Tough Week

As my last writing, the exhaust tower went together without a problem. With the new exhaust pipe in place we changed the generator's oil and pressure washed the radiator as normal maintenance. On Thursday morning we loaded the dump truck to travel across Cap-Haitian to the radio station's transmitter site to repair their generators broken exhaust pipe. After a slow ride there through heavy traffic we arrived and went right to work cutting and fitting the new pipe. When we were ready to weld, we went to grab our little Lincoln Mig machine and it was gone. After checking we believe that it was taken from the truck as we were in traffic, although all of our other tools were still there neatly placed up front, away from the edges. What a bummer, back to the shop to struggle with the stick welder. Later on Thursday the generator that we worked on the day before overheated & shut down. We patched a small exhaust leak that may have been allowing soot into the radiator fins and got it going again. On Friday we were dealing with power inverter problems in the office and Don ended up reviving a computer that was experiencing major problems. It seems that a virus may have been going around our network affecting many computers. About noon the generator overheated again! After washing the radiator and restarting, everything seemed fine again. About 3:00PM Angie called, the van was down at the school and wouldn't start. After getting it back to the shop we find that the starter is shot. Edric had just returned from Cap-Haitian with a repaired alternator for the Isuzu Trooper and would try to locate a new starter for the van and the generator was overheating again. 5:30 AM on Saturday I went and degreased & pressure washed the radiator and started the generator for the day, all seemed good at 10:30 and so we left for town. Arriving back about 6:00 PM, the city power had been on but soon went off in a thunder storm. I went and started the generator but it overheated soon after. I even tried putting the garden hose in the radiator on low but it would still over heat, so off with the generator at 8:00PM and soon the city power came back on until 4:00 AM. Don, Edrice & I started at 6:00 AM today, removed & flushed the radiator, removed and inspected the water pump, all hoses and the thermostat. All seemed fine except we replaced the old fan belt, and left the tired looking thermostat out. After a five minute warm-up & check we put it under full load at 7:40 just in time for the 8AM church service.
The engine temperature remained good all day, hopefully we resolved the problem, we will know tomorrow when the electrical demand is higher.
With only Monday left, Brett was joking with Don as this may be the first year that he will be leaving with fewer vehicles running than when he came!

Bud