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Tell us about you road side repair stories

HenriSteyn
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Tell us about you road side repair stories

#1

Post by HenriSteyn »

We probably all have had some interesting experiences on our trips when it comes to breakdowns. If you have a story to tell now is the time!

Mine:

We were on our way from Ponto Malangane to Ponto Du Ouro when we came across a ISUZU DC stuck in the road, no where to go past unless a detour.

Turns out they are from the EC, where my brother who is with us, is from.

We go take a closer look and the driver reports left rear wheel bearing failure. He says it was repaired yesterday, and they been stuck there for 4 hours, no feasable help yet.

The driveshaft had come out but they managed to get the DC onto a jack.

A manager of a lodge also arrives and asks if he can help. I looked at the situation and see the outer race is still in the hub. I try hitting it out with a few blows with a large screw driver. No solid item to wedge in there.

I decide the quickest way to remove this outer housing from the hub is to weld the inside of it, and as it cools it will shrink and hopefully fall out. I ask the lodge manager if he has access to long extension leads and a welding machine. We first search for a house with someone at home that will allow us to use electricity,
To no vail, no house close by has anyone home.

In my ammo box I have items which I have packed based on the writings of others that have come in handy in such situations, in particular I have some welding rods and a welding helmet glass.

I also have 2 x 105 Ah batteries (removable as in battery packs) and the Isuzu owner has a DC aux battery. We make a plan and line up 3 batteries, connect in series using jumper cables to get the required 36 Volts for welding. One end of the loose jumper cable is clamped to the hub and I stick a welding rod in the other loose clamp. Clamp in one hand and welding glass in the other I strike an arc and weld a run of about 30 mm. The housing falls out 5 seconds later. Success!

We decide these guys are still buggered and the nearest town with any chance of obtaining spares and help with removal of the inner bearing housing off the half shaft and a spare bearing is Manguzi, across the border. Broken English with the local courier does nothing to help the situation.

Sunset approaching we make a call that this is at least half a days work. The owner of the Isuzu arranges the local roaving bush mechanic (this guy was there from the beginning, with two handsfull of various sizes and shapes of spanners, either stolen or picked up) to look after the Isuzu for the night. We will go to Manguzi the next morning and see how life treats us.

Next morning with bearing housing in hand and half shaft in the back, we pick up the owner (happened to be camping at Malangane as well) and head off to Manguzi. We get a bit lost in a forest because we tried to get past a slow moving vehicle (single track sand roads everywhere) by hanging a right onto another track. The breadcrumbs feature in the Garmin helps us find our way out of the forest. Through border and onwards to Manguzi 30km away.

We stop at the first place that we see cars being worked on. They can't help but give us sort of instructions where to go. A few wrong turns later we find these guys. They take the half shaft and attack the inner housing on the shaft with a flat chisel tool and a hammer. A few minutes later the housing is off. What now we ask? "Come" says the hammer hitter and jumps in the back. Points us out the property, left down the main drag. "More more more he says". And then " in here!". Anchors on, into a......General Dealer.

Inside we go, and at the counter a young guy with dreadlocks greets and asks if he can help.

I announce: "Isuzu 2006 rear wheel bearing" ready to stuff the sample housing under his nose. He grabs a book off the filing cabinet and quickly pages through it, points his finger at a spot on a page, closes the book and in one movement dumps the book back onto the cabinet, and disappears to the back somewhere. In 2 minutes he reappears and puts a bearing box in front of me. Of course I have learned not to trust spares shop guys and open the box, unwrap the contents and compare. So wraggieswaar! Just the pawpaw! Cannot believe what just happened out here in the sticks!

The Isuzu guy pays a few hundred R's and we head back to the first workshop for fitting the bearing. I wonder what blunt item will be used to bliksem this bearing onto the shaft, ready to intervene should this get too rough.

Lo and behold we follow the bearing remover man to the back of another workshop and find a piece of mechanical wonder for this area: a hydraulic press complete with electric pump! Mr bearing remover puts the bearing onto the shaft, shaft into press, and 1 minute later hands the assembly back. The Isuzu man pays his money gladly and we head back to the scene of the crime, very upbeat.

On site 45 minutes and another border crossing later, I make sure the axle tube is as clean as possible, removing all metal pieces left over from the previous failure, and bump the shaft into place.

At that point my brother decides genoeg is genoeg, we have done enough to help. It is midday and we are on holiday. The bush mechanic must finish this off.

We say good luck and return to camp.

Later that afternoon the Isuzu drives past, stops and reverses. The owner hops out, opens the canopy door and takes out a case of 2M beer, makes me take it. All in a days work I say. Least he can do responds, and thanks us, extremely grateful.

We saw them a few times after, Isuzu running well.

A few weeks later my brother phones to thank us for taking them with to the far end of Moz (haha), and says they bumped into this crowd again in the EC. Isuzu still rolling very nicely thank you.

Love it when a plan comes together......

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#2

Post by henris »

Yes, we must all have some stories. I actually have quite a couple.
With the chopped d/c 80 I had, we were in the Motopos. And we were just about to go into a little museum they had there and I notice smoke from under the dash.

Long story short, I told everybody to go and enjoy themselves and I will start digging. Eventually I found that some of the wires in the dash, had melted together.

Remedy was to pull out the dash
Isolate all the damaged wires.
Tape them all up again.
Put the dash back in.

This happened at about 15h00 in the afternoon. I gave all the all clear that we can leave, at about 2h00 the next morning.
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#3

Post by Mad Manny »

I was driving and Fearless lost power and various lights came on, on the dash (it later turned out it was the crap Dastek chip that the crap SAC fitted craply).
So I stopped. Switched Fearless off. Waited 30 secs. Started and drove off.

Yes I know it's a boring story, but I drive a Toyota...

"No one ever got stuck - in mid air!"

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#4

Post by HenriSteyn »

SAC are useless. Bit OT but that is a story for another day......

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#5

Post by HenriSteyn »

Striker 63 should be along shortly......

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#6

Post by Mad Manny »

If Colin Striker and Ant 4Gee see the Thread we'll need to allocate the Forum more bandwidth.
"No one ever got stuck - in mid air!"

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#7

Post by LesseW »

HenriSteyn wrote:Striker 63 should be along shortly......
Collin at Sandturion: drive with 80L water on the roof for a roadside repair

Ant fixed his radiator with a type of metal putty, i was in awe.


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#8

Post by Mad Manny »

Just Ant's repairs of Colin's vehicles would need a Thread of it's own.
There there's repairs to Colin's vehicles not done by Ant.
Then there's repairs Ant did to his own vehicles (especially his Cev V8 Pajero) and finally, Ant's repairs to vehicles that belonged neither to Ant nor Colin...
"No one ever got stuck - in mid air!"

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#9

Post by Ricof4e »

Mad Manny wrote:
Fri May 14, 2021 6:34 am
I was driving and Fearless lost power and various lights came on, on the dash (it later turned out it was the crap Dastek chip that the crap SAC fitted craply).
So I stopped. Switched Fearless off. Waited 30 secs. Started and drove off.

Yes I know it's a boring story, but I drive a Toyota...
You chipped your fortuner?

That's very Gobabis Toyota of you...
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#10

Post by Mad Manny »

it made no difference to the performance whatsoever....
"No one ever got stuck - in mid air!"

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#11

Post by LesseW »

Mad Manny wrote:it made no difference to the performance whatsoever....
But it gave you entitlement to put a big SACImage sticker on your windscreen?


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#12

Post by Mad Manny »

On the Brannas already LesseW...?


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#13

Post by LesseW »

Nope, I am driving 4x4 tomorrow...


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#14

Post by LesseW »

When my dad had his POS 280 DT KB Isuzu, we went on holiday with it to Swadini. My brother did not tighten the wheel nuts properly after my dad serviced the brakes. On our way to Swadini, the back wheel came off and it almost cost us our lives....The bolts snapped and the wheel came loose, and we did not have spare nuts and bolts to put the wheel back on.

We ended up hammering a bolt out of the 3 other wheels to fasten the wheel that came loose (after we walked 600m to retrieve it)


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#15

Post by Ricof4e »

On all the Nissans I have owned, the only repairs I had to make was fitting a snot plug and replacing a fan belt.

I have been lucky.
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