We are now in Tanzania and Milady has had a hard time, but OK, the first 10,000 km have been driven.
Leaf spring
In Zambezi, Zambia, we have repaired the leaf spring rear right, which turned out to be broken again. A great welding job at a difficult part.
After this job the roof rack is also just put in place:
Brakes
When we arrived in Lusaka, Zambia I noticed that the left front wheel was very greasy and I had often had to refill brake fluid.
One of the brake cylinders of the drum appeared to be leaking. A contact of Kalle and Trees, Godfrey Mutokoma, found a new cylinder in the city so that I could put it on.
Unfortunately venting proved not work out well and I did not get full brake pressure during braking, pumping the brakes did luckily help a bit.
The next day we therefore Godfrey lead us to New Cumm Motors (Lumumba road), a professional looking garage / workshop with a lot of equipment and skilled people.
First I ask to repair the roof rack, four brackets are broken / rusted off. Being addressed fine, with the MIG welder some pieces of steel strip are welded to the support, everything is put straight again and ready.
Then I ask them to still look after the brakes, sure we will take care of that.
Anyway, at 16:00, the garage will close at 17:00, it is found that the master cylinder is leaking and we go into town to find a new one. Which unfortunately does not work, but we find an overhaul kit. With this – it turns out to be the wrong set – and with much patience and tinkering the cylinder is put back together and the leak proves to be remedied.
Around 19:00 we drive back to the campsite and we drop off Godfrey on the road to our home.
The next day the men work for hours on further tuning and preparing the brakes, it all turns out to be somewhat worn though the brake pads are still good.
We ask for the bill at the manager of the company, but he says, after consulting with his father on the phone, this is service for us as brave visitors to Zambia, we don’t have to pay anything!
All in all we can take the car into the city during the afternoon to do some last shopping so we can continue the next day.
The next leaf spring
After Lusaka Milady is doing fine, even the steep and sometimes rough roads in western Zambia she survives without any problems.
That is, when on September 23, we just find a place to sleep in the dark just before the Tanzanian border at Nakonde at the Kings Highway campsite, it appears the left front leaf spring is broken. That I note the next morning when I do some maintenance on the car.
I ask if there is a place somewhere where I can do the welding to the spring and a few minutes later Bas arrives at our tent. He is originally from Numansdorp and is the technical manager, he offers that we fix the leaf in his workshop. No sooner said than done so, it need not cost anything, only the fuel of his unit, I give him some money for the good work they do and we can ride again.