4X4NOW
4-Wheeling "How-To"
  What About Water?...
by Don Miller

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You all probably carry your tools, your commonly used spares, extra engine oil, power steering fluid, gasoline, spare tire, air compressor, etc.. The list goes on and on. You can find several lists of suggested tools and supplies that you should carry when venturing off highway. You can find one such list by Harry Lewellyn at http://www.4X4NOW.com/sf0797.htm Another, by Rick Russell is at http://www.sidekickoffroad.com/equippingF.htm I’ve used their lists, plus my own paranoia to make up my own set of tools and spares.

For some reason though, I never carried spare coolant. Maybe it was because I change all the hoses and all the belts every four years. I don’t have any scientific data that indicates that to be an optimum interval, but I’ve never had a belt break or a hose leak or burst. I’ve had a couple water pumps go, but they always gave me plenty of warning by leaking ever so slowly at first. And the heater core in the Bronco II leaked very slowly when it decided to go. One of the above authors says to carry water (radiator coolant), the other says he doesn’t bother to carry a dedicated coolant supply. He uses "melt" from his ice chest. Which is fine if you have an ice chest with melted ice.

However, recently I had two occurrences that ended up with major coolant losses. Fortunately they happened close to home. And strangely they were on the same trail. They also occurred while traveling alone! We all are aware of the dangers of solo travel, but we all do it at times, don’t we?

The first incident befell me on a Saturday morning out in a sandy hilly area a few miles west of home. I was out playing in my new CJ5. It’s quite the Jeep with ARB’s front and rear, 33 inch BFG M/T’s, and a whole list of custom goodies. I had gone up and down a few hills, each one steeper than the last, and was all smiles from the CJ’s performance.

Then suddenly as I near the crest I smelled smoke. A burning rubber smell. The thought of a fire scares me more than rolling over (thanks to the full roll cage and shoulder harnesses). I immediately stopped and killed the engine. I went all around the Jeep, lifted the hood, peered underneath, and couldn’t see any sign of smoke or fire. I was still on the upside of the slope so I decided to get to the top, or maybe the bottom if I couldn’t get started back up the sand hill. The ARB’s and M/T’s at 10 lb. pressure worked well and I was soon on the top. Once again that burning rubber smell attacked my nose! And once again my investigations met with no apparent problem found. This time though I noticed that the water temp gauge was reading was higher than I had ever seen it. With no obvious problem found I left the hood up and started the engine. The first thing I noticed when looking back under the hood was that the fan wasn’t turning, even though all the belts were there and moving! As I turned off the engine I heard the hissing and spurting sound of hot water escaping through the radiator overflow. (See note at end of text).

A poke of the finger revealed that the water pump belt was a little loose. A pre trip inspection the day before had found all the belts fine. Hmmm. I grasped the fan and found that it would not move at all in the forward direction. It would move backwards about 25 degrees before coming to a solid stop. Back and forth, that’s all. Something inside was preventing the pump from rotating! I now knew that the burning rubber smell was the belt burning itself up as it continued to be driven round the immovable water pump pulley. All this time coolant continued to burble forth from the overflow. I had nothing at hand to catch it in and so watched with dismay as it soaked into the desert sand.

In my cooler I had a small amount of ice and four 20 ounce bottles of drinking water. This is the desert and I never go anywhere without water for myself. So at least I wasn’t in immediate danger of perishing. But there wasn’t another soul around. Not yet, at least. It was a Saturday and sooner or later someone else would come along. The area is quite popular with the dirt bikers. As I awaited the cooling of the engine I sat on the shady side of the CJ and drank a little water. When things had cooled enough to allow safe removal of the radiator cap I poured three bottles of water into the radiator. It all disappeared from view, but did remain within the cooling system.

My plan was to coast home as much as I could. The route is mostly downhill, however I had to get out of the sand area under power and there are a few slight rises in the road that had to be powered up. However with the time spent coasting, engine off, the engine never got into the seriously overheated stage. I stopped at the first house along the way and filled up with water. I did make it home.

Pulling things apart I found that the water pump impeller, made of cast iron, had broken. The small broken off piece had got stuck in the wrong place and jammed up the pump. A quick trip to the auto parts store was made and soon I had an operative Jeep once again.

Everything ran fine for four weeks. Exactly to the day. Once again I was out in the same area. I had made a trip the week before with a friend. This time it was just myself again. I had a great time discovering a way up from the bottom of the canyon that I had not found before. I was on my way back, about the same spot as the first incident when I caught a whiff of that very distinct anti-freeze odor. At least it wasn’t the smell of smoke, I thought as I got out to investigate what was happening.

I discovered coolant dribbling from the front end of the engine somewhere. On closer examination it seemed to be coming from the water pump shaft. What’s going on here I thought. It’s a new pump, not even a rebuild. Brand new! The fan didn’t wobble. It must be coming out the weep hole. An apt name for it I thought sadly.

Once again I didn’t have anything to catch the leaking coolant in. (I thought back to the time when my Bronco II was leaking power steering fluid badly. At that time I had wired a plastic cup under the leak, and stopped every so often to pour it back in. I didn’t catch it all, but with the spare fluid I carried I completed the trail, then made it all the way from Moab back home to New Mexico.) But this was a major size leak and I didn’t have a major size container and I didn’t have any extra coolant. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" I thought to myself. I poured in my three bottles of drinking water and took off, coasting where possible. This time as the water was leaking out at an alarming rate I had to stop at a house for water, plus another stop at the Big O tire dealer before I made it back to my driveway.

Removal of the water pump quickly followed cool down. The inner seal must have had a major failure as I could easily blow through the weep hole. I picked up a new pump under the terms of the lifetime warranty.

Since the second failure I have carried 5 gallons of water in plastic jugs in the space where one of my spare gas cans used to live. I don’t think I will ever venture on a trail without them again. At present the water is in several recycled 1 gallon jugs (old anti-freeze and pool chemical containers). I believe that some time in the future I’ll either buy a 5 gallon container for the water or convert one of the gas containers to water.

(If you want to know more about the author's storage box as pictured above go to jeep-box.htm)

As well as learning that, "Yes, I should carry water with me", I learned a couple of other things. The first is that had the water pump lock up event happened way out in the boonies, I could have effected a "trail fix" if I had removed the pump. I’m certain that the small broken piece could have been removed and things buttoned up again, the coolant refilled, and the vehicle driven to the nearest auto parts source. The pump would have still worked, at less than normal capacity, but it would have worked. I had RTV sealant with me to make the gasket seal.

In the second case I could have sealed the weep hole with JB Weld epoxy, and perhaps one of the self tapping metal screws from my junk box. Both these "fixes" would have been time consuming to make on the trail, but they could have worked. But only if I had replacement coolant with me!

So carry water for the radiator as well as your self, and travel with someone if you can. And if you can’t tell someone who loves you where you are going. Hey! I had done that! There are two items I want to add to my arsenal in the future: a cell phone and a GPS receiver.

As a PS I have a small tip. If you have carried RTV or epoxies with you "just in case" you may have found out the hard way, that the tubes crush and leak easily. I have carried mine in sections of PVC or ABS pipe (whatever leftovers I had on hand). I have slip on caps on the ends but duct tape would work too. I check the tubes every so often and they are always in great shape. If I open one for use, I replace it with a new unopened tube as soon as I can. I used inch and a half pipe for one and two inch for the other. This is also where I carry radiator stop leak and rubber cement for the tire repair plugs. The white thing that looks a little like a dog bone is a complete spare rear driveshaft.

Note: Coolant recovery bottle. My ’79 Jeep CJ5 didn’t have one. Perhaps if it had been so equipped, at the time of the first event, I would not have lost as much, or any, coolant. And that would have made getting home easier. However, it now does have a recovery bottle. I located a universal accessory tank at Autozone for about 6 dollars. I had to fabricate a mount for it as the suggested method of attachment would not stand up to off highway bumps and thumps. Plus, now there is less likelihood of ever dumping a little anti-freeze coolant into the environment.. And that’s good for us all.

Jeep front is to the right.

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