Saturday, Oct 25, 2014 at 18:27
In July 1969, I took my 15 mth old HK Holden ute and a mate, and drove
Perth-
Darwin-
Alice Springs-
Adelaide-
Perth - in one month (and with a fair few detours along the way).
Somewhere about halfway between
Erldunda and
Kulgera, around midday, we stripped the fibre timing gear in the motor. We had plenty of
tools and supplies - but no timing gear. There was absolutely nothing between
Alice Springs and
Coober Pedy back then.
We waited for a few hours and a truckie driving an old cabover E.R.F. pulling a tandem semi-trailer rolled up from the direction of
Alice Springs. He was doing an
Adelaide-
Darwin run and return.
After some discussion we all came to the opinion that
Adelaide would probably be the nearest source of a timing gear, so leaving my mate with the ute, I hitched a lift with the truckie - who drove all night, non-stop.
The old E.R.F. was flat out at about 60kmh, like most Pommy trucks of the 50's and 60's era, and the major thing I recall about that trip was the truckie winding the old ERF up to full speed for a few kms, then backing off the pedal and going down through a heap of gears to bash our way through creek crossings, then up out the other side and up through the cogs again for a few more
miles - only to repeat the whole exercise about 100 times that night.
We pulled into
Coober Pedy at 7:00AM the next morning, after covering about 450kms in 15 hrs. The truckie said to me, "While I order some brekky, walk up to the end of town and see that bloke with the new shed, he's a mechanic who has just moved into town. You just might get lucky, you never know".
I walked up to what was about the only new above-ground building in town, out of about half a dozen buildings in the whole town.
I walked into the shed and my heart sank. It was basically just a nearly-bare new shed. A nice shed, nonetheless, but it was obvious the bloke was still setting up in business.
I approached the shed owner and said, with some trepidation, "G'day mate, you wouldn't happen to have a new timing gear for a Holden red motor, would you?
He thought for a second, and said, "I believe I do!"
He walked over to the corner of the shed where there was a solitary 44 gallon (200L) drum with the top cut out of it. He reached inside that (nearly empty) drum, fossicked around the few boxes that occupied the bottom of the drum - and pulled out a new timing gear for a Holden red motor!!
To say I was chuffed was the understatement of the week. I went back to the roadhouse, had brekky with the truckie, tried to offer him money for the lift, which he refused - and we shook hands and we parted ways.
I gathered up some fresh food supplies and went out on the road to hitch a lift North again.
First ride was on the back of an Aboriginal community truck! That was interesting, sitting on the back with 20 of the "locals" as they passed flagons around to swig on - and of course, offering me a swig as
well! Naturally, I declined, and they didn't seem offended.
The truck only took me about 80kms North before they turned off to the West.
I sat on the road for an hour or two and a bloke in a little
sedan rolled up and gave me a lift.
He was on his way to the Alice and he dropped me off at the ute, where a very relieved mate was very glad to see me!
We set to and removed the stripped timing gear and refitted the new one, with some difficulty, as you're supposed to remove the motor to do so. We managed to fit it O.K., although we failed to get a good seal between the timing cover and the sump and we ended up with an oil leak there. Nonetheless, we were on our way!
Of all the things I've found in my travels - finding a new timing gear for a Holden red motor in a place like
Coober Pedy in 1969, rates as amongst one of the best things I've ever found!
AnswerID:
540854
Follow Up By: snow - Saturday, Oct 25, 2014 at 21:12
Saturday, Oct 25, 2014 at 21:12
Ron you did
well mate! Yep those bloody fibre timing gears, I blew one on my HZ ute in around '84 just in sundown South of
Innisfail.
FollowupID:
826748