modifications

November 26, 2023November 23, 2023

Refurbishing / Replacing the Subwoofer (Post #633) 11/26/2023

Ever wonder what is inside of that gigantic custom-fit subwoofer box in the back of your Range Rover Classic…well wonder no more. I had to pull all the parts of the sound system out of the Big White Bus to investigate my rust issues.

It takes a few bolts to get it out but everything is easy-ish to get to and you don’t need any special tools. Take the amplifier off the subwoofer box. Then tackle all the bolts. Once the subwoofer is out you can get to the antique CD changer. Actually in 1993 a six disc CD changer was straight up gangster. My CD changer worked for a few years. It then got a little buggy. You could get it to work if you slid it out and slammed it back in. Most of the time it started to be available at the head unit after that.

It all has to come out. I have a new head unit. I have new speakers. I don’t know if the amplifier still works. I will have to sit down at some point and try to figure out all the plugs and see if the amplifier will be part of the equation. Having a working subwoofer would be a nice addition.

Once the subwoofer is out it takes 10 screws and a little gentle encouraging and the box will come apart. It’s a relatively simple setup. There is a dual cone speaker inside and that’s it. Mine as you will see in the video is toast. the cone has disintegrated. It is at least 30 years old probably closer to 33 considering assembly line technology of the day.

So the speaker will need to be replaced. In the video I speculate about the size but it turns out to be:

Cutout Diameter 6.5 inches
Top Depth mounting 3 inches
Bottom Depth Mounting 3.25

There are a LOT of speakers to choose from online. I went to Crutchfield.com. They don’t sponsor me, I wish they did, but they don’t. They have great customer service and the spec’s for everything are easy to find on their site.

I found a speaker that looks like it will fit.

That’s not a lot of money and 4 people think it’s pretty awesome. Mounting that is still a question, but I’m not worried. I will figure it out if that is the direction I go.

There is some debate going on in my head about replacing the old one with a NEW subwoofer. I found a Kenwood on Crutchfield that was not all that expensive.

Kenwood Excelon — ribbed polypropylene cone, sounds naughty….

It’s pretty small too. Just a little under 18x12x6 inches. I’m certain I’d have to cover the speaker cause it would almost certainly get damaged if I didn’t. I am confident it would fit in the space. But the real question outside of would it be better is…. am I really saving enough space to matter? I’m not sure I would gain anything. The space would have to be VERY creatively designed to take advantage of a few inches more here or there.

This gives us the cheaper option of just buying the speaker and figuring out how to wire it to the old AMP and the new head unit. Another plus of this operation was the elimination of the CD player gives me 12 volt switched power line back in that corner. That might come in handy, who knows.

I like tunes as much as the next guy. I even have a playlist named, “Can’t Be Too Loud”. It’s got some songs that you turn up until your ears bleed.

Van Halen’s Eruption
AC/DC Back In Black
Living Colour’s Cult of Personality
Beastie Boys Sabotage
Black Sabbath’s Iron Man
Wagner’s Die Walküre (Ride of the Valkyrie)
Carl Orff’s O Fortuna from Carmina Burana

There are more, but you get the picture…you probably have a list of your own. Whenever I hear these songs I turn them up to maximum volume.

Mostly today…I listen to audio books. Sooooo many audio books. It’s not uncommon for me to just drive, no music, just the window down and the sound of the engine and the tires on the road. That recharges my batteries almost as just sitting in the woods next to a fire.

There is a lot left to do to get the sound system installed. I’ve got to sort out the plugs and get everything wired up. The dash is still not installed. There is an order to putting the BWB back together…and the windshield needs to be first. I’m almost certain there is water leaking in and the last thing I want is to get his all put back together and still having water coming in.

That’s it for this week. As soon as I make a decision I’ll post it up and when I starting putting the sound system together.

Your sponsorship on Patreon would be appreciated if that is in your budget. Otherwise LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to the YouTube channel. Leave me a comment…I love talking to people about Land Rovers.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

https://youtu.be/WbGtqSa13cw

January 7, 2023May 16, 2023

Bulletpoint mounting system (Post #603) 1/7/2023

I decided that my existing cell phone and tablet mount in the Range Rover Classic needed to be replaced. Mr. Fisher and I went to the MOORE Expo [Moore Expo] in 2022. We saw lots of products and gear. One of the cool pieces of gear was the Bulletpoint Mounting System.

Mr. Fisher bought a system for his new Chevy Silverado. Once we got home, I decided I needed a system for my F150. My existing cell phone mount was disappointing and needed to be replaced. I got to thinking that I should upgrade the mounts in the Range Rover Classic. I took some measurements and emailed the company to ask which of their existing system would fit best for the measurements. I chose not to cut up my coin tray. I did have a thought that I would mount the system over the tray. But it would have had to be cut and would have been useless if I wanted to remove the system and do something else.

They got back to me and told me that for these measurements the Ford Ranger Phone Mount & Multi-Device Dash Platform – 4th Gen T6 2019+ [Bulletpoint] would likely be the best fit. I needed to make a plate to mount the system on to. I’ve put the graphic of the measurements on my Patreon page [Patreon].

As you can see in the video, not everything goes according to plan when you are “fabricating” stuff. I had to make a makeshift painting “booth” in the sunroom in the house. The temps in the shoppe were too cold to be painting, but it was a toasty 76F in the sunroom.

Mrs. Okierover didn’t fuss too much this time about the fumes.

Overall I spent four or so hours putting that together. The assembly was a lot of trial and error. I think it looks good and is very sturdy and will be perfect for holding my cell phone and a new tablet once I decide what that might be.

There are lots of accessories for this mounting system. I’m thinking of the handheld radio and or the microphone mount. Of course I have to decide on a radio before buying.

I’ve add a Patreon account. The costs of maintaining the website add up each year and if you like the content I provide chip in. Contributions are appreciated.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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”

March 18, 2014May 16, 2023

Unplanned Problems Solved (Post #469) 3/18/2014

In my post Unplanned Problems I talked about a missing exhaust gasket and a broken bolt. Both problems were more or less easy to solve. I had to wait for Mrs. Okierover to return to the house with the CR-V so I could fetch the parts I needed. The weather turned cold and I had to bundle up to finish up the jobs.

The exhaust gasket was, as I predicted, unavailable in the Oklahoma City metro area. I’ll have to order it from one of the vendors. I talked to JagGuy and bought some High Temp RTV.

I smeared it on the one gasket I did have.

Continue reading “Unplanned Problems Solved (Post #469) 3/18/2014”

January 9, 2014May 15, 2023

Randomly Meeting Another Range Rover Owner (Post #432) 1/9/2014

I was coming out of lunch today at Richey’s Grill (Urbanspoon) in the Research Park and eyed a young man giving my Range Rover “the once over” (Idiom dictionary). I quickly noticed his Range Rover next to mine in the lot. That gentleman was Cyrus. I introduced myself and we then began chatting about our Land Rovers.

As you can tell his Land Rover was a bit different from mine. His is a 1988 model. Cyrus went on to tell me that the fellow he got it from went to a lot of trouble to make it appear to be an even earlier model. You can see some of the work in the pictures. Wing-mounted mirrors, badging, wheels, even the gas filler looked to be non-North American standard. He’d stripped out the interior and even swapped the steering wheel for an older version.

We talked about that a bit. I don’t know the models before 1989 very well so I didn’t have much to offer. I later looked them up on Rangerovers.net and the differences were great. Cyrus’s previous owner was obviously on a mission. The automatic shifter-cover even appeared to be from a 1970’s model Ford Maverick.

He opened it up and showed me the terrible floor pan rust he has. It is truly terrible and will take a lot of fabrication to correct. Cyrus talked about bringing it back to more original kit with an instrument bezel and some other bits.

I really enjoyed talking to him. As with most of my meetings it almost immediately turned to the subject of off-roading. I told him about Red Dirt Rovers and some garage days of old and shared my blog address again. He seemed really keen to join and meet up again. I’ll be sending him an email and a Google Community invite for Red Dirt Rovers.

I think I need to have some of those cheap business cards printed up so I can share this info more efficiently.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

October 21, 2013May 15, 2023

Helpful Tips for My Helpful Tips (Post #404) 10/21/2013

Ken Arciga of Los Angeles, California, sent me an email recently. He wanted to thank me for the site and to share some comments back with me on things he’d learned and tried when working on some of the same projects for his 1995 Range Rover Classic expedition project vehicle.

He has many of the same issues I have with the fuel economy and is yet another “old Rover” guy looking to swap in a diesel. He uses his Rangie in typical fashion to drop off the kids but at 4$(US) a gallon its expensive.

I must say, excellent color choice 😉

Before we get to the email, my first observation, Ken has the cleanest engine bay I’ve seen in a LONG time. Ken, you’ll have to tell us the secret to that in another email. His email after the jump…

Hi Eric,

Pleasure to meet you, thanks for putting up your site and sharing. Wanted to share notes on a couple of things I just went through:

1. STEERING SHAFT – Looking at your picture, my steering shaft was also put in the same way your old one was, is the part with the rubber band (crash/break away joint?) was on the steering pump side. So that is the same direction I put in my new one. However I had my truck in for alignment and the independent dealer noted my steering shaft was installed backwards!
Sure enough I looked in the manual and it is backwards – that rubber band part is supposed to be on the steering wheel side. I bet it was probably put in either way as these manuals aren’t always accurate.

Link to the page.

2. 2ND BATTERY – I kind of did what you did with my P/S pump reservoir and bracket, however for the air box I just drilled a couple of holes to move it over and was able to get the 2nd battery to fit – with the HORN OFF.

3. CC VACUUM PUMP – I ended up not wanting to go through the work to relocate my cruise control vacuum pump unit (my cruise control isn’t working either) but the battery was pressing up against it which I didn’t want – so I ended up taking a little metal off the radiator bracket so the battery could be positioned over enough to give the CC Vacuum enough room.

Anyway thanks for your info, reading up on some of your stuff that I still need to tackle!
-Ken

Steering shaft. My Range Rover was a front end wreck before I got it. When it was put back together there is a good chance this was put in backwards. With that in mind, there’s probably a very good reason one way is preferred than the other. Knowing my OCD will not let that stand, I’ll probably switch mine to match the manual. Great find.

Bracket. Nicely done. I think the bracket I used was from a Discovery I. I read that online quite a while ago. So I just went down to Rover Cannibal and picked one up. I like Ken’s bracket, simple and functional.

After getting such high praise and being a generally curious guy (and seeking permission to publish him) I followed up with another email. He sent the above picture of his excellent Range Rover and the following description of things he has already dealt with. He wants to take his Range Rover to Peru someday and has thoughts of a shake-down expedition a little closer to home in Baja California.

Here is what it looks like so far – I started with suspension (OME 2″ springs, nitrocharger shocks), front radius arms and adj. pan hard to get steering back, wheels, tires, P/S pump (PAIN in the butt, Cardone rebuild didn’t work), gearbox (Meridien – LOOOOOOOSE but I tightened up) and shaft, got the 2nd battery in but saving up for the kit to wire it, oil pan gasket and probably doing the head gasket next (leaking of course : )

Just finishing up the fluids – have the trans pan kit and fluids, transfer case to do, just got my LR grease for the swivel housings. A ton more plans.

I don’t know how to weld but contemplating learning so I can build my own bumpers and skid plates – really a big part of this is to fix stuff and to learn on a vehicle I’ve always wanted since I was a teenager.

Rack, lights….this list goes on!

Anyway thanks again for sharing your stuff, only people that dig into the nuts and bolts I think can really appreciate the details!

Ain’t that the truth?!?
Like myself, I imagine he has expedition dreams on a domestic beer budget. While I am worried about breaking down in my own STATE! he is contemplating a long trip to another continent. Excellent.

Thanks for contributing Ken. These are great tips and I felt they had to be shared. Thanks for letting me put them up for every one.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Rovering.