Deja-Vu

Well its a year since we were last involved in a knock down drag them out rescue fight to the finish.
And to be fair the kids and friends did the hard work.

In the last year 3 of the Y62 300kw patrol V8 wagons have come into our immediate 4wding group.

So its a long weekend in the sunny high country and we decide to have a bush bonfire with a dozen or more friends.

I wanted a big fire and soon a convoy of 4 well equipped cars and a trailer were dispatched to a nearby dead end track , which I knew was blocked by a large tree.
This way we could kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

I am getting to geriatric these days and stayed at camp.

After 2 hours I'm getting worried the convoy had not returned from a routine trip, so we packed up a mates cruiser with
drag chains , snow chains, spare ropes and fittings just in case.

On route we got the call , the convoy had got the tree cleared, filled the trailer, and continued down the ridge looking for a turn around point.
Unfortunately as they progressed down, the track got slowly steeper and turned from rocky base to a classic slippy wet grassy slope.

No worries, a few snatches and winch pulls and everybody was turned around ready for a tricky climb 600m up the moderate but do-able hill.

The Y62's ability really showed up on the slippery surface despite having standard road tyres unlike the big muddies on other cars. Just as well as it was new and had no winch.

In under an hour they had winched/snatched uphill just passed the previously cleared tree.



The Y62 was making it ok on just its traction control when there was a loud bang !
Suddenly the Patrol began the rearward death slide backwards down the hill, usually in this situation a heavy stamp of the go pedal will spin wheels biting thru the surface slick until the car gets dry ground stopping the slide.

It didn't work.

The brakes were also not much use but slowed the slide and the car began to veer offline.
Incredibly the car slid backwards off track into what was left of the cleared firewood tree, with a dual spare wheel carrier taking the hit preventing major body damage.



It took a while to stabilize things and determine the issue.
The car had lost all front wheel drive. The rear wheels were ok but oil was flowing from the top of the transfer case.

With dusk closing in, mist and condensation forming, a tricky but manageable situation became a real challenge.
No way could the car move itself.
Together the group had some 300ft of straps and began an exhausting relay of move one car a little, redeploying and moving another , the last car in the group had the trailer and a ton of wood in it .
It just could not be moved even with low tyre pressures and so 3 cars were strapped together to no avail.

It was obvious the firewood had to be tossed.

Soon the wet grassy track turned to rocky base and slow progress was being made.

At this time we arrived on the scene bringing more rescue gear and things speeded up a little until the worse obstackle appeared.
There was a rocky ledge ahead and the track did a double dog leg to avoid it.
A 90 degree right, 15m of horizontal, then a 90 degree left to continue up.
It was rocky, wet and worse there were two trees just 2.5m apart at the entrance.
On the way in it required a backup to get between the trees - any attempt to winch here would pull the stricken Patrol into one of the trees.

A risky plan was devised to get the most stable car up onto the top of the rock ledge, and with snatch blocks the car lower down behind the broken patrol would winch it up into the bush passed
the first dog led.
The broken car was put onto full left lock and lowered back down into the dog led hence turning it.
Catch was that the turn was now being made on a 20 degree wet side slope covered in large rocks.
Any slip risked rolling the car and they went very slowly, building the track as we went.

Fortunately the 2nd dog leg section was easier as you could cut the corner while snatching.
Just as well as it was dark when we made it back to camp and we had no firewood and i at least needed a 2nd sherry.


So what happened ?

Well a complete new transfer case was installed under warranty.
Drive to the front in these cars is via a multi-link chain.
There is some conjecture as to what broke first but it appears that a manufacturing defect
lead to a chain sideplate coming off causing the chain to jam against the top of the case
and hence rest of chain ripping off front drive gear teeth.
To our knowledge this has not happened before on this type of car.