We stopped for fuel not far outside Orbost, where I learned the 450SLC had done about 16l/100km. Not bad for 450, particularly with the ADR engine. Surprisingly, this petrol station didn’t just stock every brand of crisps on the planet, but actually sold useful stuff, like car batteries. We left with full tanks and a fully charged spare battery. It was still raining, but a lot less than the day before. Mostly light showers.

We reached Stratford without incident and had breakfast at a local cafe. Of course, after 90 minutes of driving it was time to check the battery on the 280CE. It read around 11 volts, which actually wasn’t too bad. Instead of using the new battery so early in the day, we decided to swap the battery out of the 280CE with a good alternator. This would allow the white car to charge the battery that had previously been in the green car.  After a while, we would swap them back.   We even used one of our jump packs to ensure the owner of the white car did not lose any of his radio settings during the change!

By then, it was late enough in the day to start making some calls.   turns out finding an alternator for a 1981 W123 is not so easy at short notice.   In the end, we found the only used alternator available in the state of Victoria, located in Dandenong (an outer suburb of Melbourne).   Dandenong was in the right direction for where we were going, although not on our planned route.     Our planned route had us basically hug the coast until we reached Sorrento.

We decided as a group that the best course of action would be to do directly to Dandenong and get the 280CE working again, so we could complete the rally.   Our itinerary for day 3 is planned to be pretty hectic, so today was the day to get everything ready.   Going directly would save an hour or two and put us on the motorway.

The first hour was on A roads until we hit the motorway.   Just before the motorway began, we stopped and swapped the batteries again.    Overall it took us about two and a quarter hours to get to the wrecker in Dandenong from Sorrento.     The owner of the 280CE did the alternator swap in the driveway of the wrecker, and it was quite odd seeing a shiny new part being removed and replaced with a dirty old one.  The old alternator was a real Bosch unit.   The one in the car was near new, and had been advertised as a Bosch, but looked to be some kind of clone.

The replacement alternator wasn’t perfect, but it was a lot better than the one we had removed.   It actually charged the car.     It struggled a bit when the auxiliary cooling fan and headlights were on though.     On the short drive to lunch, it was apparent that the auxiliary fan was on nearly all the time, and the temperature wasn’t dropping very fast on the motorway.   It actually looked like these two problems were somewhat related.   The car was struggling to cool itself, causing the auxiliary fan to come on all the time, putting more load on the charging system.

At the lunch stop we tried two more things.   Firstly, the new voltage installed yesterday was put on the used alternator, which did improve charging somewhat.    The thermostat was also gutted to try and provide more flow to the radiator, plus we stopped at Repco to buy a few supplies to rig up a manual switch for the auxiliary fan.

This wasn’t the only 280CE that had problems today though.   The white car was still having issues with ride height.   Even after another adjustment while the alternator was being fitted, it still rode too low.  It is better than before, and will probably be fine to complete the trip.   The height corrector valve is going to need a rebuild as the car sinks quickly after being parked.

From lunch, the plan was to try and take the ferry across the mouth of Port Philip bay as we had originally planned.   This was far preferable than batting rush hour traffic going across Melbourne.   However, after getting back on the road it was clear that these modifications were not enough.    The car would not keep cool enough top stop the auxiliary fan coming on.    This is where the group temporarily split up.   The owner of the green car went to get a new radiator and viscous fan coupling.  This meant doubling back to Dandenong.  The rest of the group went and took the 4PM ferry to Queenscliff and then on to Torquay.

By the time we got to the ferry the sun had actually came out and we were able to enjoy the views from the ride over to Queenscliff.  The ferry is quite a pleasant ride, although it is very expensive at $72 for a car and driver.  Its extra for any passengers!  It was better value than the $33 cigarette lighter to USB plug I had to buy at Repco as mine failed today.   Annoyingly, I have plenty of these at home.

After our now smaller group got to Queenscliff, we checked out a lookout and Royal Australian Navy memorial.   The memorial was extensive, including  a bit of a focus on World War two.  Coincidentally, There was a plaque dedicated to a ship that the father of one of the members of our groups served on during WW2.

The view from the lookout was great, and it was nice to experience the sunshine for a change. I even opened the sunroof for a while. I would have been drenched had I opened it even a few hours earlier.  The cars look much better in that photo than they do in reality, as they are filthy from all the grime of wet weather driving for two days and over 1,000KM.

From there we headed on some nice coast roads to our hotel in Torquay and found a good brew pub for dinner.   We were later joined by the owner of the other 280CE who came with a new radiator and viscous fan coupling.  He had managed to grab these minutes before the closing time of the vendor, and just make the 6pm ferry.    We have a very early start tomorrow, including almost 900km of driving.  Because of that, he made quick work of fitting all those parts in the dark.   The 280CE now has a used alternator, new voltage regulator, replaced viscous fan coupling, new radiator and a switch to control the auxiliary fan.    It is now hopefully ready for the big day tomorrow and our whole group is really keen to see everyone make it in the car they started in!

Our revised route today took us around 460KM,   I filled up the 450SLC just before we got to the hotel in Torquay and managed to get 14.5l/100KM, which is almost a record for my car.   It’s actually not too bad when on the open road.   Despite a few issues with the cars, the trip has been a lot of fun so far.  There has been the added challenge of trying to do what we can to make sure each car makes it.

The post Mercedes Clubs National Rally 2022 – Day 2: Orbost to Torquay appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

One of our group had made magnetic rally stickers for our cars, which was a fun touch.   They are meant to look like those period rally badges and detail our route.  The east coast of Australia has been caught in the grip of one of the wettest autumns I can remember.   Therefore our expectation for day one was consistent rain, which is what happened.   There were only a few short periods around lunchtime when it wasn’t raining.

Our first leg took us through the Royal National Park and the sea cliff bridge through to Nowra.  This is always a nice scenic drive, although the weather was extremely poor and we hit a lot of traffic around Wollongong.   We had originally planned to stick to the coast right through to Kiama, but we did a bit more on the motorway to gain back some time.  At Nowra, we stopped at a shopping mall to stretch our legs and have a break.

The second leg took us from Nowra to Batemans Bay and was the only leg where we had long stretches without rain.   This also got me to the end of familiar roads and to places I have never been before.   We stopped and had a nice lunch by the water in Batemens Bay.  We were able to take advantage of a beak in the rain for our lunch break.

The third leg took is from Batemans Bay to Eden hugging the coast where possible.   We went though towns such as Bermagui and Tathra.   Unfortunately the weather was shocking and this was the worst we would experience on our drive to Orbost.  There were points where we could hardly see anything, and we had to slow right down to ensure we stayed on the road.   I would like to do this drive again because I could see glimpses of great scenery and water views through the terrible weather.

We finally got to Eden over an hour late, so we took a quick 10 minute break and got back on the road to try and  make up some time.  At this point we were on track to arrive in Orbost at about 6:45PM.

About an hour into the drive is when the trouble started.   We had made really good time in the first hour, with litle traffic on the road and only light rain.   However, at this point one of the 280CE’s reported being down on power.    We had walkie talkies in the cars, which would prove to be invaluable later.     The power was much better with the lights off, so we kept going as best as we could until it started to get dark.

At that point we pulled over and attempted to repair the 280CE.   It became apparent that the alternator was not charging the car.   The alternator was a only a few months old, so all the signs were pointing to a bad unit.   At this point we still had 100km to Orbost.

Too eek out the remaining twilight, we bunched up together, slowed down to 80km/h and let the lights from the other three cars light the way for the 280CE.   This got us another 25km until it was completely dark and the 280CE was now practically invisible.   We stopped at a service station, not only to have another look at the 280CE with the bad alternator, but to troubleshoot a self-leveling suspension problem with the other 280CE.   That car had become very bouncy and the ride height was far too high.

The second 280CE was easily put right.  The control rod for the self-leveling rear suspension had broken and we did a makeshift repair with cable ties.

The situation with the other 280CE was far worse.   The battery was getting low and it was now completely dark.   After more troubleshooting, we tried the spare voltage regulator I had for my 450SLC.   We were able to get some charge out of the stricken alternator, albeit with a pretty bad burning smell.

We had 75km to go, so we hoped that this small amount of charge would be enough to power the fuel pump, ignition system and the parking lights. Again, we bunched up, kept our speed to about 80km/h and set off into the night.  Our aim was to nurse the stricken 280CE to our hotel stop in Orbost without headlights or wipers.  The walkie talkies were really helpful for this part of the trip.   Ever so slowly, the distance to orbost started to tick down. Firstly to 50km, then 20km and finally to 10. We were close. The 280CE was also almost out of electricity. We had to shut off the lights for the final 10km, but in the end we did limp the car into our hotel and check in around 8:30PM. That was an opportunity to remove the battery and place it on the trickle charger for tomorrow.

Luckily, after we checked in, we found a local cafe about to close. The very nice lady running the cafe stayed open and we were able to grab some dinner.  We plan to start very early tomorrow to take advantage of daylight so we can get as much out of the fully charged battery as possible in the 280CE.

In some ways, our experience today is actually a testament to one of the advantages of classic cars.   While they are more likely to fail to proceed due to age, their simplicity means you’re more likely able to limp them home.   In a modern car, a charging problem would have rendered the car inoperable.  We would have been stuck waiting for a tow truck for hours in the rain.

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