Nicolas Rapp is driving around the world but along the way he has had some minor mechanical setbacks.   You can read more about it on his blog, but the short story is that a steering sector shaft broke, which led to a collision that led to to front axle mayhem.

When Nicolas finally rolled into Costa Rica after a delay in Honduras and another in Nicaragua, it couldn't have come as much of a surprise that he was bound for yet another delay.   When I offered him a place to spend a night or two, I thought that we might fix some minor detail on the truck, enjoy a few beers, and wave goodbye after, um, a night or two.  But the Cruiser gods had something else in mind.

The last post I wrote has some more pics and info about finding a broken side gear in the differential.  For those of you not mechanically inclined, a broken gear in the front differential can safely be considered a major repair.  Not quite catastrophic, but very bad.   So it was incredible good luck that he ended up here, and that I noticed the problem, and that we could tear into it.

Even more incredibly lucky, on the order of "I really can't believe it" lucky, is that Toyota Costa Rica had a new differential gear set in stock.   It was even about 25% less expensive than the same part in the USA, which was a nice touch to the "Holy Moly we have been lucky on this job!" situation.  So we ordered the part and some other minor spares, and they came a mere 24 hours later.   In the mean time, I determined that setting up the differential was a little beyond my expertise level for a vehicle that will soon find itself in the wilds of Africa.  Our great luck continued when we found a qualified mechanic who could put the diff back together for us in "1 day".  Not too surprisingly for Costa Rica, "1 day" took a little longer than 36 hours.   Still well within the realm of giddiness-inducing great luck.

While we were waiting on various parts to arrive and mechanics to perform, we also took a look at what Nicolas thought was a potential overheating problem.  As it turned out, it is merely a fairly normal phenomenon for this model-year gas-powered Cruiser.  The front DS fender gets hot when you drive them in hot weather.  Who knew?   But just to be on the safe side, we did change out his thermostat/gasket and get a new radiator cap.  We also bought and installed a temperature gauge so that he has something more than just the stock gauge for helping determine if he is running hotter than he should be.  In the short period that he was here after the gauge install, it seems that he maintains temps between 195 and 210, which is perfectly normal operating temperature for his motor.  More good news!

We sent Nicolas and Nadia off with a quick trip to a beautiful local beach and vague directions towards Arenal.  The beach gave us a good location to test out his newly repaired differential lockers (they work!) and also a nice primer on how to drive in sand.

All said, their visit was closer to eight days than two or three, but they were wonderful guests and we certainly can't blame them that the Cruiser needed a little more mechanical work than anyone had anticipated.  I would be happy to host them again any time, though I must admit that we are looking forward to getting our daily schedule back towards a more normal state of affairs.   I should point out-- Nicolas did an amazing job of supplying us with Nicaraguan beer and Rum.  I'm sure we put a serious dent into what must have been his libations stash.  Nadia was 100% smiles and a dish-washing-dervish, which is always welcome in our perpetually just-shy-of-clean kitchen.

As an extra bonus, now when I follow Nicolas' website around the world, I'll get the added happy feeling of knowing the author and knowing that I was able to give back a little of the generosity that I have been fortunate to receive in the past.  I only wish that we could have spent a little more time driving around this beautiful area instead of wrenching on his truck.  Oh,well...  next time.

Labels: 4wd, 4x4, Costa Rica, expedition, land cruiser, photo, repair, travel