Labor Day Horror Stories

Water-Bug wrote:

Lantley wrote:
Thursday late afternoon I discover water pump on my Duramax leaking.
Friday afternoon my mechanic, that knew I had camping plans and was giving it his all, informed me that a bolt snapped and we were done.
He could not get a replacement bolt until Tuesday! Truck could not be finished without new bolt.
After hearing the bad news,I sat at my Nexus 7 tablet surfing the net, contemplating my revised weekend plans. I came upon a Craigslist advertisement for RV towing.
"5th wheel,bumper pull I tow it all" the ad read.
I could not resist making a call. We agreed on a price.
7 A.M Saturday morning a stranger showed up with a F-350 with a gooseneck adapter hitch.
The rest is history. I camped all weekend and had a great time.
Nothing like a happy ending.

Couldn't get a replacement "bolt" for three days? Sounds like the mechanic wanted an early start to his weekend. The OEM warehouse isn't the only place to buy bolts. I would be really surprised if there was anything special about a water pump bolt on any vehicle manufactured by the big three.

Once the bolt broke late on Friday I was done. It was a specialty bolt. I won't say there was no where at all in Maryland that had this bolt but late Friday afternoon on a holiday weekend getting the bolt was next to impossible.
The bolt was not readily available at the normal sources until Tuesday.
Remember it was a holiday weekend!
I personally know the mechanic, he was trying to get me done. Putting a water pump on a Duramax engine is not a routine job. It is much more difficult than a typical water pump job.
Basically it was bad timing. While I was not happy I can think of a lot worse places and times for the water pump to fail.
Thanks to a stranger on Craigslist I manage to camp for the Holiday anyway. In the end I have no complaints or regrets.