Technical, cardan, Part 2

Day 815
90,690 km since the beginning of the journey
Pichilemu, Chile.

In the morning I drove to the familiar workshop, but it was closed. Then to the spare parts shop - hoping that they knew the mechanic and could help me to contact him. The connection was made but he was said not to be in town that day. The next quarter of an hour was spent on explaining why it was necessary to find the next good specialist and have the cardan to be welded again. Actually not complicated issue - the hole in the cardan should be closed, but you just try to say it in Spanish..

Finally I got the sales assistants so far that they found a similar detail from the shelf and now it was easier to explain to them that the hole in the centre must be closed.


The day was saved. The story continued in the next workshop, and explaining again from the beginning what should be done.




This time it was easier to climb in the middle of the street under the car and turn the cardan off. Now it was already a matter of minutes, enough practice makes perfect. Still – 4 nuts to loosen.


A temporary solution of yesterday evening - that the oil will not emanate.


When the cardan was turned off, there was no longer any need for explaining , the men immediately got the idea. Soon a billet was found and the making of the necessary cap was in progress.


The hole in the middle of the billet was welded shut.


Grinded smoother.


Welded to the right place.


And the crosskit was returned. While lubricating the rear cross it seemed safer to replace that one too. And so this was done as well. No need to wait for things to get broken in the wrong place and the wrong time.

Watching the service workers it seemed to me that they work carefully and then why not let them do anothe very important and responsible job - the change of the engine belt.


The beginning of the job


I already had the belt and tightener.


In the beginning some of the bolts did not want to come loose, but they were not smashed. It took some time and heating – but ready it was at last...


The workshop on a large scale.




Here heating was not enough.

Then another interesting situation happened.


It turned out that the oval hole of the original tightener was too small, and the corresponding bolt did not fit in.. Here , above, is the original.


This is the old tightener from one side.


And from the other side. The traces reveal that here too the hole has been drilled bigger. Actually I can`t remember that.


Finally, the strap is on and "markers" should be set in place.




Next - everything unscrewed had found the initial place and nothing visible was left over. My inner feeling was not cheating, a decent job was performed at this workshop. The first rotation started the bus and soon I was back at the overnight place. Outside it was dark already.

Continued ...