carpets

September 21, 2014May 16, 2023

Now That’s a D Ring (Post #512) 9/21/2014

I ran up to O’Reilly’s to get oil and a Wix filter for an oil change. In the parking lot I saw this D ring on a Dodge Cummings truck. Silly I know, but fun.

I am switching to 10w40. I know, I know, you always used Castrol 20w50. 20 50 is probably too heavy. Winter is coming so I’m gonna add run lighter oil and see how that goes.

Richard our Web programmer for RedDirtRovers.com recently had to part with his Range Rover. He just happened to find an original set of carpets in his garage. There was even a set of rubber mats.

The mats are much nicer than my old set. Thanks so much Richard.

I picked up a Taurus from a friend. It needs some work but will make a good daily driver for someone. I’ll be sorting out the parts I need this week.

It looks like Charlie Blankenship’s Sports and Classics will get the transmission rebuild. He gave me a good price for the total job. I need to get the funds together. The Taurus will be my transport while the Big White Bus is in the shoppe.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering

July 6, 2007May 15, 2023

July 8th, 2005 (Post #61)

July 8th, 2005

There is a huge update in the works. I have started on it now twice, once yesterday, and again today, having deleted several days work. Very frustrating.

Engine
JagGuy and I have the engine in. We started on it April and finished it after three long weekends. JagGuy has all the skill necessary for a successful transplant. And it showed. He had the heads off and the engine built before I could get in the shop each weekend. He has the luxury of Fridays being fun days and he used his “fun” day for my engine. What a great friend.

With the engine swap we found several other problems. I will start listing them and I will probably forget some as there were many.

Radiator
It was indeed a head gasket problem but with that there was also a problem with the radiator. It was clogged again. We noticed that when we revved the engine the hoses would flex. Meaning there was a lot of pressure in the system. Frustrated I replaced the radiator with a new one from Atlantic British. Cooling problems vanished.

Heater Core
One of the final things to be blown by the old engine was the heater core. I have heard horror stories about getting the dash off to replace this part. I will wait for a weekend in September or October when it gets cooler to replace this. I bought the replacement core when it came up on British Pacific’s Steve’s Deal of the Day.

The wife
While I’m sure some of you were expecting me to say I was replacing my wife, I have not. She has been harrassing me lately about the costs of the BWB. Keeping a 12 year old car on the road in good working order is hard. It is harder when it was designed in a British Pub by 12 drunk engineers. But for my piece of mind and to reassure her that I was not spending the milk money for frivolous toys I pulled a report out of Quicken of all the auto repair expenses. I was surprised by the amount, surprised in a good way. She was surprised in a bad way. 2800 dollars (US) was the tally for the period since I made the final payment back in November 2004.

Not bad for all the things I’ve bought for the engine and including oil changes for both cars. She still believes with all her heart that a $450 a month car payment would be cheaper than putting parts on the paid off Rover. I have now classified the Rover as a restoration project. So the costs are easier to stomach as I am restoring a car, just like on TV!!!!

Steering seal
The morning after I got the BWB home with all the overheating problems we planned to return her to the shop in Edmond, it was a cool April morning so I figured the heating problems would be less if I went in the morning. After I pulled into the gas station to fill up I got out and noticed the long red stream of fluid leading from the street to underneath the Rover. Transmission fluid, but from where?

After a long look it was the steering box. Since ATF will burn and considering the blow back to the exhaust I drove her home defeated and disappointed. We put a seal on the next weekend.

Steering Shaft
Once again on sale at British Pacific. If you look at the steering shaft you will notice a rubber grommet there. Mine is hard as a rock and cracked. Obviously failed. Now the question begs why can’t we just replace the rubber bits. Well I bought a new shaft and will investigate if the old can be repaired when I get it off of there. Hammerin’ Dan observes that the heat from the headers is probably to blame in the rubber failing. Possibly some asbestos wrap might be in order.

Brake Switch
The ABS lights came on and with some investigation and a clever way to short the diagnostic plug I learned my brake light switch had failed. I got a replacement on sale from British Pacific’s Deal of the day. The installation was not any fun due to the location and the contortionist position you have to get in. Also my eyes don’t work that well up close and so most of the install was done while guessing on a blurry image.

Radio
The steam that escaped from the blown heater core filled the cab with nasty antifreeze steam. The radio immediately from that day forward would act like it lost power often loosing the code. Occassionaly it would not work at all. I thought sure the steam killed it. I was wrong. The ignition switch is failing. You may say, “what the hell?” Well it would be a good question.

The accessory function of the switch that powers many things like the windows and other stuff is apparently shorting out or not making connection. So among the other things the ignition switch is failing and needs some help.

Carpets
Had to clean the carpets again due to the antifreeze leak inside the cab. Due to my previous planning I did not have to remove the center console. Sweet!

Exhaust
Having spent a good three hours under the BWB during the engine project I noticed that none of the hangers were replaced the last time I had the exhaust worked on at University Muffler. That is disappointing cause I like those guys their work is just not very good. I had it in there again recently to have a torn exhaust pipe fixed. Due to the hangers being unhooked the only place the exhaust was attached had stressed the pipe to the point that the silencer at the rear was about to break off. I had them cut it off and weld on a pipe. It changed the sound some but not too bad. Well the weld for that section broke. So I took it to Discount Muffler just up the road from the office and had them put a good weld on it. It cost me 25 bucks but it’s now welded. I will come back to them to have the new cats welded in as soon as I buy them.

February 18th, 2005 (Post #58)

February 18th, 2005
Recovery hooks on, trailer wiring problems, relays buzzing, water found, relocated power steering reservior, prep for second battery

I have the recovery hooks on. I have a page for them on the Tech Tips page. The bolts I first
bought were very ambitious. I got carried away with the bolt diameter. I pulled the air dam off again.

I wired the trailer lights with the matching wire colors. I have some issues to resolve with that. I will have to experiment with the harness to find out if it is even working properly. Otherwise I will by pass it and try to wire to the 7 pin plug.

The relays buzzing under the dash on the passenger side are annoying me. I pulled the relay for the air condition fans. There has to be a wiring problem with them. I bet I will need to rewire the whole thing. There is another relay under there that is buzzing. I have not isolated which one.

The water that soaks the carpet on the passenger side is coming down the wall in the foot well. As I suspected a leak in the windshield seal. More about this later.

I purchased a Disco power steering bracket to move the reservoir for the second battery. I had to move all the things on the fender to make room for the second battery.
Check it out on the Tech Tips page.

July 6, 2007May 15, 2023

September 8th, 2004 ( (Post #51)

The Tire Rack has good prices but I’ll have
to have them mounted locally. Lots of comparison charts and good information there. I wanted
to put the Michelins back on this time but the price is way too expensive. Right now it looks like the Bridgestone Dueler tire is the winner.

My mother has been sick so I haven’t had time to futz with the center console. This weekend looks good but at this rate I’ll won’t know until it gets here. My wife and I have been so busy with the kids and my mom. She jokingly said, “I’ll see you on Friday.” Wish it was a fun kinda busy instead of a teadious grind kind of busy.

Happy Rovering, watch what you eat and get some exercise.

July 6, 2007May 15, 2023

August 30th, 2004 (Post #50)

August 30th, 2004
Wet carpet, wet pad, and I didn’t even get in the river
I noticed that my Rover doesn’t leave a little puddle underneath like most cars in the semi-arid desert that is Oklahoma when the air conditioning is running. Guess where all that water is? Come you can do it…YES! right in the floor board of the passenger side. Evil German Dude offered the advice that my drain tubes were clogged. I knew that but I’m thinking it may not be. But I’ll try to find the drain tube and try to clear it first. Thank heaven for compressed air.

Carpet cleaning
As I stated on the OkieRover home page I have pulled the carpet out of the front of the Rover.
It required the complete removal of the console and was quite a mess. There are only 5 million
wires, two air vents (for the back foot area), 4 relays and 18,000 connectors, and some petrified cheese from a taco or some other mexican fast food. The nickel and four pennies I found are offsetting the repair costs too! I also found an old note reminding me of some awfully important information. I couldn’t decypher my codes on the paper, but I think it was a part number for something on the air conditioning. But who knows. I took some pics and will share in a tech tip on carpet cleaning which was the purpose for removing the carpet. I can tell you my good friends that I will not be putting it back in one piece. I will cut it in half and install it as two pieces. I don’t
think you should remove the center console to clean the carpet. That’s just silly.

Center console
My center console has seen better days. I have repaired the flip top door a couple of times. The switch panels don’t fit well and a couple of the braces are broke. The kids when they were younger were disposed to sit on it when they were switching places in the back or just to chat with one of the front passengers when the other one of us ran into a store or such while they waited. That and the occasional climb into the back seat from the front seat using the console as a step on the way over have taken their toll.

The console is basically two parts fitted together with a couple of flimzy plastic pieces. The first part holds the ashtray and the shifting levers protrude from there. The rear part is the box and houses two cup holders.

All this console talk is due to the fact that I have need for a Citizen’s Band radio when we off-road. I would have liked to mount it on the back of the present console. The Infamous Perrone Ford installed his this way as did Chad Manz but Chad doesn’t like it there and describes some problems with that location on his website, AzArmadillo.

I thought about building a new center console box to conceal the CB radio. I haven’t ruled that out yet. I use the box to hold quite a managery of items that would, if I had one, fit in the glove box. Most modern American cars have a glove box. The glove box must have in the early days contained, well gloves. In the early days of driving with out full enclosed coaches the need for gloves in the colder months must have necessitated a place to store them. This and the popularity of gloves at the transition of the 19th to the 20th century made a glove box an absolute necessity.

In my Rover the absence of a glove box and the center console box have caused me to use this space to store everything but gloves. In it you will find a dizzying collection of items including: a cup full of spare change, a calculator, several ink pens, a tape of my favorite Pow Wow music, a bottle of Visine, a US military issue pocket knife, an eyeglass repair kit, dental floss,
finger nail clippers, and my window punch for blasting out the windows if I ever turn the Rover into a submarine and go submerged. So as you can see I use the box to it’s utmost so shrinking the size of the box to mount the CB radio inside is mostly out of the question.

I could get a new CB radio. One with the spiffy controls on the mic. There are several available. Cobra makes the 75 WX ST it has weather band too, but so does my stock Land Rover radio. But I inherited this one from my departed father and if it still works it may have a few more years left in it. And it was free. I got some cool power meters with it too. So the radio location is still pending.

July 6, 2007May 15, 2023

March 22nd, 2004 (Post #43)

March 22nd, 2004
Lots of little things

I tried to get to the little projects this weekend. Among them were:

Tailgate rusting and lock not functioning

Replacement rearview mirror installed

Oil change

Carpets cleaned

Tailgate

The tailgate rust has been increasing. It is now rusting through the frame on the upper tail gate.
This is a common problem with Range Rovers. There are several approaches to fixing this but I haven’t decided which one to do. I will probably order a new tail gate and before it is installed have it rust protected so it doesn’t fail as quickly. The screws that hold the handle in place looked terrible and I replaced one of them with a stainless steel screw. The other would not come out due to the head failing and the phillips screwdriver would not turn the stripped head. So off it will need to come and drilled out or some other way used to remove it from the handle. The locking actuator has never worked correctly and will also need to be replaced. These are pricey little items so off to Rover Cannibal for that part. I’ll post more later.

Rearview Mirror Goodness
As posted in the forums I sent off for a replacement mirror. The options were limited so I chose a suitable one. There are these types available based on what you have now…

Prism with map lights

Auto dimming

Auto dimming with compass and outside temp

I had an OEM auto dimming with map lights. So if you look at the list there is no such thing available. I ordered the one with the map lights. This was my favorite feature of the mirror and I cannot do without them. So that is what I got and installed (finally) this weekend. I have driven about 2.5 months without a rearview mirror and I only miss it when the police are tailing me whilest I am attempting to recall my driver training and all the pertinent traffic laws of our state. Otherwise I’ve learned I don’t care what’s behind me.

I installed the mirror per the directions. This is an easy procedure. On the
Difficulty Scale it’s a 1. I made it a 1.5 with a couple of changes. The instructions call for you to run the wiring harness under the headliner and down the driver’s side front post to the wheel well. Hook on to a wire with the provided vampire connector and hook up ground. The harness has a 1 amp fuse built in. I made it more difficult by keeping the original harness by tucking it up under the headliner and saving the unnessary mirror hardware. You never know when you might aquire another OEM mirror. I used a Dremel with cutting wheel (always wear protective goggles) to cut the existing OEM wiring harness out of the plastic channel. Worked great, although it was more like melting the harness than cutting it.

I have only the lights to worry with and I wanted them to work when the engine was off. If you have the auto-dimming feature you do not want this “hot” when the engine is off. As the instructions say it will run your battery down. So I used my trusty volt-ohm meter to find a wire from the existing harness that had 12 volts while the key was turned off. This was easily done. You just put the black lead on the screw that holds the door open switch on to the frame, unplug a harness and start Easter egging for 12 volts. I found it on the first pin I looked at. So I applied the vampire connector and bolted the ground on to a ground post that was somewhat difficult to get to but otherwise a perfect ground. Viola, map lights. The instructions might be intimidating to someone not accustom to such technical details but don’t fret it.

Oil Change
Nothing really to report. I went back to regular Castrol 20w-50. I didnt’ see the “High Mileage”
oil on the shelf. No biggy on this job, add a Wix filter and your done. I took the old oil I had collected and took it to my local O’Reilly where I bought my filter and they have a collector in
the back. Eventually someone comes and picks it up for them. I don’t have a gravel driveway to pour it on so I take back to be recycled.

Carpets Cleaned
I asked in the forums if anyone knew where to get new carpet. I was worried about the expense but thought new carpet would be nice. I noticed some of my items in the back had gotten wet. The jug of coolant I carry around had knocked over and leaked about a half gallon on to the carpet and everything else back there. I pulled the carpet up and resolved to clean it. It was an easy remove with just a few plastic holders holding it in place. I though while I’m at it why don’t I just pull up the back seat carpet and clean it as well. If I screw it up I’m gonna replace it anyway so what the heck.

This carpet was easy to remove and soon I had the two on the way to the car wash. I put them up on the provided clamps and proceeded to hose them off. Worked great. The dirtiness of the rear seat carpet was disgusting. I believe at least twenty cans of coke had been spilled on it by
the previous owner. RovErica was extremely grossed out. Here’s the short and long of it.
The carpet is designed to get wet. I believe it is designed to be hosed off too. For the backing
on the rear seat carpet was a hardened material and took to being pressure wash quite nicely.

It was an easy job and I would recommend it for very dirty carpet. I am sufficiently happy
with the results that I will not be replacing my carpet any time soon, except maybe for some
three inch orange shag carpet if it comes back in style. The only warning would be
to keep the pressure wand away from the carpet. I will cut it and even cause a hole if used
too closely to the carpet. Work in strokes and rinse the soap out after you have decided it
is clean enough.

Coming up
My next project is to organize the back of the Rover. I have read some solutions to this and the
one I’m going to employ will be adding a rear shelf. I have entirely too much crap back there and
I am going to reduce the size of the tool box. With the creative use of some Coca-Cola trays I’m
going to put in a rear deck. I will post more as I start it. It will hide some items I’m worried
about displaying and offer a rear deck free of debris to put the groceries. If I engineer the legs
properly it could double as a table when camping!

I am purchasing one more set of dome lights for my Rover. This will make the 12th set of lamps I have bought. I am contemplating an LED solution that would not burn out, ever. As the project
comes along I’ll post more.