#125 Then spent two nights in Austin at McKinney falls state park truck maintenance

The next day I took the rig down and got set up in McKinney Falls State Park. I used this opportunity to do some of the required maintenance and the morning I was there at 8 a.m.

I went right to the U-joint place and he let me work out back where I removed the driveshaft. I gave it to him and he said to check back in a couple of hours. I walked down to a diner and had some breakfast/ lunch and came back and before long he was done. I reinstalled it and I was back home by say 2 o'clock or so. The shop in Austin suggested that my shrill sound might be a bearing. The next day I went to O'Reilly's and bought all four of the possible pulley suspects. because I knew that once I started I wouldn't have a vehicle until I got done. I didn't know exactly which one it was going to be so I got the alternator the power steering pump and idler pulley and a tensioner pulley thing.

I figured by the process of elimination I would install them the least expensive thing first and return to O’Reilly whatever wasn’t needed. Savannah was good at helping me out. It was a 2 man job pulling that tensioner while you got the belt off.

The first thing I did was the tensioner. In my mind, it was quieter but there was still something there. When I looked at the new power steering pump it did include a drive pulley. It’s assumed you will reuse the old one. I took off the power steering pump and getting the pulley off of the power steering pump appeared impossible with the tools that I had. I thought maybe I could drive the truck without reinstalling everything. When I started the truck I tried to pull forward. Not only is it almost impossible to turn the steering wheel but the pump also operates the brakes. I could either put it all back together or walk.

I begin to wonder if maybe just buying a pulley would be good. That did not go well and a long story later I couldn't find one at any of the auto supply places or junkyards. I took the power steering pump, the new pump and put it all in a backpack, got on the bike, and rode towards a mechanic shop. The place that I found it I that could do it was 6 miles away and on a bicycle and that's a bit of a chore.

I was going to do it and everything but after about a mile I saw a place called Martinez auto repair. I stopped right in there and just said hey guys can you take care of this and he said yeah it'll cost you 40 bucks. I said let's do it and so you that was done and I got back quickly and change the power steering and the noise went away so I was very happy. I held on to the alternator for a while to be sure. Later down the road when I was sure I was in good shape I took the alternator back to O’Reillys at a town called Fort Stockton Texas.

After doing all this mechanical stuff I was rather proud of myself and a bit tired after several days of work. I was going to take a nice shower as we checked out of the RV site. I went down to a parking lot near McKinney Falls parking area and instead of taking a shower I just laid down in the waterfall. It was great and after that, we headed on out.