Monday 12th June 2023

Monday 12^th June

SHE SAID:

Despite the slight noise coming from the back of the car, Geoff deemed it OK for driving, so we headed out to Dryandra Woodland National Park. It is about 20km from Wandering & we couldn’t pass up a chance to look for Numbats.

I did have one detour first though, only 10km out of the way to an orchid area I’d found in 2020. It didn’t disappoint We found 5, possibly 6, different orchids flowering, a nice surprise after yesterday's poor showing.

To top it off I spotted a Numbat as we ambled through Dryandra. It was on the main road through the park, & totally disinterested in us, despite our noisy car. Happy, Happy us.

Back at the house Geoff eventually found the noise, & thankfully it was an easy fix. No permanent damage done! 

This critter was intent on finding its lunch,
& totally ignored us!

HE SAID:

Varena had mentioned yesterday that there was a noise coming from the car, but that it started only when she was almost back at the house. Before heading to Dryandra this morning I took a look under and around the car but didn't notice anything wrong. The engine sounded fine, but the noise came and went, especially with a change in speed or direction. 

When we returned to the house I started investigating the noise more seriously. I checked the diff fluid, transmission fluid, the wheel rotations, and removed the rear wheels and drums to check the brake operations. At a couple of points I was confident that I had fixed the problem, but found that the noise returned when I went for a test drive. Then, after about 2 hours or so of dirty, sweaty, toil and trouble, I was chatting with Varena at the rear of the car, lamenting my inability to locate the source of the noise, when I thought I would take another look from underneath the car. Well, amused, but also annoyed and frustrated, in the different light, and with the different angle, I could see that a heat shield near the fuel tank had bent, probably from the water dunking in the creek on Varena's return yesterday, and that it was scraping the drive shaft. UGGGHH! Such an easy fix! I just bent it back into position. It took about 1 minute.