Hasta Luego, Buenos Aires!

The oil pump caused a 2 day delay in getting the bus prepared for the next leg of the trip. Jason and Rody were finally able to get the oil pump machined into something that would work.  If you need to put an Argentinean oil pump into a ‘German’ (Brazilian, actually) case, you will need to put your oil pump on a lathe and take off 2.5 mm from the inside.  You’ll also need to press out the shaft on one of the pump gears just a bit. Since the Argentinean bloque isn’t as thick as ours, the pump inlet and outlet ports don’t quite line up and the pump just won’t generate any pressure otherwise. It’s close, but just won’t work. Now, you know.

We did manage to completely go through the front end – a messy all-day affair complete with welding. Fortunately, there were no broken springs (a suspicion) but we did flip the springs around and regained 5 cm in suspension travel!  Before, the tren delantero was cansado, as they say.  Now, it’s more awake. And, we found out that all 4 ball joints (rotulas!) are shot, along with one tie rod. Again, these are different on the Argentinean models. We now have a date with a parts shop in Montevideo, Uruguay where we hope to find replacements.

There were lots of other small projects, and we didn’t even finish them all before we decided it was just time to get moving – there will always be something…. Rody and the gang had a final asada for us and we were finally off –  onward and upward!