Levuka 2 September 11-12th 2010

[Psimpson7]

Thought I would put up a quick report from the Saturday trip to Levuka.

I had decided that as the weather had been pretty good all week and I was only going for the day, to just go down on my road tyres.

As soon as I turned onto the gravel road heading out of Woodenbong towards Levuka, it was obvious that was an error!

I arrived about a minute after Dave (busman) and met him at the house/office. We paid, and headed up to the campsite where we met, Greg and Teena, who had camped overnight, in their RR Ute on 35" Simex's, Darren and Mel, in Mels 93 Vogue SE classic, and Trav in the Bullet. It had apparently rained a lot the previous afternoon... great!

After dave in the gumboot, and myself in the 90 turned up, we were just waiting on Kelvin (Disco_thrasher) in his D2.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/09/1313.jpg

So once all aired down and we decided to get up from the sun we headed off onto the tracks.

We set up quick convoy with me leading, and Greg at the back, and headed out down Track 1, then down past the waterfall, heading towards Rock N Roll Gully.

Darren exiting RnR Gully:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/09/1314.jpg

We then headed down to Bullant going around the circuit section aswell. This was pretty muddy.

Dave:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/09/1315.jpg

Dave:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/09/1316.jpg

Kelvin:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/09/1317.jpg

Kelvin:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/09/1318.jpg

Greg:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/09/1319.jpg

The main crossing on Bullant:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/09/1320.jpg

Trav being Trav:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/09/1321.jpg

Kelvin attempting the other exit track:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/09/1322.jpg

Greg also tried that with limited luck!

Somewhere after here problems started, when my compressor for my lockers sounded like the crank inside it had broken. So I was reduced to not only a worn out set of tyres, but no lockers! Joy!

Darren then managed to catch a tree in the 93 RRC :(

out into the open:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/09/1323.jpg

Water crossing:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/09/1324.jpg

Then more isues when Kelvins engine stoppped about 5 seconds after this picture was taken.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/09/1325.jpg

We managed to get it running again, after a bit of investigation, it seems that water may have got into the aap sensor stopping the engine. So once started we headed back to camp for lunch.

After lunch, I decided to leave my car and hop in with Trav, and we headed out to the rainforrest behind the house.

Darrens damage:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/09/1326.jpg

We played around in the test track for a few minutes then headed into Rosemarys Road.

Unfortunately about 5 minutes in, we had the worst problem of the day, when Daves rear maxi drive grenaded the planetry gears punching a hole through the top of the diff housing :(

Greg and Darren removed the tailshaft, rear axles, and diff centre and we then managed to get the now fwd only d1 back out to camp.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/09/1327.jpg

So back at camp, we got the fire going. Darren and Mel had to leave around 6pm and I ended up heading off at about 730.

It was a good day, but not without drama! I hope Sunday was less troublesome for everyone!

I stipped my compressor and in the main it is fine, There was a piece of plastic sat on top of the piston so something has obv failed but its not terminal. I have swapped the compressor out of our Stage 1 for now.

Thanks for running the trip Greg, and thanks Teena for Lunch on Saturday!

Rgds
Pete

[grover69]

OK Teena and I arrived at Levuka around 9.30 am Friday morning to some very heavy rain that lasted until about 4.00 pm , Darren (jaffa) and Mel arrived first Saturday morning follow by Trav , Pete ,Dave and Kelvin .
After breakfast we all headed off to rock and roll gully and surrounding tracks , everything was going great and some great fun then came the first bit of damage Darren smacked rear drivers door on a tree .
Off to next track near by i think is track 4, started heading in and the defender started making a funny noise ,turned out to be the compressor for the air lockers had broken , so we decided to head back to camp for lunch ,on our way back we passed Levuka lake where Kelvin Decided to have a go at the deepest part of the water crossing (not a good choice) the TD5 stopped just as it hit the water so we recovered the car got it runnig and back to camp for lunch ,but the stalling problem plagued Kelvin all weekend .
After lunch we headed of to the test track and Rosemary's road leaving the 90 at camp and Pete riding shotgun with Trav .
Started heading into Rosemary's rd and about 100m in after the first slippery hill, heard a loud crack from the gumboot and Dave saying some thing's not right in back end of the disco.
Under closer inspection we came to the conclusion it was the rear maxi drive ,so we pulled the axles and centre out and yep we were right totally destroyed the drive gears and planetary gears (P.O.S maxi drivers).
So 2 hours latter we were back at camp drinking beer and laughing about all the problems we had in 1 day ,Darren and Mel left about 6.00 pm followed by Pete about 7.30pm leaving Teena ,myself ,Dave ,Kelvin and Trav .
Had some great fun around the campfire as normal the possum grunt started around 9.30 so of to bed we went .
Sunday started out great with a run at Rosemary,s rd again all good till around the same spot as yesterday the TD5 stalled again thought we had the problem licked until dingo pass and it stopped again .
Kelvin changed the computer and we got back to camp , we all packed up had a beer said our goodbye's and departed just before lunch .
All in all it was a great weekend , great mate's and great fun .
Cheers Greg and Teena
P.s All the rangie's didn't stop all weekend :wasntme: and will get some photo's up soon

[Busman]

Got to love Levuka :twisted:
Thanks Teena & Greg for a great weekend:)
Always a pleasure with great company.
S..t happens with the Maxi Drive Locker, but it will be sorted.
Part of the process of 4wd ing.
Spent an hour and a half cleaning the mud off the car:(:confused:

Thanks again all and look forward to the next trip !!

[disco_thrasher]

yeah all has been said up above
but will fill you guys in on my car problems on sunday i we changed battery terminals re did earthing removed my boost box prity much did a complete overall on the electric under the bonet on the top of a hill,as much as Greg says he cant do engine managment systems he did a real good job today in helping me sort it ,
THANK GOD Pete you left me with your spare ecu recoded it and car worked yeah i can get home
Thanks to all who helped in a very frustrating morning i think i controlled my anger and fury quite well with only having to count to 10 twice :D

Trip to KYogle to out-laws 60th b-day was trouble free and back home
once at home i pulled out the reciept for my new ecu and it was installed by Bruce Lynton Land rover at 11:30am on the 11/09/09 and funny enough i think my car stopped working about the same time a year later if some one has a pic when the car stopped can you check the time of the picture out of intrest LOL
good trip with great people
cheers Kelvin