The Well 69: ImmortalSix

[super rad stuff]

Re: The Well 69: ImmortalSix

Thanks for the responses!

Let's go hard on the home stretch and make 10 pages!

man the way i've got the pages set up, you're only on page 4..

anyways, got any cool roadtrip/vacation stories?

[ImmortalSix]

Re: The Well 69: ImmortalSix

anyways, got any cool roadtrip/vacation stories?

Boy do I!

The Odyssey:



So in June of 2005, I had just bought a 1993 Toyota T100 pickup truck --- standard cab, long bed, 2WD, V6, 5-speed manual. No A/C. No carpet, no upholstery (there was a Walmart seatcover over top of the foam.) As basic as they get. Serial number shows that it was the 657th T100 ever made. These early T100s were actually completely manufactured in Japan and shipped, turnkey to the U.S., and there were only 1300 made in 1993. Just fun facts.



Anyways, I was proud of my new truck, as any guy would be. My girlfriend (now wife) and I were planning a trip to St. Louis, MO, from Blacksburg, VA, and instead of taking her '98 Explorer I said, "Hey, let's take my new truck!" The trip took place in mid to late June.

So we're in my new truck, in about West Virginia, when we realize, hey, this no A/C thing is becoming an issue. Like, a big issue. It was hot, man --- hot as I ever remember being. Anyways, we got the windows and the sliding rear window open, venting best we can.

Now, I'd like to mention that the truck had 4.10 gears. Real low gears, good for a work truck, pullin' and gruntin' around a job site. Not great for highway cruisin'. Well, the door panel on this truck says the truck need 215/75R15 tires. I guess they forgot to account for te 4.10 gears, because 1) the speedometer was way off, like 20%, and B) to go highway speeds, this thing was tachin' out 4000 and something!

It's also important to note, that with low gears and no cruise control, we're talking about basically flooring it for 14 hours. My right leg was stuck out like this for about 6 hours after I got off the road

So here we are in Illinois, turnin' 4500 RPM, speedometer reading 90, getting passed by every car on the road like we're standing still

That was when I figured out the tire size was too small for the gearing.

Now let's take a timeout --- and this will become relevant, the reason I bought this T100 was because my fabled Jeep had, 2months after an engine swap, grenaded it's transmission. Sometimes life throws you 2 in a row I still had my Jeep, it was parked at a visitor spot in the back lot of my apartment complex. It still had plates on it, so it was legal, it was just slipping so bad it couldn't pull itself down the road. Keep in mind this truck was my main hobby, my "baby", my main weekend pasttime. A good friend, if you will.

So we are pulling into St. Louis, drenched in sweat on the hottest day of the year, turning big RPMs in the T100 and ready to meet up with her friends and family and have a drink!

Well, I've been on Interstate 64 for about 600 miles, and I drop down to 4th gear to get off the Interstate, literally 5 miles from our destination, and GRRRRRRXXXXXXFFFFFTTTTTTT!!!!!!! 4th gear isn't there. I grab 3 after some braking and a big throttle blip; 3 is there. I go to grab 2 as we pull up to the stop light; GRRRRRRXXXXXXFFFFFTTTTTTT!!!!!!!

So 2 and 4 are gone. 1, 3, and 5 are good. I can deal with this, no sweat. Well, it turns out, I was 19 miles inside my warranty --- meaning if I drove the car another 19 miles it was out of warranty, and this bugled transmission was completely my problem.

So, like anyone would do, I called 411, found a transmission shop, and took it straight there, hoping they could swap a new tranny in there over the next few days, and we could drive home on Monday as expected (long weekend). After all, it's a Toyota pickup truck, there are a million of these things on the road. The T100 I had had an R150 transmission --- the same transmission that was in all 2WD V6 Toyota pickups from 1988 to 1994. Fairly common piece.

Well the next day, we wake up to my phone ringing...

I am thinking "Great! It's the transmission shop and they've got a tranny for me."

"This is the Blacksburg Police, are you ImmortalSix?"
---- "Why, yes, yes I am --- to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Do you own a 1996 Jeep Cherokee?"
--- "I do."
"We're going to need you to come over here, someone's busted the windows out and stolen everything inside and wrecked the interior"
--- "Awwwwwwwww mannnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!"

So apparently my Cherokee, which was my main ride until just before the road trip, got busted into. It had all my school stuff (mapping equipment, field orienteering equipment and instruments), all my books, about 256 CDs, a CD player, a 2x12" subwoofer box, an MTX audio amp, you know, bro-truck stuff. Oh, and about $1100 worth of tools --- pretty much everything you'd need to do an, ahem, engine swap.

All gone.

So now I got one truck in VA that's been busted up and looted, that didn't run anyways, and one truck in MO with the transmission out of it and no completion date in sight.


Part II in next post

[super rad stuff]

Re: The Well 69: ImmortalSix

at work in progress
while i'm sure it was very hot, have you ever been to vegas in the summer time? man average day temps get to be over 110 during the main chunk of summer!

[ImmortalSix]

Re: The Well 69: ImmortalSix

T100 on the lift, transmission and driveshaft on the ground



Jeep in bad shape, with a towel window after I got back.


So I'm trying to work it out with AAMCO, find a transmission for the truck so we can get back. It was summertime, and for the two of us college students, working and earning money during the summer months was muy importante. We didn't want to piss off our employers by missing work, etc., not to mention the money we weren't making while we weren't at work.

So to make a long story short, we were stuck in St. Louis for 10 days.

AAMCO proved to be incompetent, and we flew home, thanks to my dad who had a bunch of frequent flyer miles racked up.

The truck stayed in St. Louis on AAMCO's lot. Idiots.

So we flew to Baltimore, caught a ride to Richmond, caught another ride to Blacksburg --- 10 days later.

We had cashed in all our favors with our employers and our coworkers --- it felt bad.

So the summer draws to an end and I've still got no car (well, 2 technically, but one that doesn't run and is wrecked, and one that's 900 miles away in 1000 pieces) so I say to myself, "warranty be ****ed, I'm gonna go get that Toyota."

I got a lawyer (Virginia Tech's free lawyer) to write me a letter or two to them about how they were in breach of contract and all that, and call them once or twice, and they agreed to let me have the truck back with no charges incurred, since they had my truck for 3 months and exhibited an undeniable inability to fix or replace my transmission (idiots).

So I called my brother-in-law Corry --- a Georgia boy with an F150 and a knack for adventure.

I blew my summer savings on gas for the F150 to drive from Georgia to Blacksburg, then from Blacksburg to STL.

We drove to St. Louis, having fun and talkin' the whole way.

We get there, serve the idiots at AAMCO with a few lawyer letters and tell them that we're taking the Toyota and we're not paying them a dime. They bumble and ask a lot of questions, but all in all, we loaded the Toyota on the tow dolly, transmission and driveshaft in pieces in the bed of the truck, and said "SEE YA!" Idiots.


Well, we turned right around and drove back that very same night, no break, no rest. I towed it all the way back since I have tons of towing experience and all the CDL training, 14 hours straight through to Blacksburg!

[ImmortalSix]

Re: The Well 69: ImmortalSix

Conclusion --- I got the tranny replaced, still under warranty, as the truck hadn't racked up any mileage on the cross-country drive since I had the driveshaft in the bed. Still was bad, went through 5 more transmissions in the truck before figuring out that my superhuman strength had actually bent the transmission end of the shifter, (not the human end) and I just had to deal with quirky shifting (have to be moving to get into 1, won't stay in 3, no spring return-to-center, bad synch on R, the list goes on...)

That's just one of many road trip fiascos with me!

[Wattage]

Re: The Well 69: ImmortalSix

Cj, xj, yj?

This was my old one -

[ImmortalSix]

Re: The Well 69: ImmortalSix

Renegade!

My old Jeep was an XJ. A Hot, SE XJ, to be exact

[super rad stuff]

Re: The Well 69: ImmortalSix

epic toyota storry

[ImmortalSix]

Re: The Well 69: ImmortalSix

Thanks man, it was quite the 10 day weekend for sure.

[dd12939]

Re: The Well 69: ImmortalSix

Page 10!! Larry Graham or Bootsy?

[ImmortalSix]

Re: The Well 69: ImmortalSix

Larry Graham, definitely.

He invented slap bass, for cryin' out loud.

[Ninja Monkey]

Re: The Well 69: ImmortalSix

Are you Really immortal?

[Curt]

Re: The Well 69: ImmortalSix

I quit smoking on October 4, 2006. I can certainly understand that it's no walk in the park to quit, having been there, but at the end of the day, the only way to quit smoking is to stop lighting them and putting them in your face.



Out of respect for the rules of the well, I'd like to tie off the smoking discussion. I know how heated smoking discussions can get, and the well isn't the place.

Thanks for the responses!

Let's go hard on the home stretch and make 10 pages!

As you wish.

[ImmortalSix]

Re: The Well 69: ImmortalSix

Are you Really immortal?

I intend to live forever --- so far so good!

The well has been handed off to another bro --- thanks to everyone for the great questions - it was nice to share with you.

-Hunter