‘Dems da brakes’
5 AugUp early today, and into the engine. I remove the crankshaft pulley, the alternator belt, and the timing cover, and inspect the timing gear. I was hoping the noisiness of the engine might be attributable to the timing belt tensioner, but no such luck. The belt tension is good, and the camshaft and crankshaft are still perfectly aligned.
Stephen heads off with John, the fluent English speaker from the hotel. They head to the special car market, looking for a replacement wheel cylinder. They are gone a long time, and by the time they return, I’ve fitted the new cylinder to the right hand side rear brake, and also repaired the front right bump stop. The half a rubber mallet bump stop has been broken, but I figure it’ll last a bit longer if I turn it around and tape it up with some duct tape.
Stephen and John return after about 3hrs, and to my surprise they have a new wheel cylinder, which is slightly shorter than the Suzuki part, but otherwise perfect. I can’t believe it. I told John there was no chance.
I set about fitting this to the rear left, but there is a problem. The brake fitting has rusted solid, and there is no way I can remove the cylinder without damaging the brake line. In Brackley (a small UK town where you can’t buy anything), you can get a new line made in minutes. John kindly agrees to drive back to the car market to source a new line. This is after he’s already spent 3hrs looking around with Stephen.
The car market is a crazy place. There are lines and lines of vendors selling millions of different parts. I have never seen anything like it. We only speak to about 6 vendors, and by then John is convinced there is only one man who can make this type of brake line. The problem is, he has the copper line and the fittings, but he has lent the flaring tool to his mate, and lost his mobile number.
What follows is a 4hr goose chase. We go to a refrigeration shop, as they can apparently flare the pipe. When we get there the y change their mind. John calls another person. I’m not really aware, but this guy is a mobile refrigeration man. We wait 1hr for him to show up. During this time we head to a café in the industrial area, where we have a spot of lunch. John gets chatting to the lady behind the counter, and soon there are about 3 ladies around. It turns out one is from the restaurant next door, and we go in there for a drink. She serves us a substance that looks like flat beer, but is actually a special apricot drink. It’s made from boiling dried apricots in water, and is really nice. I’m sure it’s made from tap water, and spells digestive troubles, but I can’t offend, so down it goes.
The mobile man shows up. He can’t flare the line either! The line has to fittings on it. We cut and inch off either end of the old pipe, and braze a new length of copper pipe between it. At one end the fitting is still seized, but we put a new fitting on the other end. The new pipe is straight, so I can screw the seized end in first, then bend the pipe to the correct shape, and then screw in the other end (I later find this is easier said than done). The pipe is soon fixed, but the cost is a rather steep US$50. I bargain and we agree on $35. However, I need to know the brazing is good. The only way I can think of is to stick one end of the pipe in the roadside drain, block the end, and blow into it. This checks one joint, but then I have to turn it around to check the other, and blow on the end from the drain!
It takes only an hour to fit the new pipe, clean the old brake shoes, and bleed the brakes. Normally you’d use brake cleaner to clean the brake linings (there is no friction when they are wet with brake fluid), but we have none. A good substitute is Alcohol, and the cheapest way of obtaining that in Tajikistan is to buy a bottle of Vodka. It works a treat, and costs about US$1.5 for half a litre.
Beer is for drinking, Vodka is for cleaning. I work away at fixing our braking issues:
Dinner is once again Shaslik in the park, with a piva to wash it down.
A few passing notes on Dushanbe:
Having a monobrow is attractive for women (as in Uzbekistan), and you see the odd woman who has put make up on to imitate one.
There are two reasons to use the horn in your car. One is to say I am about to pass you. The other is to say I am about to do something extremely dangerous at breakneck speed. If you get in the way I will run into you. In this case the horn must be held down for the duration of the maneuver.
There is water everywhere. The drains down the side of most streets are deep, and full. There is water wastage going on everywhere, which is strange for us Australians to take.
