We had a really nice breakfast at Hotel Ponto 1, they had a huge range of fruit, cakes and biscuits, breads, jams and cheeses and even toasted sandwich makers ready to go! We then went and bought some more tools – a set of fixed spanners, an adjustable spanner, file, hacksaw, needle-nose pliers and side-cutters, and then called our Lada Niva mechanic, Bibe (pronounced “beebee”), in Curitiba to explain all the things that had happened and ask if he had any advice regarding the clutch. He said that it probably was just some air in the system after the repairs and that pumping the clutch pedal to build up the hydraulic pressure should do the trick, but if not there could be a problem with the cylinder. We did that and sure enough the pressure did build up a bit, so we’re going to try for the remaining 120km and get these final issues looked at in Caxias 🙂
We finally made it to Caxias (pronounced Carsheeas) at 15:22!
There were no major dramas today apart from the usual stressful clutch problems, but since we now knew how to pump the pressure back into the clutch hydraulic system and how to start and change gear without the clutch, and we now had tools in case we needed to do a clutch system bleed process as a last resort these dramas didn’t seem quite so daunting as they had on previous days.
We checked a few mechanics and auto-electricians, but decided to call Candido (pronounced Carnjido) who we bought the land off to see if he had any good contacts. He was awesome and came straight out to the gas station we were calling from to meet us and take us to a good mechanic, and he also showed us numerous places where we could get free discarded pallets and other materials for building! The car and trailer are now at the mechanics place and we’re staying with Candido and his family for the night before heading to the land tomorrow 🙂