We are not sure how many Chinamen the Rock Hammer boys have killed, but the lion’s share of bad luck seems to be wedged firmly in the middle of Rock Hammer central.
With everything on the ‘to fix’ list completed – including new panhard links, a disc-brake conversion on the rear, and the addition of a brake booster – the Rock Hammer Racing crew were pumped and ready to show the fans what they can do. Sporting the new shirts (made by La Belle Marketing) the team looked a million dollars and the major sponsors were all impressed. The orange shirts definitely announce the presence of Rock Hammer Racing in a big way.
A5 was the starting point on day 1…and that’s as far as they got!
A massive roll over had claimed one of the other teams – a big hello to Wes Clifford…hope you’re feeling better, mate – so Micka and Harley set about doing a systems check before entering the course. Nothing worse than being in a precarious position and finding out that something doesn’t work.
That’s when things went wrong. For some reason the LT230 transfer – which are usually tuff as nails – was not engaging 4WD, so the ‘top-fueller’ was reduced to front wheel drive only. Micka had done some modifications to the transfer lever, so they went off to check if that was causing the problems. It wasn’t to be so easy. The mods were working like a dream (like all of Micka’s mods do), so the problem was something far more serious/sinister.
The boys decided to write off day 1 and devoted the remains of the day to pulling the transfer apart. Tony Robinson provided some technical help in diagnosing the problem, but the real thanks needs to go to Roger Edols. He once again showed that he is a man of honour and a champion competitor. After finishing his duties a spotter, Roger raced over to the Rock Hammer camp site to help out with the busted tranny.
First conclusions were that the welded centre diff had decided enough was enough, but with the front diff still getting drive, that could not be the case. So the spanners came out and the Rover transfer was pulled down…only to reveal a massive oversight!!!
A particular bearing – paramount to the correct functioning of the transfer case – had magically/mysteriously disappeared. The bearing was NOT there. It wasn’t broken or malfunctioning…it was missing! I bet even David Copperfield couldn’t pull that illusion off. The transfer case was pulled apart PRIOR to the boys buying the buggy and refitted…all except for the vanishing bearing, of course. This presented a problem…the boys were out.
Day 2 was devoted to family time and cheering on from the Rock Hammer Racing ‘Corporate Box’. The ‘man with the mike’ aka ‘golden tonsils Damo’ did some of the day’s commentary from the Corporate Box as the boys voiced their support for Rock Crawling and showed the crowd how it is done – Rock Hammer style!
The magical, mysterious, vanishing bearing has not resurfaced, but a replacement has been ordered and will be fitted as you read this report. The boys will be back. Bigger and better than ever.
Harley and Micka would like to extend their warmest thanks to all of the supporters for the many emails. We will have some new supporter’s shirts available soon and some of these will be given away in a competition.
See you at the next Rock Crawling event…and if you see us, come over and say hi.
