April 27, 2018
After our breakdown and spending 12 days in Albury courtesy RACQ it was obvious our Landcruiser was going to take some time to sort out. For the last week we had to move the van (with the Manager’s Ute) to a rather “squeezy” site (as we had no vehicle) as he was over booked being both School Holidays and the local Caravan Show.
Our friends Rob and Trish offered their Mitsubishi Challenger to tow the van to their place in Corowa, so here we are for the last 9 days so far. At present they have taken their caravan and gone to visit friends in Port Macquarie so we are house sitting for 2-3 weeks.
Corowa is a very pleasant town (about 5.500 pop.) with all the facilities of a country town; major supermarkets (Woollies and IGA), cafes, clothing stores, opp. shops and all. Right on the Murray River it shares the original river crossing with Wagunyah on the NSW side.
A short drive away is Pfeiffer’s Winery, one of many in the region but the closest to here with a very pleasant outdoor area along the creek where turtles abound! (Hard to see in photos).
As for our Landcruiser it appears that it has had a previous problem that was not properly repaired and which allowed the front pulley (Harmonic Balancer) to come loose and thereby allow the oil pump drive gear to move on the crankshaft causing our loss of oil pressure and power steering. This has damaged the crankshaft and so the minimum work needed was a new crank and rebuild the bottom end. In view of the cost difference we have opted to do a full engine rebuild at a cost of around $8k. This will give us a new engine for our continuing travels and has to be seen as an investment in getting several years out of the cruiser. This is, however going to take another 2-3 weeks so we will be here for a while yet!
It is only about a 1km walk to Woolworths so shopping is not too bad while we are alone here; a friend of Trish’s did offer us the use of a car but we have declined for the time being as it is not hard to get what we need.
more later…..