Some Technical Issues, Dec. 2014

So a bit of technical talk for a change. Surprises usually appear from totally unexpected places. This time – the new radiator, made in Salta, was the source of surprise.

The first story is the following. On the day of the arrival of returning to Argentina I started the bus and let the engine work for about twenty minutes in order to charge the batteries. The seats were moved up to have a good look at what was going on by the engine.

At first everything was ok, but then I noticed that the area by the censor of tosol level was wet. Freshly. At first it seemed that the sensor had come loose although while standing in the same place this should not have happened. Having switched off the engine I tried to fix it back, but for some reason the sensor was only moving around in the socket.

Here`s the picture. Says more than a thousand words.


In short – a kind of reaction had influenced the different kind of metals. The upper part of the radiator is made of copper and this sensor – probably bronze and the place of the thread was made of unknown material.

Ruta 40, Susques

Days 1125-1127
19.03.2014 – 21.03.2014
121 282 km since the beginning of the journey
Journey : From behind the stone - Coyagua - Coranzuli - Susques - Huancar - Puesto Sey - Huancar - Suscues ( 305 km).

In the beginning the direction is southwards.

Llamas

Regular Maintenance

10.02.2014 – 14.02.2014
Salta, Argentina

After spending for two days on the mountain roads, I returned to Salta to be present at the service again on Monday. The time has come to have the regular exchange of the rear leaf springs.

By now almost three years have passed since the previous replacement in Nairobi and all the three attached leaf springs are damaged again.. In fact the leaf - attached in Estonia shortly before departure - was also broke, so there was a need for four new spring leaves – two for both sides.

Only from the internet I could not find – how often this exchange should be made. The top leaf and the bottom two ones are originals, most likely from the year of 1987


The story continued this way that the springs were taken off, nothing was necessary to be cut loose, and then just I had to wait a few days until the springs would be fixed together in a certain workshop.

One More Technical Post .

03.02.2014 – 07.02.2014
Salta, Argentina

And by Monday night all the spare parts , ordered from Paraguay, had arrived as promised.

Still in Salta

Day 1079.
118,731 km since the beginning of the journey.
Salta, Argentina.

And at the moment it seems that at least until the next Monday. The positive side of the situation is that the city of Salta will become more familiar. While walking in the streets all kinds of vehicles from the seventies of the last century catch the eye.


Some are decent...

A Temporary Solution, Part 2.

Day 1073,
118 726 km since the beginning of the journey,
Salta, Argentina.

Two days later I'm back in the shop to get the ordered " new - used " replacement, but this time it turns out that it is not possible to order this part of the car as in this country Mazda is too rare and unique. So I am returned my pre-paid sum of money and will continue searching.


In the streets there are different kinds of vehicles and from somewhere the owners of them have somehow found them spare parts.

Temporary Solution.

17.01.2014 – 19.01.2014
118 726 km since the beginning of the journey
Argentina, Salta.


The next morning I walked through the morning town of Cachi to the car service. Yesterday I was told that by eight o'clock everything would be ok and so it was as - at nine the welded driveshaft was waiting on the table. All together the price was 100 pesos - which means less than about 10 Euros.

On the Road Towards Cachi

Day 1062,
118 551 km since the beginning of the journey
Argentina, Cachi. 

Dakar has moved on in the direction of Chile, and there are still several hundred pictures in the computer waiting to be sorted and uploaded. During the past three days I have begun to practice to get used to high altitudes. That means - in the daytime driving about 3500-4000 meters high and for the night coming back to lower altitudes.

The lower place was Quiano Campo , a splendid small town with a decent municipal camping site but almost with no internet connection. Even 2G did not want to function, but it's not important at all right now. Right now - a completely different story.


The Andes

Technical, cardan, Part 3

Day 821,
91,274 km since the beginning of the journey
Pichilemu, Chile.

 So back in Pichilemu. And completely unscheduled.   

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.

Technical, cardan, Part 1.

Day 814
90,687 km since the beginning of the journey,
Pichilemu, Chile.

For some time there has been no technical post here. Neither ordinary post with pictures and stories, but the last time the technical issues were described was 3 months ago (the problem with the front amort ) in the beginning of February. Such unscheduled technical, which means that something is broken or not functioning as it should.

Anyway, so now it is my fourth day in Pichilemu, a small town of nearly 13 000 inhabitants and the city is located by the Pacific Ocean and considered to be one of the main surfing areas. Only just now it is not the right season. I arrived here on May 7 in the evening and before sunset I found even a decent overnight place.

The first part of the day was spent in town and later I found a campsite with wifi by the ocean. And since the rest of the household was also satisfactory, ie, - hot water and electricity - then I stayed for another night intending to move on in the morning. In the morning, it was planned to fill the tank first and then move on.

And now the technical story begins. I am in town and drive uphill, the main road is just in front. Having given way to the passing cars on the main road I begin to drive and then suddenly - there comes a crash from behind the car and almost just in the middle of an intersection the car stops.

The first thought – something has happened with the clutch, but no, it must be something else. The first gear is on but adding more gas does not make the car move, instead – the car seems to start moving backwards. I put the hand break on, turn on the hazard warning lights and have a look under the car. The sight is not encouraging – the cardan has come loose from the gearbox. Next, it is necessary to get the car away from the intersection, which was not difficult , I just let the car trundle about five meters back.

Patagonia 2, Ruta 40

In the beginning - just in case a warning - now follows technical talk that belongs to the category of "How the car is able to withstand and move." And this time no pictures of penguins or any other animals or birds.

The legendary 5000 kilometre of Ruta 40 is Argentina's longest road, reaching from the Bolivian border down to the town of Rio Gallegos in Patagonia (and there are plans to build the road up to the Cabo Virgenes)



The distance between Rio Mayo and Perito Morenois is more than a hundred kilometres and the journey will take several hours. Everything rumbles and shakes, the road is absolutely uneven. The speed of 20 km per hour should be reasonable as the increasing of the speed turns the rumbling and vibration even stronger and nothing destroys a car faster than speeding on such roads.

Swaziland, Mazda service

This post is of technical nature, in the meantime this kind topic of is necessary as well. The pictures about nature will be in the next post.
I have been asked many times if there had been any problems by the
car - but actually nothing special has happened. One thing was that a new battery was needed and the tailgate lock also needed to be cleaned of the dust of the road and after Congo the radiator was full of mud, but no more specific problems that I can recall.

But this time the story is as follows.

As a rule almost every morning I check the car - have a look under the bottom and check the oil level. And so in Mozambique I find out that some oil is leaking between the engine and gearbox. At the camping I was advised to have it repaired in South Africa but while in Swaziland I found a good “Service”. And not only for Mazda but for Ford and BMW as well.

To make the long story short – all the necessary items were found sooner or later.

Bulgaria – Sofia 2

Day 9
14-01-2011 Evening
Bulgaria – Parking before Sofiat
Total 2478 km
Temp. +7

Today`s post has more tecnical content. So the ones liking landscapes and sighseeings pictures can safely omit it!

Today was spent in Sofia. As to the traffic - it was surprising to see that Daewoo Matiz was a taxi! In our place this kind of thing would not even be discussed .But actually it ia a nice little car and could be parked almost everywhere.

This is a picture after changing oil in a local work-shop. I didn`t climb under the car because there were many work-shops on the road. and it is always useful to have the car on the elevator and have a good look up at the bottom.

Already in Budapest I changed the fan because it is more beneficial and safer to drive in the mountains when the cooling fan is running all the time. It is said that follow the temperature indicator but usually it is too late already when the indicator is on the bottom. And in the mountains one must keep an eye on the road and many other things besides the temperature indicator.

This picture is taken before the exchange. In the foreground is the fixed fan, it rotates all the time when the motor is running. (Viscose has been drilled through and bolted in six places. At first it was with one and then with two bolts but still there was a a small backlash. With six bolts it worked for 30 thousand kilometres.

On the background is a new visco fan bought in Tunesia. . They didn`t want to sell it to me at first and said that perhaps I could not change it myself. And when I do managed to change it they said that if something went wrong I would blame them. The real idea probably was that this work will take them half a day. In the end they agreed to sell it to me for euros when I had taken off the old fan in less than 10 minutes. There was nothing complicated - the fan was fixed only with four bolts and the and the belt of the generator was to be let loose. It meant - two more bolts to turn loose. What else - the seat must also be moved!