Broken Down in Las Vegas

March 04, 2022 / Cynthia Currie

Night time driving in the desert is a different kind of dark, the pitch black is vast and empty. Oncoming traffic headlights blinding with stark contrast. I am not sure why driving the Skoolie is that much more of a chore in the dark than my Subaru but the visibility is just hard and exhausting. I try to schedule my long crossings so that I arrive at my over night location before sunset.

It was the first Sunday night of February, I had just spent the last week flying speed wings with the Froth Crew in the Eastern Sierra. I was aware of a small oil leak coming from the timing cover, the gasket was failing after 250K miles. My next stop was Arizona to see my trusted mechanic Tony from AAA bus Sales, who sold me the bus in the first place. She needed a full annual service anyway and breaks.

While driving through Death Valley the oil leak increased and I was having to pull over every 40 miles or so to put a half gallon of oil in to keep her happy. A beautiful drive through ever changing desert landscapes turned into a stressful game of watch the gauges and keep my speed down. How do you find a place to pull over in the desert with 9 tons of bus barring down a 7% grade? No cell service through the entire park increased the anxiety as I drove east, the sun, racing to the western horizon behind me.

My plan was to over night and have dinner with one of my dearest ladybird friends, Katie, in Vegas. Continuing on to Phoenix to see Tony the next day. As I approached Las Vegas, only 20 miles from Katie’s home, in the vast darkness of the desert well after sunset, exhausted and hungry, the engine started to seize and I noticed the temp gauge in the red. She was over heating and very angry. I immediately pulled over, but the damage was done, I put almost a gallon of oil in and restarted her back up. She was cranky but turned over and begrudgingly purred into idol. It was ok…. for now… but I had let her get too low on oil and she had over heated. After all day of driving through one of the most barren places on earth, I had become exhausted and complacent. I had blown two more gaskets with that mistake and was now hemorrhaging oil from multiple places at an alarming rate.

I dialed BJ, another very close friend and professional diesel mechanic. He answered…. my voice shaking I explained what just happened. I had already called him a few times that day checking in on the correct procedure to limp along with minimal damage to my engine. “As long as you keep oil in her, she will be fine” he kept telling me. He assured me as long as my oil pressure was above 20psi I could keep driving…. I was so close to Vegas. I limped into town having to stop every 5 miles now to top her off.

Pulled into Katies house shaken, exhausted, and pre-mensural. Katie was privy to the situation and came out with open arms for a hug…. I broke down into a full sob in her arms. It was nearly midnight and my house was safe… for now.

Sleep was intermittent that night.
First thing in the morning I called five different diesel mechanic shops in Las Vegas, only one could get me in but not until mid week the following week. Las Vegas, where you can get quite literally anything your heart desires and at pretty much any hour of the day. But diesel mechanics are fully booked out almost a month in advance. Its still better than breaking down in the middle of Death Valley though. Things could always be worse… I could be in Kiev getting bombed.

Posting on multiple forums looking for references to any Cummins specific diesel mechanic in the greater Vegas area, there was a ping back from a well know Skoolie forum, a reference for a Bruce Callahan in Las Vegas with a phone number. I couldn’t believe my luck! I rang up Bruce and he came right over claiming to be a mobile diesel mechanic. He told me multiple times in a very boisterous tone that he had worked on hundreds of engines like this, and that he was the best in Vegas. That was my first flag. I mistakingly shrugged his over confident demeanor off as an eccentric personality, and gave him the benefit of the doubt.

I do believe Bruce Callahan genuinely thought of himself as a top notch mechanic, I also believe he fully intended to help me and fix my oil leak. What I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that Bruce Callahan does NOT posses the skills of a big rig diesel mechanic nor the intricate Cummins specific knowledge to work on my engine, 5.9L 12 valve Cummins 6BT

Over the next two weeks, Bruce was to foul my engine into FAR worse shape than when he started on it. He over torqued the timing cover when replacing the timing gasket, cracking both the steel cover AND the timing case itself (that houses all my gearing). He also replaced the push rod cover gasket, and in doing so failed to seat it properly AND bent the pushrod cover itself. Once he ‘finished’ the push rod cover job he did not even know how to prime the fuel lines and injectors, I had to tell him how to do that. He couldn’t even get the engine to turn over, because it was deprived of fuel. I became aware that his disorganization and erratic behavior combined with constant story telling and long breaks to go get cigarettes and lunch at Dotty’s (a local gambling bar, that I am told does not, in fact, serve food) were very likely a tell tale sign of a crystal methamphetamine addict. I can not prove this however.

At this point, two long weeks after arriving in Las Vegas, and still parked in front of Katie’s home, I fired Bruce.

During a parts run I met a blond tattooed female diesel mechanic and told her my predicament and she recommended a reputable and Cummins specific mechanic, Steven Burke. I hired Steven and he primed the fuel lines and had her running in less than an hour. Thank god.

There was an oil leak.

It was coming from the timing cover again.

I asked - no begged - him to take me on as a client and please look over everything that Bruce had just done. He accepted and began the process that I had just sat through for the last two weeks and spent $2,000 on. It took Steven a few hours to do what Bruce and taken days. We had four bad days of strong gusty desert winds and I was delayed longer, a sitting duck. When the winds subsided Steven was able to take the timing cover off and it was then we discovered both the timing cover and case itself had been cracked (see photos below). Having not trusted Bruce, I had been watching over his shoulder and specifically remember him NOT using a torque wrench to tighten the bolts of the timing over, bragging about how he knew what it felt like and could magically do it by feel with a regular socket wrench. I watched Bruce the week before over tighten two bolts and cringed but he was not receptive to me telling him how to do his job.

So we had to play the waiting game for parts, it was now three and a half weeks since I had arrived in Vegas. Once the parts were in Steve came back over after a long day of service calls and worked on my engine into the night. Got her back together and running, even degreased and pressure washed the pavement in front of Katies home, and replaced both of my front break drums in less than an hour.

I drove White Fang around the block, she was purring nicely and not leaking when I left…. but once the engine got up to temperature she started leaking from the push rod cover like a civ. Worse than any of the leaks I had before.

Steven did not have time for the job as he has plenty of Vegas regulars he has to attend to so I had to hire a third mechanic. I took my home, my heart, my business, my life…. everything I own to a repair shop and told them my story. Bless their hearts as they are also 3 to 4 weeks out on appointments but I think felt badly for me and squeezed me in. She will be sitting at the shop over the next week and getting slowly worked on to fix Bruces terrible work.

I am now coming up on week four of living in Las Vegas and have already spent $4,000 on her and will be dropping another thousand or two to fix what I paid Bruce $2K to ruin.

Coming up on another menstruation cycle 28 eight days after arriving here, I am deflated, exhausted, struggling with massive anxiety and depression. My saving grace - the amazing supportive friends who have reached out with patience and love. Katie for dragging me to Red Rocks and thrashing me on long dusty desert hikes with spectacular views. Whiskey tasting and dinners. I have only spent short interludes with Katie in the past although known her for 15 years. We have shared tears, hugs, and adoration over the years but this visit has really grown our bond of sisterhood. I am so grateful for this chance to get to know her better and watch her parent and raise her two lovely daughters. Watch her run and entire house hold and homestead with chickens and a garden all while wrangling two little girls. She is truly a magician, master juggler, and expert communicator. I have learned so much.