Well he's running well so took him to an auto sparky to investigate why a fuse is blowing leaving me with no hi beam and a couple of other lights out. Doesn't appear to be a simple fix so an extra night in Blenheim it is. I assume he's just getting these problems out of his system early so we can have a trouble free couple of weeks ??

The auto sparky thinks he may have solved the fuse blowing issue without actually finding a definitive answer. The fuse isn't blowing for now at least. There were some suspect wires that have been replaced. In the mean time we took inspiration from here and have a dipstick tether under trial

Fayray said:

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm feeling better about it now. Will see to it this morning but I'm fairly confident we'll be on our way again. I was actually carrying a spare, new dipstick so decided against securing the old one in place doh!

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They always look so small on a recovery vehicle!

Our roadie from Akl to Welly ended in Tirau...

Great posts and great to see your adventure. Sorry your going through some pain and I hope things get better for you

Really wish all the best of luck and lots of fun also

Normally when a dipstick is ejected it’s a crankcase over pressure. Now what causes that is a bigger mystery. I’m not an expert on the Fiats engine so somebody smarter than me can maybe give some pointers. I’m more knowledge on big 6 litre cylinder gas engines with 24 cylinders

Well we're back on the road and have made it south to Kaikoura. 129kms into the teeth of a strong southerly but managed to keep a pretty steady 80kph. The weather is not great and although it didn't rain much on the drive today it chucked it down overnight and it's chucking it down again right now. Barry leaks a bit but to be expected I guess.
I bought a magnet and stuck it to the underside of the sump in an attempt to keep the dipstick remnants at the bottom of the sump.
Hanmer springs tomorrow.

Loving this thread. like your thinking re: magnet ;-)

Fayray said:

Well we're back on the road and have made it south to Kaikoura.
I bought a magnet and stuck it to the underside of the sump in an attempt to keep the dipstick remnants at the bottom of the sump.
Hanmer springs tomorrow.

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Wot no ? whales I seem to remember some pretty heavy rain when we visited there.
The garage owner where I have my cars MOT tested has a collection of old cars including a 1944 Willis jeep. He told me about the rust problem in the tank and I asked him how he dealt with it. With a big magnet he said

Toshi 975 said:

Wot no ? whales I seem to remember some pretty heavy rain when we visited there.
The garage owner where I have my cars MOT tested has a collection of old cars including a 1944 Willis jeep. He told me about the rust problem in the tank and I asked him how he dealt with it. With a big magnet he said

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After about a week straight of electrolysis on Martina's gas tank, and removing lots of corrosion, I put two little round neodymium magnets in the two circular recesses in the bottom. They fit perfectly and they should serve the same purpose - keeping loose rust from polluting the fuel system.

Another night of torrential rain left Barry a bit damp this morning. But the weather slowly cleared to a perfect autumn day. Visited some friends staying at a massive beef stud farm with a large manor house and views to die for. Tonight we are a tiny place called Rotherham in a pub/hotel. Tomorrow it's Christchurch

Great view but we worked hard for it, especially Barry. Banks Peninsula on the road to the summit before dropping precariously into le bons bay. Stayed a couple of nights and Barry was tucked up in the garage resting with some Italian counterparts. Did the drive in reverse on Monday before driving south to Geraldine in a howling hot north westerly which was frankly scary at times. Wind has died down this morning so hopeful of a pleasant drive to Oamaru.

Ha ha had to laugh at “ did the journey in reverse” I had this image of Barry tootling along in reverse gear. Some lovely views keep the commentary up.

Fiona, the idea of driving that road in reverse will now give me nightmares, thanks?

Yesterday we drove from Geraldine to Oamaru, NZ's steampunk capital (every country has one of these, surely?). Beautiful weather, pretty straight road, picnic lunch in Timaru.
So far Barry has covered 1200kms on this trip and we're about halfway. I have put in about 200mls of oil in the engine (most of which was to replace what we lost in the dipstick incident) and 50mls in the gearbox. Off to a small town called Ranfurly today, known for its art Deco buildings.

The drive to Ranfurly was spectacular. Central Otago is stunning and also impossible to do justice with photos taken on my phone. But it'll have to do.
We stayed at the Ranfurly hotel and woke to a thick, cold fog. Barry, for the first time this trip, was not keen to fire up. He eventually did and we headed to Wanaka taking in more amazing scenery. I've driven these roads on numerous occasions but I'm still blown away every time

Well we made it to the festival of speed where Barry was being displayed. This region has not had Proper rain since January so today was the day, of course. It was cold too.
The next morning the weather was beautiful, just in time for our departure. We did 250kms today including a very steep 2nd gear Climb to the Lindis pass summit (summit in photo). Stunning views again. Tomorrow, another 200+KMs. We are heading home.

We've been making a big push to make the Wednesday morning ferry back to the North island. This has meant we've covered around 750kms over the last 3 days. Big hills, long straights, gusty winds, rain and one really bad hotel. Through all this Barry has performed well. One more Day and nearly 400kms and we'll be home. Around 3000kms all up.
Photo from outside tonight's Blenheim accommodation which only comes with one carpark. No problem.

Targeted advertising going to extreme lengths

Just 40kms from home our triumphant return was thwarted by the generator packing up. If we hadn't had to drive the last stretch at night with the lights on we probably would've made it. I never did get to use the spotlights either.
Home now, Barry safety tucked in his garage. He did a terrific job

Congrats. An EPIC road trip. What where the stats? As in total KM, amount of fuel used etc. ;-)

lazylobster said:

Congrats. An EPIC road trip. What where the stats? As in total KM, amount of fuel used etc. ;-)

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I'll have to work all that out. Just shy of 3000kms and I know I was using more fuel than the Peugeot, mainly as he was sticking to my pace and not working too hard. Barry, on the other hand, was working hard all the time. The opening day drive saw him achieve 250kms on a tank. But hills and headwinds really made a difference on other days. I was running 98 octane where available