Betsie's blog

Well, more like things that make strange unexplainable noises in the engine!!!!!
Yesterday we filled up at Blackdown, and I used the high volume truck pump like I always do. I then moved over to the airline while Sarah was inside paying. I was halfway round checking the tyres and I noticed there was a different noise coming from the engine. I assumed that because I was squatting down beside the rear wheel and the front of the truck was tight up against a steel shipping container, I was just hearing a certain frequency amplified. Maybe belt noise.
We drove another few hundred meters up the road to a shop Sarah wanted to go into, and I noticed the noise was still there. While she was inside I popped the bonnet for a better look/listen. It certainly wasn't like any normal belt noise, and wasn't coming from the usual places this engine makes belt noise from. If I had to pick a spot I would say front of the engine, the drivers side and rotational. All the belt driven stuff in on the passengers side of the engine. Needless to say there was a definite feeling of panic and a knot of dread in my stomach. Yay, serious engine trouble.

I was playing with the revs to see if it got better or worse, if it sped up with the engine speed etc, and it suddenly disappeared and didn't come back. Hmmmmm, ok, a strange rotational noise that magically fixes it's self. Just what you want. We did another 250k's that afternoon, stopping and starting and it was all ok. All of the pre start checks proved everything was as it should be the next morning, and we have done another 400 odd k's today, and it's running like a dream.
Needless to say I lay awake all last night staring at the roof churning away on possibilities. My theory is it was the injector pump. Dumping the fuel in from the high volume pump has stirred up some crud in the tank, which either restricted the pick up, or gave the lift pump a hard time, and the injector pump was struggling for fuel and was making some odd noises in complaint. My revving the engine relieved the blockage and it's sorted itself out. For now. Either that, or the cam belts about to break because the tensioner bearing has seized up, or a cam bearing has nipped up onto the cam shaft and is now wearing out the block, or the oil pump is wearing into the timing cover, or the cam pulley or injector pump pulley has come loose, or the fan bearing is about to fail.
Non of that makes sense, the only thing that does is the injector pump. It's all still going really well, better than ever, so who knows. Hope it doesn't bite me in some really inconvenient time and place!!!
Other than that, I have list count of the dead Roos and pigs, and we have all had a swim in the Reid River this arvo, so all is good!!! Pete.

What an action packed couple of days!!! We arrived at the Expedition Center yesterday (Friday) at about 8:30am and loaded up the remaining odds and ends, swapped the gas struts on the roof, fitted the curtains etc etc. From there the next stop was to pick up the Sat phone. Some minor issues with that regarding payment, in that they usually deal with mining company accounts so didn't want to deal with cash or credit card. We ended up leaving them to figure it out amongst them selves for a few hours while we went and stocked up the truck at the supermarket.
I think it took Sarah the best part of 2 hours in the Super Market to get everything required to stock the vehicle up from scratch!! By this stage the day was rapidly disappearing and I had wanted to get 250km away from Sydney to Mungo Brush. We slapped the shopping in the back, the meat and in the fridge and hit the road, the idea being once we got to camp we could then figure out where it all needed to go at our leisure.
The highway out of Sydney was horrendous. The traffic was fine, the actual road was rough as guts! It was concrete, with patches on top of patches, mixed with the odd piece of asphalt just for good measure. Daniel from Mulgo had said he thought the spigot bush on the fly wheel was worn as he thought he heard it rattling when he was moving it round at his work shop. Didn't make sense to me as I replaced everything only 1500ks ago. Sure enough, I found the noise. It was the bling alloy gear knob and it was loose, and even after a tweak back up tight, it soon came loose again. It sure made a racket when it started to come loose!!!! The other strange one, is i thought the steering felt vague, well more vague than usual anyway. There seemed to be slightly more play in the steering, as if the steering box needed adjusting. We arrived at the camp site called Banksia Green, which was a little sheltered camp site nestled behind the sand dunes of a big long white sand beach with clear blue water. Of course by the time we arrived it had been dark for two hours already and we still had all the shopping to put away.... Alex and I played catch in the dark with our head torches on, using a ball that lit up when you bounced it. It was pretty late by the time the two of us were allowed back inside, but Sarah did a good job of sorting it all out. Little did we know we had an audience, it wasn't untill a few minutes after we had turned all our lights out that the Dingos came prowling for a closer inspection. They slipped through the campsite like shadows in the moon light.
This morning (Saturday) we awoke to bright clear sunny skies with some good heat in the sun. After breakfast and a bit more sorting out of gear, we ventured over the dunes to the beach to be greeted by Dolphins playing in the breakers. I was surprised at how warm the water was, so naturally I had to go in for a swim! It wasn't long before Sarah and Alex joined me :) I was busy doing my morning checks on Betsie whilst trying to figure out what was going on with the loose gear knob. Such a strange thing to happen out of the blue, and it just kept coming loose within a few k's of tightening it. Why had it never happened before??? Even stranger was that the point that it went tight was now further round than usual meaning the shift pattern was shown off center. So strange. I came up with a few ideas to remedy it, and ranked them in order of desperation, should the first idea fail. Thread tape, then lock tight, then epoxy, then drill a hole in it and fit a self tapping screw to lock it. Worst case I throw it in the bin and fit one from Repco in Brisbane. Actually, that might slot in right after the thread tape idea.
I hit it with thread tape, and crossed my fingers. Next I examined the steering. Nothing was amiss underneath, so it traced my way back up through the linkages to the steering wheel. Something was loose, but the big nut in the middle (haha) was tight. Hmmm. Turned out there are four small bolts that hold the center of the steering wheel boss to the outer of the steering wheel boss and they had worked loose. How?? Why?? All I can think is that during shipping it's been subject to a constant vibration for days on end and it's been at just the right frequency to upset the gear knob and those bolts. Otherwise, who knows, everything else looks fine!!!!! We only got as far as Smoky Cape this afternoon, but in doing so we had a look at the light house, and found a camp site early. Alex saw his first kookaburra and his first Hoppers, which was fun to see. He's been hopping around since. We had just sat down to eat ( potato bake in the camp oven and sausages ) when we saw the first flash of lightening followed by a clap of thunder and the rain started. I had been watching the sky change for the last few hours, so we were ready for it!!! So right now we are all tucked up inside, Alex and Sarah are watching a movie and I'm tapping away on my iPad. Cosy :)

tittle: A big day in Sydney It's been a big day.
First up, there is no conceivable way I could navigate Sydney in a car without a GPS. At one stage we were on the M5 in a tunnel that went for nearly 6km, which of course threw the GPS reception off, only emerged at the far end of the tunnel and miss our exit ramp while the gps was still figuring out where we had ended up!!! We are getting to see some off the beaten tourist route parts of suburban Sydney as we go, so it's all fun.
It was good to finally see Betsie again and the pop top in the flesh. The workmanship is great, we are really happy with what has been done. Looking forward to getting on the road and using it! I had a bit of a struggle getting the rest of the shelves to fit, as the fridge had to be moved slightly to fit around the new interior profiles, but I got them fitted in the end. A few more odds and ends to do tomorrow and it should be ready to roll.
Hoping to hit the road on Friday.

We loaded Betsie into the container at the port of Tauranga and said good by to her for nearly a month. We will be reunited at the Expedition Center in Sydney on the 22 June.
The voyage to Sydney will arrive on the 2nd June, and it should have cleared customs and been delivered to the Expedition Center by the 10th of June.
A Pop Top roof is being fitted at the Expedition Center, so it should be well under way when we arrive on the 22nd June.