TeamD Adventures

What a great morning! We rolled out of Dawson City, topped off fuel at “The Corner” then pulled out in convoy of Cars 6, 7, and 11 up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik. At just about Mile 12, I noticed the “Check Engine” light for which Subarus are sometimes famous and said “Dan, did you forget to put the gas cap back on?”. Then I saw the red battery icon. Oops.

A quick “We got trouble!” call on the business band radio brought our 3-car convoy to a halt….

…. Before I popped the hood, I revved the engine and could see that adding RPM did nothing to increase the volts showing on our new built-in voltmeter. Under the hood? Everything looked fine. Belts belting, pulleys pulling, fuses fusing, and all electrical devices working as designed. The one obvious problem? Not charging. I looked at all of the connections to our new alternator and couldn’t see anything out of order, but our voltage was dropping…12.6….12.5….12.4…… It didn’t take but about 13 TeamD seconds and a short consultation with the sweep trucks before we turned off all lights, radios and accessories and high-tailed it back down to Dawson City.

We pulled the WRX in behind the Eldorado Hotel, plugged in the block heater, grabbed our toothbrushes from the boot and went to chat with the Matron D’Hotel. I sauntered up to the front desk and said “Ummmm. We’re with the Alcan Rally and our car sorta died. Can we leave it plugged in behind the hotel…and can we leave you my car keys in case we want to call a tow truck from Inuvik? Oh, and is it OK if we drop-ship an alternator here?” The matron took my keys, dropped them in an envelope, and promised “I’ll just drop them in the safe, dear.” with a nonchalance that suggested she had just finished arranging tea service for little grey men from Alpha Centauri

Cars 6 and 7 sat on Dawson’s Third Avenue gunning their engines. Eric, Steve, Rob and Nick (all very handsome and sexy men), literally grabbed me, Dan, and our toothbrushes, pulled us (one each!) into the GTX and IX and shouted “Dudes, you are going to Inuvik!”
. Over the next few hours the 2 remaining cars of TeamD clawed up the Dempster, eventually catching the Alcan sweep trucks at Eagle Plains (mile 270) and reaching Inuvik (mile 561) in time for the marvelous banquet sponsored by the BMW Car Club of America.

So, what happened with the WRX? Our 90 percent guess is that the voltage regulator in the new super-duper alternator is kaput. Another less likely guess is that the alternator sense wire lost connection. Bottom line, though, is that we (meaning I) made changes and “improvements” to the WRX too late in the game and didn’t allow adequate time for “burn-in” and shakedown. I can only blame myself.

We were really bummed at not getting the WRX to Inuvik, and I was even a little more depressed at the prospect of a $500 flatbed transport of the WRX to the Subaru dealer in Whitehorse when a few aspects of this rally rose to brighten the skies as it were. First was the uplifting encouragement of Eric, Steve, Rob and Nick who simply pushed considerations of comfort aside and yelled “Jump in, damnit!” to make sure we got here. Cameraderie R Us. Second in that vein were the kind considerations of the Subaru Challenge Driving team who have noted “Oh, you know we have a spare alternator?” — perhaps saving us that expensive flatbed trip to Whitehorse and maybe allowing us to rejoin the rally on Tuesday.

In the meantime, Inuvik is a bit cold but very nice. Our BMW dinner included a mixed grill of artic char, caribou and musk ox and a lively post-prandial discussion has ensued as to which was which. We are off in the morning to drive the frozen river to Tuk… Tuk…. Tuktoyaktuk. Dan has even arranged to help drive the Barons Richtofens’ Audi S4 up to Tuk. What could be more fun?