Land Rover at Lowe’s and a New Muffler (Post #461) 3/11/2014

20140308_155449Over the past weekend I stopped at Lowe’s to pick up paint for my Coleman Stove Project which was part of my gearing up for S.C.A.R.R. When I came out this Discovery was sitting next to me. With the parking lot nearly empty parking directly next to me meant this guy must be an enthusiast. So I scribbled a note inviting the driver to check out my blog and to keep in touch as we were forming a Land Rover Club, Red Dirt Rovers, and invited them to check out our Google Community.

Later that day I got an email from John Joyce the owner of the Discovery. He has reached out to me with a couple of emails and I look forward to meeting him at S.C.A.R.R.

His rig looks well used. Seeing this Discovery next to me in the lot has told me I’m pretty sure if I ever get another Land Rover it will be a Discovery I. So much awesome in such a little package. Like anyone I’d love to have a classic Series 2a but for a daily driver that is probably not a realistic nor practical option. There’s more after the jump…

191,191 (Post #277) 12/23/2011

191,191 miles. Its a mileage palindrome. I know that is a lot of miles on a truck. All in all, she’s in pretty good condition considering that. However, I think I still need some undercarriage work. A new set of springs and shocks and a new steering damper would probably make things a lot nicer.

There was a threat of snow ever so briefly this week, so I got her out this weekend for some work and to test the starting issues I had this month. It was a beautiful weekend 61F and just a slight breeze. And with a successful road trial I drove her to work and back, too.

She did pretty good. As you can see she hauled some fire wood for us. It was interesting to me how different the ride was with a load in her. This makes me rethink my spring selection. Probably going with the “medium duty” springs. I don’t haul a lot but would like to know if I did I’d be good to go.

While I was out this week, I also stopped by the furniture store and grabbed a set of chairs we ordered with our new table. The kid that loaded the box was funny. He was so worried about putting the box in the back seat.

I had to finally say, “Its a truck, just set the box on the seat.”
“Its a Range Rover.”
“Its just a truck son, put the box back there.” 

I have to respect that he didn’t want to damage anything. I’m sure he’s run into some snobby lady that didn’t like the way he loaded something in their Range Rover or Lexus or Mercedes. And with that lesson he’s learned to be careful. I wasn’t hard on him, just matter of fact about it.

When I pulled into the neighborhood for the last time I could hear some sounds underneath. It was definitely related to the speed I was going. Sounded like something rubbing, whomp, whomp, whomp, and it would increase in frequency when I sped up.

So I guess I’ll have to try and sort that out this weekend. I hope it’s simple like last time and just something I forgot to button up tightly.  hope its nothing silly like a rear end about to quit.

Its that time of year again. This year I don’t think I’ll be doing a 12 days of Christmas post. I’m still a little burned out from the school work this semester and I have enjoyed my brain being idled. But if I get some energy I’ll get one going.

So from my family to yours, Merry Christmas, thanks for reading and happy rovering.

Ever had one of those a-ha moments? (Post #267) 10/2/2011

Saturday was a beautiful day in America’s heartland. I finished my homework early this week and my wife has a new book and bible study to prepare and the Oklahoma Sooners had a late start. All that meant I got some garage time. I went out to the garage and fired up the TV for some regional college football matchups.

I still have a lot of things in the garage from our last garage sale. So my plan was to get the garage organized. At present I couldn’t reach anything on my shelves and getting to the tool chest was only possible due to my training in the Marine Corps at avoiding booby traps.

I got to what I call the heavy tool shelves and noticed my small chain saw was down. I forgot that I loaned it to my neighbor and he reported that the chain was too dull to use. It turns out that all my chains are dull. They needed to be sharpened and I only know one place locally that does that. Dave’s Small Engine Repair in Noble, Oklahoma. My wife graduated from Noble High School. My best friend Master Guns Jason gets his chains sharpened there so…ROAD TRIP!

I grabbed the keys and was excited to get the Range Rover out on the road. It had been a while since I had driven her. I expected I would drive her or at least fire her up to charge the battery this weekend.

I grabbed the keys and my chains, jumped in and turned the key…rattle, rattle, rattle. I didn’t have enough battery to get her turned over. I pulled the Civic up and jumped her. Varooom.

I still have an air bubble in the cooling system so the low coolant light still comes on in cycles. The excessive heat this summer has cause the glue to fail on the rear view mirror. I also noticed the metallic rattle sound had gotten WORSE. Worse? how on earth could it get worse? I haven’t driven her in a month. I went about two blocks and decided I could drive no further with this sound it had to be found.

I originally thought it was either the trailer I was pulling or something in the exhaust. The pitch of the metal rattling sound is how you know what to look for. I thought for sure it was the muffler. I dropped down under the rear of the truck and looked around. And then I saw it.

I remembered the sound and thought perhaps it could be the mud guard? It sounded a little like the mud guard scraping sound from the front axle. So I looked at the axle hub area and sure enough there was the mud flap for the left rear dangling and dragging on the rim. Each time I hit a bump it would jump up and land on the rim causing a clanking.

I had horrific ideas of what might have gone wrong under there. Everything from I did something wrong on the bushing replacement project, to needing an entire new exhaust, to something I haven’t worked on yet. And in the end it turned out to be something silly simple. A couple of bolts I had improperly tightened on the last brake job project.

I thought I could fix it right there. I looked in the back and low and behold no tool bag. So I had to go back to the house and get the tool bag and exact a repair.

I got it tightened down and examined the scrape wound I got from reacting to a burn on the exhaust. Not too bad. I’ve had worse, much worse. I tossed the tool bag in the rear and as I was getting everything sorted I think I have an inadequate tool kit. More on that in a later entry.

I climbed behind the wheel and took off for Noble. Oh.my.gawd! It was like driving a new Rover! No rattling, no odd noises when I turned, no clangs when I hit the speed humps. It was great!

I got to the shoppe and standing there in the parking lot was the former State Senator Cal Hobson. Cal told me the shoppe was closed on weekends. That figures. I should have known better. He asked me if I knew where another place to get sharpening done was, I replied, “no but if you do I’ll follow you over there.” It turned out we were both out of luck for today.

I figure I’ll drop by there next week. I have a sharpening tool for chainsaws. But I have too many to mess with and thought perhaps I could learn something from them sharpening them. It seems when I sharpen I only get a couple of uses out of the saw before it is in effective and I’m wishing for a good sharp ax.

I’ll leave you with an A-Ha moment and thank you for reading and wish you Happy Rovering.

Bad news, good news, bad news (Post #84) 8/20/2007

Once again I spent my Saturday under my Discovery. This time to find the ominous noise that to me sounds like I’m dragging a wrench under the truck as I drive.
This is the sound. (4MB mpg file) Listen for yourself.
I swapped the new front drive shaft out with the old one. And I replaced the rear driveshaft front U-joint. The one that connects to the brake drum. And before you ask, yes I took the brake drum off and checked the brakes and checked if something in there was loose.
I also drained and replaced the transaxle oil. And good thing I did. It smelled burned and was a nasty dark color.
Did any of this fix my sound? Nope, nope and nope.
So I’m left with 2 differentials and 2 CV joints I guess.
I have to believe it is a CV joint.
The CV joints on the Disco are not like the Range Rover. I have to believe what ever the sound is it is not floating in oil of some kind. Which leaves me only the CV joints. I checked the differentials and they are full of lube as well.
I think I’m going to seek some outside assistance and then start guessing with parts. As I can’t stand this sound any longer. When what ever it is brakes free it makes a horrible crunch sound that you can just barely catch at the end of the clip. And that wasn’t one of the really loud times. On Thursday night I thought I’d hit a boulder in the road.
As always your comments are welcome.