Marooned in Tonopah

 Got up this morning still stinging from yesterday's incident with the Jeep.  After breakfast, I went out with my little tool bag and started poking around to see if I could find the problem.  

The battery was completely dead so I called up Napa and had them deliver a new one.  In the mean time I pulled the old battery and put it on the charger.  I figured, if this is alternator trouble, we could use two batteries, our portable generator, and charger and just head for home.  We have done that twice before.  But this seemed different.

When the battery arrived, I put it in and it did not help.  The car was still dead and the battery began to discharge pretty rapidly.

I dug out my little "Blue Driver" code scanner and hooked it up.  Strange!  I could not get it to connect as usual to the Jeep.  It reported, "Vehicle is not responding."  That is really odd.  I called up the Cal/Nevada towing place down the street because I heard they had a diesel mechanic and asked them if they would send him to take a look and please bring his fancy "Snap-On" brand scanner.

He arrive and plugged in.  He fiddled and scratched his head for 10 minutes and finally said, "Bad News!  I cannot scan anything.  The Jeeps main computer is not functioning at all...it is dead."  He did not charge me anything.

No Problem... just order a new computer, put it in and go home....right?  Wrong!  I called long distance to two Jeep dealers, one in Carson City, and one is Vegas.  When I read them my VIN numbers, they said, "Sorry, we do not work on THAT model Jeep anymore."  So I called the parts department and they said that the part is not available anymore anywhere in the USA and that it was discontinued.  Then I thought.  Gee, even if I had a new part and put it in, it would not work because my old computer was reprogrammed with custom software.  So a new computer would immediately start throwing serious errors and put the car in "Limp Mode".  The company that furnished the software is out of business so I could not reprogram the computer to match my equipment, and I left my programming equipment at home.  If I had TIME and had the Jeep at home, I could fix it....it would probably take a month but I could fix it.

I spent the day making calls and trying to figure a way to get the Jeep, our Trailer, and US home within a reasonable amount of time and expense.  Remember, there is nothing in Tonopah and the nearest real help is 240 miles away across barren land and remote roads.

I finally decided that the best answer was to trade the Jeep in and buy another one...a new one.  I called the dealer in Carson City and came up with a workable deal over the phone, but I would have to get the Jeep there and I would have to come tomorrow.