Flagler Beach - By: E. Eugene Webb, PhD
Coauthor of: So You Want to Blog
I picked up Theresa from work about 3:00PM and we headed for Daytona. All went well we made it through Tampa and on to I-4 with no problem. We made it to Orlando just ahead of rush hour and were on the east side of Orlando.
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Traffic was very heavy and we were running along 3 lanes wide pretty much bumper to bumper when our almost restored 1989 Jeep Wrangler stumbled.
The engine picked up ran a few seconds and stumbled again this time we were slowing in the fast moving traffic. I hit the all flash then went to the right turn signal and began moving to the right lane heading for the berm.
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Traffic behind was slowing frantically and everyone managed to get by as we pulled off the Interstate. The Jeep rolled to a stop and the engine died.
Up ahead was an exit but it was up a steep grade. I turned the key to start, the Jeep reluctantly came to life but 20 mph was all it could muster. We struggled up the grade to the exit ramp. It was a gradual down hill ramp so we made off the Interstate.
Just down the road a CITCO Convenience Store provided a stopping spot so we could check everything out. Nothing was obviously wrong.
A quick call to AAA promised a tow truck in about 1 hour and provided a suggestion for repair shop. The tow truck showed up an hour and a half later for the 5-mile haul to the repair shop.
The to truck driver arranged for a cab and by just after 9:00PM we were safely in the DeBary Hampton Inn.
The repair shop opened at 7:00 AM so I called Thursday morning just after 7:00 and explained the problem. Mark, the Shop Manager, said they would check it out and get back in about an hour or so.
About an hour later the cell phone rang and I got the message no one with this kind of problem wants to hear, “It cranked right up, we can’t find any thing wrong its running just fine.” Mark suggested he let the Jeep run for a while and see if the problem showed up. The general consensuses was we had a fuel delivery problem, likely the fuel pump.
After an hour or so I called Mark to see how things were going, still no real problem showing up, so we decided to replace the whole fuel delivery system, fuel pump and filter.
We got back underway about 2:30PM and with some directions from Mark took some lower volume back roads from DeBary to Daytona. All went well and we are ready for an exciting weekend at Jeep Beach.
As a side note, while we were waiting at the convenience store in DeBary for the tow truck, numerous people stopped to see if we were OK and if we needed anything, including one really nice guy and his wife who said, “I drove by earlier and saw you sitting here with the hood up so we thought we would come by and see if you needed any thing.” Then he offered to put us up in his spare bedroom for the night.
There are a lot of really nice people in DeBary, Florida.
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