- A rattling and swaying gear lever had annoyed us during our first Austria trip and back home we decided to take a closer look at its functioning. It was a job we underestimated. To get to the gear lever mechanism we had to remove the gearbox tunnel, but to get to the tunnel the front bottom plates had to be removed. Not a single bolt came off as it should and we consumed a number of hacksaw blades. Once everything had been removed we looked at a huge chunk of oil-sand mixture under which we assumed the gearbox.
A day later we had excavated the gear box and found, among others, a gear oil filler cap held in place by a spring mechanism, the gear lever mechanism and the gear selection rods. As we suspected the gear lever was damaged and worn. Some moron had replaced the securing nut in the upper lever ball by a cut off nail and the lower lever ball was so worn that it was square. In addition, the rubber ring of the lower ball was missing. As usual, Paddock came to our rescue and a week later we admired a shining gearbox with a new lever mechanism. We couldn’t wait for a test run and after having bolted everything back we took Wa Bashasha to the motor way. No more rattling and no more guessing were to find the gears!
- Two weeks after the 20 metres of wire had been pulled out we couldn’t switch her lights off anymore and decided to remove the entire dashboard and the instrument panel. It was a frightening experience. Tangled wires, corroded switches and mysterious earth wires seemingly dangling without any purpose.
The metal parts of the dash had all rusted through and it took some time, metal strips and fibre glass to renovate all components. The unit now looks new again and even the air vents are working properly. The instrument panel was in better shape. We took out all components and instruments and cleaned them. The challenge was, of course, to get the girl wired up again. We only short circuited her twice and drove without direction indicators for two days.
- At various stages we had the cabin almost stripped and used the opportunity to fit noise killing material. Battery box, seat frames, gear box tunnel and floor plates were sealed with special rubber strips. Then we fitted our re-enforced polyester mats where ever there was a flat or smooth surface: seat boxes, petrol tank covers, battery box, gearbox tunnel, bulkhead and floor plates. The polyester was covered again by our black carpet. Although Wa Bashasha is still noisy, we can now have a conversation without shouting to each other.
- Just before we left for our second Austria trip, and right on schedule, our custom made galvanised iron roof rack was ready and we drove to Topsleeper in Vessem, a small village nearby, to have it and the roof tent installed. Two ex-army fibre glass air and water tight luggage boxes completed the roof outfit.
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