Border Countdown

I’m sure everyone knows this feeling. You wake up first thing in the morning feeling pretty happy, but it only lasts for a few seconds and then reality comes swarming back in and suddenly getting out of bed seems hard, as then rest of the day going to start and it's not something you really want to deal with. But you don’t have any choice. So you get up, have a lot of caffeine, and get on with it. For a few seconds, I remained blissfully unaware of all of the broken things we needed to fix, the long ridiculously long drive ahead of us and the large amount of money that we still needed to spend to make Ruby a liveable vehicle again. 

We tried to turn the engine on in the vague hope that the previous night was some weird anomaly and that she just started up. Not a chance. Before we could really get stuck into that rather large problem, we decided to take off the radiator and get that fixed. It was now the weekend and it was also a large public holiday so anything that required a workshop was priority number one, before they all closed. It took us a bit longer than usual to prise off the warped radiator and free it from its bent up metal scoop so that it could be taken off the be welded. With that done, Lee went to get the radiator fixed and pick up our brake calliper from the torno. I set about trying to find the source of the engine problem. I had emailed Richard who built our engine loom so as to have another person to talk to and in the midst of this, Alex popped in and asked if he could do anything to stop us both looking quite so haggard. 

The good thing about South America is that there’s pretty much always someone who’ll fix it. And luckily for us, these places were pretty much within walking distance. The radiator was welded for less than $10 and the brake caliper was collected, repaired for $20. Lee then went back to the rather disgruntled brake mechanic who still had all our bolts. He obviously wanted us to return so that he could refit and we could pay him. As far as we were concerned he had done quite enough damage and so we collected our parts and didn’t give him anything. We nearly had everything we needed, except one of the bolts of the calliper had been lost and the workshop hadn’t been able to remove the seized piston. Lee set off on another mission to find a metric bolt (no easy task) and another metal workshop who would remove the piston and refit the new seals for us. 

In the meantime, I was emailing back and forth with Richard to try and find out why our ECU had stopped sending a signal down to the ignition relay. While I waited for a reply, Alex and I beat the crap out of our metal scoop to try and refit the newly repaired radiator back into it. After much hammering, it was finally one unit again. Now I just needed to try and straighten the van chassis out enough to get it back on. This was not the easiest thing to do with a small hammer, lying on the floor. Because the piece of metal had been crushed up, it needed to be hit back down. Except you couldn’t hit it back down because the floor above was in the way. I devised some pieces of rope and levers and did the best I could to pull it back in line. It wasn’t perfect, but the bolts for the scoop now faced vertically and it would have to do. 

Lee returned with a rebuilt brake calliper, with kind of the right bolt, which also would just have to do. More importantly he had managed to find some new o-rings to join the two halves back together and that meant that by the time it grew dark the brakes were reassembled and the radiator refitted. Alex had also helped us order some new parts from Don Astu so that we would leave with windscreen wipers and door seals. We also ordered some new brake pad pins, and as ever it turns out they’re the wrong size and that the Brazilian bays apparently have different brakes. Typical. I hoped our dodgy welded, and bent bank into shape, old pins would hold out until I got my hands on the right ones. As annoying as it was, it was not the main problem by any means. 

Alex had also helped us out by arranging for the roof rack builder to come to us. He turned up in a taxi with the roof rack and mocked it up on the van. It still had a lot of work to be done. This in itself had turned into a bit a pain in the arse. We had arranged and put a deposit down on this before we went to the garage. He had done nothing for about 6 weeks, before sending us a picture. He had basically made us another rack identical to our old one. Not what we had discussed at all. So he had to remake it again to the cad pictures I sent him, which he’d had from the start. It seemed he’d left it so long he had totally forgotten our conversation. We knew we weren’t putting him in the ideal position, only giving him less than 24 hours to finish it from trying it on the van, but he still hadn’t finished off all the parts he didn’t need the van for. Nevertheless, he told me that by midday tomorrow it would be ready. We planned to arrive there and collect it, drive to Machachi and pay Mauricio, before powering down to the border. It was still just about possible. 

Despite the fact that the engine was still not running, we also hadn’t had the time to pack anything else. Richard had now stopped emailing me back as it was getting late in England and we decided to spend the rest of the daylight trying to pack the van some more. It is incredible just how much stuff we fit in this tiny little car and just how long it takes to put it all back. We sat in the garden, ordered our usual ‘breakdown pizza’ and began to sort, clean and put away some more of our things. 

By the time we fell asleep that night, we were a little more in control of the situation. Now I just needed the engine to turn on and the roof rack to be sorted and just maybe we’d make it in time. 

In the morning, armed with a plan, I set about trying to get the engine to turn on. Under Richard’s instructions, we had tested all the ECU’s lives and earths and determined that the problem was with the ECU itself. Now I was planning to bypass the ECU feed and run the two relays, ignition and fuel, off the same live. We hoped this would be enough to get us going again but we didn’t know how it would affect the engine operation. It was a simple enough job to bridge the two relays and isolate the faulty wire and then, just like that, she fired up. I would have been happy if it had been a problem solved, rather than a problem bypassed but for now that was good enough. Finally, it looked like it was time to try and drive again. Despite the fact that we had pretty much packed away all our things, the floor space was now completely full again, now with the contents of the old roof rack that we had left in Alex's garden for several months. I was excited to go and get our brand new roof rack and finally have all of our van back to normal. Then we just needed to make it to the border without anything breaking. 

The drive to the workshop where our roof rack was didn’t take long. I remembered last time we drove this way with the gearbox making hideous noises, bracing ourselves for a long expensive garage run. It was nice at least to put that behind us. We pulled up outside and waited for a while. The gates were shut. Then after a bit, we decided that we were being far too polite and that this was ridiculous so we went and stuck our heads over the wall and talked to the lady there. She was the sister of the welder and she told us he wasn’t here. Behind her on the workbench I could clearly see our unfinished roof rack. It seemed we had little option but to take it as it was, but she didn’t want to let us do that without permission from the welder. We told her we had paid a deposit. We told her we had to get to the border today and we also told her we’d call the police. After a lot of phone calls and a lot of waiting, she eventually got through to the welder’s wife who also didn’t know where the welder was. No one knew where the welder was and the welder didn’t want to answer his phone it seemed. His wife said, though, that we could take it. That was at least a step in the right direction and the lady let us in. We then spent some time looking for all the parts he’d taken off it; keysafe, lights and the like. Finally we had all our stuff and a half finished roof rack that you couldn't fasten to the roof. So we set about trying to fit the roof rack inside the van, this in itself was no mean feat and meant our van was piled floor to ceiling again and you couldn’t get to anything. We didn’t care. We slammed the door shut and headed to Machachi.

We debated the gear problem. We still couldn’t find second gear and it was a long and mountainous drive to the border. We were also running out of time. We decided we’d stay in the garage for a maximum of two hours, if it meant we could get our second gear back. I was pretty sure it was just a case of shortening the shift rod, which was a very quick job and it would be worth the extra delay if it gave us back all of our gears. Despite the fact that it was a Sunday, Mauricio was there to open the gates for us. He already had another lot of travellers there too but we didn’t really have the time to socialise over breakdown stories. Lee headed to the cash point to get out the remaining cash we owed him, while the two of us set about looking at the gears. It didn’t take long before we had the rod off, trimmed, adjusted and back in. And now, to my relief we had all four gears. He also noticed that we had no wipers and he insisted that we go and buy some. I had bought new wiper arms, but my old blades didn’t fit them. We got in his car and headed into town. For once, there was a real sense of urgency. He knew we had to go and wasted no time getting in trying to get us back on the road again. We managed to find one adapter for the wipers, so at least the driver would be able to see, before heading back.

Our allocated time was up. It was 3pm and we already were faced with a night of driving. We hurled the last of our things from around the garage into Ruby and paid up. Mauricio gave me an honorary staff t-shirt in light of my birthday the following day and we thanked him for everything before making a rapid exit. Now nothing stood between us and Peru except a lot of miles.

Google had said an 8 hour drive and if we made it by midnight, that would be amazing. We knew that realistically, even with the good roads in Ecuador we were unlikely to be there by then but we decided that however long it took, we would drive until we were at the border. It was possible to sleep in the car park there after all. At this point, I was somewhat of a wreck. Stress, lack of sleep and physical exhaustion from the crazy hours we had put in all that final week had taken its toll and while I would have happily split the driving I was more than happy to just be the passenger. 

Before too long, we were in the rain and I was glad Mauricio had insisted that we go and get that wiper, driving now without it would have been horrible and pretty dangerous despite the good roads. Then, darkness fell and I was now happy that all the headlights had been rewired and actually worked. This was especially when the good roads gave out to some rougher sections, specifically as we crossed over the Andes mountains and a particularly bad landslide. Things on the whole weren’t going too badly. The roads weren’t great and neither was the weather but the engine didn’t skip a beat. Apart from the horrible clunking from the rear shock absorber, things were pretty sweet. We were about 8 hours in, and nowhere near the end, when we hit our first problem.

We crossed through a mountain village and then as we left, were confused for a moment as things seemed a bit on the dark side. It seemed that our headlight relay had chosen that moment to fail. I suppose it hadn’t been used that heavily for a while. At least I still had access to all the tools, as we hadn’t put them away yet and before too long I bodged a temporary wire across so that they were permanently on. It wasn’t pretty, or right, but it would work. The hours ticked away… now we were only two hours away. We pulled up to a road junction, blocked by people. It seemed to be some kind of protest and we hung around for a bit, unsure if they might give up and go away when it hit midnight. As we debated what to do, the detour around it would add on another hour, a car pulled up next to us. A friendly family told us that they had been there for weeks  and would probably be there for weeks more. They recommended we go around. Despite the fact that the last thing we wanted was another hour of driving, we took their advice and headed off. We hadn’t got far when a car pulled up behind us flashing its lights. We didn’t really feel like being flagged down by a random car at this time of night, so we ignored it. Then it pulled in front and we realised it was the friendly family. They wanted to give us bananas and $20 while apologising profusely about the blockade which was not in any way their fault. Still, it was a lovely gesture. 

As we approached the border town, we were less than 30 minutes from the border itself and apparently Ruby wasn’t done for the day. She still had one last mini breakdown in her before leaving Ecuador. By this point it was raining fairly heavily and so Ruby decided that driving with one wiper was too much of a privilege and so blew the fuse to the wiper motor. With no spare fuses at this point, I had to pull a fuse out of something less important and we carried on. We would get to the border, even if I had to get out and push us the last few kilometres! 

It was 4am when we finally arrived. Lee had done the entire 14 hour drive and had gone through being tired and was just slightly wired. I was knackered. All I wanted to do was sleep. That in itself was not the simple thing it usually is. With the camper so full, I commando crawled down the work surface to get to the other end and put the roof up. Then, fully clothed, we fell into bed to catch a few hours of well deserved sleep. We had made it.

As we have yet another pretty much photo free blog, I'll add the relevant link here for the corresponding video. How else will you get the full drama of me bodging the fuseboard in the middle of the mountains in the early hours of the morning?

https://youtu.be/l8OkO1iJcYc?si=F1SNYcsD8EpqroAg