Our test drive Sunday revealed the new coolant pump was still leaking, so it was back to the shop. Chris took out the new pump and there it was, leaking, dripping fluid even though it is a brand new Mopar original part:Luckily the coolant is pink so it shows up easily:
So after some thought Chris decided to reinstall the original pump which shows no sign of wear with one of the new seals we bought for just this kind of nightmare scenario. We have one more if we should need it…made in somewhere foreign it turns out. Lots of Stellantis parts and vehicles are made in Turkey.
Anyway the old pump is back in with a new seal. The aluminum bolts are getting tired according to Chris’ torque wrench but all we can do is hope for the best because this coolant leak is well past being amusing.As for the inverter showing low voltage there is some news that may be good. Chris has ordered a box to be delivered Friday that should give us access to the settings in the inverter and he has found a German in Germany, a retired Victron technician who can check and adjust the settings online from his workshop in Germany. It this space age idea works we may avoid having to return to Uruguay where we bought the thing. Maybe by Saturday our Victron Multiplus piece of shit 3,000 watt inverter may be working properly. Or not. Meanwhile we have abandoned any idea of driving to Peru to meet our Florida friends. Luckily they are travelers and adaptable and we are rerouting to meet in Buenos Aires about three or four days south of here. Peru will have to wait until next year unfortunately, I was looking forward to returning Arequipa. This change of plan relieves us of having deadlines stress on top of everything else. Starlink has made some drastic changes to terms of service that affect international travelers which is dire for people who earn money online. As of August 17th international service across borders costs $650 for 500 GB of service or you are shut off. For us the shutdown of service is merely inconvenient as we use internet connections for pleasure. The young couple above from Belgium helped us organize a work around for this latest problem.Mattia is a 27 year old French speaking Belgian who shut down his electrician’s business and took to the road with Lola a 26 year old teacher from the Dutch speaking half of Belgium. They drove across Europe and Central Asia in their Mitsubishi Pajero SUV passing through Russia, the various ‘Stan’s of Central Asia, Mongolia and China to end up in Malaysia and Indonesia before shipping to Chile to explore the Americas. Their route roughly looked like this over 30 months:They very kindly helped us set up a new Starlink account which may or may not work past the next thirty days but if we do get shut down, they told us of another possible way we may be able to maintain traveling service for less than $200 a month.We sat and chatted about traveling well into the night lubricate by a couple of bottles of wine. They are pretty enterprising as Mattia is taking correspondence courses in industrial design to get remote work while Lola tutors Dutch for students online. Apparently there is a large market of immigrants yovthe Netherlands who want to integrate by learning the language. She said you can easily live and work in Holland even if you only speak English but without Dutch you don’t get a social life outside work or promotions at work. So she has a reliable income.They spent six weeks in an Airbnb in Asunción while they had a pop top built onto the roof of their SUV. it only cost $2500 ($15,000 in the US) and if the work is a little rough the price was right as they see it.Rusty is not fond of the time spent in the workshop as he can’t join us freely. The shop is behind the fence that separates Chris’ three dogs from the rest of the campground so he takes refuge under a big truck parked near us and watches as we hang around in the workshop. We go out from time to time to keep him company but he doesn’t enjoy being separated from us. It’s raining this Wednesday morning so maybe he’ll come into the shop with us and stay in the van while Chris attaches the first of two Bluetooth dongles to our irritating Victron Multiplus inverter. Patience and adaptability is the watchword.And imperviousness to rain. Whatever next?
Luckily the coolant is pink so it shows up easily: 
So after some thought Chris decided to reinstall the original pump which shows no sign of wear with one of the new seals we bought for just this kind of nightmare scenario. 
We have one more if we should need it…made in somewhere foreign it turns out. Lots of Stellantis parts and vehicles are made in Turkey. 
Anyway the old pump is back in with a new seal. The aluminum bolts are getting tired according to Chris’ torque wrench but all we can do is hope for the best because this coolant leak is well past being amusing.
As for the inverter showing low voltage there is some news that may be good. Chris has ordered a box to be delivered Friday that should give us access to the settings in the inverter and he has found a German in Germany, a retired Victron technician who can check and adjust the settings online from his workshop in Germany. It this space age idea works we may avoid having to return to Uruguay where we bought the thing. Maybe by Saturday our Victron Multiplus piece of shit 3,000 watt inverter may be working properly. Or not.
