I started working on Betty at 8am while Christophe looked after ever smiling Sasha and Virginie was off to work (she works for he airforce, preparing flight plans and disseminating fight information...it was in the military where the two met). My first task was to disconnect the gearbox from my old engine which proved to be much easier than getting the box off of the newly purchased engine (Christophe and I struggled for about half an hour with that task yesterday). Later, after Christophe had taken Sasha to daycare, we finished off the last preparations for putting the next motor into the campervan. After lunch we set about hoisting the engine into place. We were able to hold the motor by a couple of points which made it much easier than when we had removed the wrecked engine. “Enleve le Chevre!” We worked our way back through the list of reconnecting this and screwing in that. I had a long battle with the drive shaft while Christophe pretty much took care of everything else.
Yes, Christophe is vacuuming the engine:
And now watering Betty:
There was the odd French swear word used but in general it was a pretty smooth operation...until we tried to start her, then the cursing was a bit more prevalent as she wouldn't fire up. We finished for the day around 8pm, slightly frustrated that she wouldn't start although pleased that the new motor was actually in the chassis (at least I was).
The new mean Betty look:
A friend of Christophe and Virginie’s, Laetitia, stopped by for a visit in the evening. I tried to keep up with the conversation between the ladies but it was a bit challenging as they were in full speed female chitchat. We had a lovely dinner (they never seem to stop in this household) and a few drinks to finish the evening.
Betty and me with the lovely family that has adopted us (Christophe, Virginie and Sasha):
Hopefully tomorrow we will breathe some life into Betty!
Replacing an engine on Vacation! Good luck today.
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