Renmark 2016 - Day 1

[Blacky]

I sat around until about 3pm on Wednesday waiting for the cavalry to arrive , towing a hire trailer. Took us a good half hour to get the ute on as it was a piss poor design trailer



made it into Kalgoorlie that night with no dramas , had a big steak and a few sherbets and that was that.



Thursday we waited for me best mate Damo to grab my trailer and drive up from Perth as the damage was a bit too much to do a temporary fix on we loaded her up and got home to Perth about 10pm.
Did a couple of touristy things while we were in the old stomping ground




This morning I puller it to bits to fit a spare axle and get her in the shed for repairs - be warned, some scenes may cause distress to some viewers

HMM - doesn't look right ?



brakes got a bit hot ......


sure theres meant to be another bit on here ....



aaahh - there it is !!!



a quick rinse with petrol and it should go again !!



The axle is actually bent , the paint on the diff housing has fried off - the centre of the rim was still too hot to touch an hour after we pulled up !!

[Errol62]

You must have had the stereo up to 11


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[Blacky]

We knew she was going mate, but theres not a whole lot we could do about it except hope we could get to Norseman ..........

Just worked out my fuel burn , we did 10.36 litres per 100km.

[Harv]

We knew she was going mate, but theres not a whole lot we could do about it except hope we could get to Norseman ..........

Just worked out my fuel burn , we did 10.36 litres per 100km.

Nasty damage Blacky . With that amount of whining, it must have sounded like you had Johnny Cash in the boot .

Saw a bloke with similar dramas on the F3, about 150km from Sydney. Traffic was all over the place, and we caught up with him every 20 minutes or so. He had a flat tyre on a box trailer, and no spare. He drove it with the trailer tyre flat, until the tyre parted company with the rim. He then kept going, at full freeway speed . The rim was throwing sparks, grinding the edge down. You could see the trailer slowly tilting as he got closer and closer to Sydney. Always wondered what that amount of heat would do to the wheel bearings.

Cheers,
Harv

[vmx-mxr]

Geebusss Blacky

You'll lucky the whole thing didn't come away from the housing with the sound track unexpectedly changing to Stairway to Heaven for you both!

Once you have the mess sorted can you let us know what brand of bearing it was, particularly if it was an aftermarket Chinka bearing !?

Good you survived

Dave Mac

[Mick]

gone are the days you could have wondered off somewhere and found the parts to repair it on the side of the road
was that grey motor still in the back?

[Blacky]

Geebusss Blacky

You'll lucky the whole thing didn't come away from the housing with the sound track unexpectedly changing to Stairway to Heaven for you both!

It did - luckily it was when I hit the brakes to turn into the roadhouse , the wheel was held captive by the tire rubbing against the lip of the guard - no paint damage thankfully .

Once you have the mess sorted can you let us know what brand of bearing it was, particularly if it was an aftermarket Chinka bearing !?

I never changed them , they have been in there for years , I would assume they are genuine - theres no way you could read anything off of it now

Good you survived

Dave Mac

[Blacky]

gone are the days you could have wondered off somewhere and found the parts to repair it on the side of the road
was that grey motor still in the back?

Youre right Mick , the bloke at the roadhouse said they didn't have anything older than mid nineties out the back anymore , motor is still in the back now - Murphys law says if I had a spare diff in the back , the gearbox would have gone

[Blacky]

A few more pics the missus just sent me -

L to R - Me , SunnyTim , Trev and Space Ace discussing the state of the world on sunday night



The big Galah at Kimba


The pub we stayed in at Wuddina on the first night


Love this shot , dusk on the first night between Kimba and Wuddina


The 7 of us that drove back together , the other 4 flew both ways - this was in Wuddina pub having dinner.



Trevors car at Nullarbor roadhouse


Mick about to get the rubber glove treatment at the SA/WA border checkpoint

[Devilrod]

I think you got every last bit out of that bearing Blacky....

[Craig Allardyce]

Blacky I hope your diff survived with all that metal crap floating around! Make sure you save the axle for your mechanic.

[rosco]

Thanks for the write up, Blacky - you are supposed to wreck a bearing on the way to the nats, not going home from them... but another timing gear would have gazupped you this year anyway.... seems, you have to do a timing gear to win that trophy - not a wheel bearing.

The Nullabor "roadhouse" has certainly aged a bit in three years - they have certainly let the weather get the better of it.

Yes, fuel - when we came home from the west last time - we were shocked to learn that there is a bit of skull-duggery going on with the fuel stops across.
We were told that its always cheaper at every second one - and they change on a daily basis to catch everyone out who gets the "goss" from caravan parks at each end.
Of course, this was for diesel - I don't know if you took any notice of all prices as you came across...?

Towing with an all-up weight of nearly 7 tonnes tends to chew a bit more than re-fueling the 9 1/2 gallon tank of an FB/EK.. so, we get a bit "savvy" with the price of fuel - and pass on our findings with each other on arrival at a CP.

Glad you didn't end up on the side of the road out on the plain - she's a pretty sparse place to get into strife. Not the "old" dirt track - but just as blasted well open and wide as ever..

frats,
Rosco

[Mick]

gone are the days you could have wondered off somewhere and found the parts to repair it on the side of the road
was that grey motor still in the back?

motor is still in the back now - Murphys law says if I had a spare diff in the back , the gearbox would have gone

see them grey motors are gunna cause you a drama no matter where they are (extra weight over axle)

[rosco]

Blurry, Tim?..... don't you have your 3D glasses on?

frats,
Rosco

[EK283]

That's one hell of a road trip !

A friend of mine had a bearing let go in his newish u beaut JEEP, so we pulled it thinking no worries and bloody hell the balls actually run on the axle itself, apparently hardened so no need for the inner race.You guessed it a new axle as well thanks !!!!!!
Bloody new cars are really rubbish apart from the creature comforts I must admit.

Anyway Blacky that trip looked like a shit load of fun.


Regards Greg