Look tired and defeated because you had to wait 9 hours for your plane.

Well I finally got my FJ Cruiser back(FJC) from the shop.

It all started back on Aug 26th when I went to Hollister with T and Doug. T had her 65 FJ-40, Doug with his 73 FJ-40 and my 2007 FJC. It was a good day for the most part I didn’t drive my rig too much, I spent most of the day pulling Doug out of the squeeze rock with T’s which on her 40. DOug managed to get his rig stuck really bad. He ended up blowing up his right front hub, blew out the power steering box, dented the differential housings, and a little body damage. WHen you can’t get traction it’s easy to break things.

So a little while after we got Doug out we decided to leave since his rig was limping around the OHV park. WHen we gotto the gate I went to shift my rig out of 4-lo and the shifter was stuck. It wouldn’t budge no matter how hard we tried. I tried driving in reverse, drive down the road, unlocking and lock the rear locker and a-trac to no avail.

So i limped my rig to town and we waited at the 7-11 for AAA to show up to tow my FJC back to the dealer in San Jose. Thank goodness T has AAA plus so the tow was free since it was under 100 miles. When the tow truck driver showed up he thought he was towing one of the FJ-40′s and not the new FJC, we all had a laugh on that.

So on the 28th Toyota told me that the transfer case was indeed busted and they had to order a new on in from Japan. I kinda figured that was going to be the case since it’s such a new model and parts aren’t readily available.

On Sept 6th I was supposed to get my FJC back, however when I called to check on it I was informed that the transfer case shifter was bent and when it was in 4-High it was blocking 6th gear. SInce I paid for a Six speed I wanted all six gears. So I was hoping that the replacment would arrive on 9/9 so I could get my FJC back for the weekend. At noon I got the call I didn’t want the part wouldn’t be in until Monday. I was bummed I have a new radio Yaesu FT-7800r that wanted to start installing over the weekend.

Well Monday came and I was hopeful that I would get my FJC back again noon rolled around I called down and I was told the part didn’t come in and that there was no ETA on when it would show. I was really starting to get pissed off now since i hadn’t seen my FJC in 17 days. So this morning 9/12 I went in to Capital Toyota and talked with the service manager I was getting tired of waiting and when I talked to my service rep the day before he was supposed to call me and let me know if I could return the rental car to the airport. Not getting that call is what really pissed me off, I can handle not having my truck but don’t tell me that your going to do something for me and then blow me off. After a conversation with Rick the service manager the determined they received the shifter and he had the service guys install it asap.

I went home finished packing to head off to Kansas City, About 10:50 I received a call from Leo at Capital Toyota saying my truck was finished. So I headed in and picked up my FJC so now I’m happy I have my truck back, and I was able to drive it before I had to catch a plane. I can’t wait now to get back to install my radio and Bandi mount.

So this this leaves me writting this at 38000 feet on the way to Kansas City via Denver wanting to get home.