Doesn’t the Big White Bus look good all washed up parked in the drive. Well she looks better with a little mud on the tires and traipsing up and down the hills of Barnwell Offroad Park in East Texas. Yes, it’s close to that time of year again. Its time to prepare the Range Rover for the South Central Area Rover Rendezvous aka SCARR.
Once again there is lots to do. A short list…
- Transmission Rebuild
- Plugs, wires, and cap
- Tie-rod ends
- Oil Pan Gasket
- Power Steering Leak
Its a short list but an expensive one. Getting the transmission done will be somewhere in the 2000$(US). I’ve known this was a problem for a while now. I’ve turned 220,000 miles and I think it’s time for a rebuild on the transmission. I have a plan for this.
You see the oil slick some of it is transmission fluid. The other part is the power steering fluid leak. I’m still sorting out the location of the leak. I suspect it is the seal kit. I’ve put one in before. I’m pretty sure its not the hoses, I’ve replaced all of them.
I will replace the transmission cooling lines when I have the transmission pulled. It will be nice not to have fluids leaking out.
The other leaks are from the oil pan and tappet covers. The bottom of the motor has become quite well protected from rust.
Speaking of oil…I took enough oil to fill the Exxon Valdez to the City of Norman recycling center. I’ve never had to recycle oil before. When I was a kid my dad just dumped the oil on the driveway. It helped prevent erosion, or so I was told by my dad. I’ve written about it before…
Back in the old days you left your oil where your car was parked. Our drive way was the oil dump of the old homestead. The oil assisted in preventing the eroding of the gravel from the drive way back to the gravel road we took the gravel from in the first place. At least that’s what Dad said. If they took a soil sample of the drive way at my childhood home they would declare the whole place a Super Fund Clean-up Site. Rural living in Oklahoma, go figure.
Up to recently I took my oil to my buddy JagGuy. He used to run it cut 50/50 with diesel in his monster truck M35 “Bobbed Duece”. It became a hassle for him. He had to filter the oil and store it. Keeping 50 gallons of fuel sitting in drums is dangerous. Not that he is any stranger to danger, he regularly drives Jaguar automobiles and is no stranger to the onion burgers at Abraham’s Western Cafe on North Western in OKC.
He teased me a little bit the other day when we were leaving Abraham’s. He said, “You know that satisfying feeling when you parallel park when you bump the vehicle in front of you? Oh by the way (as our vehicles came into view) your bumper is much lower than mine.” Perfect comedic timing.
Recycle your oil, meet me at SCARR, and thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.