the furthest Oso’s been in 8 years….

 As the title suggests this the furthest Oso has been driven in 8 years! To the Santiago border, halfway behind the volcano, just short of the infamous bandito back road, with much gear crunching I discover I’m in the wrong range and still have many things still to learn.

  After another 3 days of waiting, more seals arrived from the city – yes again – this time my helpful mechanics discovered that seals in the “used” replacement brake pump were “used” for a reason and we are  back to square one, just a hundred meters further forward but conveniently in front of Chief mechanic Bartolo’s house.  He can’t forget to fix him there!!  As it happens he’s just entering the house so we climb under and look at the floppy clutch, there are no pools of brake fluid so we squeeze off the dust boot and  here we go.. another set of perished seals.

In the meantime there are more fun and games to be had with the internal electrics.  Having played with the wiring more and with the luxury of a tester, I suspect there are issues unsurprisingly, with the 8 year old batteries.  As previously mentioned 2 out of 3 of the solar panels are working although somewhat mysteriously, they are fluctuating between 8 and 15 volts… it’s all still a little more intelligible than gibberish.  The control box issue seems to be resolved and the  next trick is to connect the alternator to the magic control box.  We have to ascertain it has this capability, then the battery bank can be charged without solar.  However, until I have learned more about that progress may be impede!  Do any of my followers out there in the ether have any ideas?

Adding to my challenges the 2 built in voltmeters have gone on the blink.  Electric issues aside we move onto this morning’s events.  The rebuild kit for the clutch has arrived, by 9am we have it rebuilt and replaced and I haul the battery in from the other truck (I still only have one 12volt battery in Oso, he needs 2 for his 24 volt system!!), fire him up and we’re off!

I give the controls to mechanic no 2, Clemento, a bull of a man, looking concerned at the top of a hill he decides against driving any further; not very confidance inspiring!!! He then tries to get out of the rolling-down-hill truck, grinning and shaking his head whilst repeating “no puedo” with me  telling him to keep his foot on the foot brakeas  the handbrake isn’t quite tight enough!!  I scramble around to the other side, Oso slipping backwards, squash my foot on the brake pedal as Clemento moves aside and  crunching Oso into 1st we slowly ease up the hill. Fortunatley uphill going forwards the brakes work but weren’t working backwards, down hill!!

We perform a quick lap of the town and return to the bus depot; a spot more adjusting of the brakes and we’re off again, my newly placed cushion for a seat sliding as I stamp  on the clutch.  Oh, I forgot to mention, much to Petra’s disdain, I removed the 2 air-ride Recaro front seats in favour of 3 seat bases from an old bus.  I can now take 2 passengers, reasonably comfortably, (See post ‘why 2 passengers??’) and the amount of space in the cab seems to have doubled and clambering into the back is now a bit more of a respectable crawl.

 Back at chicken bus HQ Petra has  picked Emilia up from school and they are both eagerly waiting for me.  I suggest  a drive to the frontera- the border of san pedro and santiago, 2 neighbouring municipalities.

“Are you sure?” Petra enquires shooting a nervous glance at the departing Clemento.  With a backwards wave he assures us  ‘everything good’ and we set off on our maiden voyage.Up through town, past the entrance to the volcano, further up the mirador (lookout-overlook), at least it’s all uphill!! I can’t for the life of me change from 1st to second and I  had it so good down on the flat!  Nothing to do but sit back, relax and let the old beast growl loudly up the hill.

Several  extremely steep hills later and still in first gear, we approach the valley on the saddle behind the volcano, time to double clutch into second, maybe 3rd…. I even manage 4th but he doesn’t have much power. Turning around to head back down I have a flash of insight, maybe street gear is too high!! I change Oso into low…much better!  Gear-changing now possible,we barrel down the hill in4th. It’s time to test the breaks as I f we’re going too fast to change down.  There’s an initial response but with all my weight on the brake pedal we still appear to be barreling albeit with some slow easing to a halt.  I’m glad I didn’t try that on a busy road! The brakes smell terrible, smoke is  billowing out of the hubs and we’re crawling down in 1st gear and hauling on the handbrake! However whenthe brakes cool and the air pressure climbs up we have brakes again and a nervous Petra ensures I don’t dare change up gear and go too fast. Emilia is asleep and oblivious to it all!

It’s all a learning curve – 50 year old vehicles don’t perform like their grand chidren!  After a slow, uneventful coast down we briefly take the finca road, another photo opportunity taken and back at the depot I discover I reversed into a pole, smashing the right indicator!  The curve sometimes becomes a spike  and we now have a disturbing sound coming from the front driver’s side?? I get Clemento on the sidestep, see if he can identify the source but it’ll have to wait till manyana..

What a fantastic day, the voyage will truly begin!  Clambering out of oso I feel like I’ve been behind the wheel all day.  My clutch thigh is going to be monstrous!!