Eaton Fe arrives home

[Eaton_FE]

We arrived home from the nationals yesterday at 1100 hrs, and what an adventure it was.
During the trip we one call to the NRMA over a brake problem in Goulburn, then we did a timing gear 5 km out of Murrayville on a Friday evening ( now that is an interesting feeling ) and thanks to the great support of FC0058 and his many contacts for supplying parts and moral support. I would also like to thank Darkside Mick ( my travelling companion in the Red FE Ute ) for his support.

The car was transported to Adelaide and the milage at the start of the journey to the Nat's was 77792 and finished on 81339 total 3547miles, The car is an FE Special sedan with the original grey motor a single carby and extractors
Total fuel used was 654.72L 95% of fuel used was premium
The highest we paid for fuel was 179.9 cents per litre on the Nullabour.
The Oil was topped by 1 litre, and that was our mark left every where we stopped.
The roughest roads were in outback NSW and Victoria.
The smoothest road was the Nullabour plain, Great Easterm Hwy and Hume Hwy.
Greenest area was the Nullabour plain.

[customFC]

Good to hear you arrived home safely despite the little dramas.
Regards
Alex

[fe-ambo]

Glad you made it home.
I must agree with you on the roads in NSW, some of them are terrible.

Cheers
Paul

[surferboy]

G'day Les
Sorry to hear about the problems you had.
Good to see it got sorted and you were able to continue the adventure
We would have drove drove down from Broken Hill with the Gaffa Tape and cable ties on the way to Wudinna on the Sat morning if we had known about the timing gear going.

You must be looking like this  after getting safely home after a 3,547 mile trip in a Grey motored FE across the country. Is there a smiley that shows what Lyn looks like ?

I bet your highest fuel was at Cocklebiddy

I'll guess I'll find out if I used any oil when the wagon goes in for it's next service.

The 60km to club meetings will seem really easy after this


  & The future Mrs

[Eaton_FE]

Lynne had the  look to start with.
If we had tape earlier, we could have sped up the repairs, The mechanic did say if you had the tape you could have fixed this yourself.

Green peace is still on the case looking for the car that left all of those big puddles.

Les

[stapla]

I stayed in tooleybuc on the friday night after the nats.  Travelled through murrayville on the saturday morning. 

I didn't read the forum about your problems but I didn't have a spare gear anyway.

Sounds like the timing gears are a bit of a weak point so I might invest in a spare myself. 

Can the valves / pistons get damaged if a gear breaks ?

Cheers
Peter.

[GOA350]

I put a new Timing set in my FC when i built the engine and they are great. I got them through the Vic club, but they get them from SA so it shouldn't cost too much for you to get a set. They are all steel. If you want any more detail just contact Nasco Hunter on the forum and send him a PM.
 Cheers Scotty

[surferboy]

This all brings back horrible memories of WIDGIEMOOLTHA

The fibre gears gave way while overtaking a road train
Just a little   "pop"   as i was hurtling past the drivers cab

then

NOTHING 
No acceleration as I'm pulling in front of the truck and NO shoulder to pull onto and a BIG truck getting very close
it's kind of scarey

Mechanic at Norseman fixed it up with alloy gears from repco (? from memory)
and i learnt its not a timing gear...its gears

 

[RET]

Can the valves / pistons get damaged if a gear breaks ?

Not unless your head has been seriously decked. The valves don't travel beyond the depth of a stock head.

cheers
RET

[Eaton_FE]

When mine went it just coughed and stopped, no more noise (expert for the wind but that soon stopped)
No valves bent or any other adverse effects, only the timing gear was changed and it doesn't make any noise.
I was still able to drive it home, most of the time at the speed limit.

If it had not been for FC 0058 and one of the Darkside twins, I would still be sitting on the side of the road crying.


Les

[collecta]

When i organised this gear set for Jim, I was a bit dubious about noise, but i will now use a set myself seeing how your happy with them.
cheers
Scott