I met some rain, and discovered that when I use the windshield wiper
it tends to push some moisture underneath the rubber seal around the window.
A drop of water slid down the top of the dash and onto the face of the speedometer.
About 150 miles later I arrived at Haines Junction and stocked up on groceries
and supplies. I sealed the edges of the windshield with some flexible silicone
gasket gook that I brought from home. I saw an axe in the store and remembered
that my Dad had said it might be a good idea to bring a hatchet along, so
now I have a Canadian axe. I figure they do enough logging, they probably
know how to make an axe. I also bought some clear Scotch tape to hold together
the driver's side window, where the cracks in the glass seem to be speading,
probably because I have to pull the door hard sometimes to make it shut.
A passerby noticed that my dust cover for one of the front wheel bearings
was missing. Apparently the one I put on in Portland had fallen out, so
I bent my remaining one for a tighter fit and hammered it on. Just it time
too, for the roads began to get worse as I travelled from Haines Junction
through Yukon, Canada towards the Alaskan border. I stopped repeatedly for
construction crews and pilot cars, and traveled through mud, dirt, and gravel.
Even I had to reduce my speed. The bottom half of the truck is now coated
in a thick layer of light tan Alaskan dust. That afternoon, I needed to
take a nap, since I had been driving since I got of the ferry at 4:15 that
morning.
Canadian law states that you must drive with your headlights on at all times,
and not being accustomed to having my lights on in the daytime, I accidentally
left them on. I don't know how long I slept (my watch battery is dead),
but it was probably a couple of hours. As I was eating a sandwich, I realized
that they were on and shut them off. The car started fine later, and the
battery indicator on the dash read that the battery was charging strongly.
In fact, it was charging very strongly, and I feared that the voltage regulator
had failed, allowing the generator to overwork itself, because later that
afternoon, after stopping for gas, I noticed that the battery was not charging
at all, whereas normally with higher RPM the battery gauge needle will move
toward the + indicator. This meant that there was a problem in the charging
circuit.
There are basically only two things that can go wrong with the charging
circuit - the generator, or the regulator. I checked the generator and found
that one of the bracket bolts had shaken loose and fallen lost. Luckily,
I had some bolts that I had planned to use for something else, which fit
close enough to do the job until I get a proper replacement. But the generator
is probably not the problem because a check with the multimeter reveals
that it produces almost 8 volts when revved, which should be ample for a
6 volt system. I partially disassembled the voltage regulator and cleaned
the relay points, which had some corrosion, but after reassembly, the problem
still occured.
Since it was getting dark, I decided to camp for the night and continue
on in the morning, when I wouldn't need to use my headlights, and therefore
save the battery from excessive drain. I disposed of all my trash and sealed
all food containers so as not to attract bears, though I did make sure my
hunting knife was close by as I slipped into my sleeping bag - probably
more for my comfort than for any good it would do in a bout with a bear.
I lay in the tent and read the Chevrolet shop manual by flashlight - Chapter
12, Electrical. Eventually my eyelids grew too heavy and I had to sleep.