I made it, but jeez. The most troubling thing about the whole affair was that nobody was focused on getting the plane out on time. Everyone was focused on doing the least work possible, or on their territory.
Everyone was very apologetic, but no one asked, "Why did we just take 3.5 hours to fix a 1 hour max problem?" At least I assume no one will ask that. But someone should so that it doesn't happen like that again. The passengers were very inconvenienced, but so were the crew and the airline.
The maintenance guys were nice, but they were just sort of working out their shift and didn't care about getting the problem solved, because they were going home anyway even if they had to leave in mid-turn of a screwdriver. Union rules.
I think I will write an email to Delta. Luckily, this is not a really short trip where the few hours ruins everything. There was a family connecting to Sydney, and it ended up costing them a night, which thankfully Delta paid for.
All I'd really like is for someone to focus on fixing the problem next time rather than walking on and off the plane every 45 minutes to try the same things that they or someone else tried before.