Wouter and Elmari's Y2K Land-Rover tour, leg 1

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley
  --  Robert Burns

Friday, 2000-06-09 : I had various problems with gearboxes breaking and having to be swapped in and out, so I had less time than I would have liked to work on the Rand-Lover, with the effect that I was still lying under said Rand-Lover, in the rain, at 12 o'clock the afternoon, when we should have left Bellville at 6 o'clock the morning.

We eventually left Bellville at 15:00, having forgotten quite a few things, as you will later see.

Now, the engine was a recently overhauled Chev 2.5 with about 100km on the clock. And the best way to run in a new engine is not to be in a hurry. But, we had a booking in Colesburg, and friends to meet in Pretoria and Messina, so the horses were not spared. At all.

My trip notes tell me that Elmari drove from Laingsburg (18:20) to Beaufort West (21:30) where we had some very nice take-away curry (it was, ISTR, quite a cold night -- as a matter of fact my notes read "02:30 Colesberg. F'ing cold"). Elmari also drove the last bit, by this time I was dead tired.

Somewhere along the way we heard a really bad noise, I think it was while Elmari was driving, scared both of us quite badly. Turned out that the engine was completely dry, and that the noise was the hydraulic tappets collapsing. Obviously the Chev engine was quick to learn how to imitate a Land-Rover engine... Anyway, the oil was coming out of the dipstick hole, I temporarily fixed it with a wad of toilet paper, later put a cork from a wine bottle around the dip stick to seal the top.

Saturday, 2000-06-10: We stayed at a very nice guest house in Colesburg, Mr Gordon's Garden Room close to the police station. Got up at 08:00, and filled up at the Shell Ultra City. Consumption was 16l/100k, which is not too bad considering that we were loaded and really pushing it.

Just before the trip I fitted two 70l tanks under the seats, which had never been used, so I took the opportunity to put about 5l in on each side to check for leaks.

Got to Bloemfontein and started looking for a hardware shop (did I mention that I wasn't too happy with the fan belt and the alternator mounting? The two possible sizes of fan belt were either too short or too long, so I figured I needed a handful of hardware to fix the problem). Jumped on 2m (amateur radio) and found two friendly gentlemen, Victor ZS4VR and Dennis ZS4BS, who helped me find the Hyperama, any port in a storm.

Left Bloemfontein at 14:15, fuelled up at a little place called Jakkalsdrijft at 16:00. Still cold.

I asked Elmari to drive again, and I started connecting the GPS power to the socket on the dash. Got everything connected at

S 28 17 32, E 27 03 08, 1456m elevation :-)

The nuts holding the exhaust to the manifold were slowly working loose. We stopped and I tightened them, but with not much of an effect. Added a gasket to my shopping list, I had firegum in one of the ammo boxen on the roof.

Realised that I had left half the bed at home. Basically a piece of plywood that rests on a few battons, nothing fancy, but I would have to find something to replace it if we both wanted to sleep in the Rand-Lover.

We reached Pretoria at 9 o'clock, where we stayed with some friends -- the exhaust pipe was really making a noise by now, to Elmari's great embarassment.

Sunday, 2000-06-11 : Elmari had to meet some friends for tea, I had to go to the hardware store. Fortunately there was an excellent hardware store, open on Sundays, in the vicinity. And a auto spares place just around the corner. Got the parts, fixed the exhaust pipe, finally left at 13:00. Filled up outside Pretoria, and hit the road towards Messina.

At around 10 to 4, I noticed that the battery wasn't charging. Hmmm. Ah well, I can get the alternator fixed in Messina, probably. Pressed on, reached Louis Trichard at 18:00. Filled up again, and started up the mountain. Bugger, bugger, bugger. The bloody clutch starts slipping! What next? Going up the mountain, clutch is slipping, battery isn't charging, 3rd day of the two month holiday, bugger!

Ah well, as I said, what doesn't kill us makes us strong, we eventually made Ilala lodge outside Messina at 19:35. Parked, got a beer, went to find out where we're staying. Met Rene and Joke, with their 110 hard top and about a million jerrycans. Couldn't get the Rand-Lover started again, pushed it close to where we were staying. Ilala lodge is nice. Recommended.

So, the next morning, we jump started the Rand-Lover and found the auto electrician in Messina. Ripped the alternator out, fixed whatever needed fixing, back in by 10:30, R220 later.

Next, I headed off to the local Rand-Lover mechanic, to find out what could be done about the slipping clutch. I thought the oil that was leaking so liberally from the rear engine seal had got on the clutch, and that we would have to replace the clutch and the oil seal. No fun. but hey, we still have 2 months and 9000 miles to go...

Got there, explained to the nice omie that we needed to pull the engine, swap the seal, quick job. "You can fool yourself", sez he, "but you can't fool me". OK, he's short-staffed, but he gives me an appy, 13:00 we had the engine out. Got a job offer from the omie as well :-)

We found out that it was the GEARBOX that was leaking, my only note reads "Kellet must die"...

We couldn't replace (not having a spare) the seal on the release bearing cross-shaft, so we swapped the whole mechanism from another gearbox. Engine back in by 18:00, with a new clutch, put oil in, and it all leaked out again. Shit and damn.

We decide to stay in the garage, and Rene and I start to remove the gearbox. Joke and Elmari made supper, and by 23:00 we had the gearbox out, went to bed.

Next lesson : the release bearing mechanism is different on a SIIA gearbox, and if you use that on a SII box the oil falls out...

We also noticed that the clutch didn't release properly with the new clutch plate. Se we also made a 12mm spacer which we put in, after fixing the gearbox properly this time by using the correct assembly.

Left Messina at 12:45, Tuesday afternoon, 2001-06-13. Ye Gads.