Panhard rod bushes and serpentine belt

Mileage 141467

The Landy had developed a nasty shake of the steering around 50-55 mph that sent vibrations right through the car. A quick shake of the steering while checking components soon revealed that the panhard rod bushes were worn. New bushes were pressed into place at that cured the problem.

New panhard rod bushes

While I was at it I chose to replace the serpentine belt. The Landy had developed a squeak from the front of the engine. I wasn’t sure exactly what was causing it but this was the cheapest and easiest thing to try. The old belt was looking a little perished anyway and fortunately the new belt cured the squeak!

Non-squeeky serpentine belt

MOT prep work…..Big bills!

Mileage 139800

So, I knew that there was a lot of work needed for the MOT and I was running out of time so I drove it down to Mark ALLARD at MJA who would do the work for me. I knew I needed a replacement rear axle for no other reason than the axle casing was rotting away. Must be something to do with the Scottish climate and it living fairly near the sea. Mark had already sourced a good rear axle for me and also a pair of teflon swivels for the front as the old ones were badly pitted and leaking. Added to that I wanted new discs and pads to be fitted as the old discs were quite badly worn. I wanted to get rid of the 2″ lift kit that had been fitted and return to standard height if for no other reason thatn to make it easier for my wife to get in the car! Here’s a couple of before pictures to make you wince!

The spring seat more or less fell off of it's own accord.

Badly pitted and leaking swivels

Badly corroded damper turret

Mark kept the car for a couple of days and once he started to tear it apart the problems started to rear their heads. Just about every fixing was badly corroded and needed…..erm…..gentle persuasion to remove. All four brake calipers were found to be beyond salvation, one damper was leaking and another snapped while it was being removed. That sort of forced my hand into ditching the lift kit there and then. It was all apart anyway so it made sense to replace the springs and dampers at the same time so, all in, it has had the replacement axle, new discs, pads and callipers all round, new brake pipes, new springs and dampers all round, new damper turrets and replacement swivels.

Needless to say, it flew through the MOT!

Here’s a few ‘afters’:

Oils,filters and valve clearances

Mileage 139175

The Landy was supposed to have had a service not long before I bought it but I thought it might be an idea to give it an oil and filter service and also check the valve clearances. Parts were bought, as usual, from MJA Landrovers.

Parts ready to fit

The first thing the engine needed was a good clean so a liberal dose of ‘Gunk’ followed by a hot pressure wash soon had the head clean.

Dirty.......

Clean!

The rocker cover was removed and valve clearances checked. You need to be able to turn the engine over to do this and I found that a socket on the end of the crankshaft and using my big torque wrench I could easily turn the engine over using my foot under the car while I watched the tappets.

Rocker cover removed

To adjust the tappets you need to make sure the valve is fully closed. The easiest way to do this is to follow the ‘rule of nine’ in other words, turn the engine over until, say, No 8 tappet is fully open (down) then adjust tappet No 1. Turn the engine over until the next valve is fully open and, if it is say No3, adjust No 6 and so on until all tappets have been adjusted. The Tdi engine needs a clearance of 0.2 mm or 0.008″. Slide the feeler gauge of the correct size between the valve and rocker arm, loosen the locknut and adjust the screw. Once all the clearance is taken up,tighten the locknut. Make sure the clearance doesn’t go too tight as you tighten the nut, the feeler gauge should be a tight sliding fit.

Adjusting the clearance

A new gasket was used when replacing the rocker cover and it was torqued down to the specified 7 ft/lb…..but it still leaks a bit!….ah well,I shall have to investigate using some sealer to sort it out.

Onto the easy bit (or so I thought) changing the oil and filter.I slid my drain pan under the engine and got my 19mm spanner ready to undo the drain plug but I was shocked to see some sort of gunge had been liberally spread all over and around the drain plug.

What the????????

I carefully chipped most of this away to find the plug wasn’t very tight at all…….and it wasn’t very tight because the thread was stripped. I removed the plug and it was clear that the threads on the plug were well and truly goosed.

Stripped thread

This was a good sign, I suppose, because it indicates that the plug threads are softer then the sump threads so, hopefully, all it would need is a new sump plug rather than a complete new sump. Being Saturday afternoon, everywhere was closed or closing but Martin Motors of Martin Husingtree came to the rescue and sold me a new sump plug and washer despite having closed the shop 10 minutes previously. I cleaned the sump pan threads carefully with an angled pick removing bits of plug thread and kept my fingers crossed as I carefully fitted the new plug. It seemed to find the thread OK and wound in fine though a little stiff. The good news is that it torqued up to 26 ft/lb with no hint of stripping so the thread in the sump seems to have survived OK.

New sump plug

The rest was plain sailing. Fit new oil filter (after getting oil all down my arm removing the old one…..whyhave I NEVER been able to change an oil filter without doing this), fit new fuel filter and finally fit new air filter.

Oil filter

Fuel filter

Air filter

Everything bolted back together and off for a test drive. All seems well with no leaks (except the rocker cover of course) so, job done!

Front sidelights

It was only the other day that I noticed neither of the front sidelights were working. The near side one was an easy fix; it just needed a new bulb which I happened to have knocking around the garage. The offside one was more problematic. All the connections were dry and dirty.

Dirty bulb contacts

Lampholder contacts

I unplugged the connector from the rear and gave it all a good dose of WD40, I then scratch cleaned the connections both in the lampholder itself and also on the bulb. On putting the bulb back in it worked but was very temperamental. The slightest knock and the lamp would flicker. I removed the bulb again and gave the centre connection in the lampholder a tweak upwards and that cured it. Obviously, it wasn’t making a good connection with the base of the bulb.

All working!

Head unit replacement

Angus came with its standard Landrover fit radio cassette player and while this was probably quite posh for a working Landrover in its day it really didn’t cut the mustard by todays standard. I listen mostly to my iPod anyway using an FM transmitter and the radio just wasn’t picking the signal up very well at all. I also miss having RDS on the radio.

Landrover factory fit head unit

Fortunately, I had an old Panasonic head unit lying around in the garage which used to be fitted to one of my wifes cars which has long since gone. It’s nothing particularly special but it does have a much better tuner and better quality amplifier plus it is blessed with RDS and a CD player. It also has scope for adding an extra pair of speakers in the rear when I get round to it.

The wiring was very straightforward as the Panasonic unit had a lead which already had the standard ISO sockets on the end so it was literally just a case of unplugging the old unit, plugging in the new one and away you go!

Replacement head unit

The sound quality is much improved despite still using the crappy standard speakers and the iPod works much better too!

Clutch pedal pivot

For some time the clutch pedal has been squeaking every time the clutch was operated. It started off intermittent then became more regular until it finally stayed for good and seemed to be getting louder.

The clutch pivot is accessed from under the bonnet. Just to the right of the brake servo you will see a cover fixed with six screws. This is where the clutch pedal mechanism lives.

Clutch pedal box

After removing the six screws (one of which is a bit awkward as the servo gets in the way.) you will be able to see the pivots. Make sure you don’t lose the gasket!

Dry pivot joints

A drop of oil on the pivots and all is now squeak free! Refit the cover (not forgetting the gasket) and it’s all done. (apologies for the shonky pictures, for some reason ‘manual focus’ was set up on the camera and I didn’t realise!)

A few drops of '3in1' penetrating oil

Refit spare wheel carrier.

The spare wheel on standard Landrovers is carried on the rear door. This can cause problems with premature hinge wear particularly where larger, heavier tyres are fitted. The solution to the problem is to fit a dedicated spare wheel carrier that transfers the load to the body and chassis. Two types are available; those that simply pivot away from the rear door and are held in the closed position with a pin and spring and those that open and close with the rear door. The disadvantage with the former is that it is not possible to open the rear door from the inside until someone has pivoted the spare wheel away from the outside. This is inconvenient at best and dangerous at worst where you are carrying passengers in the rear.

Angus already came fitted with a spare wheel carrier of the latter type and, having looked around the internet it seems to be a ‘Scorpion’ one complete with carrier for a high lift jack. Although the carrier worked OK, it seemed to have been fitted incorrectly. There is a rubber buffer on the bracket that fixes to the rear door. As fitted, the buffer was to the left and served no purpose. Worse than that, it allowed the mechanism to go ‘over centre’ which had the effect of jamming the door in the closed position particularly if parked facing downhill.

Carrier as fitted

I figured that all I needed to do was to flip the bracket upside down and this would place the rubber buffer under the pivot arm, stop the carrier from rattling and prevent it going over centre.

I removed the bracket, flipped it over but it was clear that new holes would need to be drilled to place the bracket in the correct position.

Bracket turned over and re-fitted

I fitted some reinforcing washers behind the mounting bolts. Although there is a fair sized plate fitted to the outside of the door it isn’t particularly substantial. I’m still not happy that the pivot mounts away from the strongest part of the door but it will have to do until the rear door is replaced sometime in the future. I may then replace the carrier with one from Paddocks which mounts the pivot over the reinforcement braces in the centre of the door.

Reinforcing washers. Main door reinforcements can be seen to the left

All fitted back together. The door now opens easily from inside or outside and there are no more rattles as the carrier swings back and forth!

Fitted back together

Rear tyres

Mileage 138133

The tyres on the Landy are a real mixture. All tyres are 235/85/16’s but the two front tyres are a reasonable pair of almost new AT type tyres. the rears are a mixture of one good Insa Dakar mud tyre and the other is an almost worn out non matching piece of cack mud tyre. The spare was another good insa Dakar mud but had a tiny fault in the sidewall making it useless. As I had an almost new General Grabber AT2 tyre on a spare wheel hanging around, I chose to have a pair of the same fitted to the rears and use my spare as the….er….spare. I have used these tyres in the past and they are an excellent M+S tyre that wear very well. They were supplied by Longbridge Tyres at a reasonable £92 per tyre. I had considered changing to 265/75/16 tyres but, as the standard rims are only 6” wide that would have meant a new set of rims as well and I rather like the idea of keeping the original Rostyle rims as they are now becoming much less common as most people change to cheap ex Discovery alloys.

Old.....Insa Turbo Dakar Mud tyres

New.....General Grabber AT2 All terrain tyres

Horn wiring

It wasn’t until some idiot tried to carve me up that I realised my horn wasn’t working so i had to resort to shouting at him very loudly. Realising that this probably isn’t the best way to warn other road users I thought I had better investigate. After removing the front grill it was clear that one of the wires had seperated from one of the horn connectors. A quick crimp of a new connector and I no longer have to shout at people!

Broken wire

New crimped connection

Steering lock adjustment

On full lock both front tyres were just catching the radius arms as can be seen from the witness marks left behind. This was because, on fitting the 235 tyres the previous owner had forgotten to adjust the lock stops. A five minute job to wind the lock stops out a few turns results in sufficient clearance. An alternative method is to fit wheel spacers. This increases the track and means you don’t lose any steering lock but at around £150 a set I can live with a slightly reduced steering lock!

Witness mark on radius arm where tyre catches on full lock

Steering lock adjustment bolt

Small amount of clearance on full lock