Last Of The Pre-Trip Preperations And Driving To Mount Barker.
OK..............
Last of my pre-trip preparations.
I wanted to rewire my compressor with a thicker longer power cable with an anderson plug on the end.
I couldnt believe how the power cable had been connected.
I removed the prop shafts ready to fit new uni joints.
I bought some rubber to line the big drawer with.
Started packing all the spares in.
Fitted a lot down the sides of the drawer system.
Managed to squeeze a spare of half shafts in.
Cleaned the prop shafts.
Started stripping one of the shafts down.
I marked everything so that it would all go back together the same way as their balanced.
It was an absolute bitch to get apart!
In the end I used the angle grinder.
Cleaned them in petrol.
New uj's.
Realised they had given me the wrong uj's.
I had to leave that job for the time being so I carried on putting the interior back together.
I got a hat holder out of the showroom at work and hoped it would fit nicely in LJ to hold my Acubra.
Sadly it didnt have a strong enough spring to hold the weight of the hat.
I mounted my shovel.
I extended the gas hose on my gas stove and packed it away in the rear door. *(Theres a funny story coming up later regarding this gas stove)
Changed the fuel filter.
Changed the rear brake drums to hopefully fix the brake peddle surging issue. (it did fix it)
Turned out the old drums were badly worn.
Fitted a club sticker on the windscreen.
Took the new uni joints back and swapped them for the right ones.
Got them fitted.
Removing the old uni's on the other prop shaft was just as difficult and I ended up using the grinder again to cut the old ones out!
Done!
Filled them with grease.
Brought 2 space cases home from work that my boss said I could borrow for the trip.
Along with one of our fluro lights out of the showroom.
And the 2 freshly rebuilt prop shafts.
I shut the garage door that night and the following morning which was the day before the trip I discovered I couldnt open the rear doors on LJ.
What followed was 3 hours of climbing in and out of the car unbolting what I could and trying to force the doors open. Would have been easy had I not got a drawer system and fridge fitted.
I was very close to just cutting the hinges off with the grinder a few times.
I was very close to cutting the metal loop that the lock engages in but I didnt have enough depth with the 9" grinder even with a new disc.
Once I'd managed to open the doors a little bit I realised what had happened...............
A few days previously I spotted a bolt was missing off the lock on the back door (it had been missing for ages) So I put an M6 bolt in it and thought nothing more of it.
It turns out the bolt was too long and was stopping the lock mechanism from working properly. Hence why after shutting the door I couldnt open it again.
I couldnt get in to undo the bolt/screw I'd put in despite trying every tool I could think of.
I cut a PH3 screw driver bit in half.
And welded it onto a piece of 1" flat.
I was then able to get the bolt out and doors open!
This is how much too long the bolt was that caused the problem.
The lock mechanism was practically out anyway so I pulled it out to give it a clean and grease.
I carried on loading LJ for the trip.
Fitted the pie oven next that my mate had lent me.
So on Friday morning we left Melbourne for Chris's place in Mount Barker, near Adelaide.
Terrible city traffic!
Fairly early on in the journey it became apparent that after adding 500kg's in the rear of LJ the rear springs which were OME 80 series fronts, were no where near stiff enough to take the weight.
Chris was great and made some calls and hooked us up with an ARB store on our way who had some springs in stock.
They guys there were really really helpful! They put LJ on the hoist and let us try different springs under her to see which ones would best take the weight. At one point there was one guy on the computer looking up spring rates and sizes, one guy looking in catalogues, one guy checking what springs they had on the shelf and another guy calling his mate to see if he had any.
In the end we went for Dobinsons super heavy duty 79 series front springs. They would need some adapters making to get the tops to work with my chassis but Chris had already kindly said we could do that at his workshop.
We arrived at FNB.
And LJ was soon on the hoist.
Chris, Nelson and myself spent about an hour looking through what steel Chris had and discussing the best way to do it. It only needed to survive the trip, once back at work I would knock up something better.
Raiding the scrap pile this is what we came up with.
6mm plate with a piece of 75mm tube welded to it.
3 pieces of 25mm tube welded to the other side to help locate it in place on the chassis.
Nelson and Chris hard at work bolting the first one on.
The Dobinsons spring code.
Ply wood drilled to fit over the lip in the spring mounts on the chassis.
Chris drilling away.
Bolted in place.
So that was the rear springs sorted.
Huge thanks to Chris for all his help and the late night it ended up being the night before the trip.
One thing that I had over looked was bump stops.
I must have cocked up my measurements some where as I didnt think I needed any as I was sure the rear springs would be coil bound long before the shocks bottomed out.
And looking back I think I probably destroyed the rear shocks on the way to Mount Barker, although this wouldn't become apparent until we got 100ks' into the desert from Birdsville.
The reason I mention it now is that I spotted a huge inaccuracy in the uk-oz blog, written by Ian of Mudrut.
In it he states:
The EFS shocks were totally shot, but in addition to replacing them, the mechanics insisted that unless some bump stops were refitted (and extended) that the new shocks wouldn’t last. Getting busy with the welding gear, they fashioned a lovely set and bolted them in place. To be fair to trip supremo, Chris Blakemore, this was exactly the course of action he suggested all the way back in Mount Barker.
http://uk-oz.com/?p=305
Thats complete bull shit, had Chris have mentioned it we would have done some thing about it!
He missed the fact there were no bump stops fitted as did Nelson and I.
I often make mistakes but I always openly admit when I've made a mistake and try to learn from them.
This mistake cost me a fortune getting new shocks and bump stops made and fitted in Birdsville, but atleast I was able to continue with the trip and successfully cross the Simpson Desert.
The suspension is obviously not standard and was fairly un tested so I'm not surprised that some issues emerged. But I am very pleased to say that after changing the rear springs and shocks we had no other issues and the rest of the trip was trouble free for LJ.
Which is more than can be said for the 2 80's, black Mav, and the 40 series! But more on those when we get to them.
Anyway...............
The next update will be the official start of the trip and the first few days.
I've got thousands of pics to sort through, edit, resize and upload.
So probably going to do the trip report in stages as its too big to do in one go.
Still got another week off work so should have plenty of time to get it all done.
