I’ve had some issues with the idling on the Big White Bus. Once she is warmed up when I come to a stop sign the idle drops to something like 300 rpms. And eventually she drops lower and finally dies.
I read online that the O2 sensors could be the culprit. I couldn’t remember the last time replaced the O2 sensors. I am not getting Code 43 or 44. As I am not driving her daily I don’t have a good idea what the gas mileage had dropped to. So I decided I’d spend the money and replace. Continue reading “Oxygen Sensor Replacement (Post #587) 9/16/2019”
Ever jumped in your Land Rover and gotten this prediction?
Such a classic picture from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985). Before Pee-wee took his bike out for a ride, he checked his fortune. You know the rest of the story….there’s no basement in the Alamo, Pee-wee’s prophetic words (YouTube), “There are things you wouldn’t understand, things you couldn’t understand, things…you shouldn’t understand.”
As Dottie (played by 80s icon Elizabeth Daily) replies “I don’t understand.” I know EXACTLY what you mean Dottie, I don’t understand. I don’t understand what’s going on with my ignition system. I’ve tried many…many solutions to solve this problem.
The problem, when the engine gets warmed up the ignition module does something that causes the coil to overheat. And when the coil overheats, the engine stops getting spark and the engine dies, leaves you stranded, and frustrates you to no end.
At the time of this video I jumped on RangeRovers.net forum and saw several posts of guys dealing with very similar issues. Some of them have gone to replacing the distributor and dealing with all those issues. I’m not afraid to swap to a new replacement distributor.
Atlantic British lists the Pertronix Flame Thrower for 459.95$(US). Summit offers a Davis Unified Ignition 96920 in four colors. I’ve never even heard of this company, or anyone ever using their distributor. At 575.99$(US) I’m not sure about that.
I installed the relocation kit about 15 years ago when these issues raised their ugly heads the first time. I ran that setup until about 3 years ago when we tried the GM replacement experiment and the Lucas Ignition module Part Duex experiment (both failed). Three years before that, I replaced the stock coils with PerTronix Flame-Thrower Ignition Coils. I got good service out of those but ultimately they failed. I damaged the distributor so much sorting this out I had to have it replaced. A used distributor was installed. Mostly due to cost right at the same time I was trying to close a house and move back to my hometown.
I was chastised in some forum posts when I posted I’d just chuck the whole thing and replace it with a motor from a LR3 (Discovery 3, elsewhere in the world). There are thousands of Range Rover Classics motoring about on original ignition systems. So why am I getting these failures?
I’ve consulted people WAY, WAY smarter than me and we can’t come up with a reason for the failures. The frustration of not being able to take my Range Rover more than 2 miles from Okierover Base Camp is super frustrating.
I’m going to try a coil with high resistance next. I understand the coil for a 1971 Ford Mustang 351 Boss. 25$(US) at O’Reilly’s Auto has a high resistance. The 351 is a points ignition. And it’s a cheap test. If that fails…I’m looking at a Pertronix swap, or perhaps a diesel engine swap…I’m pretty sure either of them will be equally frustrating to get in place.
Maybe one of the sexiest cars I’ve ever seen
As always your comments are very much appreciated.
We’ve all been there. If you haven’t, you will. You’ve been stopped dead by a failed part. In this case my friend JagGuy’s wife. JagGuy was absent from one of our weekly lunches, this time he missed out on a greasy cheeseburger from Tucker’s. He was waiting with his wife on the tow truck to arrive to haul one of their Discovery’s to his shoppe for a repair.
Before I had the pad poured for the new shop, I was regularly starting the Big White Bus and letting her get up to temp. I even would take her out on short trips just to get the fluids circulating.
The Saturday before the crew was scheduled to come out, I went out to start the old girl and all I got was lots of turning but no starting. That’s right, she went from starting every time to not running at all. Being that we live in the “country” now my mind began to race. Parked vehicles are basically hotels for rodents of every size and shape.
I have ordered my shoppe. I went with a 20×30 foot with a single garage door on the advise of the Evil German Dude. He recently purchased another shop for his property and was disappointed in the two garage door version. The shop will need some fill dirt due to the slope in my yard.
Sorry for all the trouble this past week with my site. I’ve been trying to get my site updated and secured. This has taxed my abilities in the web hosting universe. This ain’t as simple as turning a wrench.
Anyway, you can feel all warm and fuzzy now that my site has an SSL certificate. I am trying to get redirects up to send you to the HTTPS site no matter how you’ve saved my shortcut. I may have to call back into tech support for that.
Thanks for your patience, thanks for reading, and Happy Rovering.
