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10,103km, 6 countries, 5 flat tyres and a buggered gearbox...
...we are back!
As some of you may know, we went home for xmas (zimbabwe). Well going down was OK: Kenya>Tanzania>Zambia>Zimbabwe : no problems.
Then we did a bit of touring round Zim, visited Botswana and with one week to go before we made the return trip, I lost 3rd and 4th gear! Don't know what happened but I just stopped at the lights one day and when I accelerated up - no 3rd - no 4th.
Now everything shuts down in Zim over New Years and so wasn't able to go to a Toyota dealer but had to go to a "bush mechanic". So this monkey drops my gear box and tells me I need a new gear on 3/4th and new bearings top and bottom of the main shaft.
So I trail into town with this piece of gear - not the separate bits as he didn't have a big enough gear puller - and I try to match the bits. Find an OE gear thingy but have to find nearest matches for one of the bearings - same measurements but different part no.
Anyway, he puts it "all" together again and I take it for a spin - everything seems OK so we pay the guy and we are back on schedule to leave the next day.
5.00am I am up, finish loading the car with beer, wife and child, and we are off! 50 miles out of town I lose 1st, 3rd and 5th. So I slow down, nurse it up to Vic Falls and take a gander underneath...everything looks OK, so I check fluid levels. I open the gear box plug and about 3 liters of oil spill out all over the road: the idiot had overfilled it. Problem solved I thought so we carrierd on to Lusaka.
Just outside Vic Falls I lose 1st, 3rd and 5th again. I find that if I keep to 40mph in 4th after about half an hour I can get back into 5th. Can't get into 1st and so have to take off in second.
Nurse the truck to Lusaka - find a good garage so that I can change fluids as maybe he put the wrong type in and also to check the transfer box as the monkey had done it up using a cold chisel and a 5lb hammer and had fukced all the bolt corners up so that I couldn't get a spanner on it.
So, get the truck on a ramp and find that there are 5 bolts missing between the bell housing and the engine! Freakin idiot didn't tighten 'em up! So maybe that's the problem - clutch is not engaging properly. Find new bolts, replace gear and transfer oils, repair a flat tyre and put in new coolant...and set off for Malawi.
20 miles out of town - same problem: everything is OK until the gear box gets hot and then I'm only left with 2nd and 4th gear. I can't stop again as we are out of time and money so I nurse the vehicle across some of the siht-iest roads in Africa, up lake Malawi, through Tanzania and up the coast to Mombasa. Here we break for two days before resuming our 40mph trek across East Africa!
Total trip distance: 10,103km, but does anyone have any idea of what is going on inside my gearbox? Will I just have to strip it and replace everything that's worn? Answers on a postcard please...
As some of you may know, we went home for xmas (zimbabwe). Well going down was OK: Kenya>Tanzania>Zambia>Zimbabwe : no problems.
Then we did a bit of touring round Zim, visited Botswana and with one week to go before we made the return trip, I lost 3rd and 4th gear! Don't know what happened but I just stopped at the lights one day and when I accelerated up - no 3rd - no 4th.
Now everything shuts down in Zim over New Years and so wasn't able to go to a Toyota dealer but had to go to a "bush mechanic". So this monkey drops my gear box and tells me I need a new gear on 3/4th and new bearings top and bottom of the main shaft.
So I trail into town with this piece of gear - not the separate bits as he didn't have a big enough gear puller - and I try to match the bits. Find an OE gear thingy but have to find nearest matches for one of the bearings - same measurements but different part no.
Anyway, he puts it "all" together again and I take it for a spin - everything seems OK so we pay the guy and we are back on schedule to leave the next day.
5.00am I am up, finish loading the car with beer, wife and child, and we are off! 50 miles out of town I lose 1st, 3rd and 5th. So I slow down, nurse it up to Vic Falls and take a gander underneath...everything looks OK, so I check fluid levels. I open the gear box plug and about 3 liters of oil spill out all over the road: the idiot had overfilled it. Problem solved I thought so we carrierd on to Lusaka.
Just outside Vic Falls I lose 1st, 3rd and 5th again. I find that if I keep to 40mph in 4th after about half an hour I can get back into 5th. Can't get into 1st and so have to take off in second.
Nurse the truck to Lusaka - find a good garage so that I can change fluids as maybe he put the wrong type in and also to check the transfer box as the monkey had done it up using a cold chisel and a 5lb hammer and had fukced all the bolt corners up so that I couldn't get a spanner on it.
So, get the truck on a ramp and find that there are 5 bolts missing between the bell housing and the engine! Freakin idiot didn't tighten 'em up! So maybe that's the problem - clutch is not engaging properly. Find new bolts, replace gear and transfer oils, repair a flat tyre and put in new coolant...and set off for Malawi.
20 miles out of town - same problem: everything is OK until the gear box gets hot and then I'm only left with 2nd and 4th gear. I can't stop again as we are out of time and money so I nurse the vehicle across some of the siht-iest roads in Africa, up lake Malawi, through Tanzania and up the coast to Mombasa. Here we break for two days before resuming our 40mph trek across East Africa!
Total trip distance: 10,103km, but does anyone have any idea of what is going on inside my gearbox? Will I just have to strip it and replace everything that's worn? Answers on a postcard please...
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