’s a cruiser. We take some photos as this is only the second land cruiser we’ve seen since crossing into Canada. @GEMatulich has the pics, maybe he can post them up.
It’s at this point in the drive that we have our first issue getting the cruiser to start. We checked the carb sight glass and it was empty. So we primed the carb a few time to get it started. We figured the fuel got hot and was evaporating. Once it got started we jumped back in and hit the road. Thinking all it needed was fresh, cool gas that we had just put in. On the highway again and no problem. We drove for another hour or two. Made it into the Yukon and kept going.
We ended up seeing a few herds like this one.
Just bedded along side the road, cows, calves and bulls. All just chilling.
We ended up camping off the highway that night in the Yukon Territory(2200hrs, 1400mi). The day light hours were getting long, probably close to or more than twenty hours a day. We had finally reached the same latitude as Anchorage.
This thing is a monster
We are both truly amazed at his size. He’s about 15 or so feet away. Not a care in the world. After a few minutes of appreciating the animal we move on.
We eventually get to the Liard Hot Springs, there’s a large sign and kiosk on the side of the road. There are dozens of people headed to and from the springs, so we decide to pass it by. It was late in the evening and we wanted to get to camp before dark.
There’s a filling station there across the road from the spring, so we pull in and fill up. We pop the hood to let the engine cool down. Meanwhile the attendant comes out to get the amount of fuel we purchased. He asks what’s wrong, I tell him nothing that it’s just cooling off. He starts to talk about the land cruiser in general and how great they are. He mentions that he’s got one himself. So we settle up and he asks if we’re interested in seeing his 60 series. We say “yes” and drive to the back of his lodge to have a look. Back up in the trees, is a mid 1980s diesel 60 sitting there. Trees growing up through it, windows smashed in, it’s a mess, but it’s a cruiser. We take some photos as this is only the second land cruiser we’ve seen since crossing into Canada. @GEMatulich has the pics, maybe he can post them up.
It’s at this point in the drive that we have our first issue getting the cruiser to start. We checked the carb sight glass and it was empty. So we primed the carb a few time to get it started. We figured the fuel got hot and was evaporating. Once it got started we jumped back in and hit the road. Thinking all it needed was fresh, cool gas that we had just put in. On the highway again and no problem. We drove for another hour or two. Made it into the Yukon and kept going.
We ended up seeing a few herds like this one.
Just bedded along side the road, cows, calves and bulls. All just chilling.
We ended up camping off the highway that night in the Yukon Territory(2200hrs, 1400mi). The day light hours were getting long, probably close to or more than twenty hours a day. We had finally reached the same latitude as Anchorage.
So is your sister available?
I'm asking for a friend ...
(I remember driving down the highway in the Yukon Territory and not seeing another vehicle for hours at a time)
Your trip is epic
The vapor lock issue sounds like a drag. Have you tried the old trick of wrapping the fuel line with tin foil? So enjoying the trip!
Cheers,
Kevo
What a great trip, I'm in.
FJBen
SILVER Star
Epic trip. I love hearing stories like this.
Brutally Honest
&
Totally Timeless ................
Awesome !
&
Totally Timeless ................
Awesome !
Living vicariously through you and brother on this... even my wife, who has family in Vancouver BC got interested after hearing familiar areas and roads you included!
This is off subject but what size Interstate battery you go with? Been pleased?
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samatulich
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #38
We didn’t make it to Watson Lake the evening before, so in the morning we broke camp, went over our preflight check list(engine oil, coolant level, washer fluid topped off and alternator belt tension) and continued on. I took the wheel for the first leg. Pulling out onto the highway we initially experienced the vapor lock. WTF! Again, with good pedal control and taking it easy, the mighty 2F snapped out of it. We stopped to fuel up, and covered a couple hundred miles that morning with ease. Most of that drive was done using the hand throttle, set it at several clicks and up hill we would go about 45mph, down hill about 65mph. Cruising on flat ground about 55mph. We thought we’d figured out the problem.
@GEMatulich took over and was headed into Whitehorse,YT. He did the first 50 kilos under the hand throttle, no problem. It wasn’t until we were 15 kilometers from Whitehorse that he had to go back to the foot pedal. As he approached the grade in the highway, he accelerated and pop, damn thing started to hiccup. He feathered the pedal and go up the grade. At this point we are both certain it due to warm fuel. So we limp the 40 into Whitehorse.
It’s well after noon when we descend into town. The sun is high and it’s hot. We drive all over that town looking for a shaded spot to park. Not a sliver of shaded blacktop was found. Every tree is about 10’ tall, no big buildings, and the sun is no help being directly over head.
We finally find a spot with some shade. The only place around and there’s a few open spots. We parked and opened the hood to let everything cool down.
We take an hour to go get food and relax. At 2 o’clock we go fill up and head for the airport. Now to leave Whitehorse, requires that you get up a longer, steeper grade than most. My brother was driving and both of us were on the edge of our seats waiting for the fuel issue. Nothing. We get up the hill and make our way to he airport.
Not many would ever consider stopping by the Whitehorse airport, but you would if you knew you could see this:
That right there is the worlds largest weathervane. It is a DC-3, balanced on its center of gravity. The post rotates 360*, keeping the nose of the aircraft pointed into the wind.
We pulled up, parked, and I took this shot of my brother.
Next we headed for Haines Junction.
It was on this stretch of highway that we had our worst driving issues. As my brother would accelerate that 2F would sputter, and kick, backfire occasionally. We couldn’t get it to drive over 40mph. He tried everything he could. Hand throttle, gas pedal, it didn’t matter, nothing was working. I busted out the FSM, looking at the carb adjustments, thinking we could tune the carb or something. Was it a stuck float? Was it improper jetting? We talked it over, and critically thought about the symptoms. Two plus hours later we stumbled into town. Not much in Haines Junction, couple gas stations, a burger joint, an auto parts store that was closed for the weekend(July 1st was Monday, Canada Day). So we filled up and I took over
As I pulled out of the gas station, the cruiser hesitated and died. I quickly turned the key to “off” and coasted to the side of the road. We popped the hood to see the sight glass window full of fuel. WTF!
Tried to get it started, but nothing. So we pushed it into an alley, under a tree ticket everything cool down.
Irritated, frustrated, sweaty and gross, we needed to eat, take a break and reassess the situation.
We headed for the burger joint. I got a milkshake, my brother got a burger. While waiting for our meal, a guy from Detroit let us join him at his table. He asked what we were doing, so we explained. He was nice, interested and started to brainstorm ideas on how to cook the 2F. We decided to try and prop the hood open and force/allow more air to flow over the engine and into the air horn.
As we left town, we ran into that guy and he took a look at the cruiser and what we had done. In fact, he had just finished up telling station attendant about these two brothers, who were headed to Anchorage in a ‘76 land cruiser. We got a kick out of that, respect the 40 we said.
This was posted at the burger spot
About 600 miles to go.
So we take off from HJ and head towards Destruction Bay. I don’t get us very far out of town when we start to have the fuel delivery issues again. The 2F struggles, however it gets us up the grade. I pull over thinking we can field test some idea. The thing dies and will not start.
WTF! I’m pissed, it’s 6 in the evening, it’s been hot all day, we’re having drivability issues and Canada sold us some sh**y tobacco. We were getting 3 drags a piece per smoke, and it wasn’t smooth.
My brother suggest to coast down the hill.
Away we roll, headed in one direction. We’re not back tracking.
We coast a good mile down the grade and pull off the highway onto a gravel side road.
We get out and pop the hood. Get out our chairs, roll a couple fags, have a drink and sit there. We’re both on edge right now. Talking about what to do.
After our break, we get under the hood. Things are hot. No fuel in the carb.
We’ve been bouncing ideas off each other all afternoon. It’s got to be vapor lock. No it the fuel pump. No it the fuel return line. It’s warm gas, hot fuel lines, it’s this, it’s that...
My vrother insists to start with the spark plugs. Great, I open the tool bag, sorry bro, no socket(it was in my tool box at home). So after trying to justify that one, let’s move on to the carb. We need to prime the carb. Out with the siphon and open up a jerry can. Shake the check valve and fill the line with fuel. Dump fuel into carb, turn key and pray. Nothing.
The two of us are just about to give in and call it a day. I’ve got my back to the road, my head is under the hood, I’m just looking at the carb and thinking, man I sure don’t want to pull that thing out and take it apart. That’s when our luck begins to swing in the other direction.
I hear a car pull up, and a female voice ask if were ok. My brother begins to talk to her, tells her were fine, just trying to get this thing started and running. She offers to help, but does not have a spark plug socket on her. At this point I turn around. Pulled over, is a larger SUV, seated in it are 4 Canadian women, all in the mid 20’s. The driver is doing the talking, yet they’re all smiling. I reiterate what we’re doing and tell her our plans for the remainder of the evening(we were thinking of setting up camp on the spot and waiting until the early morning to try again). She then begins to explain to my brother and I, that just down the gravel road, 2 Kilos from where we are broke down, there is a science laboratory campus. On that campus there are bunks, food and a tool room. Then she says to us that if we need the help, to come on down and borrow whatever tools we may need. Her and her friends take off for the lab.
I turned to my brother and explained to him that we were head down there as soon as we got the thing running. He laughs, say’s ok, and the two of us begging to get after it. I cant remember what we did, but we got it started. Loaded up all our belongings and put it in gear.
I drove us down the gravel road, across the air strip and pull up next to the SUV.
Not sure what to do next, we watch a student walk up to and enter a building. I guess we’ll start there. The two of us walk over to the muster station, look in the window and see a number of heads down, eating dinner at several tables. I open the door. We step in, and look around to see thirty females staring back at us(I swear to this mudders, no joke). Here we are two mid to early thirty year old Americans, with a limping land cruiser and we just walked into a room full of Canadian strange. One ask what we need, who we are... I tell her that we were told to stop by if we needed any tools to help get our rig back on the road. At that point this guy stands up and walks over. He introduces himself and explained to us he was the care taker of the campus. We ask if he has any tools, in particular a 13/16th deep socket for our spark plugs. He doesn’t know, but has us follow him the to tool room. In side, sitting on top of the tool box was a 13/16th spark plug socket. We take it and head back to the 40.
My brother starts removing and replacing each plug. I’ve got my head on a swivel, looking at the women that pass by and trying to figure out how we are going to convince the care taker and ourselves that we must spend the night. As @GEMatulich works on replacing the plugs, the care taker keeps asking if we have everything we need to get going. I ask for some tin foil to help insulate the fuel lines, he goes into the kitchen and grabs us a few sheets. He hands me the foil and starts to really push for us to get to Destruction Bay. Mentioning that there was a fishing tournament that day and there were lots of guys with boats and tools that could help us is we needed. He even mentions that the boarder crossing is open 24hrs(that’s where we were headed initially). Once the spark plugs were swapped out and the hood was closed, my brother looked at me and suggested we get going. We agreed that the care taker was not as inviting as the women up on the side of the road and to be honest, we really were trying to get to Alaska that night. I cant make this up, in fact, it reminds me of the closing scene of Dumb and Dumber, two lucky American guys not capitalizing on a golden opportunity. So we get in the cab, and she fires right up.
We pull away, cross the airstrip, still not sure what to expect. I get us back to the highway, and turn towards Destruction Bay, just 30kilos down the road. As I accelerate there is a slight hesitation, we look at each other but don’t say a word. Three hours later, we’ve been screaming, the road has been rough with the 40 nearly dancing off the asphalt, to afraid to touch the hand throttle for fear of messing up a strong running 2F. We pull into Beaver Creek, YT shortly after midnight.
A shot of the road from Destruction Bay to Beaver Creek
Now we are just 24 kilometers from the boarder crossing. We empty the two jerry cans, using up all the fuel we purchased in Canada. My brother takes over, as he wants to drive us into Alaska. We get to the boarder crossing, it’s now 1 in the morning Canadian time. We pull up to the gate. Hand over our ID’s. The agent asked if we have any alcohol, tobacco, we say “yes”, but he doesn’t even care. The odd thing he asked was what our license plate number was. I lean over my brother and say to him “M-A-T-U-L-I-C”, he looks at us and says “what’s that mean”, we both laugh and tell him its a family name. He looks at the ID’s and realizes that he hadn’t even bothered to put that together. Hands us the license and passport, and signal us through. We made it to Alaska.
Being that we were now in AK, we gained an hour of time. It was midnight. Tok was another 90 miles to go, and we planned on camping out there.
That day got started in the Yukon Territory at 7am, it was now 1am(alaska time). The weather had been hot, the cruiser temperamental, the drive exhausting. I was beat. I grabbed my pillow and fell asleep. With GEMatulich behind the wheel, myself asleep, the clouds opened, the rain came pouring down and the lighting began to crash. All I can remember was hearing my brother caution me to not touch anything metal. I had my pillow in my arms and feet up on dash. He was laughing, working the wipers, the hand throttle, and video recording the show that played out.
90 miles later we pulled into Tok. Filled up, and kept going. Outside of Tok we made camp. It was 230, we were both exhausted. I got out and helped set up the awning, but was too tired, nor did I care to setup the tent. We laid down and fell asleep. Twenty minutes later, that storm that my brother drove through, caught up to us. It started to rain, and our bags go wet, my pillow soak. I just climbed back in the passenger seat. My brother, and all 200lbs of him, slept in the driver seat, sleeping bag and all. Needless to say, we didn’t sleep very much if at all that night. (0230, 2100mi)
That was our longest day of the trip. We were up for 20 hours and covered just over 700 miles.
@GEMatulich took over and was headed into Whitehorse,YT. He did the first 50 kilos under the hand throttle, no problem. It wasn’t until we were 15 kilometers from Whitehorse that he had to go back to the foot pedal. As he approached the grade in the highway, he accelerated and pop, damn thing started to hiccup. He feathered the pedal and go up the grade. At this point we are both certain it due to warm fuel. So we limp the 40 into Whitehorse.
It’s well after noon when we descend into town. The sun is high and it’s hot. We drive all over that town looking for a shaded spot to park. Not a sliver of shaded blacktop was found. Every tree is about 10’ tall, no big buildings, and the sun is no help being directly over head.
We finally find a spot with some shade. The only place around and there’s a few open spots. We parked and opened the hood to let everything cool down.
We take an hour to go get food and relax. At 2 o’clock we go fill up and head for the airport. Now to leave Whitehorse, requires that you get up a longer, steeper grade than most. My brother was driving and both of us were on the edge of our seats waiting for the fuel issue. Nothing. We get up the hill and make our way to he airport.
Not many would ever consider stopping by the Whitehorse airport, but you would if you knew you could see this:
That right there is the worlds largest weathervane. It is a DC-3, balanced on its center of gravity. The post rotates 360*, keeping the nose of the aircraft pointed into the wind.
We pulled up, parked, and I took this shot of my brother.
Next we headed for Haines Junction.
It was on this stretch of highway that we had our worst driving issues. As my brother would accelerate that 2F would sputter, and kick, backfire occasionally. We couldn’t get it to drive over 40mph. He tried everything he could. Hand throttle, gas pedal, it didn’t matter, nothing was working. I busted out the FSM, looking at the carb adjustments, thinking we could tune the carb or something. Was it a stuck float? Was it improper jetting? We talked it over, and critically thought about the symptoms. Two plus hours later we stumbled into town. Not much in Haines Junction, couple gas stations, a burger joint, an auto parts store that was closed for the weekend(July 1st was Monday, Canada Day). So we filled up and I took over
As I pulled out of the gas station, the cruiser hesitated and died. I quickly turned the key to “off” and coasted to the side of the road. We popped the hood to see the sight glass window full of fuel. WTF!
Tried to get it started, but nothing. So we pushed it into an alley, under a tree ticket everything cool down.
Irritated, frustrated, sweaty and gross, we needed to eat, take a break and reassess the situation.
We headed for the burger joint. I got a milkshake, my brother got a burger. While waiting for our meal, a guy from Detroit let us join him at his table. He asked what we were doing, so we explained. He was nice, interested and started to brainstorm ideas on how to cook the 2F. We decided to try and prop the hood open and force/allow more air to flow over the engine and into the air horn.
As we left town, we ran into that guy and he took a look at the cruiser and what we had done. In fact, he had just finished up telling station attendant about these two brothers, who were headed to Anchorage in a ‘76 land cruiser. We got a kick out of that, respect the 40 we said.
This was posted at the burger spot
About 600 miles to go.
So we take off from HJ and head towards Destruction Bay. I don’t get us very far out of town when we start to have the fuel delivery issues again. The 2F struggles, however it gets us up the grade. I pull over thinking we can field test some idea. The thing dies and will not start.
WTF! I’m pissed, it’s 6 in the evening, it’s been hot all day, we’re having drivability issues and Canada sold us some sh**y tobacco. We were getting 3 drags a piece per smoke, and it wasn’t smooth.
My brother suggest to coast down the hill.
Away we roll, headed in one direction. We’re not back tracking.
We coast a good mile down the grade and pull off the highway onto a gravel side road.
We get out and pop the hood. Get out our chairs, roll a couple fags, have a drink and sit there. We’re both on edge right now. Talking about what to do.
After our break, we get under the hood. Things are hot. No fuel in the carb.
We’ve been bouncing ideas off each other all afternoon. It’s got to be vapor lock. No it the fuel pump. No it the fuel return line. It’s warm gas, hot fuel lines, it’s this, it’s that...
My vrother insists to start with the spark plugs. Great, I open the tool bag, sorry bro, no socket(it was in my tool box at home). So after trying to justify that one, let’s move on to the carb. We need to prime the carb. Out with the siphon and open up a jerry can. Shake the check valve and fill the line with fuel. Dump fuel into carb, turn key and pray. Nothing.
The two of us are just about to give in and call it a day. I’ve got my back to the road, my head is under the hood, I’m just looking at the carb and thinking, man I sure don’t want to pull that thing out and take it apart. That’s when our luck begins to swing in the other direction.
I hear a car pull up, and a female voice ask if were ok. My brother begins to talk to her, tells her were fine, just trying to get this thing started and running. She offers to help, but does not have a spark plug socket on her. At this point I turn around. Pulled over, is a larger SUV, seated in it are 4 Canadian women, all in the mid 20’s. The driver is doing the talking, yet they’re all smiling. I reiterate what we’re doing and tell her our plans for the remainder of the evening(we were thinking of setting up camp on the spot and waiting until the early morning to try again). She then begins to explain to my brother and I, that just down the gravel road, 2 Kilos from where we are broke down, there is a science laboratory campus. On that campus there are bunks, food and a tool room. Then she says to us that if we need the help, to come on down and borrow whatever tools we may need. Her and her friends take off for the lab.
I turned to my brother and explained to him that we were head down there as soon as we got the thing running. He laughs, say’s ok, and the two of us begging to get after it. I cant remember what we did, but we got it started. Loaded up all our belongings and put it in gear.
I drove us down the gravel road, across the air strip and pull up next to the SUV.
Not sure what to do next, we watch a student walk up to and enter a building. I guess we’ll start there. The two of us walk over to the muster station, look in the window and see a number of heads down, eating dinner at several tables. I open the door. We step in, and look around to see thirty females staring back at us(I swear to this mudders, no joke). Here we are two mid to early thirty year old Americans, with a limping land cruiser and we just walked into a room full of Canadian strange. One ask what we need, who we are... I tell her that we were told to stop by if we needed any tools to help get our rig back on the road. At that point this guy stands up and walks over. He introduces himself and explained to us he was the care taker of the campus. We ask if he has any tools, in particular a 13/16th deep socket for our spark plugs. He doesn’t know, but has us follow him the to tool room. In side, sitting on top of the tool box was a 13/16th spark plug socket. We take it and head back to the 40.
My brother starts removing and replacing each plug. I’ve got my head on a swivel, looking at the women that pass by and trying to figure out how we are going to convince the care taker and ourselves that we must spend the night. As @GEMatulich works on replacing the plugs, the care taker keeps asking if we have everything we need to get going. I ask for some tin foil to help insulate the fuel lines, he goes into the kitchen and grabs us a few sheets. He hands me the foil and starts to really push for us to get to Destruction Bay. Mentioning that there was a fishing tournament that day and there were lots of guys with boats and tools that could help us is we needed. He even mentions that the boarder crossing is open 24hrs(that’s where we were headed initially). Once the spark plugs were swapped out and the hood was closed, my brother looked at me and suggested we get going. We agreed that the care taker was not as inviting as the women up on the side of the road and to be honest, we really were trying to get to Alaska that night. I cant make this up, in fact, it reminds me of the closing scene of Dumb and Dumber, two lucky American guys not capitalizing on a golden opportunity. So we get in the cab, and she fires right up.
We pull away, cross the airstrip, still not sure what to expect. I get us back to the highway, and turn towards Destruction Bay, just 30kilos down the road. As I accelerate there is a slight hesitation, we look at each other but don’t say a word. Three hours later, we’ve been screaming, the road has been rough with the 40 nearly dancing off the asphalt, to afraid to touch the hand throttle for fear of messing up a strong running 2F. We pull into Beaver Creek, YT shortly after midnight.
A shot of the road from Destruction Bay to Beaver Creek
Now we are just 24 kilometers from the boarder crossing. We empty the two jerry cans, using up all the fuel we purchased in Canada. My brother takes over, as he wants to drive us into Alaska. We get to the boarder crossing, it’s now 1 in the morning Canadian time. We pull up to the gate. Hand over our ID’s. The agent asked if we have any alcohol, tobacco, we say “yes”, but he doesn’t even care. The odd thing he asked was what our license plate number was. I lean over my brother and say to him “M-A-T-U-L-I-C”, he looks at us and says “what’s that mean”, we both laugh and tell him its a family name. He looks at the ID’s and realizes that he hadn’t even bothered to put that together. Hands us the license and passport, and signal us through. We made it to Alaska.
Being that we were now in AK, we gained an hour of time. It was midnight. Tok was another 90 miles to go, and we planned on camping out there.
That day got started in the Yukon Territory at 7am, it was now 1am(alaska time). The weather had been hot, the cruiser temperamental, the drive exhausting. I was beat. I grabbed my pillow and fell asleep. With GEMatulich behind the wheel, myself asleep, the clouds opened, the rain came pouring down and the lighting began to crash. All I can remember was hearing my brother caution me to not touch anything metal. I had my pillow in my arms and feet up on dash. He was laughing, working the wipers, the hand throttle, and video recording the show that played out.
90 miles later we pulled into Tok. Filled up, and kept going. Outside of Tok we made camp. It was 230, we were both exhausted. I got out and helped set up the awning, but was too tired, nor did I care to setup the tent. We laid down and fell asleep. Twenty minutes later, that storm that my brother drove through, caught up to us. It started to rain, and our bags go wet, my pillow soak. I just climbed back in the passenger seat. My brother, and all 200lbs of him, slept in the driver seat, sleeping bag and all. Needless to say, we didn’t sleep very much if at all that night. (0230, 2100mi)
That was our longest day of the trip. We were up for 20 hours and covered just over 700 miles.
samatulich
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The old one was a Interstate Megatron, this one is the exact replacement. I’m not sure on the specifics, but was very pleased with the old one, and this new one seems to be working just fine. Here’s another pic, maybe more helpful
Hey, I was born in 100 Mile House!!
