I went for a day trip up on the east side of Thomsons Dam today with the Wife and Tin Lid - met up with a mate from the 4x4 club that i'm a member of.
Got up there ok and woke them up at 9:00 by starting the CHAIN SAW. Heard many groans from the swags - the groans of not wanting to get up that is.
We finally hit the tracks at 10:30am (note, 2 hours behind schedule) and went up some nice gnarly tracks right upto lunch time. We had lunch about 1pm for about an hour. I was planning to do one last track with my mate prior to heading home earlyish as i have other committments tomorrow.
Half way up this last track was a really nice rocky ledge section, that the 80 series cruiser had 3 goes to get up the 'hardest' line. I knew i didnt have the front and mid height clearance for the hardest line, so i took the 2nd hardest line.
1st gear low range, and I got up in ONE go.
BUT ...
When i stopped the car and got out, there was oil pouring off the front bash plate. It looks like i have busted the front diff. I'll be pulling the bash plate off tomorrow arvo and have a good look at where the oil is coming from.
To play it safe, i just managed to drive the remainder of that track in high range 2wd back out to well graded tracks and finally to the bitumen and directly back to home.
The Nav is booked in for wednesday to have a couple of minor warrantee things looked out and sorted for me (clutch pedal return spring, rear left window goes down, but not up). Looks like i'll be dropping it off earlier than i expected so they can probably do the front diff as well.
Oops - looks like i broke it.
Got up there ok and woke them up at 9:00 by starting the CHAIN SAW. Heard many groans from the swags - the groans of not wanting to get up that is.
We finally hit the tracks at 10:30am (note, 2 hours behind schedule) and went up some nice gnarly tracks right upto lunch time. We had lunch about 1pm for about an hour. I was planning to do one last track with my mate prior to heading home earlyish as i have other committments tomorrow.
Half way up this last track was a really nice rocky ledge section, that the 80 series cruiser had 3 goes to get up the 'hardest' line. I knew i didnt have the front and mid height clearance for the hardest line, so i took the 2nd hardest line.
1st gear low range, and I got up in ONE go.
BUT ...
When i stopped the car and got out, there was oil pouring off the front bash plate. It looks like i have busted the front diff. I'll be pulling the bash plate off tomorrow arvo and have a good look at where the oil is coming from.
To play it safe, i just managed to drive the remainder of that track in high range 2wd back out to well graded tracks and finally to the bitumen and directly back to home.
The Nav is booked in for wednesday to have a couple of minor warrantee things looked out and sorted for me (clutch pedal return spring, rear left window goes down, but not up). Looks like i'll be dropping it off earlier than i expected so they can probably do the front diff as well.
Oops - looks like i broke it.
