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October 4, 2002 One of my fog lamps has a broken bracket. I noticed it just siting in the cowling not attached. I cut it loose and will have to get a new bracket to hold it in the cowling. I am going to get new head lights too. The stock lamps that are there now are terrible. My Hella 500s are awesome and when you compare the great light they cast and the light from the head lamps there is much room for improvement. I may try to get my Germany connection to send me some Hella Vision Plus head lamps. They are usually quite a bit less than the catalog prices. I had a great discussion with The Ditchfinder about brake fluid yesterday. He said it should be changed every two years. I have never in my life changed brake fluid in any car or truck. My dad had some great rules to life when he was alive. “If it works don’t fix it.”, is one I know many of you have heard. My brakes work, but I know my truck with 116k miles has never had fresh brake fluid. So I may have him come over for some Pernod and have him help me change the fluid. He claims it is a 20 minute two man job. We shall see. |
September 21-22nd, 2002 (Post #5)
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September 21-22, 2002
Time to swap the nasty old pads with the new. Not too many tools necessary for this project. Needle nose pliars, flat head screwdriver, wheel chock (two each), jack stand, crate (milk, metal, one each) jack (hydraulic, one each), assistant (female, young, one each). For the assistant I employed my handy-dandy super-bestest daughter RovErica (11 years). She knows just enough to fetch stuff if I tell her where it is. She will primarily fetch drinks for dear ole dad and turn the water on and off Erica fetched the jack stand and the milk crate. The milk crate is an often under appreciated item when working in the wheel area of the Rangie. I sit on it so I don’t have to stoop. Got the jack stand under the truck and put the wheel chocks in place. I broke the lug nuts loose with the tire still down. I proceeded to jack the truck up and set the stand in place for safety purposes. With the wheel off I used the garden hose to knock some of the brake dust loose. Maybe a power washer would have been very usable right now. Use number three for a power washer. (#1 clean paint off house, #2 clean cars) I noticed that there is not a pad wear sensor on the left front. So I will for go putting that on for that side. I will have to look again to make sure the wiring is not really there. I removed the cotter pins from the keeper shafts (names may vary). Pulled out shafts and inspected the pads. Yes quite worn. I took the cap off of the brake fluid reservoir. This is to allow the fluid in the cylinders to flow back up. I inserted the flat head screwdriver into a convienient place to push the pad away from the disk to make way for the new very much thicker pads. You have to becareful here. There are two cylinders and I was careful to press them back together a little at a time. I took out the old pads and inserted the new pads. I put the new keeper shafts and retainer coil springs back in and secured them with the new cotter pins. Simple. Wash, rinse, repeat. The back pads are slightly different. They are held in place with a very large cotter pin instead of a keeper shaft like in front and the anti-rattle spring is different. The back took only 15 minutes to complete both sides. It took longer to jack up the vehicle. I rate this job a 1 on the 5 point difficulty scale. |
September 18th, 2002 (Post #3)
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September 18th, 2002 The brake wear indicator has been flickering for about 2 weeks. This last week it has been on more than off, so it’s time to order brake pads and get them installed. Ordered brake pads from Atlantic British. I asked a few people their advice and I went with “Get the OEM pads.” Lifetime pads are not all they are cracked up to be. I’m waiting now for their much anticipated arrival. |
September 16th, 2002 (Post 1)
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The brake wear indicator has been flickering for about 1 week. I was just under the truck a couple of months ago and didn’t remember the pads being that worn. I remembered the sensor on the rear was cut. Maybe it is shorting. So I endevoured to check it. I got out the tire jacking stuff and set it up. I used the official Range Rover lug nut remover tool to attempt to remove the lug nuts. When I last put the lug nuts back I must have had the strength of The Ditchfinder or the Titanium Hitch because they wouldn’t budge. Finally standing on the shaft they broke free. All but one. I noticed the shaft twisting as I moved around the truck removing the wheels. The final nut was quite obstinate. After I virtually straightened the Official lug nut removal tool I went to Home Depot to get a 1 1/8th inch socket and a big breakover bar. Basically $20. Back to the wheels and this time off they came. So I have a new tool to remove my lug nuts. The brakes are worn down and the wire is not shorting. So I leave you now to order brake pads.
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