October 25th -- The Gulf Coast

I started off the day by driving the last part of Florida along the gulf coast, rather than taking the interstate. Most of it was through resort towns and really was nothing to write home about, but there was a stretch that was absolutely gorgeous. It's on a tiny little island of sorts just east of Pensacola. The Gulf is off to the south, and it's all water off to the north too. It's narrow, and a good long stretch of it is totally undeveloped ... the only sign of man is the road. No buildings, no wires, just beautiful white sand beaches and crystal blue water, on both sides. I took a couple of pictures, and even waded a little bit in the water. Really, really nice beach.

Then I hooked up with the freeway again, and crossed through Alabama and Mississippi. I-10 runs through the tiny little spits of those states that reach down to the coast, roughly 70 miles each. So I can't say that I saw much of AL and MS, but I'm checking them off anyway :-)

Shortly after crossing into Louisiana, I stopped to refuel. Pulled up to the pump, turned off the key ... and while it got a lot quieter (the parking brake warning, the dash fan, etc, all turned off), it still sounded wrong ... then I realized ... the engine was still running! The engine is back under the bed, of course, so way up front it's not extremely noticeable, though it is a huge diesel and is really loud when you're near it, or outside.

Hmmm. What do I do now? Well, I futzed with the key a little more, then realized that there's nothing wrong with the key or the ignition switch, since all of the dashboard stuff shut off normally.

I decided to refuel anyway and keep driving, and deal with this when I camp for the night. Surely I could kill it then (if this even happened again) by pulling a fuse or using the battery disconnect or something.

So, the rest of the drive across Louisiana was uneventful, except that I can say that the condition of that road (I-10) is the worst I've endured on the entire trip.

I made reservations at a campsite about 25 miles east of Houston, and pulled in there at 7:45. Since they closed at 8:00, at the exit I stopped and grabbed a sandwich at Subway, and just threw it in the fridge to eat later. Got to my site, turned the key ... and it didn't shut off. Okay, get to work. The chassis fuses are in two places. One of the boxes is nicely labelled, but has nothing really business oriented, just lights and propane stuff and other coach paraphernalia. The other one, under the dash, was surely the right one but nothing is labelled and I can't find any reference to it in the manuals. So, I pulled each and every fuse, one by one.

No help. Couldn't shut it off. Under the hood, there are a bunch of fusible links. Disconnected those. Still running. Okay, so I know how diesels basically work ... but it was clear at this point that I don't know how they shut off! I assumed they just killed the electric fuel pump.

Okay, now I'm baffled. I called the dealer I bought the motorhome from, since they are in California and at least the sales side of the house is still open. The service department was closed but I found someone there who was smart enough to know that Cummins (who makes the engine) has a 24-hour tech line. Cool.

Called Cummins. The guy there talked me through the process. Apparently this engine, anyway, has no electric pump. It's all mechanical (two pumps, actually). The way they shut off is that there's a shutoff solenoid, electrically actuated, that closes a little valve inside the fuel pump that signals it to cut the fuel to the motor.

I could see the solenoid from the rear engine access, but I couldn't reach it. So, I pulled the under-bed cover. Sure is loud in the bedroom when that cover is off! And a little smelly. The engine is way down there too. So I reached down and futzed with the solenoid. It appeared, based on what the Cummins tech was telling me, that it was working fine. His assumption was that it was just sticking, and unable to extend its piston. Not the case. Second guess -- its linkage has become detached from the pump, so although the piston extends, the valve on the pump isn't turning. Nope, not the case.

The only other way he could think of to kill the engine was to open a fuel line, which would inevitably make a mess, but at least it would starve the motor of fuel. It's now after 9:00 and getting close to quiet hours at the campground, so I don't want to leave it running. But I also don't want to spill diesel fuel all over the ground here. And, I want to be able to start it again in the morning.

I thought maybe the best option would be to find a Cummins repair facility, drive it there, sleep in it there with the engine running, and have a mechanic look at it in the morning. So the Cummins guy looked up repair places and found that the main Houston one, 25 miles away, was open until midnight.

So I called them. The mechanic there talked me through the whole process of checking the solenoid again, to no avail. He then wanted me to crack a fuel line, which was a vent line so it wouldn't make too much of a mess, but he cautioned me that after doing this, restarting it was going to be a major pain-in-the-ass, involving manually priming both pumps and ... no.

I decided to drive over to the shop, 25 miles away, and let them do it. So, I did that. Drove over, unloaded the BMW, parked the trailer off in a corner of the yard, moved the motorhome to the shop area, and they shut it off (after confirming, once again, that the shutoff solenoid was working normally). Made a mess. But it was quiet for the first time in 12 hours or so.

Their initial estimate for repair was about $1500 and 4-5 days, because the problem was obviously internal to the pump and they have to send them off to be rebuilt. Well, that's what extended warranties are for.

I wanted to just spend the night in the motorhome in their yard, but they wouldn't let me. Very bad neighborhood. They were afraid I'd be shot. So they pointed me at a strip of hotels back along I-10, and I found a Fairfield Inn. Got to my room, and found the toilet absolutely covered with ants. Got another room. By the time I got to eat my dinner it was midnight.

This morning the Cummins place called to make sure that last night's plan was what I wanted to do. I asked about swapping my pump with another rebuilt one to get me on the road sooner. They priced out that scenario, and it was roughly the same. After a couple more phone calls, we're going with that scenario. Turns out that my pump, like my starter, is kind of a rare beast, and it costs $1850 for a rebuilt one. Including labor this will be over $2000. I hope that the warranty covers it, but whatever ... Looks like I'll be back on the road tomorrow.

I'll probably do a day trip to Austin today in the meantime. I'd planned to drive through there anyway.