Category: Mrs. OkieRover

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Hot Springs, Arkansas (Post #373) 8/5/2013

Mrs. Okierover picked Hot Springs, Arkansas for a short vacation this summer. As you may recall last year’s vacation was a 3900 mile jaunt to Glacier National Park. This year we decided to do something closer to home. Hot Springs is just a six hour drive if you pick the scenic route. Surprisingly Diet Mountain Drew made it almost an hour into the drive before he was asleep.

The drive in was not the one I planned. After a couple of wrong turns, the GPS was employed. The device had us driving all the way down to Broken Bow, Oklahoma and back up to Hot Springs. Not the prettiest drive.

As we turned northerly we watched the thunderheads rise and an impressive cloud to cloud lightning display. This only meant one thing, we would have some serious weather to drive through. It manifested itself in sheets of rain that double speed wipers were only just able to keep up with.

We followed what I figured was a local-yokel as he seemed to know the blind turns in the rain better than we. As we finally cleared the storm, we looked back to see he only had one headlight working. How he was able to see in that deluge was truly a mystery.

Our first day was a lazy day for the Mrs. and I. We took Diet Mt. Drew and his girlfriend to a water and theme park for the afternoon. We napped.

Day two we decided to rent a party barge and go tubing on Lake Hamilton.

El Capitan

Painful for my back, Mrs. Okierover found it therapeutic for hers.

Me and the Mrs.

That was a pretty good time.

We spent the rest of the day at Garvan Woodland Gardens. There was an art exposition of glass.

It was pretty. It was humid. Think Central American jungle humid with zero wind. We wandered around and enjoyed the quiet woods and gardens until the mosquitoes started in on us.

We ended the day with Pirate Cove Mini Golf. Your’s truly won by two strokes over Sadie, with Mrs. Okierover third and Diet Mt. Drew finishing last. A good time was had by all.

We spent our 24th wedding anniversary driving home. This time I had the route planned for some scenic driving. We skirted the lakes heading west out of Hot Springs and eventually made it to Highway 1 in Oklahoma. This is the Talimena Scenic Byway. This road is most popular in Autumn when the leaves are changing. It is truly a great drive. It is very popular with the motorcyclers.

When these vast stretches of timberland came up for auction only one bid was made. The National Park Service paid 1.42$(US) an acre. The land had been raped by forestry companies for years with absolutely no conservation effort made what-so-ever. Their operations consisted of showing up and running a rail line to the milling site. A boom town almost always followed. They would cut until it was no longer profitable and load everything back on the train and pull out. when they were through, it was a land of bare eroding hills, pock marked by fires and of little or no value.

On our way into the park, we came across this road side memorial to John F. Kennedy. It seems he was there to dedicate the opening of Highway 259 in October of 1961. There is a connection to the Knights of Columbus that I’m sure has more to it than the fact they asked him to come and they paid for the monument.

We stopped at Treats and Treasures in Talihena for lunch. Its an old fashioned soda fountain with a gift shop in the front. For the little town of Talihena it is a nice little place in downtown. I could retire to a town like this.

Ratty old gas station. I love it.

We got pulled over for speeding in Hartshorne, Oklahoma. It was a 45mph zone and I was probably going 60mph. I slowed down to 55mph when I saw the cop. He pulled us over and asked for my license. He said I was going “a little fast” back there. He then asked to see our insurance and asked if we were heading home. I was polite and answered all his questions with a “yes sir”. It took Janie quite a while to find the insurance form. I think he finally got frustrated with us and told me to slow down and let us go. He was respectful and very polite. I was impressed. He did have more tattoos than I’ve ever seen on a cop. If I were to guess, he saw the Marine Corps sticker, and hat and having served himself somewhere, he let us go. That’s my first pull over in over 10 years of speeding driving.

We continued on and turned north to Eufaula and then down Highway 9 to home.

It was a good weekend and we were glad to be home.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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Brake Caliper Failure (Post #364) 7/2/2013

I’m pretty sure that should be dry.

Look what I found. No, not the rust on the splash guard, I expected to see that. The left front brake caliper is leaking. I’ve been hearing a pop on that side ever since I replaced the left rear brake caliper. I was just about ready to send the old gal to the shop for some fresh springs and air conditioning and then this.

I rebuilt all the calipers about three years ago, or was it four? I had trouble with the right rear staying together so I replaced that caliper with a “professionally” restored unit. I’m pretty happy with having 197,000 miles and one rebuild before a replacement for this part.

This may explain the ABS problem I’ve been having of late. When the brake is depressed (pushed down, not emotionally upset) it is hard (as expected) and is stopping but as the brake continues to be pressed it the braking really picks up and decreases the speed very quickly. That tells me something is not quite right time for a replacement.
More after the jump….

Upside down, stamped on the front axle.

When ordering a brake caliper you will need to know your axle number. My 1993 Range Rover LWB is axle number 57L03581A. This will tell the parts man which caliper to send you. The differences are also noted by the type of bolt used to mount the caliper to the axle. Either a 7/16th bolt or a 12mm 12 point head. I’m sure if you pull yours off and inspect the bolts you’ll know which one to order.

I’m looking all over the internet for the part. Rovers North has a unit for 149$(US). Atlantic British has one listed for 199$(US). I’m hoping for a price match. There are some other units available under a hundred dollars. One was “out of stock” and the others did not give me any confidence in who I was ordering from. These are brakes (read that as mostly important) so I’ll stick with companies I’m familiar with.

My grand kids came over while I was researching parts. While their dad and mom ran errands and I was awaiting a response on a price match request from Atlantic British we ate Jell-O and made funny faces. You might say I was encouraging them.

At this point I’m wondering when the caliper will arrive, what with the Independence Day holiday being mid-week. I’m too cheap to have it over-nighted. And when I’ve asked for “priority shipping” it always seems to arrive on the day it would have if I just order the “whenever you get around to it” shipping. If it arrived on Friday I could work on it that day. Saturday is out, Sunday would work but I’m not sure it will arrive by then. So I’m looking at a weekday evening.

Phone rings….
Bully for me, it looks like Atlantic British is going to price match for me. So I got that ordered and I’ll be ready to swap it when it finally arrives. I always enjoy talking to Eric at Atlantic British. After we briefly kibitz and share a joke about my new credit card number and being on a budget, he says it will be here Monday or Tuesday. Indeed the Independence Day holiday has things mucked up a bit.
Thanks Eric (and AB) for the price match.

I told Mrs. OkieRover that I thought I was getting close with the repairs. I’m guessing that was probably in vain. The circumnavigation of Oklahoma is still in the works, with every repair I grow more confident. The Big White Bus is a twenty year old British automobile and I’ll probably have something to work on every week until the rust wins the battle.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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Victory Beer (Post #349) 6/9/2013

Nothing tastes better than Victory Beer.


 vic·to·ry beer noun \ˈvik-t(ə-)rē\ \ˈbir\

This is the beverage you get to consume after you solve a particularly difficult problem on your Land Rover. The beverage is most often one from the British Isles but not necessarily so. See also “victory rum and coke”.

We get proclaim victory and drink beer because we solved the mystery of the electrical gremlin that had invaded the Big White Bus. As you may, or may not recall, I had some trouble with the sun roof, clock, driver’s seat, map lights on the rear view mirror, and the interior and door lights.

Originally I had planned to have the amazing JagGuy help me sort out the problem. He is a genius and pretty much my go to guy for electrical problems of all kinds that don’t involve attempting to electrocute giant monsters. I usually call The Evil German Dude  for that kind of power. Well JagGuy’s grand children were in town and visiting and his lovely wife was celebrating her birthday, therefore No Garage Day routine for him, and incidentally me as well.

So after I drove to the shop in Oklahoma City I turned around and headed back south. Spontaneously I decided to stop by my friend Butch (formerly known as Titanium Hitch)’s house. He was just a few blocks from the complete devastation in Moore, Oklahoma of the May 20th tornado you saw in yesterday’s Newcastle Police Dash Cam post. Southwest 134th street leads straight to his house and was the path of the EF5 tornado. The destruction was hard to drive past. So many lives changed. You can see how the people of England and Germany during World War II felt when their homes were destroyed.

An aerial of the destruction at Briarwood and more after the jump….

He was home and talking to the insurance adjuster about his roof. He had 150mph winds at his house and the roof is trashed. His home was in the “debris ball” of that tornado and the dirt and insulation from hundreds of homes was on everything in his neighborhood. I talked with his wife about her feelings during the event. Their son was in Briarwood Elementary School when the tornado hit. I visited with he and one of his high school buddies who is a roofing contractor. After a great chat, they headed off to lunch and I headed to the Okierover de hacienda.

I started by looking at the fuse block. With a suggestion by JagGuy to measure the voltage at the fuse block I found nothing there. He suggested jumpering the fuse next door to the bad fuse port. B5 had no voltage, B4 had the correct amount. I made a jumper out of a paper clip and tested the electrical bits. Sure enough it worked with a jumper.

So with that bit of knowledge I decided to look at the wiring loom. I started at the battery and traced the loom back to the fuse block. The wiring loom runs from the battery through a cable to an odd octopus of connections to the fuse block along the right (passenger) fender and on into the cab and to the fuse block.

If anything had failed I figured it was outside the cab. Mostly I figured that because I was too lazy to pull the dash off and walk the loom  from the fuse block back to the battery. Laziness, what a comfort.

So I pulled back the “protective” cover. There I saw one wire not connected. As you can see from the picture the green is a lovely bit of corrosion that had eaten through the wire. Believe me when I say the first thing I thought was, “This cannot be this easy.”

I’m guessing these two should be connected…

A lovely color or green.
Blurry…

I tested the solution by jumpering the two wires with a make shift jumper with a fuse in line, as JagGuy said, “just in case.” I was very surprised at how easy this was. I was also pleased to see the circuit light the map light on the bottom of the rear view mirror, signaling my success.

I wonder why I continue to use this camera. Blurry.

A quick call to confirm my thoughts with JagGuy and I was moving toward repairing the line by soldering a jumper. I cut away all the corroded wire and made the connection. I soldered the jumper in place and put some heat-shrink on the bare wire. I then tested all the electrical bits I could find that were affected by the bad wire. Victory
.

I buttoned everything back up and declared V-WL day. (Victroy Wire-Loom). I bought a round of beers for all those present in my garage. I was sadly all alone but I thanked myself for the drink and went to my office to type up this blog post. I am on my second Victory Beer and this blog post is done.

P.S. Some random thoughts. The whole octopus connected to the bolt/connector is, well…poorly done. I would have much preferred a lovely power block with power on one side and the individual wires on the other…and as we are say what we REALLY preferred, those wires labeled with their destinations. Eh, whatever.

With every turn of the wrench solder of wire we get closer to the Circumnavigation of Oklahoma.

The face of patience as Mrs. Okierover snaps pictures.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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Door Handles: The Trapeze of Opening (Post #342) 5/24/2013

I have not been a fan of Land Rover’s complicated system of levers and bars and cams and rods and hooks and flappy paddles made of Play-doh (Play-doh website, such a catchy tune!). I have now replaced my third exterior door lever. The levers get torn because of the ridiculous way the interior bits are put together, making it almost certain that something is going to fail.

I’ve had lots of trouble with the passenger side (Mrs. OkieRover’s side) door of the Range Rover. To say there was “a trick” to open it would be a gross understatement. There was a process of tricks required for it to open.

I decided on Sunday I would fix it. All it needed was a little adjustment.

I took the door card off and managed not to break the locking plastics as I have done on the driver’s side door.

I got the levers all disconnected and refreshed my memory on how “I believe” all the cams and levers and paddles and pivot points and hooks and rods work. Turns out to adjust the pull all you need to manipulate is one rod. I’ll discuss that later.

So I get it all back together. I tested it several times. Then I tested it several more from inside the vehicle. My neighbor Mr. Fisher came over to chat and drink Boddington’s with me and I went to demonstrate the successful repair.

It’s only hubris if I fail, ~ Julius Caesar

More after the jump…

Hubris is amazing. I was very proud of myself that I was able to fix this problem. Mr. Fisher had experienced the inconvenience of the flappy paddle failing to open the door. So he would definitely know how good this was.

I went over to the door…and nothing. I tried again. Nothing. I cursed…loudly…tried again. Nothing.

I got INSIDE and tried the handle and nothing. I tried again. Nothing. I cursed…loudly…tried again. Nothing.

So last night I had to figure out how to remove the door card while the door was closed. It required me to remove the passenger seat. With that done, I removed all the screws. Removed the speaker.

External “flappy paddle” door rod. Adjust by turning.

Using my big flat screwdriver (2 parts OJ, 1 part vodka) I popped the door card loose. With a slight turn up from the rear on the card and a pull it came out. Thankfully nothing broke.

Lying in a very awkward position I slipped my hand in the door. I then tried every lever and rod and paddle and it would not budge. I was about to give up when I decided to remove the electric door lock. It doesn’t work anyway so I figured at the least I’d have a better look.

I fiddled with it some more and presto it opened. I did not know what caused it to release but it did. I turned the rod that controls the outside flappy paddle a few turns back to reverse the possible over adjustment.

The flappy paddle and the interior lever worked 12 times each. Slamming the door and trying it and closing it partially and closing it fully and properly.

I even had Mrs. OkieRover try it. All attempts were successful. I buttoned it up and breathed a sigh of relief.

Still lots to do before the big trip, springs, air conditioning, vibration proofing.
I reached out to two forums looking for suggestions about preparing the vehicle for exceptionally rough roads. I’ll share the results.

Dan Cefalo checked on us via email in light of the recent storms. Thanks, that meant a lot.
Brad Johnson sent a nice email thanking me for help with his fan resistor. Always glad to help where I can.

Pray for those in Oklahoma recovering from tornadoes. Newcastle, Moore, Carney, Bethel Acres and Shawnee are just some of the cities affected by our recent storm outbreak. If you can help financially, please contact the Red Cross or one of the many local relief funds.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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May 20th Tornado (Post #341) 5/21/2013

Red path was the F4 May 20th tornado. Green was the F5 from May 3rd, 1999.

Several of you have emailed to check on us. That really means a lot to us. Thank you.

Me and all mine are safe.
My oldest daughter (#1) went over to a friend of our’s home. They have a safe room under ground. They watched the storm form and touch down. They scurried for safety and said for quite some time they could hear the roar as it passed by.

RovErica (#2) was traipsing between her new job in Norman and her apartment. She was at her apartment when it hit. Mrs. OkieRover was at the Norman Regional Hospital Heathplex waiting for the wounded. They sent most of them to the trauma center at OU in OKC. NRH’s Moore hospital was destroyed. They moved those patients to the Porter Avenue campus in Norman.

My son was in north Norman and I was at my office near the capitol in OKC when it hit. I had to drive east of Lake Stanley Draper to get around the mess and home.

Thanks for checking on us and say a prayer for the victims and the first responders who are dealing with the aftermath.

Thanks for checking on us and Happy Rovering.

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Slow Down, Buy Fewer Tools to Fix Your Mistakes (Post #340) 5/14/2013

I’ve got to learn to SLOW DOWN. I was in a bit of a manic state Saturday. I had so much I wanted to get done, I didn’t know where to start. You’ve been there.

This time I cross-threaded one of the bolts that holds the right rear brake caliper to the hub. So Monday on the way home I have to make a stop at J&B to buy another tap. I won’t be surprised when they tell me they don’t have that “weird bolt pattern”. But I’ve got to try. When I told my future son-in-law about this, he told me he owns a complete set of taps and dies, but it is at his father’s house. A LOT OF GOOD THAT DOES ME!

I told him he needed to store that in my garage. He was smart and didn’t commit to bringing it to my home to be “stored”. I just created a new definition of the word “store”.

store [stawr, stohr] noun, verb, stored, stor·ing, adjective

17. To use discretely when I screw up a bolt or threaded hole, especially on a Saturday when all the stores that might, even remotely, have the tool I need are closed.

I’ll get around to submitting that definition to the committee over at Webster’s after finals are over later this week.
More after the jump….

I did manage to get my sandblasting cabinet into use. I blasted some of the rust off the brake caliper I was complaining about a few posts ago. I also de-rusted the bracket that holds the air conditioning dryer. It was bad. It is now coated in gray primer and re-installed.

I have to complain again about the crappy selection of fittings available at the two Lowe’s stores in my area. Seriously?! are they trying to reduce stock so they can pull those cabinets out? If I was their hardware vendor I could retire on the order that would need to be filed to replace the stock that was missing between the two sites. I’m not kidding. They should just pull the sections of stainless fittings out. MOST of the drawers were empty.

Lowe’s in Moore Oklahoma

Ridiculous. I’ve complained before, I need to complain more. Maybe they will send me a coupon. I know they will never fill their drawers so I’m not really sure what I’d buy with the coupon.

It’s almost like I’m living back in 1975. Back then, if my dad wanted any kind of hardware he had to drive to Oklahoma City. So we would drive 30 minutes (one way) up to the 74th Street Expressway and get what he thought he needed and anything else he might not. I was a lead-pipe cinch we would not make another trip to OKC if he needed something. One trip would kill half a day. Who has that kind of time?

To be absolutely honest…I was pretty sure they wouldn’t have the hardware I needed. In fact, it was just a whim I decided to check.

So back to the sandblasting cabinet, I need a new plexi-glass window and I need to replace the media inside. Overall it worked pretty great. I need to sort out what setting to set the air compressor on. Hopefully full blast will not be the setting necessary.

I like to give a shout out to one of my good friends and fellow Marine. I saw Scott at church on Sunday and he told me he always reads my blog. He mentioned trouble with commenting. Mrs. OkieRover mentioned the same trouble. In Mrs. OkieRover’s case its probably a “how to” in Scott’s it was something else. More on that, later.
Ooo-rah Scott, keep on truckin’ brother.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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