Day 3 San Remo to Lakes Entrance

Day 3

At the start, all appears calm, organised and well.

In the background, the Gods of Vintage motoring were definitely not smiling on us today. Today the Gremlins struck with a vengeance.

Hmm. this isn't good

The Parsells had traveled about 20 Km from San Remo to just past Kilcunda when one of our fellow travellers had failed to proceed and we stopped, reversed backward and asked if they needed assistance (they where fine) a small fuel issue and they felt confident it was remedied.

We then attempted to select a forward gear and the Eagle said "NO you can’t have that one, I like reverse".  Ummm....after unpacking and finding the tools (they are, of course, right at the bottom we removed the floor to see what was amiss.... No joy. We removed the gear selector inspection plate, we can’t see much. Remove gearbox top, which included removing the handbrake, gear lever, gear lever gate etc etc. ..... Ah ha - reverse lock out pin is stuck up. Remove the selector cover, ring for advise (several times, big thank you to Alan), pry out the selector pin and emery it down a bit.  With all the sad and negative things being reported we have to say a very big thanks to all the friendly locals who stopped to offer help and one adventurous international biker (I didn't get where he from and was on his way to Brisbane).  Finally started putting things back together and Alan and Noeline arrived and in short order all seemed to be well.  Maritta during this time was sitting on the roadside with all possessions littered across the verge and fending off a number of enquiring questions and thanking people for there concern and offers to help.

Gear gate off, what have we found

removing gearbox top

The rest of the group were making their way to the Beloka Kelpie Stud for a demonstration of working dogs and a delicious lunch of slow cooked lamb and gravy on a fresh bread roll.  We missed it which was most unfortunate as we really wanted to see them, but maybe some other time, we hear it was excellent and lunch was superb.

The crowd waits with anticipation

The curious performers also wait patiently

The quiz at dinner had everyone huddled in corners.

 

I think I've fixed it, famous last words

Anyway, we got back on the road, did about ½ kilometre and yet again she failed to proceed. No fuel but we have spark!!   Mmmm..remove seats again, crawl under the dash and examine fuses, last fuse (naturally), fumble fingers drops it and it disappears, replaced it with a spare and fuel is now available.  We must have shorted something when under the floor earlier.

So....back on the road, AGAIN.  Oh No! now we only have 4^th gear, where are all the others!! Anyway, determined we press on. We managed to make it into Lakes Entrance using only top gear.  We should note that we did get lucky a few times....such as catching all the traffic lights (5 of them) in Bairnsdale.  We whizzed into the hotel car park and stopped. 

Checked in, unpacked and again get the tools out, remove floors.  Everything looks OK. Removed the gear gate, gearbox top etc with assistance from Alan and Andrew, but what is going on!! It looks alright but why is the gear not moving.  Notice it is missing a bit and that’s not good. Sadly it looks like the “Beast” will be going home. Lets have dinner and we’ll have a plan worked out.

It was an excellent buffet dinner and after dinner Mark presented us with a quiz which was enjoyed by all even though all mobiles were confiscated.  No-one seems to trust anyone these days!!

It should be noted that everyone made it to Lakes Entrance with a few minor delays (and our major one) and great time was had by all. Unfortunately Mike and Jan had a little problem when the MGB decided to "kiss" a low lying log at the Kelpie stud which caused the headlight to be smashed and the front guard to be crumpled.

Victoria put on its usual display of Weather, scorching hot and humid whilst we where attempting to fix car, then in Sale they received the most rain they had had for months.  The locals invited us back anytime to Sale (along with many other towns previously), as rainmakers. But we made it!