Hey, is that an Astro Van starter? No, not that! Dude, that’s Top Cat. No, dude, THIS! Yeah! It’s totally a starter. You know what we should do? Dude, this’ll be great. We’ll, like, put that in and TOTALLY REPLACE the old one! That’ll surprise whatever old man owns this piece of crap brown van thing. It will be absolutely worth the $80 taxes in to see dude’s face when his van starts properly! »

A ‘better late than never’ update on the most recent round of repairs. This was an all-day effort with Andrew getting up before city chickens (country chickens are notoriously early risers) to arrive Euro-trash style in the ‘Berg before we all headed white-trash style to Alliston. (Well, Andrew and Bryce took the Bush Pig Rally Van, which accounts for the trashiness; Derek drove a Volvo so he was rocking more a ‘community college prof/corduroy jacket with elbow patches’ stylee, but it’s all good). »

Well, we’ve made (relatively) massive progress on the car in the past week. We actually 1) got the car and the trailer out of the barn (well, ok, we had help), put the rebuilt HotBits rear coil-overs in it on the trailer, towed it up to Alliston without mishap (see proof)… … and got it in the shop! And then, if you can believe it, we went up again with Andrew, got it on a hoist and looked at it, sprayed it with some penetrating fluid, and came up with a plan for this weekend! »

So yes, we finally have the tow vehicle back. Yes, it was expensive. Hence the title. Final tally: We had to have the transmission lines replaced (because they rotted under the clamps so when we swapped the rad they cracked), the fan clutch replaced (because the threads stripped when the fan was removing itself from the water pump and going through the rad), the O2 sensor replaced (because it was reading rich), the clean air done for a third time (it passed! »

Let’s recap the trials and tribulations of the rally van tow vehicle for a moment before we discuss the current state… – We had to leave the trailer at Ross’s after Pines because of towing problems with the van. We got the van home, borrowed a truck (thanks Brian!) and got the car and trailer, and then parked everything until Feb. – In Feb we got the van transmission checked. No codes for that but some for catalytic and engine and the transmission shop thought it was down on power. »

We went to the RallySport Ontario AGO today in Peterborough. It was crazy foggy (see picture for example of crazy fog). While there we got both a used radiator from a wrecker – for half the price that the wrecker here wanted – and an award! See below for picture of said award. Radiator not pictured. I know, that was the bit you were REALLY interested in. »

So as you saw, we got the rally van going only to have it break. Which, being the hard-headed bastards we are, caused us to fix it some more. And by fix, I mean make sure we did it right the first time (spark plugs) and hacksaw some hoses apart so we didn’t have to do it the hard/expensive way (leaking rear heater lines). Makes sense, right? We did all that, and we drove it home. »

Although sturdy, Astro/Safari vans just suck to work on. Change spark plugs and wires? THREE hours plus zip-tying a wire the the body and they still need double-checking. Water pump? Oh buddy, take a seat and let me tell you about that little beauty. Four hours, on a brand new vehicle, maybe. Took us…well, longer than that at any rate. Oh, and – and– then the rear heater core lines, which had apparently been leaking a little bit are now, thanks to the fully functional heater core, are now peeing car juice. »

Yes, with the addition of some shelving and bins we now have room for the car. It’ll go in between those other two cars, once we get it out of the barn it’s currently sitting in. And fix the van, of course. That’s on track for the next 7 days. Stay tuned… »

A little bit of news since Tall Pines in November… After the event we surveyed the damage and found the rear suspension is in dire need of a rebuild, also we seemed to have bent the rear sub-frame on the right side as well as made a mess of the stub axel, and bearings. This was all the cause of our DNF. We did not think we would be able to get everything fixed and ready for Perce Neige this year so we decided to skip the event this year and plan on Lanark Highlands in May being the first event of our season. »