From Australia to North Cape

[norway_triumph]

Ok i thought i would stick my neck out. I'm planning to take my Marina6 to North Cape this year. Celebrating the newly aquired norwegian licenseplates
Would try to make a online diary here and on the Aussie forum. There is still one month before i leave, but i'm being tied up with work all month long so I wouldn't have enough time to go through the car properly. Still i wil try to do some kind of preparations before filling it up with the family and all of the usual vacation stuff.
What really set things off was that i was Adrian who VERY VERY kindly sendt me 2 oil-filters as they are noet obtainable in norway. BIG BIG thanks to you m8 . As the trip is about 2400 km each way i was planning on one oil shift before departure and one midways somewhere.
Waiting for the filters i thought that i should take the car out of the barn and wake it from it's winter-sleep. Startet up quite quick and took her for a spin. It soon became evident that the LH brake caliper was sticking . So i limped home and got underways.
My hope was that the marina6 caliper would be the same type as the european ones as i had one LH nos one - but as you can see on the picture i wasn't in luck

Brake pads and the caliper itself are much bigger.
The bolt-spacing on the caliper however was the same so i thought i would give it a go and just make a new brake pipe. But then it turned out that the marina6 have 13mm disc, compared to the european ones at about 10mm.


So i decided to take them both off and take them to my local brake-specialist on monay. If we get lucky we'll find something that fits
While at it i greased up all trunnions and packed the wheel bearings with new grease. Also changed both track-rod ends - these were the same. So the car will go in for a wheel alignment as soon as the brakes is back on.


Then it was time to do something less dirty . After a round of hand-cleaner i turned my attention to detalis like this metal sign which will be stuck on the rear quarter-window.


And i also think that every australian car should have one of these sun-shades so i got one from Australia this winter.


Will keep you posted on the progress getting the car ready for its big trip

[ado28]

Well done Jan. It will be good to read your online diary!

[martinmarina]

nice one Jan enjoy the trip m8

[MarinaCoupe]

Hi Jan-Ivar

'She looks Ripper mate'!

The brakes remind me of Rover P6 or perhaps twin pot (not 4 pot) SD1 brakes, but that's only a guess. From the picture it looks like the caliper lugs are threaded unlike European Marinas. With Leyland Australia using a Ford back axle on the Marina, maybe they used Ford brakes as well?

[ClaytonSpeed]

Look like Ford Mi16 Calipers to me!

[MarinaCoupe]

I had a look at some pics of P16 and M16 calipers and they looked different - could be proved wrong though.

Jan-Ivar - can any of your/our Aussie contacts help identify them?

[GTowner]

Hi Jan - I will enjoy reading your diary entries. A few friends and I drove up to the North cape from, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, ain a couple of old Minis, back in 2004. I loved every mile of it (approx 4000 miles round trip in all), and plan to return to do it again in the not to distant future.

Enjoy

[~Sam~]

Sounds like a great trip! BEst of luck with it and keep us updated

[norway_triumph]

I had a look at some pics of P16 and M16 calipers and they looked different - could be proved wrong though.

Jan-Ivar - can any of your/our Aussie contacts help identify them?

The ford calipers are different -
p16 and marina rep-kit are interchangeable btw- onlu VERY VERY small difference.
I delivered the calipers to a local brake specialist (company have been around since the 50s!! ) They reckoned it shouldn't be a problem .. Will keep you posted
Quite looking forward to the trip myself as the last 4 months have been double -shift almost every day at work . so looking forward to some relaxing laid back marina -driving
My family was more keen on taken our rater modern everyday -car but then i convinced them that it wouldn't be a TRIP , it would just be visiting the place...... So far i have convinced them althoug they are a little sceptic to non-adjustable front seat (the back) in the marina .

[norway_triumph]

Had the calipers back from th ebrake company

As it turns out the innards are standrad girling 54 mm and the pads are mkI Escorts
Also got 2 oilfilters by DHL express courtesy of ADRIAN in the P76 owners club. BIG BIG thanks


The passenger side (LH) refused to open and i suspected that the plastic holders for the closing rods have come undone. After fiddling with my "burglar device" for 15 minutes or more i noticed that the passenger door had a key-lock as well


Well except for discovering that i wouldn't be able to make a living as a car-thief i also found out that it wasnt the rods that have come undone, but the small cylindrical lockpin that holds the inside lever in place - se pic


expanded it a bit and pressed it back in situ , fitted everything back together so next saturday it's off.


With all off this work done i turned to some maintanence on my better halfs daily driver (you guessed it 2008 - seems to be the year of the calipers )


then finished the day off by going over the canadian marina and making a to-do - list

[norway_triumph]

it was raining tonight and i left it outside - so should be taken care of now.

[norway_triumph]

The journey begins
First we are going from oslo to harstad - - approx 1400 kilometers - planning to cover it in 2 days .
these are from the early stages approx 3 hours drive from Oslo (otta)



then we went over hardangervidda (sometimes refered to as norways roof)


we stopped at this place for some traditional norwegian "rommegrot" before heading off.



When we passed Trondheim however there were some disturbing sounds coming from the left front wheel. And sure enough the wheel bearing was HOT. I stopped at a gas station bought some grease and filled up the hub - but still the same sound. So we decided to stop for the night in steinkjer which is a semi -big place. Hopefully we could get some help the next day.

Morning after after some phoning around we found a garage that could look into it. i did have 2 spare sets of wheel-bearings with me - but as it turned out the australian cars also use different bearings than the europeans ones. Luckily Steinkjer was big enough to have their own shop with only bearings - so we got omne , and the mechaninc fixed it for us - and then away again.
Pic shows friendly mechaninc at Steinkjer.

[martinmarina]

terrific pics Jan , Scenery looks stunning and the Motor ain't bad either .

Hope you have a fantastic time m8 , wish I was there ,what a trip to take .....

Maybe one day

[JIM73]

Looks like better weather than here Jan !! :roll:

[norway_triumph]

a little late follow-up as my parents don't have a computer
we sat off from steinkjer with a fixed wheel bearing, but as it turns out i think the mechanic have tighten the hub-nut a little too much so i've decided to drive without hub-caps for now. After a while i spotted a Midget with a uk -registration in the mirror. We followed each other for a while and when he pulled off i did a u -turn and spoke to him. He was from down south in uk and was on his way to lofotoen . lovely late midget with a triumph 1500 engine.




We headed further up coming closer to the polar circle


Then my daughter was thinking that 6 months of snow wasn't enough so we stopped and let her out - walking on some of the snow still sorounding the road



Then we was at the polar circle ans stopped for some photo-session even if we were a bit pressed for time if we were to reach the last ferry. The polar circle also mark the point from where the midnight-sun begins




We pressed further for Harstad as we were late following the repair in steinkjer.


at 00.30 we entered the last ferry


from the ferry at about 01.00

reached harstad at 02.30 in the night - still midninght sun. We have now finished approx 1400 kilometers and are 2/3 on the way to north-cape
(pic could probably be better with some photo-editing...)