Saturday 16 July 2016

A sting in the tail 3/3: Friday 15 July - Day 34

It was cold and wet on the passes. Not much fun at all. By 12.00 I was wishing that it had been possible to put the car on a low loader and proceed by train - the Glacier Express looked cool; but that was just dreams.




Emerald had to work really hard to get up to and through the passes which were over 2,000 metres high. The approach to each comprised a series of hairpin bends extending over several kilometres. The descents weren't much better - steep roadways into tight bends so that the drum brakes had to be supported by putting the engine into low gear to aid speed reduction.

By the time Emerald reached Lausanne, there were various rattles and squeals as the car accelerated and decelerated. It was clear that Emerald needed expert attention.





A cluster of mechanics gathered to view the valves, pistons and other moving parts of the engine. The consensus was that the dominant problem was the alternator - our spare had been fitted in Aya, remounted in Novosibirsk, and repaired on the road in Slovenia. Now the casing had cracked and the rotor carrying the fan belt was failing. So we refitted our original - accused and replaced in Aya but never proven to have failed. Fitting was quick and the new (ie old) alternator provided good charge.

The engine was revved and the repair was passed as the solution. But below the good noises was a faint rattle that was reminiscent of the big end bearing failure that caused our breakdown in Russia. Perhaps the work done in Omsk was being undone by the wear and tear since and exacerbated by the stress of alpine driving. It wasn't the same noise, we were told, but we were advised to take it easy. A full repair would take at least a couple of days we didn't have. The current status quo would probably be all right for the last two days. So we agreed to stick so far as possible to Autoroutes and to drive the car gently.

We set out tomorrow with the warnings ringing in our ears and with hope that we haven't done too much damage.


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