For over 4,000 miles (which took three grueling months, two engines and three injection pumps to accomplish) Jerry has been a thorn in my foot. The bane of my existence. The object of loathing.
But lets face it, I don't even know how to spell Jerry's name. Gerry, Geri, Jery, Jeri...who knows. I've never met the guy. He might be a fantastic, charismatic, and extremely professional gent for all I know. What I do know is he hasn't been able to build me a working diesel injection pump to save his life.
After 4,000 miles of freedom from mechanical difficulties we firmly believed we'd been released from Jerry's injection-pump-purgatory to wreak adventure-based havoc upon the world. We were wrong. Jerry's talons of injection-incompetence had only temporarily released us with false hope.
Screw you, Jerry, it was supposed to be a nice camping weekend!
Regardless, Jacqui and I didn't let our pride get in the way of having a good time. We still pulled up to the campout in a turbo diesel powered machine. I think you might be hard pressed to find a full-sized tow truck that isn't.
Somehow, it seems like Jacqui and I always seem to find the back door out of a sticky situation and that weekend proved no different. We were in the process of camping with Vanagon mTDI guru Karl of westyventures.com and half a dozen other vans and friends. So one additional tow truck ride after the campout had us sitting at Karl's shop trying to figure out the financial logistics of purchasing a Karl-pump. We were hoping the phone call we were about to make would go smoothly.
Numbers dialed and phone ringing later we were quickly connected with Thomas of Quality German Auto Parts. Thomas has the unfortunate responsibility of being the middleman between Jerry and I, but I'm happy to say, we made a deal and Thomas agreed to buy the pump back. Thank you very much, Thomas. You've been excellent to work with and every product you were personally responsible for has been flawless. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another motor from you, minus the Jerry-Pump.
Really it's kind of a win-win though. Thomas doesn't ever have to hear from us again, regarding this power plant at least, and we got to gawk over the guru Karl building us the life force of our engine! Not to mention, no more Jerry-pump-travel-purgatory!
Guru Karl, despite the very long wait list for one of his customized Cummins Diesel pumps (Sorry for cutting in line people who are waiting!), built us a pump on the spot, then tweaked and customized our motor into a powerhouse! I even got to learn part of the process!
Once again Jacqui and I have been released to wreak havoc upon this world! Prepare for the adventure!!
Super, super thank you Karl! We owe you one!
After all of the extra power that came with the new pump and tuning some new minor issues popped up. Our van decided to sound like a screaming banshee every time I got on the throttle. Hehe. Easily fixed though.
