Getting ready for the road roamers run number 7 and a question for the mechanics amongst us.

[garbaldy]

We came into port after a short trip and headed back to the cars.

 

 

The four of us parked dockside to wait for the ferry to go back and collect the others which it turned out had broken down.

 

 

While waiting we discovered a hedgefind.

 

 

Finally the ferry arrived and the strays limped off.

 

 

Turns out the mgb starter had given up so they had to seek the captain's permission to leave the car running, the mini was alternator issues so he cut and run and was going to call breakdown when the battery ran out of juice.

[garbaldy]

Looks lovely up there. You had the weather too! Did you book it in advance?

The weather was ridiculously hot and quite a few cars where suffering,

The guys who organised it paid around half the price for their rooms as they booked well in advance, the other half of the group couldn't even get ferry tickets as left it too late and was full.

I booked a couple of months in advance as I always leave thing last minute.

[garbaldy]

We all set off in convoy and I thought we where heading for a quick jaunt up the coast to Fort William,

 

 

Nope another ferry and we all squeezed on.

 

 

This one was a quick ten minute afair and we finaly touched down and this time it was a quick blast to the end, at the hotel we met up with some of the others who hadn't got the ferry to Mull.

 

 

After some blether and storey swapping we checked in and headed for a shower.

 

 

This was a lovely twin room all to myself so a great nights sleep was planned, except the room was like an oven with only a shitty little fan to blow the warm air about. Never mind a cold shower was in order but the night got of to a good start as no soap in the shower dispenser and a quick look showed that there wasn't even a cartridge in it, That's fine thinks I just reach round the corner to the dispenser next to the sink, squeeze squeeze empty aswell

so a water only shower was all I could do.

[garbaldy]

After a steak dinner that was more than adequate we all headed for the town and its a lovely place.

 

 

After consuming enough drink to drown an elephant and dancing till the small hours it was taxi back to hotel.

 

 

Yes yes that's a bit of bullshit as it's clearly still daylight so let's change that to a taxi to the pub

 

After what I would describe as a really shit nights sleep Day one was done,

 

Recap

Two cars overheating, one lost starter one lost alternator and one puncture oh and a hotel with no soap and shitty fans to try and cool the rooms and all at the bargain price of £138.49 for the night,

[garbaldy]

So just back from the fifth Roamers run and what another great weekend it was,

The wee colt was put on charge as battery was flat then pulled out the garage filled with petrol fluid levels checked and driven down to Belford car show.    After that I added a couple of hundred miles onto it to make sure it was ready to roam.

The run was finally here on Saturday and we set off from berwick  at 9.30am and headed south.

Eventually stopping for tea and cake at a lovely pub.

After this break it was off again to the next viewing point which was ideal for a photo or two.

[garbaldy]

After a few minutes a car pulled up and started talking about the cars and asked if we where going round Alston  green a mile up the road then said if you do she would shout us all to a pint.

At the bird in bush we all had a drink on the recent owner of the pub what a lovely lady and we will be back for sure.

[Split_Pin]

That looks a cracking day out. I didn't know Belford had a car show. Nice place, I went my summer holidays there as a kid many decades ago!

[garbaldy]

After that it was more driving then another stop for snacks.

After toileting and snacking we headed back into Scotland.

Then we aimed our chariots to Penrith for the overnight via heartside.

 

[garbaldy]

4 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

That looks a cracking day out. I didn't know Belford had a car show. Nice place, I went my summer holidays there as a kid many decades ago!

I did post it on here but you must have missed it.   It was a cracking day except rather cold.

[garbaldy]

I did write another post with more pics and writeup but it disappeared so here's a shortened version because cannot be arsed to do it all over again.

After a good night with too much to drink and kicked out the pub at 11pm it was back to hotel for a shower then a good night's sleep.   Up for buffet breakfast to keep us going for the day we set off back up heartside with plenty one wheel hero antics Hopefully caught by the camera guy taking pics.

This guy couldn't do the whole weekend due to work so drove up from Leeds in his 306 to do the Sunday.

This one ended up stuck at the top for hours awaiting recovery, 

We headed for Alnwick via Rothbury then up the coast and cut across to the finish at milfield cafe.

A brace of fords.

And finally the group that have done all five runs, plenty more have come and gone but always had a good turn out into double figures.

 

[Jim Bell]

That looks like great fun man. Weather didn't look too bad either. 

It's always fantastic to see the little Colt out under the sun. 

[garbaldy]

1 minute ago, Jim Bell said:

That looks like great fun man. Weather didn't look too bad either. 

It's always fantastic to see the little Colt out under the sun. 

Yes it's always great to just burn some fuel for fun.  A group of us are thinking of doing another one later this year so hopefully it will happen, either that or I will try and get to some meet ups.

[Uphillbox]

Thanks for documenting the run, that was a great read with great photos

[tul66]

Do you have any more planned? I'm not a million miles away.

[garbaldy]

So the time for run number 7 is approaching fast and it's back to mull again, well did say we'd be back. 

Anyhoo the colt has leaked oil from the head since i bought it and I've even had the headset for 10 of them 😃  patience is a virtu or so they say.  

Took the bull by the horns and the result one heed off.   Took all of an hour and every single nut and bolt was easy to remove, I actually stripped it with a quarter inch socket set my go to tool set. 

[garbaldy]

Following night I cleaned surfaces ready for rebuild.  

[garbaldy]

It's now mostly back together but I'm wondering best course of action for this alloy corrosion under the hoses.  Its had 50/50mix of antifreeze since I've owned it but still the alloy has furred up quite badly  

anyone have any ideas on how to stop it getting worse or happening again. 

[garbaldy]

Well that's another years roaming done and 568 miles covered without a hitch.  

Excellent roads 

Porsch chasing

even a bit of car spotting with added pinky

Great run home from oban ferry and shaved 28 mins of sat nav time.  

 

[garbaldy]

After some off the clock shenanigans I thought I'd change the oils and set to and drained the box first,  oops I never checked that I had the right oil and guess what I don't 🙄

It's stating use.  castrol hypoy light ep80w which I'm guessing is NLA as can't seem to find it.      Anyone recommend an equivalent oil ?     Was it @red5 that was into these back in the day or did I miss remember that too.  

[grogee]

I would say a 75w90, EP80W90 or similar gear oil will be fine, I can't imagine there's anything witchcraft-y in the box that's going to throw a wobbly from slightly wrong oil. 

In most cases the oils available today are 'better' than their olde worlde equivalents because science, technology and BIG OIL $$$. 

[garbaldy]

5 hours ago, grogee said:

I can't imagine there's anything witchcraft-y in the box that's going to throw a wobbly from slightly wrong oil. 

That's normally the way I think but as it's the 10 speed twin stick then I'm very eager not to risk any damage as getting a new box would be interesting.

Most oil's I've found state they are synthetic based which is at a guess to thin for this.  

[jonathan_dyane]

EP80W is still widely available 

[garbaldy]

36 minutes ago, jonathan_dyane said:

EP80W is still widely available 

Yes it is and I have two 5 litre tubs of the stuff but its thicker than what was removed from box which I guess is this stuff   castrol hypoy light ep80w  as states in manual filled for life,  it also doesn't smell like the ep80 I'm used to. 

[jonathan_dyane]

This is a good read

https://www.lotuscorps.org/wp/the-great-gear-oil-conundrum/

[garbaldy]

28 minutes ago, jonathan_dyane said:

This is a good read

Talk about over complicating things 😉

Looks like this should be reet so ordered 3. 

[2flags]

Great photos. Looks like it is a wonderful trip. 

[red5]

75w-90 GL4.

It does make a difference. 

[garbaldy]

On 19/06/2024 at 21:59, 2flags said:

Great photos. Looks like it is a wonderful trip

Yes it's ways been a great weekend run out as done it from the start, there's ony 5 of us left from the first one but still gets 15 plus cars per year,  ive already got my name down for next year and they haven’t even decided where to go yet.  

[garbaldy]

15 hours ago, red5 said:

75w-90 GL4.

It does make a difference. 

Here's hoping castrol information is correct as they said the above is direct replacement for the oil required.  

[red5]

Change it every couple of years.  Box is fairly robust, the taper roller bearings (on the main and layshafts) can wear if you don't change the oil regularly.

👍