Not possible….. Failed again. Thats not part of the plan.
Anyone who has tried to get compliance will know that the modern braking machines are the absolute devil . After some quick re-adjustments at VINZ the brakes were now worse than ever.The inspector had given us 3 days to fix it otherwise we would have to pay for and sit a whole new inspection. So there we were stuck in hamilton with brakes that wouldn’t get us back over the Divvy, no idea where to go to get them fixed or how much it would cost. Up-until now everything had been done on a tight budget in the back-yard. Some of the guys in town charge $100 per hour. We were up shit creek.
What do you do when you don’t have a paddle…Google it. There are not that many places in Hamilton that even have big enough yards for buses so that narrowed it down to a few. We had a very sweaty, scary drive across town with minimal brakes and found a guy who would take us. We prayed to all known deities that he could fix our problem. Back to Raglan.
We didn’t have to wait long. The next day the phone call came and it was a HUGE problem.
The mechanic couldn’t take the back brake-drums off to look at the brakes pads because someone, at some time in the buses long history had welded the lock nut onto the axial and there was no way of getting it back on. So in lay mans terms for me, essentially, opening a can of worms. A very expensive can of worms. He advised us that we were better off not to have the work done at his establishment as it would be extremely expensive. We were beginning to think the dream might be over.
Where to now?? We couldn’t take it back to Raglan because there was no one there who could help us. This was a specialist job calling for the only known Bedford specialist in the country, Lance Cryer. We had some dealings with this infamous man over the years getting parts send over now and then. Finally we would get to meet him.
Lucky for us he lives just out of Thames and could see us the next day. We decided to make a day of it, take the kids, go exploring the Thames coast,stay the night, all the while secretly praying that it would be an easy fix for the Bedford Guru. Please let it be able to be fixed?? But for how much?? Everything can be fixed it just costs money, How much money??Maybe the bus is a dud ????We took a huge gamble investing in this bus and there’s still the possibility it has a fundamental flaw that can’t be fixed.Is she destined for the scrap heap.??? Plenty to worry about. We had invested a lot, Johny had left his job and we were living off his holiday pay, we had poured so much money and time and tears and blood into it and it could all be for nothing??? Yeah so you kind of get the drift about how stressful this was.
After we dropped the bus off we stopped in at the information centre and discovered there was a beach nearby where you can go crystal hunting. ‘What a lovely idea’. We brought a picnic and drove to the rocky point. This is just what we needed, a day at the beach to de-stress. That was not to be and just as we had opened the boot. We got the call from Lance.”Its not good news I’m afraid”
Back in his typically shabby,dirty mechanics lunch room we sat side by side awaiting the news. I felt like we were in a doctors rooms awaiting news on wheather it was cancer or not. Lance sat in his swivel chair with a grim look.
“Its not good news I’m afraid. We are going to have to take the whole back axial off and replace it”
We had no choice. It was either give up the dream or have the work done. And worry about how we are going to pay for it later.