A Blog About Land Rovers in Oklahoma
My daughter RovErica captured this picture tonight. It’s kinda ironic, we are celebrating our independence from Great Britain today and I drive a British vehicle.
Happy Independence Day or as the British call it Happy Treason Day. Either way remember the sacrifices brave men have made to allow you to sleep under the warm blanket of freedom tonight. A lot of lives have been traded to give you that.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
I got a wild hair this weekend and decided to see if I could get my radio reinstalled. I’ve been using the cell phone for my tunes and news for quite a while. I thought it might be nice to have tunes and my Weather Band back on-board provided by something other than my phone.
In all honesty I could care less about local radio. The “We’re OVERSTOCKED car ads” alone make me want to drive off a bridge to my certain death. I mean seriously, how is the fact you were stupid enough to become “overstocked” on automobiles make you think I need to come down and buy one? If you are that bad at managing your business I’m certainly not going to help you continue to be stupid. Darwinism isn’t just for animals, you feel me? I listen to KGOU NPR in the morning. I really hate listening in the election years because they start leaning to left so much it makes me want to yell at the radio. Our neighbor Hardluck Jim’s weekend Blues show is a true bright spot. I also like KOSU’s The Spy programming. It’s always something you are never going to hear on the other commercial stations. And how many radio shows do you know of that pair rock-n-roll with a bottle of wine?
Back to on-board tunes, I got the radio reinstalled. I scavenged some parts mainly the antenna wires from Ole’ Blackie and that made it all possible. Once I got the wires behind the radio sorted out and the rear heater tubes sorted out the radio slid right in. I turned her and the magical air waves came across the speakers but it seems my sub-woofer is not working.
The speakers in the back were never great. Also the speakers in the doors were buzzing badly. I had already replaced the door speakers once around 12 years ago or more. You can imagine how bad the rear one’s were considering they had been delivered with her from the factory.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Pioneer. My first and only “boom box” was a Pioneer (SK-210). I miss that old thing. Jack Shepard and Bill Colston borrowed it when they drove to south Texas to retrieve Jack’s stolen Honda motorcycle. Bill’s truck didn’t have a radio. I remember their comment, that sucker really eats the batteries. There is one on eBay as of this writing and at 79.99$(US) I think its more expensive than the one I bought new back in 1983. I had friends who had Pioneer car stereos. Good times…
I digress, I went to Best Buy and bought two sets of speakers.
The blue-coned speakers are the old replacement ones. The originals were already in the bin. The TS-G1045R’s will suit me fine. I’m not an “audiophile”. I know people who’ve spent more on a car sound system than I’ve paid for some cars I’ve owned. I like loud tunes as much as the next guy. But I’m not going to spend the “Gross National Product of Chad” to have them. Hell, I don’t even have air conditioning yet. I’d rather spend a thousand dollars having cold air blowing on me all summer. Maybe if I got that fixed perhaps Mrs. Okierover might even ride in the Big White Bus again? Stranger things have happened.
Some observations…
I’d really like to plug my phone into the on-board sound system. But if the sub-woofer is toast what would be the point? I know John Monahan will put an AUX input on this model of radio. I’m not sure what that would cost.
The plastic bits on the dash are starting to become terribly brittle. If only there was a warehouse somewhere that had OEM parts sitting on the shelf that I could source. Maybe there is such a thing in England, highly unlikely in the good Old United States of America.
That’s all for now except you’ve probably noticed the new format. I hope you like the new look of the blog. I thought the site needed an update and I really liked this one. I’m still messing with it so be patient with me.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
I got word from JagGuy that LKQ OKC had a Classic on the lot. She was a 1993 as well. So I made my way down and was quite pleased with the site. The staff were friendly and efficient.
The check out process was fun. They struggled with the discount when it was time to check out. There was a Memorial Weekend discount and they wanted to give me a military discount too but the computer system wouldn’t allow it.
I was happy with the price 50$(US). The haul was not as significant as usual. I was able to pick:
The Classic was well picked over. The ECUs were all gone. Two of the four door handles were broken or missing. The center console was trashed. The seats were well worn.
This classic had 212,000+ miles on her. She had fought the good fight. She was well used. Some one had tried to keep her on the road, she had new belts. But her days of ferrying people are over.
In a world where these Classics get harder and harder to find its sad to see one go, but when one keeps others on the road the sacrifice is just.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
We’ve all heard the jokes.
“If your Land Rover isn’t leaking you’ve run out of that fluid.”
I heard them all, I’ve even made up some of my own. But the jokes are all true. The only Land Rovers that don’t leak are still in the first 3 years of their life. Even then, I’m not entirely sure you won’t have a leak of some kind. The basic premise is, if you’ve cracked open a system, coolant, oil, transmission fluid, air condition, steering fluid, brake fluid, blinker fluid, it doesn’t matter, that system will forever leak from that day forward.
This year I decided, I’m not going to pour my hard earned money “through” my Land Rover any longer. You buy the fluid, you pour it whatever reservoir, and you see it on the ground in your parking spot at home, work, wherever you park. I decided I am stopping that now.
Earlier this year, I started with my power steering system. I got that sealed back up only to have the “O” rings fail and it leak out again. That’s fixed now.
I then decided that my oil leak needed to stop. I replaced my oil sump gasket and got that sorted. This will probably always “weep” but it’s not leaving a puddle and I’m good with that.
The last major leak is the coolant system. This is one you don’t ignore. You get an aluminum block too hot and you’re doing engine work. In this case I had my expansion tank finally give up. It had a slow leak in the seam. I sourced a new one and decided the coolant hoses were starting to resemble over-inflated balloon animals and needed to be replaced as well.
The filler tube nut was also past it’s life expectancy. I bought a brass one and another plastic one. The brass one was actually for my radiator but the plug there was soldered and would not be replaced. I used the brass one to clean the filler tube threads. That worked better than I expected.
I got the system filled and started looking for leaks. There were none in the things I touched. But I still had a leak from under the transmission. There are no coolant line back there I thought, “What the hell?”
I let the engine cool a bit while I solved all the world’s problems with Mr. Fisher. I then began what I hoped was not a leaking heater hose. The heater hoses that go across the top of the motor to the heater core are back there. That has to be where the leak is coming from.
You can see the offending hose there on the firewall. The hose clamp is the one. Turned out it was not tight at all. I was able to turn the hose with my hand.
Getting it tight required pulling it off and replacing the hose clamp and combining various combinations of socket sets to get the socket on the clamp screw. Eventually I got it tight.
I had to fill the system again so that process was followed again. Finally I got done and started the engine up to get her back to pressure and hot to look for leaks. I also moved the Big White Bus down the driveway to spot new leaks.
And to my surprise just as I expected there were no leaks. It was decided a maiden voyage to Hollywood Corners for lunch. On the way the coolant light decided it was going to notify me of a low coolant situation. I knew this wasn’t possible. Did I have an air bubble?
When I got the BWB back tot he hacienda I opened and saw the level in the tank was below the fill mark. I topped her off. I also decided to swap my cap for one I salvaged off one from the breaker’s yard.
So for the time being I’m leak free. And for the next 24 hours I’m going to be the only human on earth with a 23 year old Land Rover that doesn’t have any leaks. That feels good.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
Why 24 hours? Because I’ll drive her again tomorrow and I’m sure I’ll be planning how I’ll stop the new leak.
I just finished reading this article in Outdoor Magazine. “I Took My Unreliable Old Land Rover Off-Roading, And It Broke Down Almost Immediately”
By:Wes Siler
I can totally understand this guy. I’m looking forward to reading about his adventures with his Discovery.
Check it out.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
Sometimes describing why you love something is difficult. Cal Newport nailed it in his book “Deep Work” when describing why the social critic Matthew Crawford gave up his job and opened a motorcycle repair shop.
“The feeling of taking a broken machine, struggling with it, then eventually enjoying a tangible indication that he succeeded (the bike driving out of the shop under its own power) provides a concrete sense of accomplishment he struggled to replicate when his day revolved vaguely around reports and communication strategies.”
Page 63.
That’s it. Exactly. There is a certain satisfaction when you succeed in fixing your car and you get to drive it another day. We are losing this as time progresses. The number of people who enjoy the intrinsic reward derived from working on something with your hands is getting smaller every day it seems.
Go out in the garage and do something, anything, you’ll feel better when you are done.
Thanks for Reading and Happy Rovering.