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We thought both for our own records and for the interest
of our learned readers, that it would be worth keeping a diary
of the vehicle maintenance issues and breakdowns that occur
along the way. So far we've had a fair few problems, most
of them teething problems (or so we're hoping).
20 June (Day 1)
Not a good start on our first day out. After about 60km we
noticed a fairly heavy oil leak. We tightened up everything
around the leak, which slackened it somewhat but didn't halt
it completely. Come 140km on and the clutch stops working
completely. We limped on another 20km and managed to get the
leak in the clutch hydraulic system and the oil leak fixed
up. For those mechanically minded, the hydraulic pipe feeding
into the clutch master cylinder was put in incorrectly by
the mechanic that overhauled the engine. The oil leak was
from the fuel lift pump that was faulty. Fortunately we had
a spare lift pump with us, so the faulty pump was replaced.
24-25 June (Day5/6)
Nyathi has decided that she requires a bit of TLC in the mornings
before starting. TLC usually involves a bunch of spanners
and a whole lot of swearing. For those more technically minded,
there was a airleak somewhere in the fuel system. After tightening
up all bleed valves, fuel tube connections, fuel filters,
etc. the problem fortunately disappeared. In Keetmanshoop
we also managed to fix the headlights which had stopped working.
That turned out to be a fuse that was not part of the fusebox,
which had become disconnected. When Nyathi was rewired it
seems like this random fuse was left in. Lastly we also did
some work on the front hubs. It seems like the front axles
were permanently engaged and compressed. This means that the
engine was driving both the front and back drive shafts, with
the added burden of compression on the front drive shafts.
After putting a homemade cork gasket in the front hub we managed
to improve Nyathi's performance significantly.
26 June (Day 7)
Just outside a little town called Bethanien Nyathi started
letting out a great bellow and lost significant power. After
limping back into town we managed to find a very handy mechanic
called Suipie who just happened to own a landrover himself.
Turns out that one of Nyathi's valves had ceased in the valve
sheath (the sheath was too tight) and had bent the pushrod.
Fortunately it was only a 3 hour job to get Nyathi back on
the road. After the fix she was significantly quieter than
she had been before. Obviously this had been a problem all
along.
1 July (Day 12)
This was an intensive mechanical day. Firstly we had a major
blowout in the rear left tyre. Guess it just decided that
it had had enough of the miles of dirt road. Next, when driving
into Sossusvlei in 4-wheel drive, the hub locks came lose
and bent against the hub bolts. They had to be rebent. Finally,
the overflow fuel line line between two of the injectors split
and was leaking copious amounts of diesel. Fortunately we
had packed spare fuel line tubing.
5 July
In Swakopmunt we had another busy mechanical time. The first
job was to get the rear leaf springs re-rolled. They were
looking a bit sad with all the load on them. Doesn't seem
to have made much actual difference, but at least we know
that they are okay. We also topped up all the gearbox and
diff oils, greased the universal joints on the propshafts
and tightened up all the bolts and screws that had come loose
with all the corrigations in the road. We're rapidly becoming
serious petrol heads (or diesel heads for that matter).
10 July
The seal on the clutch slave cylinder started to leak and
the hydraulic fluid reservior was empty. We topped the reserviour
up and attempted to bleed the air out of the system, only
to find that the bleed bolt was stripped and we couldn't tighten
it up again. With some serious bush mechanic skills we managed
to patch it up temporarily. The starter motor is also starting
to run for a while with the engine after starting up. That
will need fixing in the next town.
11-17 July
We made it to Khorixas where we left old Nyathi with the doctor
again. The clutch slave cylinder was replaced, but no luck
on locating a replacement starter. Well, we actually found
out that the wrong starter motor had been put on Nyathi. We
had a Perkins starter that the George mechanic had managed
to put on our Land Rover engine. We are currently in the process
of getting our helpful George mechanic (Greg) to send up a
replacement starter to us.
24 July
In Tsumeb we were befriended by - amongst others - Ekkehard
- a local farmer and qualified mechanic. It turned out that
we had been the typical mechanic's advice. A tip for those
that deal with mechanics - when they don't want to do the
job or couldn't be bothered they'll fob you off with some
or other story. The problem with the starter motor turned
out to be a faulty solinoid. Other than that, the starter
was fine for the Landy. Fun and games.
17 August
Brought a secondhand set of rear springs in Blantyre (after
considerable searching around the city) and kept the current
springs as spares.
2 September
The rear left drive member and half-shaft stripped getting
into Beira and both were replaced. The rear right also needed
replacing but the spares were not available in Beira.
8-13 September
We took Nyathi into a Land Rover specialist in Harare to get
the engine checked out. It was making some curious noises.
It turned out that one of the pre-combustion chambers was
loose, the cam followers were all worn and the timing chain
was loose so the timing cam had a number of broken teeth.
After all that work the engine is considerably quieter. There
still remains a knocking sound in the gearbox which we have
to get checked.
8-13 October
The 8-13 of the month is obviously a bad time for Nyathi.
With the knocking sound in the gearbox getting very loud and
worrying we finally arrived in Mbeya where we had heard of
a good garage. They were good, but we were not quite prepared
for the cost of spares in Tanzania. US$800 and Nyathi was
much quieter and was much nicer to drive. They had to replace
the timing chain (it was very close to snapped), replace the
clutch release bearing, replace the third gear which was buggered,
rebuild the whole gearbox, reset the timing, etc. A big job
all in all.
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