Southbound and Down!

[RiverPatrol]

Have a great trip home. Looking forward to reading your update.

[Nicolanders]

Greetings! We are the new owners of Carlos the Patrol!

About two months ago having recently arrived in Argentina we were lucky enough to stumble upon jimmyrobby's post (on a different forum) about the free Patrol. Since then we have been handling legal issues and all the boring stuff, but for the last couple of weeks we have been in or around Tucumán in northern Argentina waiting for the engine work to finish. It's all happening in local "tranquilo"-time but we are confident that the job done will be professional and good. We have run in to other locals who say it's a good mechanic, although a bit expensive.
It's a bit difficult for us since everything is of course happening in Spanish - not our native language. Also we don't know much about engines in general. So it's a bit of guess work, a bit of reading on the internet, and a lot of good faith.

The mechanic here has had the crank shaft and the clutch re-machined and have taken the bottom part of the engine completely apart. The top part has not been touched.
They are now putting the engine back together using the new bearing shells brought in from Colombia. Yesterday there was a setback when one of the new bearing shells didn't fit properly. The mechanic had to call in the remachining-guy again to (I think) grind or polish it. He also talked about something with a crank pin (he pointed to a Patrol manual or scheme in English) - probably that it didn't fit well with the bearing shell?
All in all five of the six parts on the crank shaft are fine and working, but the last one needs this extra work.

Other than that, the Patrol is in good shape with no rust problems. We are really just aching to get on the road by now. We have waited three weeks here for the work to be done... Aaaah!

It's really cool that you guys have this forum. We have found lots of useful stuff already. Looking forward to being a part of it!

Anders & Nicoline
(from Copenhagen/Denmark, traveling the Americas)

[RiverPatrol]

Welcome Nicoline and Anders to 60Patrol! How great to hear that you are giving Carlos new life again, and that you will be using him again to tour South America! We look forward to following your travels. Good luck with the mechanical repair. The bearing may be the incorrect bearings - they may have gotten bearings for the P40 motor instead. Sorry, more technical language.

[Esteban]

Welcome Nicoline and Anders, and all the best in your journey. We will be keeping an eye for you.

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions. We'll take turns here. Post some pictures of the repair, if possible.

As RiverPatrol mentioned, they sent you the incorrect bearings from a slightly different engine. Only the first bearing shell changes. It's possible that the pin the mechanic is referring is the one that I have highlighted in the following picture:

Crankshaft bearings.jpg

[Nicolanders]

Thanks a lot for the welcomes! It's really nice to be a part of this board.

And please DO write more technical language. I would very much like to know more about the car and the engine. Everything you write is much welcomed!

You write that we do not have a P40 engine? But it is a P engine, right? 4.0 litre, 143 bhp? (I got that from Wikipedia)

I have uploaded a photo, but it might be a bit outdated - they have probably done some work since.

engine.JPG

It is the top part of the crank shaft they are having problems with, and they say the other five parts are fine, so your explanation makes perfect sense. The mechanic showed me the bearing shell and said it had to be remachined, and then he pointed to the crank pin (thanks a lot for the diagram) and (probably) said that they did not match.

Hopefully we will know more tomorrow. We'll keep you guys posted.

Thanks again

[RiverPatrol]

You are correct, you have the P engine. The P40 engine is pretty much the same engine but with a few variations, the first bearing being one of those variations.

I think it is pretty ironic that Carlos started out in Columbia and was purchased by Jimmy to serve him to drive down the length of the Andes. He came to this site for assistance to get Carlos ready for the trip, and sometimes during the trip. Now, Anders and Nicoline are doing the same thing: bringing Carlos to life to travel in South America. How cool is that?

[sleepyzzz]

welcome to the forum, and good luck on your adventures. I bet they will have your Patrol up and running in no time. please keep a running thread on your travels with lots of pictures. We LOVE pictures.

[Nicolanders]

welcome to the forum, and good luck on your adventures. I bet they will have your Patrol up and running in no time. please keep a running thread on your travels with lots of pictures. We LOVE pictures.

Thanks, we have started a new thread!

http://www.60patrol.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3074