Josie has broken down, this time in a major way. Her alternator appears shot. Although the repair can be done without having to drop the engine or anything near that drastic, this is still a major repair, and I am nowhere near being in an optimum position to pull this off.
Earlier in the day I was hunting for a bona fide ghost town known as Alone, Kentucky. The weather was miserable, overcast and raining on and off, and cold. A wind blew up that only made everything seem more miserable and more cold. And though I tried and tried, I just couldn't find the town.
It's there on the map, if you zoom in far enough, but I had no way points to guide me, no street names to plug into the GPS. And although I found the Alone Cemetery, which sits just off the main road, the town was no where to be seen. Given the terrible weather, I accepted defeat and looked for the closest Walmart to hold up for the rest of the day and into the night.
That store was in Glasgow, Kentucky. I navigated Josie there with no problem, picked out my spot on the fringe of the parking lot and shut off her engine. After a half hour or so, I decided to head to a diner where I could get some hot coffee and recharge my electronics, which were running dangerously low on electricity.
I jumped in the driver's seat and turned the key only to hear the sickening sound of a slow "bur-rur-rur-rur"; the battery was nearly dead and I couldn't turn the engine over. I did some quick tests with a voltmeter and confirmed that the battery was low. But how?
The culprit now had to be the alternator, which, when working properly, drives all things electric when the van is running, as well as keeping the battery well charged. As I contemplated my next move, a thought sent sudden chills through me: If I'd actually found the town of Alone, that's exactly what I'd be right now, alone and stranded with a dead battery, instead of merely broken down in a Walmart parking lot. Thank God for small miracles...
My task at hand now was to first locate a replacement alternator. This proved more difficult than I would have imagined. In the course of my hunt, I learned that there was a "nationwide shortage" of alternators that would fit my engine. I finally tracked down a parts supply vendor online that promised they could secure me "the last one in the country we can find." It was located in California, a "new" rebulit alternator, which they could overnight to me (for an exhorbitant price, of course.)
The next hurdle was, though the part could be overnighted to me, exactly how should the part be delivered? It's not like FedEx or UPS has a habit of delivering to an address such as "Far end of the Walmart parking lot."
My only option was to persuade the Walmart folks to let me use their store address as the drop-off point and send it to me "in care of" the store manager.
After much pleading and cajoling, I managed to get the store manager to allow me to proceed with the part being shipped to his store under my name, "in care of" him.
To make sure the receiving department at Walmart would be aware of the package coming the next day, I went to talk to the receiving manager. Well, the Walmart receiving manager tells me they don’t get FedEx or UPS deliveries until 11 a.m. Sigh.
My plan is to start removing the alternator now in hopes that I’ll have it out by the time the new one arrives, then all I’ll have to do is install it and be back in business.