Big White Bus - OKIEROVER.COM

January 28, 2016May 16, 2023

Wrecked (Post #553) 1/28/2016

An irresponsible and distracted driver decided to take their eye off the road and reach down for a bottle of spaghetti sauce that rolled off her seat. The result? She rammed the Big White Bus while it was parked on the street outside my Uncle’s retirement home. The financial damage? Of course they want to “total” my Range Rover.

The only consolation is she totaled her car as well. Her husband was pissed. Perhaps this will be a lesson to her to be more attentive when she is driving. After the cops came and took a report, the husband got in the Hyundai and drove it home. No coolant, airbags hanging, hood blocking 50% of the road in front of him.

It used to be a 2014 Hyundai something or other. She hit the BWB hard enough to deploy her airbags. My guess, 30+ miles per hour in a 25 mph zone. She said, “I didn’t expect a vehicle to be there.” Famous last words. Good thing it wasn’t someone out trying to get some exercise walking where my Range Rover was parked.

In the light of day the Range Rover doesn’t look too bad. The repair estimate was above 4900$(US). The Allstate insurance company doesn’t believe these classic Range Rovers are worth the money they are claiming off the internet. That’s just my luck.

The damage is the left rear fender, left light assembly, the bumper, and the lower tailgate. The driver’s side rear door will not open any longer. She got me hard enough to move the inner panel. I am taking her insides out this weekend to assess the damage and get her ready for repair.

I was able to get the exhaust repaired in time to go with the Oklahoma Land Rover Owner’s group “Osage Adventure”. More about that in another post. My good friend Jag Guy says we can sort this out. That didn’t stop me from looking at possibly getting another Land Rover Discovery. The money is not there at this time. I’m still looking, maybe things will work out for me. The insurance is still not settled. I could sell some bits off the Range Rover and make up the difference. A Disco is still on the table…but I’ll have to see.

So what did we learn?

This is a major inconvenience. I have to take up several weekends of my friend’s time to help me and my own time. It cost me two days of vacation to get the BWB where I could continue to drive her. I can’t afford another car payment. The financial crisis finally came home to roost last year and we are tapped out.

Insurance companies are in this for them not you. I know that is an obvious statement. Insurance companies will always try to get out of paying you what the fair market value is for your older vehicle. You can claim your pristine classic Land Rover is worth 10,000$(US), but if the insurance company thinks it’s worth 2 thousand…guess what.

These Land Rovers are TOUGH. That is all the damage a car that passes for a modern crossover SUV did going 30+ mph. Plastic bumpers and Styrofoam were no match for the Range Rover.

I’ll post more about the wreck and the repair after the insurance is settled.

Oddly enough I found this quarter on the road after the wreck.

Arches National Park. I’m taking as a sign I need to plan a trip to Moab.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

January 10, 2016May 16, 2023

Oil Sump Gasket Replaced (Post #552) 1/10/2016

If you follow me on the Okierover Facebook Page you read that I needed to replace my oil sump gasket. And as I predicted the weather did NOT cooperate. It stopped snowing at 1030 that morning but the wind was blowing 20-30 mph all day. It was very chilly in the garage.

If you are from Oklahoma or drive a domestic automobile (Chevy, Ford, Dodge, just kidding no one drives a Dodge) you can translate oil sump to oil pan.
I had trouble with the term too. Try Googling “oil pan gasket” when your British motor car has all their parts listed as “oil sump”. The same thing happens when you are searching the RAVE manual looking for an oil pan. Thankfully when I ordered the part from Rovah Farm it was easy to find.

Back to the leak, the Big White Bus has recently been leaving a nice puddle of oil when she comes to a stop. I know all the jokes about British cars and leaks. If you don’t see a leak, it’s probably dry. Well, I don’t care for leaks. I do my best to find the leaks and eliminate them. Like the steering box, it leaks like a sieve. I should have a rebuilt unit next week. And I will have it installed by the end of that Saturday. That will be the last of the petroleum based fluid leaks. It only took me 3 (three) years!

sumpoff — The sump dropped away from the block. Labeled for your reference.

The source of the leak? the oil sump gasket or to be more specific, the LACK of a gasket. I am the second owner of this motor. As you can see below, someone used Permatex Ultra Gray for a gasket. First, Ultra Black should be used, not Gray, and there should be a cork gasket completing the seal. If you have done this I’m not criticizing, I’m just pointing out now you probably know why it’s leaking.

badseal — That is a bit too porous to hold oil back.

My oil ~~pan~~ sump had to be removed and serviced. There was rust and chipped paint and what was left of the “gasket” had to be removed prior to putting a new one in. I was surprised that something that has had so much leaked oil on it could rust, but it did.

pittingrust — The oil sump with a bit of the rust removed (on the right).

I got the trusty angle grinder out and hooked up a wire wheel and scraped off the rust and the factory paint (black). The challenge was getting the oil and grime off. I used brake cleaner, a lot of rags, and in the final stage before painting I used some pre-paint grease remover.

While I had it off I cleaned some of the grime and muck out of the sump. I used a flat razor scraper. I was careful to make sure I left no “chunks” in there. Short of a sand blaster there was no way to get all the baked on muck out of there. My sand blaster cabinet is not big enough.

The sump was ready to be painted. I got the Mar-Hyde Self Etching Primer from inside the house where it was being stored at a temperature that allowed it to be used. I painted the pan with the first coat and then brought the pan into the house and into my office to dry. I gave it an hour to dray and when back out to clean up the underside of the motor. I also swapped out the last poly bushings on the radius arms.

I put the second coat of paint on and after some waiting I started to put it all back together. The first thing that is required is getting the Permatex Ultra Black gasket maker on and letting it set up. I did this in my office. I wasn’t even sure if it would setup in my garage at 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Once it set up I put the cork gasket on and lined it up. The Permatex acts like an adhesive at least enough to secure the gasket from moving during install.

The next challenge is to get the sump back in place and bolted up to the block. Take your time and don’t rush. The cork gasket can slip and if you break it, you are done. After it is in place you bring the bolts up to snug. The manual calls for you to tighten it to specific torque settings. The idea here is that you don’t crush the gasket.

From the manual you can see that is not a lot of torque needed. I don’t have a torque wrench that I could get my 13mm sockets on. You have to use narrow walled sockets, etc… in short my tool chest is inadequate for this. So I was careful when I was tightening them. A note here, the rear bolts are not labeled but I assumed it was the ones on the row nearest the transmission tunnel.

I finished up the oil change and and then the moment of truth came. I got the oil up to temperature and watched for leaks. None were found. I drove the Big White Bus to church the next day and still no leaks. I’m going to mark that down as a success. I will of course be watching it for the next week.

On the Okierover Difficulty Scale this job is a 2 (two). You will have the oil sump off, you will get oily and dirty (and not the good kind). You also have to remove the sway bar to get the sump out. If you aren’t going to clean it up you can skip the removal and just clean it up while under the engine.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

PS the Oklahoma Land Rover Group is still on track to #Hibernot and take on a section of the Oklahoma Adventure Trail. If you are interested check out the details on the Oklahoma Land Rover Group on Facebook.

November 8, 2015May 23, 2023

Death Wobble Garage Day (Post #549) 11/8/2015

If you’ve been following for any time you’ll have read about my problems with the suspension on the Big White Bus. Mr. Fisher helped me swap out all the tie-rod ends. I thought I blogged about that but I guess I didn’t. In any event, I swapped out the tie-rod ends in an effort to find my death wobble problem.

You’ve never heard of death wobble? Check out this definition from High Sierra 4×4’s Glossary page.

Death Wobble: \ˈdeth\ \ˈwä-bəl\ noun. Death wobble is an exaggerated slang term for extreme steering vibration. This typically occurs when driving your vehicle and due to loose steering components or alignment issues the front end vibrates excessively. In extreme cases this has caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle.

Continue reading “Death Wobble Garage Day (Post #549) 11/8/2015”

September 21, 2015May 16, 2023

Exhaust Gasket Blow Out (Post #545) 9/21/2015

The Big White Bus started sounding like she was losing a catalytic converter. The sound started as a ticking. However yesterday and today I knew it was a blown exhaust gasket and a missing exhaust stud. I naturally assumed the worst had happened and I would need new exhaust pieces. I was prepared to replace the exhaust starting with the Y. It’s Frankenstein’d together as it is. The next problem or failure is going to require a new exhaust system. I thought that was now. Continue reading “Exhaust Gasket Blow Out (Post #545) 9/21/2015”

August 12, 2015May 16, 2023

Too Hot to Land Rover (Post #542) 8/12/2015

Blasphemy! you might say. So I’ll qualify that to it’s too hot to wrench. It is the height of summer here in Oklahoma. Temperatures while they haven’t been anywhere near the lovely year of 100’s, they have been close. Our exiting of the drought in such a dramatic way this year (2015) has the humidity up to the levels I remember it from before the drought.

So your greasy fingered blogger has not put much effort into much of anything Land Rover. That is not to say I don’t have a handful of project to do, I do.

Continue reading “Too Hot to Land Rover (Post #542) 8/12/2015”

June 17, 2015May 16, 2023

Family Reunion Road Trip (Post #540) 6/17/2015

The Courtright Family Reunion was this past weekend. I am a Courtright on my biological mother’s maternal side. Mrs. Okierover normally attends this yearly event with me. This year a church carnival demanded her time. So traveling solo gave me an opportunity to drive the Big White Bus to Stillwater, Oklahoma and as you can imagine, I took the “back roads”.

I’ve had recent trouble with the Range Rover’s normally trouble-free 4.2 motor. She doesn’t want to idle correctly. That normally means the air idler valve is dirty. Saturday afternoon I went about cleaning it. It was indeed filthy. I was kinda happy about that. If this maintenance fixed my problem I’d be even happier because it meant I diagnosed and repaired the problem.

While I was at it, I cleaned out my flame trap. Apparently you can Australian Land Rover Forum Post. “Templ4r” has Land Rover UK Forum of what this emissions item does for you on Land Rover UK Forums. I started with running some parts cleaner/diesel through her. This was not dislodging the crap as I hoped it would. I did not have a can of brake cleaner but my neighbor Nick had a can of carburetor cleaner. I used the entire can to clean it out. Chunks of nastiness came out. I reassembled it and hoped for the best.

She seemed to idle well in the driveway. Good enough for me/close enough for government work/redneck repair complete.

Sunday morning I took off. My plan was to drive I-35 to the “Mother Road”, Interstate 66 to interstate 177 to Oklahoma highway 51. This route has some fun names of roads and creeks you will pass along the way.

You will pass Triple X road, sometimes Triple XXX road. You will pass Wild Horse Creek. This is one of the three Wild Horse creeks in Oklahoma I am aware of. You will also cross over Bell Cow Creek. Yes, Bell Cow, not Cow Bell. Continue reading “Family Reunion Road Trip (Post #540) 6/17/2015”