Differential disaster - out of oil!

[Nils L. Corneliusen <corneliusen@domain.elided>]

Argh, what a disastrous weekend (so far!) with my 1978 Spider 1600.
Let me attempt to explain:

I picked up the car at the mechanic after the yearly service. All
fluids were exchanged, including the differential oil. So far, so
good. Then I set off for a 150 km journey in beautiful, sunny weather.
However, after 120 km, disaster struck!

First, a whining sound from the rear of the car at high speeds. Of
course I slowed down and stopped at a crossing. Next thing, smoke from
the rear of the car. I don't know much about cars, but that's usually
very bad. Smoke seemed to come from the right, rear wheel, so I
guessed it was the brakes.

Wrong. To cut a long story short, the native car wizard in the middle
of nowhere easily located the problem. The exhaust was sprayed with
oil from the differential, hence the smoke. The differential was
missing both plugs, which could explain the sound I heard. No oil in
the differential is usually bad news, and an attempt to locate new
plugs was a bit hard to do on a friday night in the middle of nowhere.

Of course, now I'm a bit puzzled. This sounds like my mechanic did a
sloppy job exchanging the oil, like forgetting to insert the refill
plug and forgetting to tighten the drain plug. Does that sound
reasonable? If so, I'm pretty sure I'll make him cover it.

The car wizard suggested that obtaining new plugs and refilling the
system with oil might work to get the car to the shop, since nothing
seemed to be badly broken. Is this stupid, ie. might things get worse?
I really need some background on this before I give my mechanic a call
on monday.

As you probably have guessed, the car is now stuck in the middle of
nowhere, and I had to ride the bus home in disgrace. %$&$%/&$!

Any help in this matter is really appreciated. I really love that car,
and now it's sitting there completely helpless in the middle of
nowhere with rain pouring down. Good thing I brought the car cover
along. Sigh.

regards,
Nils C-:
- -- 
Nils L. Corneliusen
1978 Spider 1600
corneliusen@domain.elided
http://www.triumph.no/members_nils.html

------------------------------