Our Favorite Rally Repairs

Scamp Suspension - (Seth) the scamp suspension first folded on the outskirts of the drunkest city in the world, Kharkov, Ukraine. James and Neil had her back on the road in a half hour. Unfortunately the problems persisted and at a truck stop in Russia they somehow stumbled upon a guy who could help. In his very 3rd world work shop he drilled out a piece of all thread. A couple hours later with half the convoy passed out, the new piece failed. We had a spare which we strengthened with some epoxy. Inadddition we added some nuts for strength and repaired the boot with some asbestos, tie wraps, hose clamps, and red RTV. Never falied again.

Scamp Fan Belt - (Seth) We were making a push around Volgograd. The convoy was stopped and harassed for a bit at a police checkpoint. Upon moving again the main belt in the Scamp exploded. It was dark, raining and generally miserable. The guys had a spare belt but it looked like a very difficult process to replace. Dom had the idea to replace with a pair of panty hose. It took awhile to feed them through, especially with a hot engine. We coiled the leggings and tied them as tight as possible. James fired up the car and sure enough it worked. We drove around 50 km before the fix failed due to fraying. In retrospect, we probably did not coil them tight enough. They put the new belt on in the morning and off we went.

Fiat Radiator Hose - (RD) Luckily the bottom radiator hose had split in the UK on our way to London. We were able to source another and fit it the day before the rally. Unfortunately, the top radiator hose started playing up while in the Ukraine. By KZ it was badly split and we were leaking so much water that we were overheating every few hours. To counter the leak, we siliconed up the split and then wrapped a Durex (extra safe for added piece of mind) around the top of the hose. We then applied more silicone, electricians tape and tightened the JUBILEE CLIP. The fix meant we leaked slightly less. For a while.

Fiat Skid Pan - (Seth) Alright so this isn't a massive mechanical obstacle but was something we tackled creatively. Andy and James had added a very impressive skid pan (sump guard) to their car and it had taken a beating over the first stretch of roads in Kaza. We had to bend a fairly significant piece of metal in the middle of no where. I took the metal tube that ran across the back seat of the Seat and had Andy drive the front two tires of the Fiat over the tube. Then I dug a small trench under the tube and ran a large ratchet strap from the Fiesta under the tube and to the center of the skid pan. We now had a fairly straight pull and successfully bent the guard back into place.

Seat Electrical Issues - (Dominic) The Spanish really spared no expense on the Marbella. It came complete with a premium 12-speaker sound system and an in-dash 6 CD changer. Oh, wait a minute, that’s not quite true. It had two crappy speakers (never did get them to work – ended up in a trash can in a car park in Prague) and no stereo at all. While trying to wire in a suitable stereo I shorted something out, let the smoke out of it, and decided to hold off awhile before making another attempt. At the starting line in Hyde Park I wired in a cigarette lighter to use for power with a set of portable speakers with the ole iPod. Little did I know what trouble I would cause. I should have known something was up when the horn wouldn’t work on the way out of the park. Somewhere in France or Belgium it began to rain and the wipers took on a life of their own. Sometimes they would turn on, but wouldn’t turn off. Sometimes vice versa. Hitting the horn with the engine running would light all the lights on the dash and peg the fuel gauge to Full (with the car off the horn worked fine). Over time the electrical demons seemed to be multiplying. Thankfully one of the teams we met in Prague had run across the same issue while trying to wire a stereo into their Panda and show. Apparently there’s a funny ground loop in the Marbella’s design and I left one half of it floating. One missed wire connection relanded and all problems went away.

Fiat Head Gasket - (Seth) this is one of the two car disappointments of the trip. It was one day out of Bishkek, Andy was pumped to make good time until he noticed water droplets on the dipstick for the oil pan. Upon attempting to start, it was very evident that his fears were justified. We, and by we I mean Andy, dove into a full head gasket replacement exercise in the middle of nowhere Kazakhstan (Note: virtually everywhere in Kaza qualifies as middle of nowhere). It certainly was not a text book procedure as Andy did not have the host of specialized tools the brain surgeons at Fiat require. We had to brutally pound sockets over the top of the allen head bolts for the rocker cover to remove. Upon reassembly, Andy snapped one of the head bolts while applying minimal torque. It took a bit to start the rig, but finally she fired and apppeared to be all good. Unfortunately, around 50 km down the road she started to drink water like mad. Andy and James were filling the radiator every 40-50 km. We tried anothe head gasket replacement but were defeated by the aforementioned rocker bolts. The Fiat died in Central Kaz where she stayed.

Micra blown suspension - (Charlie) This probably wasn't a surprising thing to happen to a 20 year old car, which should only be driven down to the hairdressers on beautiful british tarmaced roads . However, as 1) i wasn't in britain, 2) i certainly wasn't on any kind of "road" and 3) i didn't need my haircut, we spectacularly drove into some of the biggest holes know to man and bust our front right suspension spring into 5 pieces. We managed to get a bung bodged on before we made it to bishkek and into a nissan main dealer. He didn't have the part, but said he could find one and to come back the next day. When we came back the car was so high on one side, and suddenly so low on the rear left. Upon closer inspection, we found that had gone as well. Off to a more friendly garage - where they don't charge $80 - and instead (with the help of a little audi-driving guardian angel) to a local one who raised the car up, told us that the rest of the springs had gone, and to go off to a massive flea market and buy springs that faintly resemble the ones that broke. We came back with 3 meaty lada ones, which he subsequently bodged on without any regard for his own safety, charged us $15 and sent us on our way. So with brand new springs raising our car, we sailed over pot-holes like they weren't even there!

Seat clutch cable - (Seth) this may have been Dominic and my finest moment on the trip. About 120 km south of Karagandy, Kz, the clutch cable on the Seat snapped. The locals tried to fix it, most unsuccessfully. They left saying that new clutch cables were available in Karagandy. We had a replacement accelerator cable and tried unsuccessfully to fit it up. I have wanted to try something like this for awhile and finally had my chance. We found an adequate hole in the interior wall between the passenger seat and the engine and ran the cable straight through. We had a piece of rebar that Patrick had picked up a few weeks prior. It worked perfectly as a lever for our newly created passenger operated hand clutch. And it worked.

Fiesta Tire - (Seth) we had been pushing hard since leaving the KZ / RU border. Around 2 am the Fiesta lost its rear left side tire. The bearings had completely wiped and the wheel along with the brake while going 60 mph. It looked pretty bad for the Fiesta. A Mercedes Benz dealership towed the car to their shop. They employed just about every method of destructive disassembly including in no particuliar order; big hammer, bigger hammer, gear puller, pneumatic 4" grinder, and a chisel. Once the debris cleared, they quickly sized up the parts and went shopping. New bearings appeared and back to work they went. There was a lot of concern that the shaft had been bent in the skid. Nobody thought we would make it more than 1000 km on the new bearings. We didn't have choice. After 4 hours of work they had the Fiestavus running as smooth as ever.

Seat Distributor Cap - (Dominci) I suppose this would be the other big car disappointment of the trip. My mischievous side taking over I piloted the Marbella into a large Siberian pothole to splash up a little mud on the paintjob. The seat died within yards of exiting the pothole. We quickly came to the conclusion that the distributor was fried and set to dreaming up a fix. My trusty mess kit fork was sacrificed as a new rotating contact. We got a few sputter of life and I began making the fork a permanent fixture under the cap with epoxy. While waiting for it to set I mistakenly cleaned up the work area. The Seat would not run again. Under threat of Siberian prison for visa violation we decided to cut our losses, ditch the Seat and press on. More time and I think we might have resurrected her, but alas we hadn't that luxury.

Fiesta gas tank - About 300 km from the RU / MN border, we found a significant leak from the gas tank. Dominic and I went to work trying to diagnose and remedy the source of our spill. At some point, a man in a suit wandered over and started lending advice. He disappearred for awhile, returning with some rubber, screws, and a bit of metal plate. Then he pointed out a nice pit to drive the car over for easier access. Once in place we had a good view of the 1 inch crack that had formed in the tank. I took the finger in the dyke position and Dominic worked with the suited Russian to find a fix. A bit of caution, when gasoline reaches your armpit it really burns, a really really deep burn. Finally the guy in the suit had enough of our feeble attempts and jumped in the pit. He packed the crack with soap, put the rubber over it, the metal over that, and screwed the whole assembly into the tank. The leak stopped, we thank him profusely, and departed.