It all started with a $250 1990 Pathfinder advertised in Craigslist. The only problem was it was buried up to the frame and had been vandalized out in the Wylie Lake bottoms. I gave the guy $200, and he gave me the title, now we just had to extract it.
This happened on a Monday. It monsooned that Monday afternoon and rained lightly on us while Fred and Lurch winched it out of the hole it was in. That is all we got done on Monday night, it was raining and the mosqitos almost carried us off. That night was a pain in the ass.
We let it dry out until tonight, Thursday. When we first got out there tonight everything looked pretty dry walking in. Then when I turned the corner I was relieved to see that it had not been further vandalized. The weird thing I noticed is although it hadn't rained in 3 days, there was more standing water than on Monday the monsoon night. As I walked out to El Burro, as we have dubbed it, I noticed that where the water was, the ground underneath was still cracked like it was dried out. I then noticed that the water was actually moving. That's right, it's been a record drought, the lake was 16 feet low, haven't opened the gates on the dam in well over a year, but they chose tonight, I would say around 6:30 or so, to open them. Panic set in on my part, and dissaproval on Fred's. I believe his exact words were, "No fawking way are we getting this out now." It reminded me of the Johnny Cash song, "How high's the water momma? I said it's 6 feet high and rising..." Anway, I toss a new battery in El Burro and she fires off. I don't even think about putting air in the tires b/c it's time to go, NOW. Throw it in drive and hammer down. Holy ****, she's moving! I think Fawk yeah, I'm driving this ***** out of here. 20 yards later I found a hole. Fred positions the Scout (Who's power steering belt let go on the way over there) onto higher ground and starts yanking. There was some more drama, like all 4 tires de-beading on burro, and Fred damn near rolling on an embankment, but Lurch comes through and gets us the fawk out of there. Good thing too, because we looked back after we got out and the water was just getting deeper and deeper. Showed up at 7:00 and had it on the trailer by 8:30 or so, 4 flat tires and all. The whole time we are loading it we are adjacent to HWY 78, so people naturally thinking I did this to the poor burro, are honking and laughing. I laughed all the way to Scoutfourk, her new home.
Would I do it again, fawk no! It's there though, and should make a good "Ranch" truck/Alto Cruiser. I had thought about replacing the glass and tires, cleaning it up and turning it, but I don't think I could come out ahead by that much. This will be much more fun. It's a ways down on the list, so it may be awhile.
It runs pretty good at idle, but when I hammer it, it acts like it's hitting a rev limiter. Does anyone know if these have a rev limiter when they are in 4-low? It would make sense, so I'm hoping that's what it is.
Here are some pics of the first night, our photographer had to go to guard duty this weekend, so no pics from tonight.
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Originally Posted by Graystroke
