Grocery Run in Moab, Courthouse Rock and a Flat Tire, followed by a Maintenance Day

 Wednesday, April 13

A mildly eventful day, and I think Scarlett is trying to tell me something.

I'd gotten a text from UPS, who I'd asked for shipping updates on the oil seal for Scarlett's Final Drive.  It had arrived today at the Moab post office.  So, I geared up warmly (I woke to 31°F (0.5°C) and it was barely 42°F (5.5°C) when I left the campsite though it was quite sunny.

Rode Scarlett the 14 miles or so to downtown Moab, found the post office only to be told they'd not had a chance to sort today's deliveries yet.  Come back tomorrow.

Since I was in town, I found the local City Market grocery store and got groceries.  Headed on back to camp with no issues, the winds were quite strong both going to and coming from Moab.  I don't think I was able to go faster than 55 mph!  

Minimal leakage from the failing final drive seal, btw.

Enroute back to camp, one passes the site of a former "Isolation Camp", part of the system set up during early WWII to intern Japanese-American citizens.  Not much remains except for a sign:

One of three concrete pads which I think belonged

to the internment camp.

Tried to find the scene in the picture from the sign,

this is close I think.

More info here: link

After lunch, I took Scarlett out once more to explore the area around Courthouse Rock and Mill Canyon Road.  The access road is right off the highway, perhaps a mile north of the exit for Dalton Wells Road; off of which I'm boondocking.

Courthouse Rock

View of Determination Towers from Mill Canyon's

Dinosaur Loop (not worth the visit)

Mill Canyon road merges somehow with Cotter Mine Road, which takes you above the US 191 highway for some nice views of the surrounding area.  Here's a shot of the crowded Willow Springs BLM dispersed camping area:

And now, a view of the area nearby where I'm presently boondocking.  You can even see Uma, the VRRV.

On Cotter Mine road, a view of the La Sal Mountains.

I didn't notice at the time of the above two pictures, but the sidecar tire on Scarlett was flat!

I rode further along Cotter Mine Road till I came to this view:

This time, after I took the picture and returned to Scarlett's side, I finally noticed the sidecar tire was flat!  Dammit.  I slowly road down the hill to a flat area and changed the sidecar wheel out for the spare.  Turns out, you can't mount the sidecar wheel where the spare tire goes, so I had to lash it down in the sidecar passenger compartment.

Got back to the campsite with no further issues, dismounted the tire and removed the inner tube hoping to patch whatever hole had developed.  Nope, the air stem had ripped off, probably from me riding with the tire flat.  So, I'll have to call around the moto shops tomorrow in the hopes of finding a new inner tube.  

I mentioned that Scarlett was probably trying to tell me something.  I think she's ready to go home.  She's got a leaky final drive and a flat sidecar inner tube.  

If I can't find a new inner tube in town, I guess it's going to be Yagi time until I depart for home sometime closer to the end of the month!  I apparently have spare inner tubes at home but not sure it's worth the time to have Martha mail them out to me.

Thursday, April 14

Well, the moto-repair gods were with me today.  Moab's single motorcycle shop: Mad Bro, not only had the right inner tubes but a Heidenau K37 tire in stock!  So I rode down there with Scarlett after breakfast with no further issues.

First, I had them put a new inner tube on the sidecar tire, their mounting fee is a bit pricey but hey, you do what you got to do, I wasn't going to waste time/effort on doing the job myself.  

Then, with the sidecar tire mounted again, and the spare back in its role as spare....I dismounted the worn pusher wheel and had them put not only a new Heidenau K37 but also a new inner tube as the existing one was showing rust on the air stem.  I will keep the rusty stem inner tube as a "get me home" spare for now.

The pusher's brake pads were just about worn down to the plates....so new ones are on order via Mad Bro, should be here by Monday of next week.

All in all, $324 was the cost for a new pusher tire, two inner tubes, the mounting fees and new brake pads.  Sigh.

Got back to the campsite and dismounted the pusher wheel again to do some maintenance.

1.  Grease the main driveshaft splines and socket where they connect to the final drive.  In addition, moved the steel clip from the middle position to the one closest to the final drive, in an effort to snug up the connection of the driveshaft onto the rubber donut.

2.  Hadn't been able to do it at the shop, so I cleaned off the mating surfaces for the pusher wheel and re-greased them.

As you can see, the teeth in the driven gear hub are almost shot.  I can see me taking apart the final drive once I'm home and putting in a new driven gear hub (which I have ready).

3.  I also reinstalled the brake caliper for the sidecar wheel.  (I'd left it in the VRRV when I went down to Moab).  Bit of a pain but not much.

The only bummer for the day was that the Post Office followed policy and refused delivery of the oil seal from NAPA.  NAPA had sent it via UPS you see and my luck, the PO clerk in Moab followed policy.  Dang.  I called NAPA and once they receive it back, they'll ship it to my home address.

Next maintenance tasks was to secure the broken welds on the Aluma trailer that are used to support the wheel covers.  The right side had broken first, and now the left side as well.

I secured them back up using self-tapping screws, hopefully they'll last a while.

Right side:

Left side:

Long day for me of wrenching, basic as the tasks were.  I'll sleep well tonight!  But now I'm back online with an heir (Scarlett) and a spare (Yagi).  Or perhaps, it should be the other way around in this area eh?