Last night we heard that our long awaited spare parts had arrived in Shiraz and that we could pick them up at 9:00am this morning. Well as with everything else about this story that 9:00am dragged out a bit and it was not until 11:00 that we had the two parcels in our possession. After that we spent the remainder of the day preparing to depart Shiraz. We had to buy oil, get some more money, and pack up all the stuff we had taken to the hotel. Just in case you think we are getting ahead of ourselves as we only have the parts in our hot little hands, they have not been installed in the truck yet. Well the plan was that we would take ourselves, the truck and parts back to Marvdasht to have that same mechanic install the new parts. After all he has had the experience of taking the hub apart once now and that's more experience than anyone else in this town is likely to have had.
For reasons that we never did entirely understand the mechanic did not want us to arrive at his workshop in Marvdasht until after dark and he proposed to work all night if necessary to finalize the repair. Seemed a bit crazy to us as we would have prefered to take the truck up there late in the afternoon, sleep in the truck at his workshop, and do the work in daylight the next day. But that was not our call.
So as requested we turned up at the workshop in the dark at 6:00pm, parked the truck so that some light shone on the appropriate area and work got under way. It was pretty impressive really it took a little over 4 hours to take the hub apart and install the new parts and have us mobile again.
Interestingly once we got the hub disassembled it was clear that the original repair was already beginning to fail. The bearing surface on that large gear was showing signs of wear and there was a considerable quantity of metal in the oil that drained out. It was probably a good thing I persisted with the idea of doing a "proper" fix and that we had been able to arrange new parts.
So with the truck fixed we paid the mechanic and our guide Mr H escorted us to the parking lot at Persepolis which was only a few kilometers away as he felt it was the only safe place nearby where we could camp overnight. At Persepolis we said a few more goodbyes and settled into our beds. The Shiraz Odessey was finally over.
A word of thanks is due to our guide and guardian angel Mr H. From that first phone call he has cared for us like we were family, looked after us, worried about the things that confronted us and has always been concerned to ensure we were safe and that our troubles were being dealt with.
Mr H, we offer you a mighty thank you.