The next day, I received a call from a member of the local 4x4 forum who thought that a friend from a friend may have the solution to the problem of the universal joints. He sent me then a picture that showed a shaft that clearly was not the right one for the Merkabah but he told me that this guy knew a lot about my truck and that he may have other pieces of interest, maybe the right joints.
I loaded the shafts and the joints on the Montero and headed for Santiago right away. Maybe it was just a false clue, but I am convinced that things happen always for a good reason. The guy that called was a total unknown for me and he was offering his time and effort for free to help me, as many have done, so it was worth the trip just to thank him.
I missed the meeting point, of course, and after a while we finally gathered and went to an ancient neighborhood where the answer to my prayers was supposed to be. Outside the workshop a half cannibalized 406 Unimog showed its nudity to whoever had the guts to look. I felt a little sad but at least it was a good sign: we were close. I followed Sergio, the helping guy, and passed along a series of wrecked Unimogs and a couple of old L series that looked just a little better than the one on the street, and among them one that had been refurbished and was ready to delivery.
There was a newer Unimog covered by dust, spares and neglect in the middle of the yard. It has been there for years - Sergio told me, surely driven by my open mouth staring at the noble and uncomprehensibly half killed truck. The engine looked complete and I was told too that the drivetrain had no fault. If it was not for the Merkabah I surely had made some attempt for its revival, no doubt about it. All I could do, though, was to secretly drop a couple of tears for the fate of the poor beast.
Sorry, but I had to show it, Iain.
There were dozens of small and big parts sparse in a strangely organized chaos all around, among them many used and abused mechanic winches and transfer cases as I could identify. Sergio warned me to show no particular interest even if I was dying for having any piece that the owner of the shop might have but, to shorten the story, the man had neither spares nor solutions for me, but he had a business friend that might be of help. He called him and gave us his address, half city away.
Sergio leaded and I followed through the growing afternoon traffic of the big ugly city. The old guy owned a small but incredibly well supplied store of Mercedes truck spares a couple of blocks away from where I went to ask for the same joints one year before. With very polite manners and full of stories ready to go out from his mouth he told us that he formerly worked for the official dealer of Mercedes Benz and started his own business after twenty years of being an employee. He really knew about trucks and identified the Merkabah perfectly just by showing him the sample of the joint.
He made a few drawings, took some measures, kept the joint, told a hundred interesting stories about the virtues and flaws of the EPC and about everything and promised me that he would call me when his partner in Bremen or somewhere else answered him about the bloody joints. I thanked him and Sergio and returned to San Felipe just a few minutes before the traffic jammed at the rush hour.
The options were just a few: find and buy new universal joints; buy the whole shafts, both sides; turn the bearing caps to make them fit with the yokes; buy 38 mm normal cross joints and replace the 40 mm caps of the Mercedes offset joints by turning the races to make the caps fit and then cement or harden them. I did not like them, not one. Anyway, it was just a matter of waiting, and faith.
Well… it was necessary to go on so I grabbed the primed sway bar and its repair kit, bought a couple of years ago, and spent the whole afternoon at installing the bloody thing in. It looked easy but it was not. The bar was heavy and hard to handle and the struts blocked just when you needed them to move easily. Bad. To make it worse the superior bushings got stuck and the threads of the bolts worn out.
Also, I did not understand how the pins and the inferior bushings were assembled as they looked, and actualy were, impossible to fit. Tito, one of the mechanics, gave me the practical answer, but I was so tired that I left it all for the next day.
oh my god......it looks amazing and scary together.......i hope you'll not have any bigger problems with that....
:
) lasse ich gerade mal bleiben - ist in so einem Umfeld selbst Makabrios zu makaber 
)
