23 May 2014

Right well time is certainly ticking along and now there is only 9 days left before departure, it sure has been a long and expensive lead up to this trip, but hopefully that will mean that there is not much left that could give any problems so all will be good along the way.

Mind that said all of the brakes have been replaced and now we seem to have developed a "rubbing" of the brakes on the left front drum. Just as you start off you can hear them, though I probably would never have heard it if I hadn't been pushing the car out of the garage before starting it. Not pushing it out of the garage because there is any problem mind, it is just that given the nature of unleaded fuel to burn with a filthy black residue starting it in the garage results in anything behind the car being covered in wet black grime, spraying from the exhaust until it warms up and evaporates the moisture in there. Anyway the brakes, ignorance is bliss, as well i know from driving down from Queensland with cracks in the chassis rails (as per previous posts), but as I have heard this now I need to whip the wheel and drum off and see what is happening. The guys that rep[laced the chassis rails and king pins mentioned that the brakes would need to "bed in" but it seems odd that they are doing this when they were perfectly fine after I installed them before driving down to Melbourne in the first place. Maybe something has just moved about since they refitted them at the workshop. Time will tell I guess.

Other than that I think the only other thing left to really do is drop the oil and the sump and to replace the sump gaskets to try and stem the steady flow of oil dripping from the back of the engine. It was fine to start with though it has been getting steadily worse over the last few weeks. I guess the cork sealing gasket at the back has degraded and to be honest I have no idea when it was last changed and when I got the engine I only changed the head gasket and installed the unit, so it's probably about time for an inspection and change. The good part is that the engine still pulls like a train and doesn't burn any oil at all.

So a couple of things to do on the last full weekend before the trip commences, guess I also need to start sorting through a few spare hoses and such and start stacking them carefully into the boot so I can ensure there is enough room to put the tent and all the associated stuff into the boot too.

Not long now....