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From Australia to North Cape

Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 5:48 pm
by 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 :(
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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.
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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.
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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.
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And i also think that every australian car should have one of these sun-shades so i got one from Australia this winter.
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Will keep you posted on the progress getting the car ready for its big trip :)

Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 8:35 pm
by ado28
Well done Jan. It will be good to read your online diary!

Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 10:12 pm
by martinmarina
:D nice one Jan enjoy the trip m8 :D :D

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 9:21 am
by 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?

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 9:33 am
by ClaytonSpeed
Look like Ford Mi16 Calipers to me!

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:46 am
by 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?

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 12:51 pm
by 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 :D

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 1:33 pm
by ~Sam~
Sounds like a great trip! BEst of luck with it and keep us updated :)

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:26 am
by norway_triumph
MarinaCoupe wrote: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 . :lol:

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 1:11 pm
by norway_triumph
Had the calipers back from th ebrake company
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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
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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 :oops:
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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
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expanded it a bit and pressed it back in situ , fitted everything back together so next saturday it's off.
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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 :) )
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then finished the day off by going over the canadian marina and making a to-do - list

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Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 6:04 am
by norway_triumph
:oops: it was raining tonight and i left it outside :) - so should be taken care of now. :lol:

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:27 am
by 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)
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then we went over hardangervidda (sometimes refered to as norways roof)
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we stopped at this place for some traditional norwegian "rommegrot" before heading off.
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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.
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Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 4:44 pm
by martinmarina
:D 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 :wink: :wink: :wink:

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 4:51 pm
by JIM73
Looks like better weather than here Jan !! :roll:

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:31 pm
by 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.
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We headed further up coming closer to the polar circle

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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
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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
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We pressed further for Harstad as we were late following the repair in steinkjer.
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at 00.30 we entered the last ferry
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from the ferry at about 01.00
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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...)
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