Tour Des Alpes (part 2 of 3)

Day 3 (334 km)

This was to be the first “touring” day. Original plan was to head up to the Stilfserjoch (probably better known as the Stelvio) and return over the Umbrai. But after sitting in a traffic jam on the SS38 outside Meran for quite a while I decided to pull into a fuel station. While filling up the car with fuel, the attendant told me that the Stilfserjoch was closed due to heavy snowfall on its northern flank. So we needed a change of plan. As we already had lost quite a lot of time in the traffic jam we opted for a short trip into Switzerland, over the Ofenpass and then back over the Reschenpass. Especially the Ofenpass was good fun with very smooth road surfaces and nice wide flowing comers And again some very nice views at the top (and good food too!).

The Ofenpass from above

On top of the Ofenpass (CH)

On top of the Ofenpass, with the Piz Nair in the background (CH)

View from the top of the Ofenpass into the Engadin Tal (CH)

After lunch in the public house at the top of the Ofenpass

we headed down into the valley of the River Inn.

On the Hauptstraße H27 in the Inntal near Guarda (CH)

Which we followed right till the border with Austria. But instead of taking the Finstermünzpass we took a shortcut, a rather lovely and almost deserted pass road between the villages of Martina and Nauders.

The B185 or Martinsbrucker Straße from above

From where we headed into the Vinschgautal, and along the shores of the Reschensee and back to the B&B in St. Martin.

On the SS40 Along the eastern shores of the Reschensee just north of the dam (I)

As we passed the road leading to the foot of the north face of Stilfserjoch for the second time that day, we found out that they had cleared the snow there. So we decided to stop for a drink or two and see if there were some interesting cars coming down. Not much really, only grey Euro boxes and motorcycles. So nothing we could do but admire the drinks and the views instead.

View from the terrace of Hotel Post in Sponding

Dilapidated cottage along the Stilfserjoch Straße, Sponding

With the drinks finished we returned “home” to our B&B, only to find it was still way too early for the evening meal. And with the Jaufenpass only a few miles away, we thought it a good idea to go up there just for fun, which it was. As it was late in the afternoon most tourists had already disappeared. And as an added bonus there were some fabulous views at the top.

On top of the Jaufenpass with the Sarntaler Alpen in the background.

The DHC with the Wansser Tal and the Sarntaler Alpen in the background

Only problem (while heading down again) was the low early evening sun. As a result of which in some places visibility was rather poor, with the sun shining through the trees and straight into my eyes. Not good if you can’t see where the road is going. Another thing which we noticed on the way down was that the brakes clearly were starting to get on temperature, they could be smelled very clearly. So René thought that they were overheating. But it looks like the Mintex M1144 pads need some heat in them to work properly, as the feel of the brakes was much better than the previous days.

But that evening, while returning from St. Leonard, they were up to their normal standard again. While slowing down to allow some bikers (on foot) to cross the road, the brakes managed to lock up the front wheels rather dramatically. The bikers also saw the fun of it, once they had recovered from the scare!

Day 4 (226 km)

We had planned a trip back over the Timmelsjoch, through the Õtztal and up the Kaunertaller Gletscherstraße for this day.

Early morning start up the south slope of the Timmelsjoch

near Moos in Passeier

Short road tunnel near the top of the Timmelsjoch

underneath the Bankerjoch Alm

But after reaching the top of the Timmelsjoch we found out that the weather on the other side of the mountains wasn’t brilliant. As we were at the edge of a rain front, the light conditions were rather fine from a photographic point. So I decided on a short photo shoot of the car at the top of the Timmelstaler Urweg.

On top of the Timmelsjoch with the Jochköfele in the background

On top of the Timmelsjoch with the Stubaier Alpen in the background

On top of the Timmelsjoch with the Jochköfele in the background

View from the top of the Timmelsjoch into the Passeirer Timmelstal

After the photoshoot plan B was put into action. This plan consisted of driving to Bozen (Bolzano) through the Passeirtal and from there over the Penserjoch and Jaufenpass. Only problem we encountered was a filling station that didn’t deliver the fuel I paid for. Luckily that got sorted properly.

The drive up to the Penserjoch proved to be very nice, with the road gradually climbing out of Bozen through the narrow Sarntal, up to the pass itself.

The Penserjoch from above

At the top we encountered a German woman who was driving a lovely coloured modern Triumph motorcycle. And judging by her reaction to her friends rather sarcastic remark (“great you’ve chosen a colour from 1980”), she was not very pleased when I pointed her to my car a few yards away 😁

Lovely green Triumph Tiger

Time for a well-deserved simple but good lunch at the Gasthof Alpenrosenhof. Here we were also able to enjoy the fine views off the Egger Obertal

View of Gasthof Alpenrosenhof and.the Egger Obertal

View of the Egger Obertal

View of the Egger Obertal with the Funderer Berge in the distance

The sign at the top

After we had lunch and admired the views one last time we headed down towards Sterzing, and the foot off the last pass of the day, the Jaufenpass.

The Jaufenpass from above

On the way up to the pass road itself I was driving behind a modern BMW M3. As the driver was really hanging around I thought it a good idea to challenge him a bit ones on the pass road itself. He took the bait, resulting in a very nice blast up to the top of the pass. Jolly good fun indeed. The down side was that I lost nearly half a litre of oil in 25 kilometres! Made a mental note to keep the revs down.

As we had been on the top a day earlier we decided to drive on and stop a few miles down the road at a public house with a nice terrace overlooking the valley below and enjoy a few drinks and the views.

On the terrace of Gasthaus Alpenrose

View over the Passeiertal and the Kitzbichl

The small hamlet of Larcher on the flanks of the Nörderspitze

The initial plan was to stay there till we spotted the first Triumph that would come up or down the road. But after a few drinks we left the idea and returned to St. Martin, otherwise we might probably still be sitting there now! So we finished our drinks and headed back to Sankt Martin in Passeier, where we even had some time left to admire the wood works and the surroundings.

New barndoor, Dorfstraße Sankt Martin In Passeier

Not so new wooden staircase, Dorfstraße Sankt Martin In Passeier

Traditional woodwork, Dorfstraße Sankt Martin In Passeier

The small hamlet of Magdfeld in the early evening Sun

seen from our B&B in Sankt Martin In Passeier

The cemetery chapel, beside the parish church of Sankt Martin In Passeier

with the Jauffen Kamm in the background

 And to end a lovely day we were driven underneath the restaurant’s rain shelters

by a fairly heavy rain shower that managed to find its way into the valley!

Storm clouds building over the Riffelspitze, Sankt Martin In Passeier

Storm clouds shrouding the Riffelspitze, Sankt Martin In Passeier

Edited 8^th August 2020: As it is 10 years ago that I was touring the Alps, for the “shake-down-tour” of my freshly restored DHC, I decided to freshen up the pictures using the original digital “negatives”. Also added a few extra pictures and edited the text where necessary.

Tour Des Alpes (part 1 of 3)

We returned safely from the DHC’s shake down run last Wednesday (11-08-2010).

Time for a report, mainly from the driver’s seat.

Day 1 (771 km)

The original plan was to leave on Tuesday, the 3^th of August, but due to the water pump playing up, and René being taken to hospital with an acute bacterial prostatitis, we had to postpone that with a few days. But two days later Rene had recovered enough and the water pump was replaced, so we headed south. As we had lost two days, and the weather forecast wasn’t exactly brilliant for the Thursday we decided to drop the initial plan to drive to the Alps over secondary and country roads only. Instead we took the Autobahn all the way through Germany. This turned out to be a good choice!

On the Autobahn A61 near Niederzissen (D)

But despite the by times monsoon like rain showers we made good progress. The car ran very well on the Autobahn, happily cruising at 120 km/h @ just under 3000 rpm. Also very impressed in the way the tyres coped with the by times huge amounts of standing water. There were no traces of aqua planning at all. Though looking back over the trip, that seems to be their only pro J

But after pulling into a service station for some fuel and a short rest, I found out that the water pump was leaking very badly. Not coolant but oil! In just over 500 kilometres the engine had lost well over half a litre of oil! Not good with a lot of challenging Alpine passes still ahead. But there was nothing that I could do but top up the oil, keep an eye on the oil level and hope for the best. Which I did.

By the middle of the afternoon we left Germany and entered Austria, where we eventually found ourselves a comfortable hotel in the village of Längenfeld in the Ötztal, not too far from the Timmelsjoch. But not before I had nearly totalled the car while overtaking a lorry on the Fernpass. Going downhill I wanted to overtake the lorry on the outside in one the few hairpin bends this pass has to offer. Was a pretty good plan as I could clearly see that there was no oncoming traffic. But while braking into the bend I was reminded pretty abruptly how much grip these tyres lack. At the slightest touch of the brake pedal, the front wheels locked up immediately in the still wet conditions! This resulted in a nice under steer slide in the direction of a pretty solid rock face. Two thoughts crossed my mind in rather quick succession at that moment;

• I should have fitted the steel wheels with the Yokohama’s;
• Release the brakes and more power;

The first thought was pretty useless, but the second one worked pretty well. Although sliding wide with a bit of opposite lock I could keep the car under control and on the tarmac, where she belonged! Needless to say that this narrow escape gave me a perfectly good excuse to drink a few well deserved beers in the Hotel’s bar that evening (Hotel Stern in Längenfeld). Sadly the car had to endure more of the downpour outside, which she took rather well!

Parking area of the Hotel Stern, Längenfeld (A)

Day 2 (86 km)

Next morning it was still overcast and wet, but the heavy rain was reduced to a light drizzle. But we were informed that in the night in some place on the higher grounds up to 40 centimetres of fresh snow had fallen. But compared to yesterday it looked rather nice from the hotel room!

The entrance to the Sulztal

The Gamskogel, partially hidden in clouds

Cloud covered pine forest on the flanks of the Gamskogel

After a hearty breakfast we set off for the last leg of the outward journey, over the Timmelsjoch and across the border into Süd Tyrol and the Passeier Tall. Here we would find ourselves a hotel to stay for a few days and use as a base for some touring trips.

The Timmelsjoch from above

As we were rather early there wasn’t much traffic on the Timmelsjoch, but maybe this was also caused by the rather uninviting conditions. Clearly the staff at the hotel had been right about the precipitation, especially regarding the higher grounds.

On the western approach of the Timmelsjoch, “In Der Wilde”

But at least these weather conditions provided me with some rather dramatic back grounds for a few pictures of the car and the surrounding scenery.

The DHC with the beginning of the Passeirer Timmelstal

and the Timmelsjochberg behind

Views of the Passeirer Timmelstal

with the Schönnerkofel and the Gürtelwand in the back ground

The DHC with the Passeier Tal and the Schönnerkofel + Gürtelwand behind

With the photo shoot over it was time to head down the Timmelsjoch and into the Passeiertal, in search of a hotel or B&B.

Heading down the south-eastern side of the Timmelsjoch

with views of the Seeber Tal in the background

Plan was to find ourselves a hotel or B&B in the village of Sankt Leonard in Passeier at the foot of the Timmelsjoch and the Jaufenpass, but that turned out to be not such a good plan. Everything we tried was fully booked, closed or didn’t bother to answer the door bell, and to be honest I didn’t mind very much to turn my back on the place, it all looked rather to touristic in all the wrong possible ways. After a frustrating half hour we moved on to the neighbouring village, Sankt Martin in Passeier, where we found ourselves a simple B&B in the centre of the village. As it was by now well past noon we decided to give the car a well deserved rest outside the B&B (Garni Rosenau).

After which we headed to the neighbouring restaurant to have lunch. This was washed down with some beer from their own brewery. The rest of the afternoon was spent with a sightseeing stroll through the village.

A lovely pint of beer from the local Brauhaus (Martinerhof)

The bell tower of the cemetery chapel

beside the parish church of Sankt Martin in Passeier

The cemetery surrounding the parish church of Sankt Martin in Passeier

Inside the parish church of Sankt Martin in Passeier

One of the ancient entrance doors to the parish church of Sankt Martin in Passeier

Burned out candle on the floor of the cript underneath the cemetery chapel

beside the parish church of Sankt Martin in Passeier

Gateway between the parish church’s yard and the local youth club

Traditional wooden cottage in the Dorfstraße, Sankt Marin in Passeier

Old shed in the Dorfstraße, Sankt Martin in Passeier

And another cottage in the Dorfstraße, Sankt Marin in Passeier

Garberweg, Sankt Marin in Passeier

Time for a well-deserved cup of coffe

 at what has since become my favourite restaurants in the area!

Edited 8^th August 2020: As it is 10 years ago that I was touring the Alps, for the “shake-down-tour” of my freshly restored DHC, I decided to freshen up the pictures using the original digital “negatives”. Also added a few extra pictures and edited the text where necessary.

Ready for the Alps???

Received a few missing gaskets yesterday afternoon, enabling me to finish the water pump change. Which meant refitting the manifold and carburettors, and connecting everything up again. As I always use a very thin film of sealant on both sides of the gasket, and this had to set for 24 hours, I had to wait till this afternoon before I could refill the coolant system and take the car for a little test drive. This enabled me to pack up a bit of hopefully not needed stuff, like some spanners, a bit of oil and coolant etc. All in preparation for the Alps.

And this afternoon it was time to fill up the coolant system and go for a test drive. Which almost not happened. After starting up pretty nicely I reversed of the drive onto the street, but half way there the engine started to splutter, and it felt as if it was only running on 2 to 3 cylinders. And when I wanted to return to the carport the engine cut out altogether ...

But she started up immediately and ran as if nothing had happened, so I did go for a test drive. Car behaved very well, temperature went up as it should till a third of the scale and remained there. And the coolant light stayed of, also a good sign. But all that changed when I returned home and opened the bonnet. I was looking at the biggest coolant spill I have ever seen from the slot underneath the water pump. So nothing I could do and let the engine cool down and see how the coolant level was. That turned out to be quite fine (I had overfilled the system slightly). Time for another check, I started the engine and let it run till it was full warmed up.

As you can see there were no signs of any leaks and the paper tissues I had put in the slot remained absolutely dry. Will put it down to a water pump seal that needed to seat itself. But something I will keep an eye on in the next few days when we’ll be touring the Alps. We should actually have been somewhere in the Alps already, but due to the water pump and René’s health, we’ll now be leaving tomorrow morning. So hopefully next entry will be some nice shots of the car with some Alpine back grounds ...

Changing the DHC’s water pump

With the Alpine Tour only a few days away there was no time hanging around, which meant an early start this morning. First I had to collect all my tools which were scattered over a few different locations. But before I started on that round I soaked all the nuts and bolts, that needed undoing on the engine, with penetrating oil.

After having collected all the tools I started with draining the coolant system and disconnecting the carburettors, in preparation of the removal of the complete manifold/carburettor assembly;

As I had already filled up the fuel tank in preparation for the scheduled trip to the Alps, I had to make sure the fuel hose coming from the pump was closed of properly. So I clamped the hose using a small ViceGrip and plugged the end;

With everything disconnected it was time to remove the manifolds mounting bolts. All could be removed without a problem. Only wondering what Muppet at Leyland designed the manifold, as the front bolt is pretty much inaccessible for a half decent socket set. Luckily I do have various spanners, but due to the limited space it was rather time consuming to remove this bolt;

But with all bolts removed and the heater pipe disconnected (nearly forgot that one) the manifold together with the carburettors could be lifted of the engine;

Giving me chance to look inside the engine for the first time in 17 years, doesn’t look to bad I think;

And after a minor break to make a brew, I tackled the water pump itself. Removing the cover was very easy, two taps with a rubber mallet and it was out. Was amazed to see that the gasket was blown out at the back of the cover. But there were no signs of any leaks from there;

The pump itself did put up something resembling a fight, but it lost out against a sturdy washer, screwed to the pump’s shaft, and two hefty tyre levers. The impeller gave the game away why the pump failed. There is a fair amount of rust on it, almost certainly caused by being in contact with air for nearly 18 months;

Of course the brass cage remained behind in the block;

... but with this little tool it was a piece of cake;

After removing the old gasket and cleaning the inside of the pump cover, it was time to refit the pump. It did take a few attempts to get the jack shaft gears to engage with the gears on the pump shaft. But ones I got that right, the pump could be gently tapped in place;

Left me with checking the clearance of the pump cover;

Choose a gasket with the correct thickness (measured gap + (0.30÷0.50) mm) for the 12 vane impeller;

And tighten the water pump cover;

Only have to refit the manifold etc. but I ran out of gaskets and O-rings. Will get that sorted tomorrow morning, so hopefully the car will be ready by evening.