Throttle linkage started acting up so I bummed a smear of grease from this place on the way up:
A few hours later we had made it to Pattison Falls State Park. There's a nice section of the flowage which creates a small "lake" and swimming area:
And, of course the Big and Little Manitou Falls. The larger of the two is the biggest in WI and the fourth largest east of the Rockies:
The hike to Little Manitou was pretty cool, along a fast moving section of the river with many rapids.
Water levels were near record highs due to all the rain we've been having. We planned ahead and picked up the famed Wal-Mart canopy and it was actually pretty nice getting to sit outside during the sprinkles.
We've gotten into summer but near the great lake spring still felt like it was getting started. Plenty of early wildflowers and two nights down to 42 degrees.
After a couple days of lounging we headed to Amnicon Falls. There were many, many smaller falls along a mile or so of river. It was pretty awesome getting to climb all over the place and check them all out up close and personal. I'd definitely recommend a visit to this park just for the experience.
This entire area is situated along a fault line that caused an upheaval leading to the falls.
We even grilled out next to one of the falls and enjoyed the soothing background noise.
On our reluctant journey home we experienced a hiccup. We were about four miles north of Mellen when the bus just flat out died. Clutch in, select neutral, look for a flat spot. Oil level - good, temperature - good, fuel pump - what the?
The pivot shaft for the pump was hanging precariously out of the body, only about 1/16" was still in the casting. I'd already had to fix a loose nipple on this pump and was pretty upset that something like this would happen with only about 8,000 miles on it. The shaft was completely smooth, didn't even have circlip grooves or anything. I'm not sure what was supposed to hold it in.
I pulled the pump and we began looking for possible solutions. We ended up scavenging two snaps from the front curtain and two hose clamps from the air cleaner pre-heat hose. The snaps made nice little 'cups' over each end of the pivot shaft and the clamps snugged things down to prevent them from moving. It looked like something out of Mad Max but we didn't have much choice. As I was fiddling with it the other nipple fell out so I JB-Quick welded it in as well. What the heck.
Well it worked. We drove another 290 miles home and didn't have any other issues. I'm adding an original fuel pump to my to buy list. These aftermarket parts have me depressed. This one was from NAPA and actually looked pretty decent to me, I liked how it closely resembled the original pump and the casting seems nice.
All in all it was a great long weekend. I'll probably change the oil and adjust the valves again since we're still in the early mileage on this engine.
