Following the inch of snow we had a couple of weeks back, it would appear that summer has now arrived. We’re in that sweet spot where the weather isn’t pants any more, but the midges haven’t all hatched yet. I’m a walking, talking midge magnet so for me, this time of year is the bomb for landy camping. […]
Vehicles
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 […]
2 hours wood collection, 3 hours Land Rover extraction
Good ratio. I was helping my brother shift some firewood – went a bit off-line on one run and ended up in a bit of a bog. With all the weight on the right hand wheels (which were well stuck), the left hand ones had no traction. Much winching ensued…
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 […]
Brake caliper replacement
Disc brakes are ace. They’re powerful, self adjusting, and they don’t fill with muddy water when you look at a muddy puddle the wrong way. They’re not flawless though. There are two issues that I’ve had crop up several times with Land Rover brake calipers. One is excessive caliper wear allowing the pads to fall down and […]
Canvas tilt re-proof
I quite like a canvas soft top (or tilt, in Land Rover parlance). They’re not nearly as bad for condensation as a plain hardtop, and they also seem (counter-intuitively, perhaps) to be quieter and warmer. Also, rolling the sides up on a warm summers eve is brilliant! Unlike a hardtop though, a tilt does need […]
Land Rover – 57 Varieties
This is not a Land Rover for purists. At some point in the dim and distant past, it was an 88″ series 1. Then it was turned into a hybrid – by someone with not very much skill, as I discovered once I started stripping it down… It seems that the series 1 donated (most of) […]
Propshaft Universal Joint replacement
Not the most interesting of jobs this, but I’ve been tripping over this propshaft in the garage for ages and it’s grim outside. One of the universal joints (UJ’s) had seized in one plane, meaning it (or possibly the whole prop) needed replacement. First thing to check was whether the telescopic splined section (which allows […]