Garage Day – July 26, 2014 (Post #507) 7/26/2014

It was another hot Saturday in Central Oklahoma. The temperature made it to 102 F in Norman. Even with the temps as nasty as that we don’t stop work because we might get a little sticky and sweaty. We just turned on the fans and opened up the doors.

The Evil German Dude had us all over for some electrical fun. I know you’re thinking, Land Rover…Electric…sweet! Well not this weekend. The modifications were for Magnum Mike and Paparazzi Ford. Both of them had some seriously unimpressive factory wiring.

First was Magnum Mike’s Dodge Magnum. The work was to upgrade the ground. On this model of Magnum the battery is located in the trunk. That’s Mike sitting and sweating in the back of the very impressively modified Magnum. It is a true hot rod. He drove us to lunch one day. I’ve never been so scared and excited since Eric Kammerlocher took me for a spin in his Corvette back in the 1980’s.

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The standard from the factory ground wire was a very small wire maybe 8 AWG. Compared to a normal battery cable the ground is about a fourth of the size it should be. The battery terminals are a simple flat metal. Not nearly the beefy terminals EGD uses normally.

You can see the flat metal and small wire in this image.

battery cable

 

So the plan was to swap out the cables. EGD doesn’t do anything “half-assed”. The new cables were 2/0. Yes…two aught.

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This wire chart should give you a great comparison.

cables

We tease EGD but he knows his electrics. He has all the tools and always has the fittings, connectors, and heat shrink  wire just about anything. The hydraulic crimping tool is pretty impressive too. So when you hear me talking about upgrading my battery cables you know why I am taking the Range Rover over to the evil lair.

The crimping dies had to be modified. Here EGD makes another minor correction to the tool’s die.

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You can see in the next picture that they got the  cables in place and the battery strapped back in.

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Paparazzi Ford brought his Jeep Commander over with a very persnickety start problem. Basically something was wrong with the battery cables that would disable the vehicle. He would futz with it, the Jeep would start for a few days then quit him again.

He drove to EGD’s evil lair but when his turn came up the truck would not start. He popped the bonnet and I simply twisted the positive battery cable just a bit and the Commander started. Being as Jeep is now owned by Chrysler/Dodge the same type of battery terminals are being used.

Upon further inspection it turned out to be a very corroded connector. Swapping the terminals out had to be done. Here the crimping tool is used to marry the cables to the terminal.

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Heat shrink is moved into place.

 

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And here the heat gun heats the shrink wrap.

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I couldn’t stay longer. JagGuy promised to take a look at my air conditioning. As you have no doubt read or have seen in my video blog my A/C is out. I’ve been chasing fully functional air conditioning in my Range Rover for years.

So JagGuy mentioned at lunch on Friday that he had a freon sniffer. Such a handy device.

sniffer

 

He was keen on my idea to swap the AC compressor for a more common unit from a Chevy. The hoses would need to be custom-made. Before making all the effort to reinvent the system he said we should find out what has failed. Is the hoses? Is it the compressor? Is the radiator leaking? The only way to find out was to test for leaks.

I didn’t take a picture of the sniffer in action its sensor is an audio one. We sniffed the system and found that the front seal on the compressor had failed.

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Freon going in.

JagGuy suggested I go to the company that bought out Oklahoma Auto Air. They do all manner of compressors and hoses. The compressor on the Range Rover is basically a Sanden 709. So next week I’m going to drop by their shop and get the details. Hopefully I’ll have some air conditioning the week after I get back from my 25th wedding anniversary trip.

The weather is going to cool off this next week so my daily commute won’t be the 35 minute drive in an oven. Mrs. JagGuy has told JagGuy that she wants to drive a Land Rover Discovery II. They are looking for a good one. I can’t wait for them to go with us on a jaunt.

EGD is working with a company that has some pretty cool lighting solutions. I’m looking at them for some possible trail lighting. I’ll get back to that when I investigate further.

And in other news…he was only kidding about buying a Dodge.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

 

 

3 Ply Tires are for Sissies* (Post #489) 4/24/2014

My good friend JagGuy, who you may know from his site XM381.com or my frequent mentions of his genius when it comes to automotive knowledge, has an interesting hobby. He has a business where he bobs the venerable Duece and a Half’s that were so prevalent in the last century with our military. I drove one at the 1984 Combined Arms Exercise at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. Continue reading “3 Ply Tires are for Sissies* (Post #489) 4/24/2014”

Starter Problems (Again?) (Post #486) 4/20/2014

The Big White Bus came home on the back of a flatbed of shame wrecker Friday night. The starter has failed. Thursday night as I was leaving the Marine Corps Coordinating Council dinner the failure was foreshadowed by the starter giving me a telltale click sound when I tried to start her to come home.

When I turned her over I got a few clicks, uttered an expletive, and turned the key and then she decided to start. I drove to the gas station to fill up and when I went to leave she started just fine. The next morning she started just fine. So when I came out to go home, I had honestly forgotten the starter was misbehaving. Continue reading “Starter Problems (Again?) (Post #486) 4/20/2014”

SCARR – Day Four (Post #481) 4/9/2014

Sunday the sun came up as expected in the east and we realized it was time to go home. We started packing up the kit. The tent fit in the amazingly small bag with a little coaxing. The boxes were all loaded and I lashed everything down on the roof rack.

Jayden and John in their Discovery 1.
Jayden and John in their Discovery 1.

John and Jayden were keen to caravan with us home. It couldn’t hurt to have a support vehicle after what we had just put our Rovers through. We agreed to meet at the main pavilion.

The night before after I found my on-board air compressor, I had aired up my tires . When we got to the top it turns out they have an airing station right there on the site. What a great amenity to have for the off-roaders. Continue reading “SCARR – Day Four (Post #481) 4/9/2014”

Fan Troubles Plague All the Cars from the British Isles (Post #436) 1/24/2014

That heading is probably a stretch but when I was a kid, the last thing you could expect to fail on your 1965 Pontiac Tempest was the iron cooling fan. You were more likely to lose a finger than it to fail in any way.
“Got Lucky” was the title of the text I received from JagGuy. His initial comment was, “Even metal radiator cooling fans fail.” He sent the following two pictures.
Cooling fan on JagGuy’s Mark I Jaguar.
The “Lucky” part. Only slight damage to the radiator.
His text to me was in response to one of my recent posts, Radiator Cooling Fan Cracked Again. In it I mention the options to replacing your radiator fan. One of them was finding a replacement fan made of metal. JagGuy had replaced his crappy plastic fan with this aluminum one. He also mentioned that Jaguar actually started making fans out of a different type of plastic. These “black” colored fans don’t suffer from the same type of failure as the crappy “white” ones.
He was very worried that he would be repairing his radiator due to this recent failure. Its entirely likely that the fan blade failed due to metal fatigue from flexing. He was in the process of putting electric fans on.
So in short, you really can’t escape fan failure. You can only hope it doesn’t destroy something else in the process. 
The exchanged ended as such.

JagGuy: “$20 fan with 200,000 miles on it. I want my money back!”

Okierover: “They just don’t make things like they used too.”

It’s true…they don’t make things like they used to. 
Thanks for reading, and Happy Rovering.

10 Worst Used Autos? Two Land Rovers Make the List (Post #435) 1/21/2014

Steven Lang has put together his own list of the top 10 worst used vehicles. You can visit it directly at THIS LINK (autos.yahoo.com). Its based on his own experience in the auto industry.

This is an interesting list and it has some very popular cars on it, VW Bug, Mini Cooper, and Jaguar S-types. I know my buddy JagGuy said his kids have had trouble with VWs of late. Engine failures with breaking in miles still left to be run. I saw a Mini Cooper in Mickey’s Garage just last week for a head gasket if I remember correctly. The job required the entire front of the car to be disassembled.

So with that lets review the Land Rovers… Continue reading “10 Worst Used Autos? Two Land Rovers Make the List (Post #435) 1/21/2014”