A huge THANK YOU to Simon!
I crossed paths with Simon while he was on his way down from the Yukon. I was just coming out of the Fraser canyon, just shy of Cache Creek, BC.
I was in a bad way.
It was an extremely hot summer day around three in the afternoon. The temperature had to be 40 degrees celcious. I was heading north in my BJ42 and was really happy with myself as I had my trailer loaded up with dirt bikes and fishing/camping gear, traveling with my big, old dog and putting on some miles from the city when suddenly my engine starting revving wildly in an awful choking manner. It lost all power and I immediately pulled to the side as best I could just shy of a passing lane and the beginning of a long climb. With cliffs on both sides, there was no room to get completely off the road. Adding to this situation were the highway trucks making time coming down the hill as well as trucks gathering speed to make the hill. I was clearly a hazard and my hazard lights did little to slow traffic.
After lifting the hood, I could not see any problems. I thought the engine flew apart. The stress was incredible. I worried about the big trucks crashing beside us. I thought my dog was going to die from the heat. I felt hopeless and began to panic.
Soon, a gentleman stopped and made a waypoint in his GPS of my location. He said he would call for a tow truck once he hit Cache Creek, some half hour away.
During this time, I looked at the engine but I could not see a problem.
About forty minutes later, two landcruisers came down the hill, a 70 & 80 series - both very nice (especially Simon's which was really decked out (intercooled etc.) and was pulling a really cool military trailer). They slowed and pulled over about 100 metres down the road in a little pull out (not really even that). I ran down and explained what happen. Simon made a
face, got out and got me to start it up a couple of times, each time while he looked at each side of the engine. AHA! He saw the boost line had came off the turbo! He plugged it back on and the 3b was back to normal. I was amazed!
He thought all the hills and the heat caused it to pop off. He grabbed some clamps out of his trailer and secured the lines. When we were saying our goodbyes, two tow trucks came. As Simon had already saved the day, the trucks headed back while not accepting any payment. I went to drop them off beer on my way back down from holidays but they were not in. I will try to do so next month when I head up north again.
Cheers to Simon
It`s guys like him that are a real credit to the Land Cruiser community.
