Monday 8 July 2013

335 naughty again!

335 made it to North Weald bus rally, its first one under my ownership and in its restored original livery (dots excepted!) but only just.....

Just as we came off the M11 to join the A414 for the short drive to the airfield, the power steering failed.

Having found that the power steering pump reservoir was bone dry it was duly topped up with more fluid and the steering "rocked" to bleed the system...........all that actually happened was a massive flood of fluid all over the floor between the rear wheels - we'd found the reason why the reservoir was empty and thus why the power steering had failed.

Given that it will need to be raised in the air to fix the problem pipe, and of course that wasn't practical on the airfield/rally site, the decision was taken to make use of the breakdown cover that I thankfully have in place and get 335 towed back home where the mechanics next door can tackle the latest issue. I'm sure they'll be as glad as I will be one day to see 335 go out on a trip and come back again without actually breaking down - it really has broken down every single time I've taken it out on the road!!






As you can see in the image, she was towed backwards - the reason for doing it this way is that it saves having to remove the half shafts from the the double reduction hubs or disconnecting the prop - this can only be done if the towing lorry has a long enough boom though!

I was already intending to take 302 to the Newbury bus rally on 14th July, though I was gonna consider the possiblity of taking 335 if it behaved for North Weald - this latest incident has definitely made my mind up!!

335 has a lot to prove before I'll trust it to go anywhere........

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