Post by NigelMoore on Oct 20, 2019 10:19:15 GMT
Oct 20, 2019 9:24:45 GMT Jim said:
Renault 4s were great little cars, once picked one up for £30, fitted a new clutch and away it went. The front chassis frame came apart on a camping trip to north wales, I lashed it back together with blue string and a spanish windlass to get us home. It used to be said that with 4 sturdy passengers you could take it anywhere a 4x4 could go, if it got stuck just pick it up and move it.I loved mine; it was the first car I ever owned, and I too used to take it off-road to ridiculous places (such as 4WD testing grounds in the bush near Perth), and have had to physically lift it across obstacles in order to get out. Only front or back at a time of course, not having 3 other bodies with me.
The one complaint I had was that it was over-geared and under-powered, making driving out of problem situations betimes impossible – even in reverse.
Crossing flooded river fords was often perilous – that photo is of the north bank of the Yure, just after a cyclone, which precipitated the only rains we used to get in the area maybe once a year. I waded across to check on depth, to find it waist high in the middle and beyond the Renault’s capability. Had a couple of cigarettes before crossing back over, to find it increased to chest height; levels rose swiftly in those circumstances. I later learnt that a car at my hoped for destination which had tried to drive across from the caravan park into Roebourne, had been swept away and never found.
I sensibly resigned myself to not getting there and spent a day or so just camping out, until another car came up and said we would have to return if we were not to be trapped, as the previous river he had driven across was starting to fill. I only just made it, revving furiously as the engine threatened to stall in the middle of that ford.
On the first 1,000 mile drive to Port Hedland from Perth, a drive shaft spline broke off in the gearbox, and I spent a week by the roadside trying to extract replacements from a serendipitously situated roadside wreck I bought off a garage chap for $50. Had no idea what I was doing, and ended up installing the drive shafts minus the bearings in the universal couplings. Still worked well enough to get me ‘home’ at the mining camp.
Eventually driving it back down from Hedland, I had further ‘adventures’ with flooded fords and over-sized front wheel replacements, with a sandblasted windscreen impossible to see through. I promised it that if it only got me to Perth, I would retire it in a field of daisies, and I am happy to report that I did just that.