[Vwdiesel] stranded

[Roger Brown]

Been stranded three times in a VW diesel and once in my Toyota 4Runner on long road trips.

#1 with the VW was an outer CV joint that seized up on my old '81 pickup in Wyoming.  Got 
towed to a local shop and the guy had a mini junk yard in back and we yanked a CV out of 
one of the junked Rabbits out back and stuck it in the pickup and I was on the road the 
next morning.

#2 was the same '81 and had a head gasket go out in northern Idaho.  Turns out it was a 
coolant passage in the head that had eroded and that enlarged hole left too little metal 
between the coolant passage and the combustion chamber and led to the HG failure.  Luckily 
the shop I stopped at had a spare diesel head that some previous customer had paid for but 
not used, so I think I got it for the price of the install.

#3 was in my '82 diesel pickup and had an inner CV joint explode out near Death Valley 
Park and left me unable to drive.  Was with a group and we towed the pickup to the 
pavement and ran into town and picked up a re-man CV shaft and I popped that in on the 
side of the road and drove it home, so maybe that is only a partial stranding.

#1 in the Toyota was a bad head gasket due to a shop that forgot to properly torque the 
head bolts (a few were finger tight - or should I say loose).  That one started failing in 
CA, but I drove back east to MN and made it back to Nebraska before I had to stop and get 
it fixed.  That left me stranded in Scottsbluff, NB for about a week and a half waiting on 
parts.  That was the slowest shop ever, seemed everything they did was in slow motion.  I 
think I ended up burning up all my remaining vacation days there.

-- 

   Roger