Mon.18.07.11. The weather forecast is even worse than the
day before with storms, accompanied by strong winds throughout the whole of France , but Tuesday appears even more dreadful:
for that reason we have decided to try to reach St. Martin du Tartre tonight
instead of another proposed stop at Bar sur Seine.
The weather again is major factor for the programmed route.
The autoroute is the favourite passage given the multitude of ‘aires’ which we
can dive in for cover.
The spray was a problem but the empty roads meant that
we could avoid most of the kickback from the endless 4 wheel drive monsters
that even the French have embraced. All was well until we left the A26 south of
Troyes to
connect with the D944 which would take us to Tonnere then over to Beaune.
As we pulled into the ‘gare de peage’ I discovered that I
did not have clutch. There was little or no pressure. I bumped the car off to
the car park to take a look. I quickly discovered to the back and right hand
side of the bell housing the clutch pivot pin had vibrated loose.
The call to
the breakdown service in the UK
proved surprisingly profitable. They then got in touch with a local ‘corraserie’
who would be with us in 30 minutes. Anthony, my connection for ‘Equity Red
Star’ called back to reassure us that the guy was on his way. If the vehicle
could not be fixed by the roadside he was instructed to take it to his
workshop, find us a hotel room, issue us with a rental vehicle, get us to our
destination or even back to the UK .
As promised the French engineer pitched up in the 30 minutes that was promised.
Originally he wanted to tow the car away but when I pointed out that the pivot
pin had worked loose he returned from his truck with a ‘flat head’ screwdriver.
Fortunately he was able to push the clutch plates back and reintroduce the pin.
We had been tremendously lucky on both counts: one that the pin had not been
lost on the autoroute and that the job was simple not requiring the engine to
be ripped out.
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