Bad ending to my holiday week

[clivehorridge]

Well everyone's been posting about their hols and what a good time they had, well so did I (and the family) 5 days off work, 2 weekends, 9 days all to ourselves, yippee!!

So, week last Friday, off to the beach, 2 and a half hours drive, hot sun, kids enjoyed (three families), cheap beer, crowded beach, not my cuppa at all, but it's for the little ones after all.

Wednesday, we planned to drive home and spend the rest of the week and the 2nd W/E at the house. Do a bit of overdue gardening and what not.

That all went to plan, then Thursday. went down with something gastroenteritis ish, usual nasty stuff both ends, sweating, headache . Anyway, went to bed Thursday, and got up on Saturday, no more vomit, headache gone, trouser end stable, holiday at home almost lost, so....

Lets go for a ride out..

Saturday was a drizzly day anyway, so we'd be better off seeing some scenery instead of staying in.

The truck drove great as usual, forest roads, tricky bits in the wet, using all the gears, the lockers, scrabbling up and a bit of winching thrown in, the kids enjoyed, we all got a bit muddy and a good time was had by all.












40 kms offroad, (forest road really) but great!


Sunday, sunny.

A bit windy too, "...lets go on the hill..." (10 minutes up the lane behind the house) "...its always windy up there, we can fly the kites we bought at the beach and wouldn't let the kids fly them because it was too crowded...", I'm sure you all have similar stories at some time.

OK, all piled in the truck, up the back lane, the muddy bit. Normally, with a bit of a run at it, the truck goes straight up. It's a bit steep and very muddy, but occasionally the rear locker gets flipped in just before it levels off.







No joy today, reversed and had a go with both lockers... No. I'm on half worn GGATs, it would have romped up with the BFG Muds, but what the heck, winch line out, a quick pull out of the glue, a bit of a tidy-up (grey clay mud everywhere) then on our way.





Gets to the top, onto the asphalt, select High on the T/F box, and....... nowt. (its a manual BTW)

Felt like neutral. Pulled the T/F lever back into Low, drove OK , stopped, back into Neutral, it was neutral . OK, Into High, still neutral (or something very suspiciously like neutral. SH!T.

So's not to really disappoint the kids, I drove in Low up to the hill and all the way to the top. It drove fine, no noises just the usual "just fine" sort of driving in Low. We flew the kites, photo'd the horses and donkeys...











Some scenery... (looking toward the cross on the horizon from yesterday)...













...then we went home.

On the decent, I tried High again with some gravity assisted pretend driving just to see if that helped at all. No. I did get some grinding noises which was a bit alarming, so it was quickly back into Low.

Longer story short, I had to drive 110kms all the way back to Bucharest in Low, 42kph can you believe, almost 3 hours

Now what?

I've e-mailed my friendly service shop, anything G/Box or T/F Box internals is too sophisticated for me. We'll have to see. He did mention he had a repairable S/H G/Box some time ago, it may have a T/F box on it if I'm lucky.

I'm gutted really, no truck for ages now, maybe it's the end if I can't get some replacements from here.

We'll see what the mechanics have to say when they open it up.

Not happy..... at all.

 

[Chas]

That's a bummer Clive,

I'd just like to let you know though I had a great week-end, did some very (by my standards) severe lanes and came away with no damage at all

apart from a dented roof tent top which popped out by itself, I think the sun Saturday

afternoon must have warmed it up. Joking aside really sorry to hear of your trouble.

 

[clivehorridge]

Cheers Chas, glad you enjoyed Ben's visit and Lincomb, I've read the threads and seen your vid, it sounds like you all had a ball!

I was on a bit of a downer last night, but I'll get it sorted, one way or another.

 

[froggy Steve]

bummer! (no pun intended) I hope its not too serious and gets sorted quickly

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

The transfer box selector uses a remote linkage it's not directly into the box so you may find there's something preventing the linkage moving as far as it should rather than box failure. Something you can easily check yourself looking up from under the UK drivers side.

 

[Graham]

Hope it's an easy fix Clive.

Gra

 

[clivehorridge]

The transfer box selector uses a remote linkage it's not directly into the box so you may find there's something preventing the linkage moving as far as it should rather than box failure. Something you can easily check yourself looking up from under the UK drivers side.

Thanks for your optimism Jon, I did have a look but my looking and yours will be very different

But, I'm pleased to hear that it's a remote linkage, there's a chance that it's a less daunting fix than opening up the box.

Thanks Steve and Gra, I hope it's an easy fix too. Parts here are all Mr. T and just a few bushes or bearings can be very expensive. My steering box shaft cost almost €500 for 1/2 kilo of steel!

 

[Shayne]

Fingers crossed for you Clive

 

[yogi]

Cheers Chas, glad you enjoyed Ben's visit and Lincomb, I've read the threads and seen your vid, it sounds like you all had a ball!

I was on a bit of a downer last night, but I'll get it sorted, one way or another.

Not fun Clive, that's a nice drive to Bucharest at 42kph! Bet there were no angry black SUV's behind you or anything!!

That should surely be sortable, at least whan you manage to get the parts the labour will be cheap to fix it!

 

[clivehorridge]

Thanks Shayne

Hey yogi, spot on there boy!

I had 2 wheels on the verge as much as possible and the other 2 on the margin close to the edge margin white line, to give traffic as much space as possible. The DN1 there (as you obviously know) is notorious. It's a 100kph limit all the way (villages are 70kph) and 4 lanes with no central reserve. It's often 3 abreast (even though there's double white lines in the centre) and most are BMW 5 series (all black as you said!) doing 150kph + It's actually quite scary sometimes.

I've lost count of the head-on crashes I've seen or at least the aftermath. Most die, it's not a forgiving road at all. The last one was a motorcycle estimated at 220kph hitting an AMG SUV which was supposed at circa 200kph. Imagine 420kph impact on a bike. They found what was left of the rider 30 minutes after the crash in a sunflower field some 200 meters away from the road. The bike was scattered over about 100m of road, in small fragments. The biggest piece I saw was the back wheel with some frame attached.

It was a fun journey for me , I ended up not looking in the mirror 'cos it was too scary seeing the traffic coming at my arse end at well over 100kph, knowing that they couldn't pull out. I had my hazards on all the way, but folks ignore them. Luckily it was daylight. I was exhausted when I got back into town .

 

[Chas]

That must have been scary, I remember once driving from Watford back to London with NO brakes except the handbrake, thank God it was a Riley 1.5 and not an 80.

 

[clivehorridge]

That must have been scary, I remember once driving from Watford back to London with NO brakes except the handbrake, thank God it was a Riley 1.5 and not an 80.

Did the Riley have hydraulic rear brakes Chas? I had a 1955 A30 which had hydraulic front brakes, but the back had one brake cylinder in the centre of the car operating a pivot pillar connected by rods, one to each wheel. The handbrake was a rod link too, not a cable, that was attached to the same pivot pillar.

Bloody useless anyway!

Great car the Riley though, a lump of a thing and quite lively for its day.

 

[stumog]

sorry to hear this clive.
i agree with jon that it sounds like a linkage problem more then a total melt down. i bet if you got underneath with a torch you would find some thing hanging down.

roads sound nice there

stu

 

[clivehorridge]

sorry to hear this clive.
i agree with jon that it sounds like a linkage problem more then a total melt down. i bet if you got underneath with a torch you would find some thing hanging down.

roads sound nice there

stu

I do hope so Stu. I do remember now that in one part of the mud, someone had pulled some tree branches into the track to give the horses something to walk on I guess, maybe a broken branch went up the transmission tunnel and disturbed the linkage. I can but hope...

It's going into service in the morning so I should find out more then.

 

[Chas]

Did the Riley have hydraulic rear brakes Chas? I had a 1955 A30 which had hydraulic front brakes, but the back had one brake cylinder in the centre of the car operating a pivot pillar connected by rods, one to each wheel. The handbrake was a rod link too, not a cable, that was attached to the same pivot pillar.

Bloody useless anyway!

Great car the Riley though, a lump of a thing and quite lively for its day.

We're talking about 50 years ago how the blerry hell can I remember about rod brakes?
I think Stirlings sister Pat drove one as a rally car.

 

[Ian Rubie]

Is your centre diff lock manually controlled or does it lock automatically when you select low range? If it locks automatically when in low range it could be you have done a cv joint. I am not clear if when you said it felt like you were in neutral the actual lever movement felt different to usual or just the car did not move.

 

[clivehorridge]

We're talking about 50 years ago how the blerry hell can I remember about rod brakes?
I think Stirlings sister Pat drove one as a rally car.

C'mon Chas, you may not be a teenager anymore, but your memory can't be that bad! Yep, Pat Moss and the Riley sounds familiar .... just found this....

One of Britain's most successful rallying stars in the 1960s, Pat had motorsport in the blood; her brother is none other than Stirling Moss, her father raced at Brooklands and Indianapolis and her mother was a rally driver in the 1930s. Surprisingly, horses were Pat's first love and she scored well in major showjumping competitions before turning to cars.

Pat's motoring career began when her brother's manager, Ken Gregory, asked her to navigate for him on a road rally in 1953. Not long after, she was rallying a Morris Minor of her own in British rallies. The Minor is a car that Pat remains fond of to this day. Her performances led to the offer of a works drive for MG in the RAC Rally. For the next five years, Pat and her navigator Ann Wisdom competed around Britain and Europe for BMC, collecting some good results. Ann Wisdom was a friend from showjumping, the daughter of Brooklands racewinner Elsie Wisdom. Their first season of international competition was 1955. Pat retired her MG Magnette from the Tulip Rally with lubrication problems, and drove a TF in the RAC Rally. The following year, Pat entered the Monte Carlo Rally as part of a trhee-woman team in an Austin Westminster with Joan Johns and Miss Riche. They crashed out. Back with Ann Wisdom, she finished the RAC Rally in an MGA 1500. On the Liege-Rome-Liege the following year, they pedalled the Morris Minor to 23rd overall.

In 1958 the pair really started to excel, with fourth places in the RAC and Liege-Rome-Liege rallies. Their cars were a Morris Minor and Austin-Healey 100/6 respectively. In the Minor, they crashed out of the Monte, but in the Healey, they were tenth in the Alpine Rally, with a Coupe des Dames. In an MGA, they made the trip to Sweden for the Midnight Sun Rally.

Their highlights of 1959 were a second in the German Rally in an Austin-Healey 3000 and a creditable tenth on the Monte Carlo Rally, with a Coupe des Dames, in an Austin A40. In the Healey, they crashed out of the Acropolis after hitting a lorry, and also retired from the Tulip Rally. The A40’s gearbox also gave up on the Alpine. Using a Morris 1000, they managed to finish the RAC Rally, and they drove a Riley 1.5 in Sestriere.

In 1960 they scored their first win in style, which must have been a relief after the many retirements of 1959. The Liege-Rome-Liege was one of the most punishing marathons on the European calendar and the Austin-Healey 3000 BMC's most brutal car, famously difficult to control. The combination did not faze the two British ladies and Pat drove to a commanding victory. It was not their only strong finish of the year: Pat achieved her second Monte Carlo Coupe des Dames in an A40, finishing 17th, and was eighth, first in class, on the Tulip and Geneva rallies. She was second on the Alpine Rally and won a Coupe des Alpes to boot. She also finished the RAC Rally, but somewhat down the leaderboard. Her car for all of these events was the big Healey.

http://speedqueens.blogspot.ro/2010/07/pat-moss-moss-carlsson.html

Brave girls in those days....

 

[adrianr]

In addition to Jon's comment you could I pop off the rubber boot / gaiter from inside the cabin and look down to see if any foreign object is in the way. I recall reading a long time back about a small stone had lodged somewhere that prevented the lever moving all the way. I'd be surprised if you have damaged the transfer case. Its not impossible but they are seriously tough.

 

[Chas]

C'mon Chas, you may not be a teenager anymore, but your memory can't be that bad!

Maybe I might have just scrapped it after the brake failure instead of repairing, I expect I probably had another car off-stage waiting to be run into the ground, like most of the cars I had back then were.

 

[Gary820]

Hope it's nothing serious with the 80 Clive.