Sawarsi was more of a site seeing trip for me. Reason i reached Sawarsi with max 5 litres of fuel in my tank
Dony ask how, why its a long story and non availability of Petrol in one of the last pumps on the way to the trail.
We left Karjat in the morning having completed the AKC. Got up filled water in the Radiator (hardly any had leaked out so the Haldi was working). Started the engine and it fired in one go, a relief after the episode in AKC the previous day of getting stuck in the water. Amazingly the engine fired in just a touch of the switch. What a machine. Silently it was purring away. As we left Karjat after saying our goodbyes and Thank yous, barely had we left the farm i noticed the water temp meter, fast crossing 100. Thats bad news. I turned back to the farm with Ubs's Jeep armed with his mechanic. Ubs had left ahead with Tejas.
On returning to the farm, we saw no leakage but the water was boiling. We narrowed it down to the Haldi. It had done more than what it was required to do. Probably had blocked some other lines as well so we drained the water out and kept flushing the radiator with fresh water, until the colour of the water turned into a pale pale yellow from the dark deep saffron. Also the previous nights flooding incident had left the radiator chocked with mud and stuff from the outside. Ubs in the meanwhile had turned back as he found us missing in the convoy.
A few more flushes later we left the radiator without a cap and drove behind UBS.
A few kilometers down the road, the Jeep developed a profound "Death Wobble" To know what a death wobble is see the video below.
Death Wobble Death Wobble Axle View
This was a scary way to drive so we stopped to fix it.
Without getting into the reasons of the problem and cures in this post or thread, we found that a few nuts and bolts from the steering box and ancillaries had gone loose. We tightened them, also adjusted the setting on the tie-rod and poof, it was driving beautifully. Please note that this was also a stop gap arrangement like the Haldi.
Others had reached Lucky restaurant at Karjat Village and were waiting for us to join in. Sawarsi was awaiting us too.
We noticed here that the temperature was again rising towards 100+ mark. We had to get the radiator hosed to get all the muck out. Enroute we noticed a service station, a blessing in disguise, and pulled in. Rs 200/- (highway robbery) got us a strong flush of water jet on either side of the radiator and you will not believe the muck that came out. No wonder it was heating, the fins were chocked. Minutes later we were on our way to Lucky restaurant for a hot Misal Pav breakfast. The temperature never crossed 80-85 after this.
We reached Sawarsi during lunchtime or way past it. The drive to the top was enchanting and straight out of a movie. The steep inclines (reminded me of old Khandala ghats) surrounded by lush green vegetation and not a sign of any one on the road, except stones, twigs and boulders strewn on the road, showing signs of a very recent landslide.
We met everyone who were enjoying some Biryani lunch and setting out to obstacle two.
I could see three obstacles there.
A huge deep pit Another deep pit filled with muddy water for those who had not had enough at Karjat And a steep climb
I went in and out of the pit in a breeze and decided against the deep water pit (having had the experience of my life, moreover, i knew what damage the mud had done to my radiator in flowing and visibly clearer water. This pit had still water and it was deep dark brown. I bailed out of this one.
The climb looked relatively easy and i decided to take it on and move to the second trail.
Reaching this point, just inches away from the top as you can see, the engine stalled. I though i was doing something wrong by just tapping the gas wanting it to crawl, so i slipped back for another go and the same thing repeated itself. The Jeep would effortlessly climb up and then get stalled. One more try later i figured it was the lack of fuel in my tank, way below reserve which was the culprit. I beg to differ with anyone who says this climb needed more momentum from my machine cause the last try was with a huge run up and i thought i was there till the engine stalled, again, inches from the top.
Using a makeshift twig dipstick, i saw that the level was almost 1 to 1-1/2 inches, that meant around 5 litres or less. Sacre Bleu
But i had to get t the top so i took the other way which was not so steep and decided i must come down crawling again.
Crawling Down The CJ is best in its natural surroundings
The only guys who had a pipe were Soumya and someone else but they had left for trail two. Guru and Paras graciously offered gas but how to get it out from their tanks. Next time i must remember ti carry a pipe for such situations. Guru couldn't believe i had come up here with this quantity of fuel. I decided i must not waste any more time and leave immediately for Bombay, fully aware that i might get stuck en-route to the pump which was only 5 kms away. Guru also asked me to call him if i got stuck without gas somewhere and he would come promptly to rescue me. Thanks a ton Bro!! Thank God i never needed to call him. I reached a pump safely, tanked up and left for Bombay.
Around Vashi, the "Death Wobble creeped up again and it got so worse that at times it was impossible to drive. Somehow i managed to drive till Sion circle and upon immediately crossing it, the clutch cable went kaput. No clutch but car in top gear so i had to stop and call my Mechanic who reached within 20 minutes to my rescue and driving me home, he took the CJ to the workshop.
Some pics of the casualty:
A broken glass of the rear fog A detached LHS rear tail lamp assembly (lying in the ca and since repaired and put back) A bent drivers side side step.
Otherwise, the CJ is purring and is ready to face another challenge, not so far off in the day. MGE perhaps? Who knows??!!itself today
Proudly Wearing its Challenges. Another feather in its cap.
Im ready to give my next EXAMM already!!
Some Random pics from EXAMM!!