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.
Well the Big White Bus is on the lift at Mickey’s Garage for a much needed transmission transplant. While up there I’m having the transmission cooling lines and the oil cooling lines replaced. Palace Auto rebuilt the hoses.
This repair was in preparation for S.C.A.R.R. With yesterday’s exciting weather events and this crazy week at work, a day off will be welcome and just what the doctor ordered.
The transmission replacement will hopefully allow me to facilitate the purchase of a possible light-weight travel trailer. I’ve mentioned it before. We are looking at either a classic “canned ham” or a Casita.
I’m looking forward to getting back behind her steering wheel. My friend Paul loaned me his Ford Expedition and it feels a bit like what I imagine driving a Stryker armored personnel carrier would be like. This thing is humongous. I am blessed to have such good friends.
Say a prayer for those who lost their homes in yesterday’s storms throughout Oklahoma.
Its time for the first round of maintenance for our trip to S.C.A.R.R. I got a box of goodies from Rovah Farm. They are a “new to me” supplier out of Arkansas. I have trouble getting parts out of New England this time if year. Something about weather… blah, blah, blah, winter… blah, blah, blah, cancelled flights, yada, yada, yada. Following Okierover standard procedure I managed to order something that was out-of-stock. Rovah Farm let me know and we agreed to wait for everything before shipping. Once everything was in it was a two day delivery, his door to mine. Excellent. We lucked out and just missed our last winter blast which would have probably delayed the order. Continue reading “Big Pile of Maintenance (Post #528) 3/6/2015”
After I took the Christmas lights off the house I moved the Range Rover into the shelter of the garage. It’s a little bit chilly out there and being out of the wind seemed like a good idea.
The first annoying problem I looked at was the problem opening the driver’s side door. As most of you Land Rover owners have experienced, the flappy-paddle-trapeze of opening a Range Rover Classic door is silly. Once it gets out of adjustment it’s pretty frustrating trying to get your doors open. To top it off my door especially doesn’t like to open when it is cold out.
The left rod in this picture is the rod you turn for adjustment.
I pulled the door card and looked for the outside handle’s adjustment rod. To adjust it you remove the keeper clip at the top and then turn the rod clockwise. I chose to turn it four revolutions. I hooked it back up and then tested it.
Worked just as I expected it to, perfectly. The inside handle needed adjustment too. For this rod you trace it from the handle to the end that attaches to the trapeze bits. It has a “Z” in the rod and a spring to keep it in place. On the end it has a 7mm nut. It’s not fun to find the end and get the wrench on it.
I gave it at least a full revolution. The inside handle now engages the release a little sooner. This is better than the last time when I got a bit carried away and couldn’t get the door open after adjusting it.
The second was getting the unlock lever back into it’s guide. I had removed this when I had trouble getting the door panel reattached to the door. The guide broke and I didn’t bother to reinstall it until today.
The broken guide I had glued broke again. I installed it anyway. I think it looks better than just the lever floating around in a hole in the door card.
When the door card was off I investigated the electric door actuators. Mine have become weak and cause the famous “bouncing lock problem“. Since those initial investigative blog posts I’ve learned the actuators weaken and don’t set the lock correctly and cause the lock and unlock issue. Replacing the actuators fixes the issue in some instances.
I then turned my attention to the center brake light. It has not worked for a while. I thought it was a burned out bulb. A few months ago I check it and the bulb was just bouncing around loose in the lamp fixture. So I swapped the bulb, still no light. I made the sure the bulb was making a good connection. I then traced the wires to the plug under the headliner. I found two plugs that did not match. I guess when I replaced the upper rear door frame they sent me a frame with the wrong plug on it.
I went out to my old frame, which I kept because it has good glass still in it. I had cut the old plug off. I guess in my haste to reinstall I didn’t swap the plug. Well long story short the plug is in a box somewhere and instead of digging through boxes for hours, I decided that I’d just splice the wires. Once completed, my center brake light now works again.
The last thing was the Range Rover letters on the tailgate are coming unglued. After I worked on the brake light they were all but coming off. In fact the A did come off.
I got some rubbing alcohol out and cleaned up the glue locations. I got some glue and decided to attempt to glue them back into place. If it fails again, I have another sticker I can replace them with.
So today I knocked out these little annoying things. Not a bad day if I say so myself. I wish I had time to work on the radio too but it will have to be another day.
It’s January. S.C.A.R.R. is in April. If you can make it to S.C.A.R.R. now is the time to plan for it. If you are from Oklahoma contact me, I’d like to get us in matching shirts and make a good club showing. I promise you will have a good time.
Thanks for reading, Happy New Year, and Happy Rovering.
Electrical problems have punctuated the winter this year with the Big White Bus. I’ve had a lot of trouble electrically speaking. The engine has run rough for a few months now. The tachometer has been exhibiting the bouncing needle problem indicative of a failing alternator. A glowing battery charge light when the headlights are on. And of course as you read in the last post my ignition switch has been acting up.
I got the ignition switch problem sorted out and now it was time to upgrade the battery cables. And there is only one man you go to when it comes to electricity, The Evil German Dude. His evil liar has all the tools and he has a supreme understanding of the dark art of electricity.
Other than “replace the cables” there really wasn’t a clear and concise plan when we started to swap the original OEM battery cables for an upgraded set hand-crafted by the Evil German Dude. The plan is pretty simple:
Remove the old cables.
Build new comparable cables.
Install the new cables.
There are four battery cables of concern on this project. One goes from the positive battery post to the starter. One goes from the positive battery post to the alternator. One goes from the negative battery post to the frame. And the last is a fresh ground connection to the fender from the negative battery post.
We also upgraded the battery post connections to industrial grade. The ones they sell at the auto parts store are just…INADEQUATE.
There it was in black and white. Knocking or rattling noise. It doesn’t get more obvious than that. The picture above is from the RAVE CD. It clearly describes the problem I was having.
