A rusty bit? On a Land Rover!? Whatever next… This time its the series’ front panel (the panel behind the grill, between the wings). The bottom section of this panel is reinforced with a piece of steel angle on the rear. This traps water behind the panel and causes it to rust through. With the front […]
Fixing/maintaining stuff
Second row door repair
Land-Rover doors were, in the original series one configuration, pretty good. They had an aluminium skin mounted on a galvanised steel frame. The aluminium generally didn’t corrode, and the galvanising stopped the frame from rotting. Brilliant. These are 61 years old and still good to go. Ok, they’ve not been on the road for the last […]
A-frame ball joint replacement
The A-frame ball joint is the meaty ball joint sat atop the rear axle on all the older coil sprung Land Rovers. It allows the back axle to pivot about the joint relative to the upper links (which, cunningly, look a bit like a capital A, hence A-frame): What it doesn’t do is let the […]
110 footwell repair
The bulkhead on the 110 has been in need of repair since before I owned it. One of the previous owners ‘fixed’ the top corner rust by riveting a repair section over the top, so I’ve got no doubt the top corners are in a bad way. The plan was to wait until the 109 […]
Wheel refurb
One of the first things needing (loosest possible use of the word) sorted for the 127 was a set of wheels – it was fitted with 9″ wide modulars. Mingin’. Alas, proper 6.5″ wide 127/130 rims (as opposed to 5.5″ rims used on 90’s and 110’s) seem to cost a small fortune now. ANR1534PM are available […]
Transfer box output shaft seal replacement
The 110’s hitherto bone dry underside was sullied last week with the appearance of an oil leak. The oil was making its break for freedom out of the drain hole behind the handbrake backplate. For oil to escape here, the rear output seal must be leaking. This seal stops oil getting past the output flange that […]
A year? Already? MOT time.
The 109 has been back on the road for a year now, so it’s MOT test time. For a well-maintained Land Rover (rustbucket Discoveries (Discoverys?) excluded), there shouldn’t really be any issues come the MOT test. A pre-MOT check is still a good idea, in case any niggles have arisen since the last check. I […]
Now you (don’t) see me
More electrical gremlins in the 110. I was towing the RRC down the dual carriageway whilst moving house, when I noticed that the sidelight repeaters on the trailer were out. Pulled over to investigate and found that I had no tail lights on either the 110 or the trailer, despite them working when I hooked […]
All the electricity fell out
Went to start the 110 the other day and it would barely turn over. Ho hum. There are a number of reasons why this could be – dead battery, dead starter, poor wiring ‘twixt the two – so some diagnostic work was required. With a spare battery hooked up in parallel using jump leads, the engine fired up no […]
Oily waxoyly goodness
A guy I used to work with once said that a chassis is practically a service item on a Land Rover. To an extent, he was right – there’s so much salt used on the roads around here in winter that rust is the no. 1 landy killer. Ultimately, any Land Rover used for long […]