It has been quite a few Jeeps ago since this olelongrooffan captured this image thejeepjunkie and the Kid replacing the clutch and clutch cable in the Kid’s CJ5. This is the story of why that replacement was necessary.

January 18, 2009
thejeepjunkie called me early this afternoon and asked what I was doing.–Just trying to get a blog published so I can get caught up– What are you doing?– Hooking up the 2A to the 5 and getting ready to head to the woods. Wanna go?– See you in 15 was my response.

And I did. We met up at the petro station and headed out to the state owned Heart Island Reserve. Parked the olestationbus, unhooked thejeepjunkie’s CJ2A from the Kid’s CJ5, dropped the windshield, removed my phone from my back pocket and put it in the glove box and we are off. We hadn’t gone 30 yards before thejeepjunkie coasts to a stop and the Kid and I pull along side him on that old dirt road. “Got that brake fluid you picked up here?” Yep. the Kid and I return to the olestationbus, grab that fluid and head back down that road.

The master cylinder on that old 2A is located quite a ways down in that engine compartment and we looked around for a funnel, or something which we could jerry rig into one. Finally settled on the cover of my old road Atlas. The sacrifice was worth it. That Atlas is a bit tattered these days and I won’t be missing its cover.

Anyway, thejeepjunkie got his ride squared up and with a nod of his head, we took off on our adventure. The first off road path that wasn’t marked “No Motorized Vehicles”, we set off on.

Down near the black water creek that bisected this trail, we encountered
some tree trunks, culverts and water pipes that had accumulated over time from various floods along this creek.

We stopped, scouted around for a way across this creek that wasn’t blocked by old, rotted tree trunks. Couldn’t find one and the Kid was bummed. “We should have brought an axe.” thejeepjunkie commented “We don’t need an axe, we got Jeeps!”

And while I was shooting these images,

the Kid and thejeepjunkie and his CJ2A cleared us a path to get across that creek.

No axe needed!

In the image below, thejeepjunkie and his 2A are just behind the bush on the left side, heading across that black water creek.

you can see his success in this endeavor. FAIL.

So I shut down the old Polaroid and told the Kid to grab his strap and pull his CJ5 up to pull his old man out.

Meanwhile, thejeepjunkie killed the engine on his 2A and the Kid, well meaning enough, just wasn’t operating his CJ5 accurately enough to get his old man out. “John John, get in there and get me out.” So I climbed in
and was rocking the Kid’s ride back and forth

with the Kid and thejeepjunkie nodding me on and we

damn near got thejeepjunkie out of that quagmire when a loud pop was heard from under the hood of the Kid’s CJ5 over the sound of those four cylinder Hurricanes. thejeepjunkie scrambled over to check it out, a worried expression on his face. He climbed down under the Kid’s ride and a look of relief spread across his face. “That clutch cable finally broke.” He turns to the Kid and says, “At least it didn’t happen when you were driving around the city.”

So we put another strap from the CJ5 to the submerged CJ2A to keep it from washing away and, while I hoofed it the mile and a half or so back to the olestationbus to move it to the end of the path we were down as a marker for our rescuers, thejeepjunkie put in a call to some of his friends to come rescue our sorry as*es.

Meanwhile, the Kid headed across that creek on a fallen trunk and got a couple of shots for posterity’s sake.

About 15 minutes later, our rescuer’s began arriving and pulled that 2a out of that creek. thejeepjunkie was worried because he couldn’t get his CJ2A started while it was submerged.

Once out, he drained its battery trying to get it started, after which he and the Kid optimistically switched the one from the Kid’s to the 2A, it eventually fired right up and thejeepjunkie’s ride made it out of the woods to terra firma under its own power.

While the Kid’s CJ5 was on a hook behind that jacked up Cherokee. Once back on that old dirt road, the racedude and The Good Attorney had arrived with those cold beverages that emanate from the city of that famous arch and even some Diet Cokes for me.

So we all stood around a bit and headed out to the main parking area to get situated for the 10 mile trip back to town. theracedude was pontificating to thejeepjunkie on how to drive a towed vehicle. As if thejeepjunkie and this olelongrooffan hadn’t busted our eye teeth towing old shit around.

We had to stop once on the way home to shorten the CJ5’s lead strap for city use. And finally, both the Kid’s CJ5 and thejeepjunkie’s CJ2A are home, safe and sound, just a little worse for the wear.

And we heard thejeepjunkie’s wife’s usual complaint, “If you didn’t drive those things in the woods, they wouldn’t break.” Like that is going to stop the Kid and thejeepjunkie from having fun.

As it is, here in the Sunshine State, even though toys break and toys get stuck, our friends are always around to help us and to Celebrate Life.