Our original plan for today was to catch up on a few maintenance jobs, get some fuel and food and get ready to depart north tomorrow morning.
All that changed when I started the inspection of the underside of the 90 when I found an ATF leak that suggests the the output oil seal of the auto box is failing. I don’t have a spare seal and don’t really have the equipment to change it even if I did. The leak has the potential to disable the vehicle and with no filler/level tube on the gearbox it’s not going to be easy to replenish the lost oil.
There is a distinct scarcity of Land Rover specialists in this part of Australia so finding someone who has experience of the job is going to be difficult. Add to that the Easter holiday and we’re left with a bit of a conundrum. I had a chat with Patrick at Maddison4x4 about it and he suggested a few things to check. Tomorrow I need to find a suitable spot to check the level and figure out, if I can, how serious the leak actually is. If it’s bad we may need to change our plans and dates to get it fixed. In the meantime we’ll carry on and keep an eye on it in the hope that it isn’t going to get much worse… We’ve done at least 1000 miles with it leaking so far so no need to get too concerned yet – it’s a Land Rover, it leaks, live with it !
On the plus side I did get the pre-filter changed on the main tank and that has cured the noisy fuel pump problem when running off that tank. I also tightened up the spare wheel carrier again, finally removing the tatty bit of rubber that used to be a bush from the slider. Not sure what the bush was supposed to achieve but all it seems to have do is slowly disintegrate. I also changed the snorkel top over to the ARB cyclone style that is supposed to help filter out sand particles.
We’ve booked in for an extra night so we can finish off what jobs are left and hopefully have a more relaxing day ! That should allow us to set off to Port Headland with full fuel tanks on Friday, top the off Saturday and be self sufficient in fuel, food etc… until Tuesday.
Assuming the gearbox leak is manageable we’ll try and get a new seal sent to us when we have a suitable stop over address. Once we have a seal I should be able to supervise and or help a general mechanic to do the job if it becomes necessary.

We also met up with Frank Cook today, a fellow “Pom” who is pursuing a similar adventure with his brother. They had the good sense to use a Toyota, for which competent mechanics and spares are available on every street corner by comparison 🙂 Looks like we’ll be heading along the Gibb River Road at about the same time unless either of us have our plans derailed in the meantime.