I didn’t really drop off the end of the earth in the past few months, but it was close.
To cut a long story short, (this may take a few posts) we got straight into the move when we got back. I put the load bed back on the chassis with a few bolts, put the tub on using two bolts and 4 zip ties. Then put my one steel cabinet with tools etc onto the load bed and my work bench on top of that lot.
WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS
THE TUB IS ON. (Couldn't resist dry fitting the seats - just to see)
All the body panels, carefully wrapped, went into the back of the Grand Cherokee. I hauled the Dagha Boy onto the trailer using a tow strap and the other Jeep. Strapped it all down nicely. Ready to leave at 03:00 the next morning. A bloody heavy load.
ON HE GOES
LOADED AND READY TO GO
Then the Grand Cherokee’s torque converter locked up! It runs a Mercedes Benz 3L V6 Turbo Diesel with a 6 speed ZF gearbox. It seems these torque converters are a problem. This meant a new torque converter.
After waiting two weeks for the torque converter and getting the wrong one from the agents, he fitted a recon unit. Still locked up and showing an error code. Experience told him it was the gearbox.
Gearbox recon called for… costs more than the vehicle is worth.
Fortunately the local indie does a lot of work on Land Rovers and the ZF box is used in them too. Sealed unit, “requiring no scheduled service” – you can’t even check the fluid level., so he reverse- flushed it a couple of times. Huge amount of black muck came out. Fitted new filters, refilled it and started up. It all worked fine as he had predicted .
After a three week delay we hit the road at 03:00 with the MWFD driving the old Green Jeep. Eleven hours and 1100 km later we stopped for the night. Perfect run.
We left early the next morning to do the last 700km home to the coast. When we hit the coast, we drove into bucketing rain and gail force winds. The last 300km was not nice. Eight hours on the road and we were home.
To get a bit of tech in here, the 1800km (1125m) took 19hrs on the road – average speed 95kmh (59mph) with fuel consumption of 15.4L/100km(15.3mpg).
Then the shock. The workshop was not even close to being ready! There I sat with all this stuff in the pouring rain and nowhere to go. Not nice.