Welsh Road trip and Gearbox Failure

This post has been a long time in the gestation, but about time I recorded how much Penny and I enjoyed two-thirds of the Welsh Road Trip, and a follow-up on examination and diagnosis of the gearbox problem which cut it short.

2015 WELSH ROAD TRIP – A Personal Reflection from the ’Newbies’

Frank and Sandra Allen’s Welsh Road Trip was to be our first event with the 289 Register, and with only 180 miles on the clock and an awful weather forecast for the drive down on Friday, we approached it with some trepidation. The Ace was loaded with a small suitcase full of tools, spare oil and water, hood and sidescreens erected, and we set off into the rain at about 3pm, fingers crossed that the untried windscreen wipers would keep working.

We’d brought a couple of old towels to anticipate the occasional leak – though the weather penetrated on a similar scale to my first car – a 1962 Midget, and Penny and I soon realised that rolled-up jeans were de rigeur. Much water came in from behind due to the shape of the rear body, some more from around the top centre of the windscreen and probably other areas as well. Traffic was quite heavy – a long queue near Tarporley on the A49 in particular. We had a brief stop at Whitchurch before trundling along to Oswestry and Welshpool. We almost found Maesmawr Hall first time, and on parking up with a line of Cobras we were warmly greeted by a number of our fellow members. Somehow we’d managed to take nearly three hours to travel 90 miles ….

We were pleasantly surprised by the quirkiness and character of Maesmawr, our room in the tudor part overlooking the car park. Dinner – which was excellent – provided an opportunity to get to know some of our fellow guests a little better, and to hear stories of previous road trips. I don’t think we were late to bed, in anticipation of an early start the following morning.

After a good night’s sleep untroubled by the various resident ghosts we chickened out of the ‘full English’ to make room for a calorific day ahead. Fortunately Friday’s rain was over, and though it wasn’t warm all hoods were of course removed and stowed. The first leg took us on some minor roads to Llanidloes, then to Rhayader via Llangurig. Our morning coffee stop was made at the Elan Valley visitor centre, a good photo opportunity for our impressive line-up of some 12 cars. We continued up the valley on narrow minor roads, fortunately almost traffic free, before crossing the watershed and descending into Tregaron for sandwiches and drink at the Talbot.

Our next leg in an easterly direction on some pretty hairy mountain roads, via Beulah and Newbridge-on-Wye to our next stop at the Metropole hotel in Llandrindod Wells – another much photographed line-up in the car park! After tea and Welsh cakes we drove north up the fine and quiet A483 to Newtown, and Maesmawr. Day 1 accomplished without incident, the car seeming to ease up as the miles rolled on.

Another evening of excellent food and conversation followed, followed by bed with high spirits in anticipation of another good day ahead.

Sunday morning – just about made the 9:30 start, no easy feat for some, before retracing our route south down the A483 for Llandrindod Wells, then Builth Wells (coffee at Little Chef) and Brecon, before heading west along the A40. After a few miles we headed off right on an interesting mountain road through a military training area, soon being passed by Paul Blore’s Kirkham 427, hotly pursued by a Caterham, neither to be seen again.

At some point on this road we both heard a faint intermittent metallic noise, a bit like something contacting the ground, but with some relation to throttle. It seemed to disappear, and we thought no more of it, until a few miles later on joining the A483 at Cynghordy, the gearbox jammed in first. We managed to attract Henry Bevan’s attention in the car ahead, and were soon caught up by Dave and Nicky Woodward, who after a technical exchange concluding we had an inoperable clutch issue, helped us into the car park of the adjacent (ex-) pub to await recovery.

So ended our Welsh Road Trip, at exactly the furthest point from home, and within a few miles of the lunch stop. In a little over an hour we were homeward bound on the back of a recovery vehicle, courtesy of the AA. Our second recovery this year, and wondering how much credit we had left! The fine views of the Welsh countryside from the cab did little to compensate for our disappointment at the time, though since we have managed to focus on a few positives:

• The car is comfortable, believe it or not – with good supportive seats and fat tyres;
• The Ace is not too uneconomical – after topping up several times we’re recording between 24 and 30 mpg;
• The re-designed exhaust didn’t fall off, or hit the ground, and sounded quite good!
• We survived a wet trip without any serious misfortune, the wipers weren’t as bad as expected and the weatherproofing was probably better than an umbrella. Jeans and carpets have dried out ….. (tip: in bad weather leave the footwell carpets at home, or in the boot!)
• Above all we enjoyed the welcome from the T289R members, the excellent venue and interesting conversation!

Sadly we missed the birthday celebration arranged for Frank. Arranging such a trip is no mean feat and our grateful thanks are due to Frank and Sandra. We look forward to meeting up again soon.

Tony and Penny Cory

Postscript

The car underwent major surgery the day after we got home. The clutch was fine. Dismantling the gearbox revealed that the cage of the taper roller bearing between input shaft and mainshaft nose had broken up completely. Further examination of the oil pump showed this had seized and the fibre gears broken up.

The oil pump showed no traces of trapped swarf (magnet test) so I’ve concluded this broke first and the bearing then failed due to lack of lubrication. It’s probably the only bearing in the box which is effectively shielded from any oil splashing around, relying on a supply pumped via the hollow mainshaft.

Parts are ordered and all being well we’ll soon be on the road again!

....... And sure enough we were. We've since completed runs to my mum's near Tewkesbury, and to the Silverstone Classic without further bother - let's hope that trend continues! For the rebuild I used a steel oil pump gearset obtained from The Wedge Shop (mailed from USA).