An alternator charges the electrical system of your car as you drive. In effect it’s a small windmill powered by a belt off your car engine and fills your battery with electricity and the battery powers the starter motor, the lights and all the other electrical devices in your car.
I know where the trouble started and it was on the long dirt road known as the Ghost Road, Brazil Highway 319 where we crossed many wooden bridges with no problem. But on one the hole at the end of the wooden planks was extra deep where the bridge ended and we banged the front end hard and I knew there would be trouble.
We have two alternators on GANNET2, the normal one to charge the starting battery for the engine and the dashboard electrical outlets. Our home in the back is powered by two huge lithium batteries that are powered by the second alternator, a $4,000 option when we had the van built. It’s great except it hangs low under the front of the engine.
To protect it as well as the engine and transmission we have a steel skid plate. This plate has saved our low slung van more times than I can count over the past five years but Brazil smacked it into the alternator and broke the belt as we approached Manaus on the Amazon River.
We got that replaced in Carneiro de Castanha a small town on BR319 about 70 miles from Manaus bit the repair was not ferment and the skid plate has shifted. This time the alternator is not responding to treatment.
We have been a week in Oiapoque just across the River from French Guiana and as border towns go this Brazilian village is okay but we had planned to spend one night here. We have the prospect of spending another week here which is not joyous news.
Jonah the mechanic will be taking the alternator to Macapá today to see if it can be repaired or replaced. The ferry we need to catch across the Amazon only leaves on Tuesdays from Macapá which is the port city 350 miles south of here. There is nothing much between here and there so when we do leave it will be a two day drive as there is 70 miles of dirt to drive on Highway 156 and that alone will take us half a day as despite appearances we go try to be careful on unpaved roads.
Rainy season starts in force in about a month, and that will make the road difficult to drive but we should be somewhere south of here on a beach by then. I’m bored by the delay and tired of dusty equatorial Brazil where there are no tourists or campgrounds or things I’d like to see now that I’ve satisfied my curiosity about the Guyanas. I’m glad we came but I’d like a faster exit than this.
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| BR156 south, the direction I want to drive soon |
Fingers crossed Jonah cones back from Macapá with a solution to charge our house batteries so we can get going and prepare to board the ferry across the Amazon next Tuesday.
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| The Amazon jungle is all about |
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| Two hardcore French tourists from the hotel walking into town |
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| Rusty’s tropical hotspots have healed but his fur is slow to grow back |
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| Turkey vulture flying free |
Jonah the mechanic will be taking the alternator to Macapá today to see if it can be repaired or replaced. The ferry we need to catch across the Amazon only leaves on Tuesdays from Macapá which is the port city 350 miles south of here. There is nothing much between here and there so when we do leave it will be a two day drive as there is 70 miles of dirt to drive on Highway 156 and that alone will take us half a day as despite appearances we go try to be careful on unpaved roads.
1 comment:
Good luck with the repairs!
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