Category: Range Rover Classic

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Heater Fixed! (Post #159) 11/19/2009

Yes I fixed the heater!

When I got home I went out to start the long tear down of the dash to find the heater problem. I was expecting the worse. And I found it only a 1/4 of the way in. YES!


You can see in the pic the cable is not on the control rod. I suspected that either the cable was broke or the keeper that holds the outside of the cable housing to the control rod moves the lever on the valve.

So it was a simple fix. I put it back together and tested it and now I won’t have to wear “long handles” every morning.

If only all of my Range Rover jobs were that easy to fix. If every one of the jobs were that easy, EVERYONE would own a Land Rover.

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Central Locking System Woes (Post #158) 11/13/2009

I attempted to repair the central locking system on Veteran’s Day. I could write this post in the form of a battle, but I will not. I won’t write the post in that form mainly because…

“History is written by the victors.” – Winston Churchill

So with that quote you have probably figured out I lost the battle.

First, I wasn’t totally confident I would win. I took a lot of INTEL (reading and research) in to the battle with me.
I had all the RESOURCES (tools and time) to win.
None of that allowed me to carry the day.

I got the panels off of the passenger side doors. These were the locks that bounced UP and DOWN four or five times each time one of them was locked. This resulted in the locks either being locked or unlocked when it finished. It was a crap shoot each time. So to lock the Rover you waited for the cycling to stop and then you manually lock the doors. As you can imagine, I received quite a bit of teasing from the unwashed non-Rover people that ride in my beloved Landy.

After the panels were removed I attempted to sort out what was happening each time the locks were depressed. I’m guessing there is a threshold that checks if the locks are in the locked state. And at the point you press the lock it attempts to lock the door several times until it just gives up. That is a basically a WAG (wild ass guess).

Even my remote fails to do the job. I did use it once to unlock the doors as a last resort after my daughter locked the last remaining key in the truck on a very cold winter day. Also locked inside the vehicle that day was her coat. So with freezing rain coming down we each learned a valuable lesson that day.

I guess I’m going to replace the entire system. Or I’m going to at the least replace some bits to get it back to functioning. There is a great post by Chris-St Louis on DiscoWeb describing how he repaired his central locking system. There is even a schematic that shows how to wire the entire system with two relays. To check out his post you will have to register at the site.

There are some great tips on the RangeRovers.net site as well. I’d go through these before jumping to the replace everything stage. A used replacement door lock module could also be a solution if you are willing to spend the money for it. Perhaps your’s is just worn out.

So for the mean time I have pulled the fuse and I am locking and unlocking the doors “the old fashioned way” ala’ my 1978 Malibu. It is a barbaric method of locking your vehicle. But it does cut down on the disparaging remarks from my non-Rover buddies.

Chris graces all his posts with another great quote by Winston Churchill.

“Truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it; but, in the end; there it is.”

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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Cash For Clunkers Land Rovers (Post #156) 9/30/2009


Jalopnik has posted on their site a list of EVERY CAR that was traded in under the Cash For Clunkers program. They also have a Top 10 of the most exotic cars that were traded in. Looking through the Top 10 list makes me wonder who these idiots were. Looking through the Land Rover entries on the list will make you cry.

The much derided program that we spent tax payer dollars in the guise that we are removing GAS GUZZLING MONSTERS from the roads to replace them with more efficient models, snared many a Land Rover.

Two of the 500 1993 Defender 110s were turned in. Who were these people? Did they not understand that a North American Defender 110 would bring in 10s of thousands of dollars? A Defender 110 in non-running condition would bring 20k. But as you are aware you had to drive the vehicle in to the dealership. So these vehicles were runners! Awesome, I hope these two people get a nasty case of shingles.

Seventy-eight Range Rover Classic LWBs were turned in. That’s 78 less vehicles we get to pull parts off of to keep our beloved machines running. A much needed heavy sigh should be inserted here. You can see the hundreds of Discovery 1s and 2s listed there as well.

At least we can be comforted that the SEMA people got the 25 year old or younger clause in the bill or we would indeed be wondering what people were thinking when they traded in their Series vehicles. And our sincere concern for the idiot who traded in their Series 1 Lightweight to buy a Prius. Thank you SEMA.

Enjoy your day, thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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Marketing is everything (Post #153) 8/25/2009

I present two examples of marketing.

First the 1985 Renault Alliance Convertible. Western themed, Footloose video with mimes and break dancers. The video is a tease for the poor young man. It symbolizes possibly the elusiveness of “having it all”. How all that relates to a French car…I’m not sure. This video is creepy.

The second is the 1993 Range Rover LWB. They weren’t called Classics back then. It’s a video demonstrating the ride height feature of the Range Rover, sped up and set to music. I think the music they should have chosen was Low Rider by War. In any event, companies do some of the strangest things to sell cars.

Secretly I liked the Renault convertible. Throughout the 1980s and 90s BMW would make the 325i into a convertible that I think looks very similar to the Renault. Who copied who? Who knows. I thought the Alliance convertible looked cool. The hard top version was hideous.

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Things slow down a lot (Post #153) 8/25/2009

I recently put my mother in the hospital for a broken hip. She has been recovering for quite sometime. Yesterday we put her in a rehab hospital. Needless to say with all this going on I barely have time to cut the grass at the house, let alone work on the Range Rover. I did use the Range Rover to pull a trailer full of mom’s belongings in the vain hope she would be moving into an assisted living center. I have not pulled anything that large before. Other than slowing down 15 to 20 miles per hour going up the rolling hills of Northern McClain county the BWB did fine.

I still have the viscous coupling to do and I absolutely need to fix the central locking system. College football is upon us so I’m sure I’ll have to pick my projects carefully in order to get them done.

Thanks for reading, sorry for no posts in a while, and Happy Rovering.

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Garage clean up, moving spare parts, adjusting the door (Post #149) 5/31/2009


The garage is in an awful state. The Spring’s projects are over and it was time to get the garage in a sorted state. I went through the shelves and with 20$ worth of bins I got the nails, screws, and bolts all put right and organized. I moved the chairs to the space I just cleared and now they are nearer the door for loading.

I gathered up all the parts I had on the shelves of the former Discovery 2. I found all kinds of things on the shelves. There was…

  • a full set of tires on Hurricane wheels
  • a package cover (black)
  • a front drive shaft
  • a set of head lamps
  • an owner’s manual
  • a set of interior carpets
  • a spare CD disc cassette

I pretty sure I have the tires and wheels and the carpets sold. Some friends of mine are joining the Land Rover community in a big way. They recently bought TWO Land Rover Discovery’s. They made great deals on them and are getting in very cheaply. When the price of Land Rovers drops to below 4000$(US) for 10 year old models, it makes it easy to get in to the hobby.

I also got the door sorted out on the Range Rover. The classic problem of the door handles not working the latch had raised it’s ugly head on driver’s side door. With the help of 57loboy of the LandRoversOnly forums, I was able to adjust the pull and get it door working perfectly. I wrote a Tech Tip for my website if any one is interested.

It may not look like I did much to sort out the garage. But I can now work on my autos by moving just a few work benches and boxes. before I couldn’t find anything on the shelves and I had to creep around things just to walk from one side to the next.

I am getting closer to driving my Rangie. When I get some money in for the spare parts I will get the viscous coupling fixed (and a write up for that) and the air conditioning fixed. The AC will be a swap on the expansion valve and a recharge. Hopefully that will bring me cold air and summer time comfort. I’m hoping there will be enough money left to tint the windows.

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