Fixable or F*#^ed.

Yesterday afternoon as we turned into the track up to our accommodation in Paro, I went to grab another gear and all drive stopped with no loud noise even.

At first I thought it was a slipping clutch but that was soon ruled out due to lack of smell. In the driveway we worked out it was a Diff problem and most likely a sheared keyway and nothing broken.

We arrived at the resort on the string of shame where we would be spending 2 nights.

Julie and I got some clothes on that could get dirty and went and started.

We pulled the pinion out of the front of the Diff and it was all fine; so that meant we had to dig deeper for the problem and that was a time consuming job. So with Julies encouragement it was decided we had to dig deeper tomorrow instead of going to Tigers Nest on the rest day. It was very nearly dinner by then so we just shifted the car to flatter ground and collected some local timbers and bricks to block up the car ready for a flying start in the morning, after good nights sleep. Sleep wasn’t that great with the thought of whether we could fix it or not.

Julie and I started working on the car at 0630hrs and it was just 4 degrees but thankfully it warmed up early. We had only been going about 20 mins and Alistair Caldwell turned up and said “What do you need doing”. Alistair stayed with us all day, and was a great help as he is an unbelievable wealth of car knowledge and a funny company to boot. We stopped for breakfast at about 0800hr while waiting for the mechanics as we needed to borrow a big socket. Once Charlie arrived he gave us a hand to get the Diff out and disassembled.

Alistair and Charlie were both keen to see how my diff worked as I had been trying to explain it to them last night and all morning. Penny’s diff was designed in 1913 so has no resemblance to a modern diff in any way.

By about 1030hrs the diff was out of the cars and apart on Alistair’s new Picnic Blanket and everyone then understood how it worked.

We then knew it was FIXABLE.

We found the keyway on the left side was sheared in the gear on the end of the Axle. As the taper on the Shaft was slightly damaged from the gear spinning on it; but after 2 hours of filing and emery taping and checking with bearing blue, we fitted a new piece of key steel and started the assembly process.

While Julie and I did the filing and polishing Alistair worked on a couple things on his car and Charlie helped other people on their cars.

When we got to reassembly time, Charlie and Alistair both were able to come and help in the process as it takes a few sets of hands when you don’t have the proper stand to hold the diff. By 1515hr the car was all finished in time for Julie to go and have the body scrub that she had booked the previous day.

Alistair and I went for a test-drive down the hill to where we had broken down and back again for a test and Penny did everything by the book. So all that was left was the mammoth task to tidy up all the tools.

After a shower it was time to henpeck out a blog post before heading to dinner and to collect our Bhutanese National dresses.

Next blog I will cover the rest of the drive from yesterday and onwards.