Early wake up as usual to go back to Khaan’s to continue the work on the car. We both slept like babies despite the not absolutely fantastic room. Still no water. This time, however, I don’t mean no hot water. I mean no any kind of water. And no breakfast. Welcome to Mongolia! We resort to a box of biscuits and our supply of tea bags and instant cappuccino. We wait for our driver who is very late until we realise that Khovd is in a different time zone. He arrives punctually at 7, we check out of the hotel (at least the camp has hot showers) and we are off to Khaan’s.
We need to make some decisions regarding the missing engine mounting bolt. Radiator has to come off to gain access to the area. We have never done this before and feel very uneasy because of our modest mechanical expertise. We finally get on with it and fate removing all bolts, screws connectors etc. we finally lift the radiator out of the car. We quickly realise, however, that we are no closer to the solution as the pulley coming out of the crankshaft is obstructing our view of the area we need access to. We try to resort to the Chevrolet owners’ club chat line. I take out my iPad and describe our problem hoping someone with experience will provide some useful suggestions. There are a few who read our note but after an hour nobody has yet offered any ideas. We decide to take a short cut and as we cannot drill the old bolt out we decide to drill a new hole next to the old one. To do that, however we need to get some drill points as the ones available in the shop are not adequate. Off to the market where we also need to get some additional supplies such as new shocks and some nuts and bolts to replace some that we’ve lost.
The market just down the road is quite an experience. It’s composed an infinite number of small shops each selling something different: lubricant oils, new and used auto parts, often smuggled in from other countries, assorted large metal bits as well as nuts and bolts of all sizes. I finally find a pair of Russian shocks which seem as if they will fit our car. We will need, however, to modify the mountings to the chassis.
Back at the shop, mechanic Bob Machorov offers to help. He drills the new hole in the chassis to fit the engine mounting bolt, fits a new one to the chassis and then moves on to modifying the chassis mounts for the chocks. That takes quite a while as new holes need to be made in the chassis itself. To make sure they will hold and to protect the chassis itself he sandwiches it between two mounting plates on each side. The result seems satisfactory and he hopes the chocks will hold this time.
In the meantime, as the radiator was off, I suggest we check a potential leak at a radiator shop nearby. Mattia returns confirming that there is no leak and we get on to putting it back in the car.
By the time we finish all the work, it’s getting quite late and cold. The idea of a hot shower suddenly becomes less appealing than that of a closed hotel room. I decide to run to our hotel but it’s sold out as are all the other dumps in town. So camp it will have to be. No hot shower, however, since by the time we reach it it’s already dark and they have packed up all the equipment. It’s a miracle that we manage to get some hot food.
Pitching a tent in the dark with only a lamp on your head is not ideal but we manage… barely. We feel fairly good however about the work done and look forward to getting out of Khovd and to continue our journey.