It’s been almost a month since I posted anything here. That’s not to say I haven’t been doing anything worthy of mentioning–well, ok, that’s exactly the reason. Just this evening I finished unloading and parking the camp trailer after last week’s camping trip. It’s been a long week so far trying to get back into the swing of things while recovering from six days and five nights camped in the desert. I’ll write up a formal trip report, hopefully tomorrow, but with another camping trip planned for Friday, I may just shrug it off for a while longer.
One item of interest of late is that I started having what seemed like serious engine troubles with my truck in the past couple of weeks. The engine would cut out momentarily, so if it was at idle it would stall completely, but if I was on the throttle at all it would hiccup, sometimes violently if I was into the throttle hard or pulling the camp trailer. The problem was actually at its worst during the entire drive to and from the campsite in the San Rafael Swell. This Monday I started researching the symptoms and replacing parts one at a time until it was fixed. I started with the fuel filter, not just because I suspected it but also because it was easy and it simply had never been replaced in the seven years I’ve owned the truck. Replacing it didn’t help any, but it was only a $25 part. Next up was the camshaft position sensor. It was only $30, but a little more difficult to replace. I broke two 10mm sockets trying to get the single bolt off that holds the sensor in place. I installed the new sensor and reinstalled the drive belt (which I eventually had to remove to get the sensor out without breaking any more tools) and fired the truck up, and now for the past two days it hasn’t shown any signs of cutting out.