Disaster Kitty Returns Once Again

When we arrived at Venture In RV Resort in Show Low, Jim went out to unhook the truck and discovered it was covered in a fine mist of one of the RV's precious bodily fluids.  It was a red fluid.  After we backed onto our concrete pad site, the red fluid continued to drip on the ground.  Perfect!  Just perfect!  We googled diesel repair in Show Low and found Show Low Diesel Repair.  He came out a couple of hours later, on his way home from picking up his wife in Phoenix, and told us no, it was engine antifreeze.
This morning he came back and discovered a fitting was only finger tight and was allowing the release of coolant.  He also discovered that one of the hydraulic fluid hoses had a 90 degree kink in it (think water hose) and was impeding the flow of fluid.  We could have lost power steering yesterday, on the switchbacks with the 6% grade.  You can't drive this thing without power steering. He also wants to replace the large container that holds the antifreeze because it has a crack.  Parts will be 5 to 7 days.  We extended our stay here to wait for the part.  Going to Santa Fe is now not looking likely.

OK - stay with me.  Extended our stay.  Held for parts.  Things are not so bad, until they are.

We have a Hydro Hot.  When they work, they are wonderful.  It burns diesel and provides on demand infinite hot water.  There is also a pump that takes engine antifreeze through copper coils, warms it up and takes it through the engine block for starting on cold mornings.  We used that pump this morning when the RV tech was fixing the leak and ensuring there was no air in the hydraulic fluid lines.  After he left, Jim walked outside and discovered the Hydro Hot was peeing red fluid on the ground.  The pump failed.
There were several calls to Hydro Hot today.  Jim spent some time on the ground under the bus verifying it was the engine pre-heat pump that failed.  The nearest hydro hot certified technician is in Mesa - on the other side of the Salt River.  The second closest certified technician is in Albuquerque.  No biggie, we thought, we'll drive there Sunday, get fixed Monday, and then return and wait for parts in Show Low.  NOPE.  The failed pump must be by-passed, or we'll be peeing engine antifreeze as soon as the engine starts. This information was conveyed on the last call to Hydro Hot when we asked if we could drive.  Hydro Hot technical support knows a lot, but they don't volunteer information; they will answer the question you asked.  Fortunately, we did ask at the very last minute.

Don of Copper Road RV (480-748-7131) came out and did the pump by-pass for us. 

This is the offending part.  It's the fuzzy thing in the top center of the photo.  I asked the shop in Albuquerque to order the part and have it air freighted to them.  After leaving here, we will go there.

This has been disturbing on so many fronts.  Losing the power steering going down to the Salt River could have been fatal.  The overall reliability of the engine has again been called in to question again.  That's actually not fair, I strongly suspect that the leak and the kink are fall out from the rebuild.  The Hydro Hot is disturbing because there are so few places certified to work on it, and it could have been so bad if we'd driven off believing we were peeing boiler antifreeze and not engine antifreeze.
So, we're back on the edge of the slough of despond.  There are worse places to be marooned, but I would really like to be able to put a set of reservations together and actually be where we wanted to be, and not where our broken bits have taken us.