Frank Clark and Gary were headed to the village of Santa Crux. It is about 2 and ½ miles off the highway down a track with holes deep enough that the truck has to creep along in low range in places. The road is treacherous during good weather and cannot be traveled at all in poor. They were headed there to set a hand pump for the village. The dedication for the well was planned for tomorrow so there was a need to get this pump in place. The mayor would be there and everyone needed to be able to see and drink the water from the well. They were driving our donated well service truck. It is a good vehicle and indispensible for the lifting and lowering of pumps and other things.

They were about 1/3 the way down the track when (more…)

Frank Clark was in the shop when Rod Bartholomew pulled in with the Deutz diesel engine in the back of the truck. Along with it, was a crate which contained the clutch assembly, bell housing and a flywheel. It was Frank’s task to make sure these parts went together to make a replacement for the propane fueled engine on one of our drilling rigs. The engine has been obtained and shipped to Seattle through the efforts of one of our volunteers, Dominick Parmentier. What was believed to be the proper clutch had been ordered. The engine was air cooled with very low hours. If Frank could get it ready, it would be ideal for our work in Guatemala.

Frank had never worked on one of these engines and he had just three days before the container was to be loaded. His job was to get make sure the clutch and PTO fit together and the accessories; battery box, alternator cables and ignition wires, fuel supply lines and filters sorted out and ready for hook up to the drilling rig. He made some calls around the Spokane area and found a shop that worked on Deutz diesels. It was Pacific Power Products. He called and they told him if he could have the engine at their shop at 7am the next day, they would look at it and see if they could help.

When he got there in the morning, he met Charlie Knight. He had just started to work on another engine of the exact same type that very morning, so Frank was able to look at it and talk Mr. Knight about the engine and the hookups. Mr. Knight had a lot of experience with these engines and noticed that there was a problem with the cooling system on our engine. It was missing a shroud in the rear of the engine and had the wrong size fan pulley. What was on it was correct for the stationary, but not correct for how it needed to be for us. He helped Frank get the correct shroud fabricated, and the correct size pulley ordered. It had to be air freighted from the Midwest and we hoped it would arrive before the container left.

As Frank talked to Mr. Knight, he learned that if the changes had not been made, the engine would have not cooled properly and would have been destroyed after a very short time in operation. Without this assistance, we would have had a new engine ruined and a season of drilling put in jeopardy. Another coincidence? No, another providence.

P.S. The correct size pulley arrived at 10:30 am, about 1 hour before the container left.