My Land Rover

More maintenance and some thoughts...

2012-01-30T09:48:00.000-08:00

The maintenance for the Disco moves on slowly but almost there, did the transfer and axles, saw some metal shavings on the magnetic plug, but I don't think is too bad, it was a bit low, is leaking a little bit, and I fear is on the connection between auto gear box and input shaft, so once I take the transfer for something I'll replace the oil seals there, but for now, it'll have to wait, not that bad (sorry for the out of focus picture, I did it twice and both are out of focus).

Also, as the new temp sensor for the series is off (measures too low) I did some experiments and tests with the sensor and another one, that measures too high, and tried to find a good compromise between the two. Not sure if the data or the equations I have are of interest, but if they are, drop me a note or a comment if you are suscribed to this blog.

For now I am going with 220 Ohms in parallel with the sensor, we'll see how it behaves.

Also, the other day I found this nice link of when I helped the friend's of Death Valley to rebuild a bridge, it's nice to be listed there. Thanks Randy!
http://www.deathvalley.com/dac/supporters.html

And finally, I have decided to place a banner like picture with all the Land Rovers I had (or have) since 1994, in the order I had them, '94 Landy, '89 Spikes, '98 Reddo, '95 Vulcano and '77 Crappollo (provisional name) :

200K auto box maintenance

2012-01-23T05:59:00.000-08:00

The thing that scared me the most of the 200K maintenance was the auto box filter. I've heard so many stories about it... anyway, I am happy to report that all seems good and was able to complete it in less than 5 hours (not bad for my first time). There is no need to remove the cross member of the chassis on the 300Tdi although some swearing is needed... kind of a Tetris game, but however put this bolt here, deserves an award for incompetence, you need to get the screws out of the support for the transfer (very hard by the way) and move it a bit to undo it, they should have done the hole bigger on the plate so you can access it without removing it!

Make sure you have a torx T27 handy for the filter.

The ATF change was well needed.

I put 4L. and one bottle of Lucas oil for auto boxes, I measured the oil I got out and was over 4L. probably 5 or so, so I think I may be spot on, I'll check the level in a few hours once all the thick Lucas oil goes down completely.

Land Rover Alcaraz prerun 2012

2012-01-22T02:30:00.000-08:00

Some of us in the Land Rover Club, did a pre-run of the Alcaraz route, we have planned for a little later in the year. This is just a little preview of what you could expect in this fantastic route.

It's going to be cold, really cold, as you can see dress accordingly and expect to see frozen vegetation all around.

Expect to get stuck, specially if you don't have enough clearance, some ruts are deep. We got this RRC back on track in no time.

Expect your kids and dogs, to go wild with the snow and the ice (pack extra clothes and towels they'll get wet), it's fun!!!

This is one of the spots we located perfect for lunch, sunny...

... views of la Mancha all around...

... and places to explore for the kids and animals.

This is another spot, perfect to see the whole "sierra", if weather permits (it's very high), this is a perfect place ...

...plenty of snow (be careful, you'll get some snowballs, like I did)...

... magnificent views.

Some of the roads on the dark side of the montains will have snow, with the occasional iced spot.

And of course, expect your truck to return a little dirty and you with a big smile.
We love Alcaraz and its sierra.
The mods I did on the truck work great, great clearance, perfect articulation and strong grip on all terrains.

200.000,0 Km

2012-01-20T08:54:00.001-08:00

What are the odds of stopping at your destination and having exactly this reading??

Diesel and coolant systems, check!

2012-01-19T06:40:00.000-08:00

Well,
I finally got the temp sensor, it seems a FAE 1551 will be compatible and so far so good, seems to fit perfectly, no leaks and reads when warm (haven't tried it out on the road yet to see how accurate it is), so I think the cooling system is finally done. I was able to fix the radiator crack after some soldering, seems to be OK so far.

I cleaned the diesel system as much as I could, taking out the fuel sedimentor (I found all sort of diesel color in there from past times) and replacing the diesel filter. It took a while to pump manually diesel back into the system after this, in fact, I tried for a little while and nothing happened, then I used a plastic pipe to try to suck some diesel into the sedimentor and it worked, then I cranked the engine for a few seconds and then I tried manually again until fuel came out clean from the top of the filter. Has been working like a charm since then.

As the white smoke was unbearable, I decided to adjust the timing of the distributor pump a bit forward and it worked great, no more "fog" when I turn the engine on for a few seconds in the garage, it seems to rev up nicely too, which was a bit sluggish before.

I can't wait for a test run and see how everything works in the open.

Also, the Disco is turning 200,000KM, time to do some big maintenance, it needs some love too.

I found 3 pictures in my phone that show the evolution of the Disco, from stock, to lift, to lift + tires:

Camel cut and more Series III maintenance

2012-01-03T09:03:00.000-08:00

Time for the camel cut, I basically marked 4.5 cm on thebottom of the rear panel and cut as nicely as I could with a dremel, doesn’tlook too bad, if I must say so:

Also, the old tires look good on the old truck:

Then the first mayor “procedure” on the Series, valvesadjustment, coolant replacement, temp sensor replacement, air cleaner, beltsand so on, basically the top of the engine maintenance. Of course with a truck like this things are *never* easy.

To start with, once I had everything apart, I realized thatPaddock had sent me the wrong gasket, I sourced one locally but they were nice enoughto acknowledge their mistake and reimburse me.

Then, when I got everything back together and put some waterfor an extra rinse (take a look at what it got out of this engine and how dirtythe pipes are) I realized that the temp sensor wasn’t a match, instead of thetypical 560794 this truck has a 484307 (Veglia Bressel) I’ll see if I cansource one locally.

The good news is that the truck runs OK, better than before,less smoke, revs up nicely.

Also, to make things extra fun the bottom drain screw on theradiator got loose, well, not the screw, but the thing it screws into, so itleaks now… great, I’ll have to figure that one out too. Stay tuned…

Fun never ends with Land Rovers does it?

Merry Xmas

2011-12-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

It looks like the Disco has been a good boy and got newshoes (Cooper STT on 235/85R16).

Also, I found one of the old front tires has uneven wear, I didcheck for play on the front wheels and there is none, so it must have been someother issue maybe with the tire or something. I’ll keep an eye on the new ones.

Merry X-mas or whatever it is that you celebrate, wishingall the best for all those Land Rover nuts out there!

Oil levels

2011-12-18T06:27:00.000-08:00

This week’s work on the series III: I’ve been working on theoil levels. Quite a ride, I must say!

The engine oil, was well over the “high” mark, like 3 L. overfilled,I want to remove the oil sump later on, so I didn’t change the oil just yet,but made sure the level is correct for now (I barely move the LRS anyway).

After that I moved to the gear box, … *empty*, I meanit, just empty, no wonder the gears were a little hard when warm (good thing I don’tmove this truck much). Of course all the oil had transferred to the transferbox (I am wondering if that is why it’s call that J), there was well over 1L. ofoverfill, very possible it’s just the gearbox oil moving here. All the nutsholding the bottom of the transfer were loose, no wonder it was leaking a bit.

And to finish it up, the overdrive, was…. Well, you can say itwith me *empty*, I am puzzled with this one as I don’t see any visibleleaks (yet) so we’ll see what happens with the oil I put on.

I can’t find EP90, so I had to use EP80/90 which is betterthan no oil anyway.

I also have used this combination of a 10mm ½” socket and anAllen wrench (10mm obviously) that works well on the square level screws on theboxes.

I am going to make myself a tool from a big screw to be ableto drain the boxes and diffs as I haven’t seen many drag link sockets here andI doubt there is one this big (22x11x7 mm the rectangular part I believe).

On to the differentials, the front one, a tiny bit overfilland clean, so far so good and the rear one…. You are right, *empty* andto make it even more fun the square screw on the diffs is slightly bigger than ½”so I was not able to use my ad-hoc tool for this… LR couldn’t use the *same*screws everywhere, could they?... plus whoever did the screw last time over-torquedit and the square was barely visible… way to go, whoever did that!!

Well, it looks like all the liquids are correct for now,down the road, as I see what is wrong with the LR, I’ll be changing oils, brakefluid and so on, but for now, I just want all the levels correct, so I can trythe truck a little bit and see what is broken and what seals need replacing.

A few more parts will make their way this coming week andthen I should be able to do some serious maintenance on the engine (valve’sclearance, air filter, diesel system, sump clean up, coolant and cleanup ofradiator, ….), of course, I won’t do it *all* next week, it will take mea little while, but at least I should have all the stuff I need to work on it,whenever I have the time.

That’s all for now.

Electrics, check.

2011-12-04T01:53:00.001-08:00

I finally sorted out the vacuum pump/depressor thing, in the end, I replaced the valves from the donor unit instead of trying to change the pulley, too much work and probably I’ll end up with a broken one anyway, too many years in there…I see the diaphragms in good shape, this is the donor, so I’ll keep them around, I may need them later.

This is the refurbished unit, ready to install.

And pictures of it in place, ready to test!

I’ve been working on the electrics too, first, try to find out what the loose cables are and then removing them, I need to sort out the signal lights and the rear left light set, as none of them work. I had to pull the whole dashboard out to be able to see the cables and their connections, at the end, probably I didn’t need that, but it helped a bit plus a clean it out well, that helps too, here you see the in-progress.

And done (for now) pictures.

I want to fix the basics so I can take the Series for a spin, to check how the engine goes when warm and what needs to be done in the dynamic section, I bet at least a tune up of the injector pump and/or maybe injectors may be needed.

What I realized today is that working in the Land Rovers is a hell of a workout, this of course, after finding sore muscles, some of them I didn’t even know they were there :P, but seriously, working in my Land Rovers beats a Gym any day and it’s a lot of fun (well, sometime is frustrating).

As part of the “getting to know each other” phase, I took a bunch of things apart inside, I found the funniest things, like whoever installed the overdrive, did it by “biting” the metal, to make the hole in the cabin…

I’ve also found 100 pesetas, which haven’t been in use since 2001 or so. I guess I got my investment back already :P

Well, the Santana is ready for a little drive around here out of the road, as it hasn’t passed the ITV yet, but I need to test all the new stuff I’ve done to it. So far, the electrics work, although I will need a new brake switch, this one is kind of “moody” and I discovered something interesting, the directional blinkers, are actually in series with the emergency lights, and the old little weird Lucas switch (the one you pull out) can make bad contact, so in short, the one to blame for the blinkers to not work was actually the switch that would go beyond the stop point.. fixed screwing it in, but the plastic is brittle and broke a bit. Also found a loose earth point in the back, reason for having no lights or signals on the back, left side.

Starting work on the Series III

2011-11-27T11:41:00.001-08:00

Well,this weekend had some time to work on the Land Rover, overall seems OK as I said before, but there is plenty of work ahead. I am going to start working on what I consider important things (mechanical, rust) and later on I'll work on the cosmetic things (paint, seats, ...)I got an spare whole vacuum pump from Ivan, mine doesn't work right, so after comparing them I decided to swap the pulleys as the one on the spare is broken. In the picture you can see why you need to create the "helping tool" that Santana recommends, here is a picture I drew to try to get it done somewhere.

My daughter decided to "help" me around and the dog too, and she said that the Series is totally a Lara Croft truck, I took a few pictures while she was playing like being her.

I also checked the rust spots, most of them are superficial, the only concern is the frame on the passenger door and the edge of the roof, but the frame can be replaced easily and the roof looks like it can be repaired.

I also checked under the truck and saw what looks like a leak in the gasket of the oil pan, I planned to change it anyway to clean well the filter in there. So there you have it, starting easy and slow, but it looks promising and it's a fun workout too ;), oh, and it is a 5 bearing 2.25 engine, you can see the "X" on the block.

First day with the Series III

2011-11-24T06:24:00.001-08:00

Well,Today I finally had some time to check the Land Rover.Overall is in good health for a 34 year old car, it has some rust spots, but cosmetics, mostly, some issues here and there, but most of the work needed is maintenance, clean up, paint and suspension/tires.I got the roof rack off, it's heavy!, and fixed the driver's door, which was out of whack.I am making a list of things to fix/replace/take care of, and it's already longer than my daughters Xmas list... and theirs is big!!!Anyway, a picture of a proper garage :)

Land Rover Series III

2011-11-19T09:23:00.001-08:00

Well,it's time for another chapter in my Land Rover Life. This time I have decided to get a Series III. I always liked this classic Landies, and this one just got today seems to be in good shape as a start project. Lots of hours are going to be needed to bring it back to top shape, but at least is a runner with almost no rust, a 5 bearings engine (it seems at least) and a decent drivetrain. Some pictures to introduce this one for now and more as the project goes on.

Terrafirma 2" lift

2011-10-23T00:49:00.000-07:00

It was time to finally install the Terrafirma lift.Jorge (Salvaje) from the CLRTTE showed up to help, much appreciated by the way, while we worked around the Disco, we did find some interesting things too.First of all, last week I replaced the master cylinder and booster, booster broke back in the Land Rover Party, but master was starting to leak a little bit, so I played it safe and replace both, looking good and shiny… and it works perfect too.

Also, I did the stupid ‘P’ gasket, what a waste of time to get there, as always one of the bolts rounded off and I had to hammer in the 3/8 to get it out, oh well.So back to today’s business.We started with the measurements of the old setup, to compare at the end, roughly 79 cm and 80 cm, front and back respectively.

Talking about damages from the Party, the rear bumper is showing signs of “smile-ification” (not my word, Max’s) both ends got loose and I repaired for now. The steering guard got some of the smilification too, you can see Indy the inspector checking it out, and we notice the front axle stabilizer on the driver side, was a little bended too, will stay like that for a bit though… got rid of the side steps, they got pretty damaged too.

So anyway, back to the lift, we tried to take a couple of picture while working on this, here is how the new setup looks like, front and back and a picture of how spooky it looks the car without suspension.

Measurements at the end, 83 cm. and 87 cm., front and rear, of course, they will settle a bit once I use them a bit, but not bad, it drives great too.

So, we had some fun, expending the day with a friend is always nice, we got to talk about Land Rovers and the club, we had lunch and some liquor after we finished the job (I even dare to drink a little bit) and as I said, it was a good day, we ended up tired though, it’s quite some work to do this, we started at around 11am (I was already monkeying around the car since 8-9am) and we finished at about 5pm, including a break for beer and another one for lunch.Here are the protagonists of the day, David, Indy and Jorge.

Land Rover Party 2011

2011-10-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

Well,
One of the events I was really looking forward to, is the Land Rover event in Les Comes (Barcelona), I got to hang out with Suri and his family and a lot of friends from the area

I had a lot of fun, met new people and said hello to some people I met before. It was a fun event overall, I didn't have time to check everything out, but maybe next time.

Some pictures of Les Comes:

We did go around the whole property, exploring and checking all sorts of interesting things, like this salt mine.

The wooden bridge was kind of fun too.

But probably one of the things that was more fun was one of the extreme areas, with plenty of mud, where we got stuck twice, once Saturday and then again Sunday.

It's funny how much the mud changed, Saturday had plenty of water, but by Sunday it was very thick and sticky.

Saturday's pictures here, at one point my Disco started digging to get up and sprayed Txus nicely, as you can see below. We got slightly stuck here, but nothing compared to what happened Sunday.

Sunday, things were going smoothly as there was less water in the mud, but the end of the trail, was very hard and almost everyone (but Jordi's Td5 and a Disco3, if I remember well) had some sort of issue there. I broke one of the end caps for the rear bumper and Suri got mud well over the knees, check out his shoes below.

Overall,
we had such a great time, I'll do the whole thing again. And considering I did all that in my stock Disco with street tires, ... not bad at all.

I think I have some issue with the brakes and we had to clean mud from pretty much everywhere, but still fun.

As always with Land Rover events, the best of all is the people.

I'll certainly try to go again next time.

This was the worse of the damage I got... not too bad and very typical problem:

Well, other than repairing the brakes and replacing the "P" gasket, I have some new toys to install too, courtesy of MM4x4:

Camping in Riopar

2011-06-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

Well, this time we went camping, I took my 2 daughters to Riopar a nice little village in the Sierra, really beautiful all around.

The Land Rover behave perfectly well, despite the very high heat during the day... funny enough it was very cold in the night.

My brother and parents came to visit one day, and we went to "Los Chorros" where the river Mundo has its source.

We also visited Riopar and Riopar Viejo.

Not much to tell other than we had a lot of fun, so here are a couple pictures:

VIII Encuentro Nacional, Benissa 2011

2011-05-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I think I can sum up this event in one word...AWESOME!!!! ;)

The Land Rover club of Spain (CLRTTE) does a couple of annual gatherings, one of them is the "Nacional" and the other one is the "Iberico" which is held every other year in Spain (the other years in Portugal).

This meeting is a great way of meeting Land Rover people from all over the country.

This year, there was a lot of activities including offroad routes and offroad circuits, with great food and assorted activities for everyone.

We had a lot of fun and it's always great to meet people you have been hanging with online, nice to have faces for the nicknames...

First, I was nicely surprised by the number of Land Rovers and Santanas, from all over Spain, it's always nice to check all types of Landys with all kinds of preparations.

I see Land Rovers....

There was some stuff for kids too, my older one going up high...

But again, "I see Land Rovers..."

This is the Defender I want to get one day, a D90, Td4 Puma, a man can dream, right? ;)

So now, some pictures of our runs, my 2 girls were into it and had a great time.
We did 2 runs, one Saturday of the easy Green circuit and then Sunday of both the easy and the medium one (the Red circuit)... not bad for street tires, and of course, I didn't try the hard one(the black circuit) with my stock(ish) Disco.

I think all the tires should be on the ground, right?

Static mud concept #2

The girls and the dog working out with a nice background of... you guessed it, Land Rovers!

A happy family! We all had fun, hanging with all sorts of nice people.

Finally, I met Suri, I sense we'll share a few routes in the future!

The only "carnage" I experienced was a loose rear bumper cap, both sidesteps got a couple of "bumps" and of course a little mud here and there, but nothing too serious.
That's most of it, thank you for reading!

Don't forget to check the CLRTTE website for more pictures and stories...

Alcaraz with some friends from CLRTTE

2011-02-27T02:13:00.000-08:00

Well,

We had a blast! what a great day, great weather, great people... such a pleasure to meet fellow Land Rover enthusiasts in Alcaraz.

We arrived at Alcaraz at 9am, a little while after the introductions and greetings, we took off to the mountains.

Funny enough, for being a Land Rover gathering only 3 Land Rovers showed up, my 300Tdi disco, a Td5 Disco and a Td5 Defender 130 (very cool by the way...), the rest were some of those "other" 4x4s :P

All the way to the snack break was smooth with all sorts of terrain to entertain us:

This is the place where La Mancha ends and the Sierra de Alcaraz begins...

My photographer for this trip, working hard (and having quite some fun)

The 130 going up the hill, very nice setup:

Is that snow? we had such a gorgeous day, I didn't expect to see any snow... wait! are we heading that way?

Making new friends, is what Land Rovers is about...

Group picture

Briefing about the trip, by Elpana, our local guy. Many, many thanks to him for organizing this and sharing his knowledge of the area with us!

Group picture, a bunch of people with a love for nature and exploring our world.

What is this? foam? NO, it's *SNOW*, cool... it's not Shaver Lake Snow Run but it was a lot of fun!!!!

Volcano (the name my daughters gave the 300Tdi) behave great, despite the road tires and no lift (yet)

The white stuff

Static mud concept #1

White stuff...

Here some pictures "borrowed" from dcortesv from the LR club:

What's this? *stuck*? and the best prepared Land Rover non the less with those 36 and a half? mmmmm and that is not a Toyota, is a heavily modified Land Rover pulling the 130 :)

Some serious hole full of snow over there... nothing a little pull can't fix.

Pretty rocks worth checking out

We have just passed some interesting mud puddles on the far end of the trail...

Water falls in Los Batanes...

Then we went for lunch to some local restaurant, good food, great company, some tourism around Alcaraz with visit to the castle ruins and everything.

Overall, a great day, thanks every one and especially to elpana for making this happen.

Well, I am back

2011-02-13T00:32:00.000-08:00

After some months of less than optimum health, I am feeling much better and I am starting to enjoy little outings with the family and the Land Rover.

Yesterday we went to a little public area not far from where we live now and enjoy a day of playing around.

The dog seems to be doing better too and he had a blast running around.

Good news is that some offroad events Land Rover club related are coming soon and I expect to be on them, but so far, I haven't been able to get the tires and lift I want, very soon I hope.

Let's see some pictures, taken with the phone so quality might be not that great:

Funny story: So I saw some coolant leak down the engine, and I thought, "Damn, it! the 'P' gasket" as it very often happens with 300Tdi, but tracing it up the engine I realized that the coolant was coming from higher up... I tried to loosen the coolant filler plug on the thermostat housing and I got half of it, it was all rotten and leaking coolant through a crack.
Good thing I had a spare, got the rest of the plug out and replaced and all is good since then. Fingers crossed, I don't feel like doing the 'P' gasket dance just yet... specially if I have to work again surrounded by snow...

Water time! after all that playing around

I swear it was just 2 mud puddles.

This was a lot of fun!!

Until next time, very soon I hope!

Power steering pump replaced and some maintenance while at it...

2010-09-10T07:23:00.000-07:00

Well,
after the stockist recover from the holidays and got the parts, everything was ready for me to work on the Land Rover, so I did all the pending work but the fan + viscous as I didn't get the wrench yet, but it's on its way...

So this is what Christmas morning looks like:

And this is how the engine looks with the EGR removed.

See you next time.

Tdi power steering failure and maintenance

2010-08-23T00:35:00.000-07:00

Well,
after we returned from a short trip to Teruel, the power steering stopped working, no assistance whatsoever.

I suspect the pump, so a new one will go in, but for now, I am taking apart belts, radiator/intercooler, ... to do some maintenance, as the fan has a broken blade, the belts are a little worn, I want to remove the EGR, coolant was due for a flush/change, etc

So I am in the middle of this, while the parts arrive.

Some pictures for now and next post, I hope to say all is good and fixed.

Farewell to offroading in the US (for now)

2010-05-28T17:19:00.001-07:00

Well,
we are moving to Europe in a month, so before selling this Land Rover (Reddo) I thought I had to expend some quality time with it doing some offroading.

What can be better than offroading with some Land Rover friends of SoCal and NorCal, this time we expend the weekend in Pismo and we also did Garcia Ridge. Just a great weekend.

This was my camping spot, unfortunately, it was cold and windy, but still fun.

Saturday morning we headed up the mountains to do the Garcia Ridge Trail, very nice with some challenging parts at the end.

take a look:

This is one of the parts of the trail, to give an idea of what it was:

Me finishing some steep area:

Here Reddo decided to go sideways without asking me, kind of slipery, nothing that the ARB rear locker couldn't handle:

Pretty picture going across the creek:

One of the guys broke a driveshaft (one of the HD ones) and while we were there a young guy had a little accident, when his bike started rolling downhill and he couldn't gain control over it, this is where it happened:

After returning to the beach, I was tired so I left some dunes driving for the next morning.

Just before leaving Ron and I, did some dune driving and took some pictures as farewell, here are some pictures of that:

Reddo and Ron's DII in the beach:

Saying bye for now to a good friend, next time we'll offroad in Spain !!

Here me saying bye to everyone:

A little dune

Hanging around in the dunes:

So well, this is all for now, now it's time to clean Reddo and try to find a good family for it, I hope the next owner appreciates it as much as I do.

Check out Ron's Spot trip report, very nice:
Ron's Spot Trip

And if you have an account in LRRForum, go there for tons of pictures.

From now on, I'll keep on blogging from Spain.

Have a good one!

A short trip to Pismo

2009-11-08T11:36:00.000-08:00

Well, LuisMi, from the Land Rover club of Spain, was here visiting, so we decided to hit Pismo for some fun.

There was some event with Toyotas all over the place, but it was fun as always to hit the dunes.

The water was very high, I've never seen this kind of tide around this area.

Some pictures now, this is what we found to start the day:

It was kind of windy, but still a beautiful day in Pismo:

LuisMi was here, :)

A little dune down:

After all that activity the Land Rover was like this:

So I cleaned very well to get rid of the sand/mud/whatever like algae and other things that stuck to the axles, and thanks to LuisMi and Saltamontes (big thanks to you 2), we were able to put some stickers from the Spanish club in our truck:

Although this is what happens when you let your little girls help you with stickers in the truck:

Until next time, cheers.

Kickdown and another trip to Teruel

2009-08-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

I went again to Teruel, family meet over there, fun, good food... I miss it already.

This time I had the chance to offroad the truck a little (very short path but kind of technical) , tires were good despite being the Synchrones.

I also decided to adjust the kickdown cable as something was funny with the way it shifts. No wonder..., it was a lot off, so I followed the RAVE instructions to set it up and now it feels like it shifts smoother and it doesn't drop that much when hitting 4th (before it could go into 4th at 1600 rpm or so , now it's closer to 2000 rpm which feels much better) .

Anyway, it was fun, the Tdi still works great, I just love this truck, it's a pity I can't take it with me to L.A. with its 25 MPG and all (23 MPG on the city with AC on all the time... that halves the V8 consumption)

David

Some work on the Tdi

2009-07-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

I got some time to work on the Disco this weekend, this time I fixed a problem with the A/C blowing warm on the passenger side. Took apart the whole center console to find out a plastic was broken, that was holding the cable to change from hot to cold air. Easy fix, but hard to access.Also did a couple more things, including the front valance removal.

Now it looks a little more like "my" Disco ;)

In the second picture you can see Zar after "helping" me remove it :)

First 300Tdi trip

2009-07-18T03:15:00.000-07:00

Well,
it's been around a month since I started driving the Disco Tdi. It's been great so far.
The Land Rover seems to be in pretty decent health, no big leaks, just a tiny one out of the transmission radiator, I took care of it. Did some minor things too like new stereo, speakers, some bulbs, grease up doors and so on. Overall, everything looks fine.

I need to get some decent tires and a lift, but it can wait.

So our first trip was in this scorching heat to Teruel to run the bulls (vaquillas del Angel) and then some turism to visit Dinopolis and Albarracin. Also, we went to pick up some fruit to our family's land in Torrealta.

It has been very disappointing to see some of my favorite trails closed, but it's fire season and I kind of understand... It's sad that for the most of us who love 4x4 and exploring, but respect the environment, the country side is closed, but it seems to be the way things go this days, we offroaders are the bad guys, when there is no serious attempt to provide solutions just ban us.

Anyway, as you can imagine little to no offroad this time, but the truck behave great, fully loaded, uphill downhill, A/C on, etc. I am very happy with it.

Let me share some pictures:

This is in the first few minutes of the Vaquillas, family pictures with some great background, Teruel, my home town is just so beautiful:

Note to shelf: Next time, try to focus the camera when a bull is coming to you and there is no barrier between you and the animal:

This one, after all the parties and stuff, in Dinopolis, I couldn't resist to show what looks like a Santana Series IV, for the NCLR guys, check my shirt:

Another day, in Albarracin:

Opposite view from the top:

One of my favorite spots:

Some of the little offroading I was able to do:

Nice views:

It was a very nice trip, despite the lack of offroading, but it's more important to have fun and share it with your loved ones.

Hope you like my hometown, drive properly and respect nature.

Doctor, my adiction got worse, another Land Rover...

2009-05-29T10:20:00.000-07:00

Well,
it's been an interesting process, that couldn't have been done without the help of Fernando (SuricataBCN in the Land Rover Club of Spain) and my brother Javier, who drove the truck from its original place to ours, but now I got another Land Rover in Spain, a 300 Tdi, automatic with all the stuff we need to haul the family around when we are there.

Here are a couple of pictures of it:

It has a certain familiar look :) :

II Shaver Lake Snow Run

2009-03-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

Well,
We did it again!
We went again to Shaver Lake, to do the second Snow Run, with a bunch of crazy Land Rover owners, like myself, from Southern and Northern California.

What a blast, as last time.

I started the previous weekend with some needed work on the Disco, just under 112,000 miles, Radiator fixed (it was leaking), thermostat, serpentine belt, oil & filter change (this time 10W40 seems better for this engine), dust caps replaced on front axle, brake pads greased and rotated around to easy squeal and a few more little things.

Then the actual fun, we decided to caravan in our way up, like you can see here, starting north of L.A.:

Nice and sunny
Nice and sunny??!!

It's the 3rd time we've been here, so it kind of feels like home, we hanged with everybody at camp for a little bit, but we had a room in the village, more comfortable than camping at under 30F...

This year the whole route was much smoother, almost all of us got stuck at one point or the other, most of them very short, but I manage to get the worse stuck award.

Here putting my new RUD 4x4 chains on all tires:

Anybody said stuck?

At lunch we regrouped a little bit:

Although we had to get creative and lend a hand to allow others to pass, this is the beginning of the actual Bald Mountain trail, so all that snow is actually in a road (!!)

At the end, all was good and clean, ready to go back and eat something. At least this time we didn't return well past midnight, like last year.

We had to miss the dinner & nocturnal activities, due to one of my daughters allergy to something, but still, we had a great time again and we won't miss the next one.

I'll try to add some video when time permits and here are some links to more pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/RovrFlo/ShaverLake09#

http://etischer.com/rover/2009-03-09/

http://cid-96ed6c75634cb425.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/.res/96ed6c75634cb425!3146?ct=photos

And of course, check this thread in LRRF:
http://www.lrrforums.com/showthread.php?t=9627&page=61

Pretty eh?

I am now a certified Tread Lighly trainer

2009-01-08T15:20:00.000-08:00

I did attend a Treat Lightly Trainer event, with Tom Severin of Badlands offroad adventures

It sure was fun, I learned a couple of things and meet a few interesting people there.

So now I can show others what Tread Lightly is about and try to help to keep trails open for our nature trips using our Land Rovers.

Tread Lightly Site

SCLR Summer BBQ

2008-10-05T09:57:00.001-07:00

Well, it was fun.

This time I was able to bring the family with me, so... extra fun, although for my little ones it's more about exploring and playing with rocks and sand than wheeling, but still worth it.

It was fun seeing everybody, chatting about Land Rovers and expeditions, and seeing some new products as well.

Food was very nice and overall a great day, we did Pronghorn trail which turns out to be a long easy trip, well for the most part, this one obstacle was fun to drive through, but that was it.

Some video here.

"I see Rovers"

Pismo Revenge

2008-08-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

Well,
after last year I really wanted to have some fun in the sand.
This time it was a great day for me. I could only expend Saturday, but hey, that is more than not going at all.

Weather was great, a little cool, which helps in the beach.

The Land Rover performed flawlessly all the time, I am very happy with the way this truck has turned out after some little adjustments, I am even getting 16.5 MPG on the freeway after cleaning the intake!!!

Showed up at around 9AM, after digging around Max's truck to try to get him stuck (see pictures from Max in LRRForum) we started to get introduced to the sand and the dunes (well, technically we already drove on the sand to get to camp). Camp:

As I always do, I managed to get stuck in the stupidest of places, as I was coming up a dune, I dig enough to make the axles and the body stand on sand, so no love for me. Of course, I could have backed up, but being my first dune, we weren't sure it was very smart, I am pretty sure now I could do it, thanks to the friends at winchline.com , I was out in a second:

After that it was smooth sailing for me, I tried to figure the dunes thing out a few times, trying to do it smoothly, but at the end brute force is needed, after that, much better, although I have some gift to find the softest sand around.

Damn paparazzi were everywhere ;)

This one was specially fun, I think I tried 4 times, here is the video follow the red Disco :) and some pictures:
This one courtesy of Elliott:

Here, some close encounter of the third kind or so:

So, a great day in the sand, that took the bitter taste of last year after the RRC problems. Although this time we had some of them (Transmission gone, Axle broken, some popped beads) I think we managed to have a great time and hang out with a bunch of nice people.

Land Rover choice of experts tour at Malibu

2008-07-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

This year I got invited again to a Land Rover event.

Although I knew what it was, I thought bringing my wife this time could be fun for both of us.

We drove the Range Rover 4.4 and we did have a lot of fun. The instructor was great, he is the person in charge of training the Land Rover Experience teachers and a very nice guy.
As last year we did the off-road circuit in Calamigos Ranch, very nice although too scripted, but still fun. Actually Paloma managed to drive very well the Range Rover despite her initial doubts.

The place isn't ugly either and we had a chance to meet great people as the very interesting Katherine Whiteside, very well known horticulturist and explorer and conservationist Nick Bougas, who convince me to go visit Belize one of this days.

Food was great and overall, a great way to expend the morning very close to home.

Some pictures:

This is as close to a G4 as I am going to get, probably:

Land Rover paradise? I don't think so, where is the mud?

More maintenance

2008-07-02T15:29:00.001-07:00

I am done cleaning the intake system. This time the AIC or stepper motor.
Boy it was very dirty, the fault is the K&N air filter it used to have, I hate that and after all the time I've spent cleaning I don't plan to use the K&N air filter anymore (want it ? make me an offer).
I checked the brakes too and they seem almost new.
Also, whoever did the radio CD replacement on my Disco, didn't know this model has 2 antennas one for some FM band and the other for AM and the rest of FM frequencies. No wonder I couldn't listen to AM, they only plugged one and it was the FM only one.

More some other day.

Intake clean up

2008-06-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

Well,
as I was getting some P1179 codes, and I had fixed all the vacuum lines, it was time to attempt a clean up of the MAF.
The Mass Air Flow sensor was dirty as it was the whole intake system.
Got it apart did the clean up using the proper cleaning tools (Used CRC for MAF and some carb cleaner for the rest).
And now the Disco purrs like a cat, it seems to be smoother at no gas or little gas and gutsier when asking for power.
Of course, this all could be an illusion, but time will tell, maybe I won't see the damn code again, for a while anyway...

Also, just before the desert trip I changed oil and filter (Castrol/K&N3001) at +/-107K

Panamint Valley

2008-05-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

Recently, some of the SCLR members went up Panamint Valley to help deliver the materials needed to fix a bridge to allow the loop with Pleasant Cyn. to stay open.

It was a very hot day, easily in the 108-110 degrees out there (even hotter around 118, I think).

We gathered 4 Land Rovers and 3 Jeeps to try to deliver all the materials up there. meeting point in Johannesburg, CA

We then headed to Ballarat and all the way to the trail head.

We loaded as much stuff as possible in the trucks and headed up the mountain.

After a little stop for a flat and another little stop to let the trucks cool down, we reached our destination.

the flat

We are done (kind of, some big iron pieces were waiting for us down the trail...)

Can you spot the bridge we brought the materials to fix?

We had to go back home, so we headed down, it's funny how different an obstacle looks from inside or outside of the truck...

Inside

Outside

When I stopped to air up, the Disco wouldn't idle properly, it was like the fuel regulator was not working right, maybe the vacuum hoses had some leak or it was the heat or the dust.

Anyway, after some tries I was able to rev it up and start on the road, we were in the middle of nowhere so a good thing, it started going properly... The rest of the trip was great and the truck arrived safely with us and it is idling fine now after the trip... whatever.

It was a pretty hard day, but I love to help to keep the trails open, I think after visiting this, it was worth it and I'll be back there..., if you like offroading go there and tread lightly.

Visit DeathValley.com

Front Bumper trimming

2008-02-23T14:01:00.000-08:00

Well,
Today I could spend some time fixing some things around the house, including working on the Disco.
I got rid of the front valance and trimmed the side bumpers, now it looks more off road friendly.

I also, replaced the hose clamp on the power steering reservoir, as it was not holding at all.

Also, I tighten another hose clamp, this time the one that goes to the water pump, it was pretty loose (and hard to reach) as from time to time, I will see a single drop of coolant right there.

Next time, I'll see if I can grease the sunroofs.

Shaver Lake, Snow Run, NCLR

2008-02-19T09:21:00.000-08:00

Well,
it was time to do a snow run and what a trip!

I recently joined NCLR too, so I could hang with the Land Rover buddies up north too. It was great meeting all of them, it's a nice warm team feeling you get out of this kind of adventure and this was, definitively, an ADVENTURE.

So anyway, we stayed at the hotel, camping in the freezing cold might be too much for my family, and to get just an idea of what kind of snow we are talking about look at this:

We started the big snow trip to Bald Mountain at around 10 am, we stopped by Camp Edison where most of the NCLR members were staying. Then again, here is what it looked like, yes, that is a pick nick table:

We headed to the road that goes to the trail head (in theory asphalt road), when regrouping the trucks I actually managed to get stuck in the very first snow I was on... oh boy.

Aired down to 20(ish) psi, got unstuck thanks to JHMover and hit the road (there is a road down there, I saw it in the summer trip, check the pictures on this blog).

We started very smooth, we had to stop to assist (Brandon did) a big Chevy with a vacuum problem (they were on 2wd and didn't engage the 4wd).

Brandon fixed that with a ad-hoc vacuum line and we finally reached the trail head. Here still on the "road"

Funny enough, we were able to keep on moving until, of course, I got stuck again, and this time on the side of the trail, very scary moment there. Eric with his truck and winch and Brandon with his advice and assistance helped me get out of there, as seen here:

Some pictures from the other side, thanks to Dan for these 3, here you can see the winch you only guess on the video:

When we got to the highest point, it got complicated there was a group of Toyotas playing around and Brandon got stuck there even the Camel Trophy D110 got stuck:

This is us driving (not getting stuck for once) one of the hard spots up there:

Heading down it was getting late, dark and cold, and there was a stretch of road, now known as the "Big Stuck" where only a few got through without assistance. To make things worse, some guys driving Toyotas decided to ruin the area with their big tires and got stuck very close to the path, despite the fact that we asked them to not do it until the other 10 trucks went down, they headed up and made it worse.

We got to the hotel at around 1am, but we all kept our cool, some even had time to take a nap while waiting. Eric and JP came back with food and goodies that helped at that late hour. Enrique was the last one going through it all and he was still at 2am on the snow... a very long day, this is right after the big stuck:

What can I say?

It was hard? sure it was, having the family around made it extra complicated, as I could not help as much as I would have wanted, but overall, this is the experience of a life time (for me anyway) and most likely I'll do it again.

The next day we had a brunch as we couldn't do the nice dinner we had planned, we brought some Tortilla de patatas (one plain, one with peppers and onion), Atascaburras (typical in Albacete, Spain) and fried Almonds, it was great being part of this.

Here is Ron, with his previous Disco (now mine) and his current D110, he organized this event, great job man!! :

After all this, little damage happened, nobody got hurt and no incidents to report. I managed to hit the snow very hard on the driver side, so I cracked my bumper plastic, big deal, I'll remove it for now. And one of the low pressure hoses on the PS reservoir got a little loose leaking a bit, which should be fine by now.

Some of the pictures are Eric's and here are some more of his:

Maintenance pre-snow trip

2008-02-02T12:21:00.000-08:00

At 105562 miles, I checked the Disco, some stuff I've done:
- Check vacuum lines, and connection to sensors, to see if that improves the erratic idle I was experiencing, so far, it works fine, so I guess, one of the lines was loose.
- Check differentials, oil seems OK, a little overfilled, I'll check back this summer for a big maintenance day.
- Greased drive shafts, checked under the truck for problems: little oil leak, seems to come from the oil filter area, I'll check when I change oil this summer. I saw a drop (only one) of coolant on the big hose under the engine, it seems OK.
- ATF and Oil seem clean and at the right level, the oil leak must be tiny as it doesn't affect level so far.
- Tires checked (including spare)
- Subwoofer installed.

Stay tuned for the Winter trip coming soon...

The Red Disco and Cleghorn with the SCLR

2007-12-10T16:57:00.000-08:00

Well,
after a little more than a week, I had a chance to wheel the Red Disco.
It was a lot of fun, SCLR had a run up Cleghorn, but it turned out muddy and with snow, lots of fun and quite different from the usual SoCal trail.

Rob and Rodney from Dolphin, wheeled there too with Rodney's P38, he took it everywhere with pretty much street tires, it was his first time driving it offroad and he did great... now he is hooked on Land Rovers. Here at the end of the trail all happy and stuff:

The event started with some orientation and goodies (we got free LRL and Overland magazines, beautiful by the way), and we hit the trail, very soon some newer street worthy rides took the way back, too muddy and slippery for some.

I ended up being the last truck to hit the first big mud pool, traction was very bad and I got stucked for a while, which gave me the option to play with the rear ARB locker... nice toy to have. I got out after some spotting from Jim.

I followed the group lead by Marcus for a little bit (the more "extreme" group) and after doing a pretty steep uphill, I took it easier... the rear plastic end got out a little...

The hill (picture by Marcus):

The bumper:

Another shot when having lunch:

Overall was great to meet new people and say hello to a few I already knew from Pismo.

We had a lot of fun, at least, I sure did. I haven't done any snow offroad driving for 10 years or so...

Some pictures in Picasa here.

Thanks to Marcus and Rodney for sharing the pictures with me.

RRC gone

2007-10-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

Well,
the problem was the ignition coil, easy fix.
I replaced the ignition cables too.

Went for sale and Nick wants to buy it, so it looks like "Spikes" found a new home.

I hope he has as much fun as I had with it.

David.

Coming soon...

2007-10-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well,
It happened. I got a new(er) Land Rover to take the family with me. A beautiful Discovery I, V8, 1998.

It belongs to my Land Rover buddy Ron, who always took good care of it.

Here you can get a sneak preview.

Pismo Beach SCLR meets NCLR

2007-10-01T10:33:00.001-07:00

It was fun!

That 3 pictures in one, although pretty rough, gives an idea of what it is.

I finally joined SCLR, and I met Vinny to head to Pismo Saturday morning.

As always with old trucks, there is something going on, so it started to run rough, almost like missing some times. Instead of heading back home, as I didn't want to miss this event, I decided to go on and see if I could make my day trip to Pismo.

Well, we made it, met the guys from both SCLR and NCLR, did a little wheeling to find out that the truck was stalling all the time and running all weird.

So I guess I did make it but the poor old thing was tired... It used to live around there (previous owner) so maybe it was homesick...

Whatever, so, I let it cool for a while, no difference, some of the guys helped me to try to figure it out, we suspected fuel filter and then somebody had a new one (my hat to you), so we replaced it, no change... we tried all we could think of to no avail.

Bummer.

Interesting enough the 2006 RRS that Adam Spiker has, was doing something similar, although his was OK at high revs, not mine. We expend some time to see if we could figure something out in his too, but nope, nada. The idling was all weird. It was nice to see the guts of the RRS though.

So at around 4pm my trip back home started, and what a trip!.

I asked Max if he was kind enough to help me out of there, as I didn't even think getting out of camp was possible.

With a combination of double pedal, revving and trying several times, I got the RRC to the packed sand, from there Max towed me to the gate. He helped me air up and then I tried to head home.

It was stalling all the time, I am sorry for the people around me, as I was stalling and taking some time to go back ahead, they were nice, no honking or stuff, but with patience I made it to the 101.

On the freeway, it was rough but still running at reasonable speed... that is, until it dies on me 80 miles from home, forcing me to stop in a non too safe way out of the freeway (try to get a lifted RRC on the side of the road safely at around 40-50 MPH), but I was out of the main road in a safe place... in the Lompoc exit I think.

It took AAA a good couple of hours to find me.

Anyway, AAA came to the rescue and I got home well past 11pm.

The truck is not even starting now, so there you have it, my new project, figure out what the hell is wrong with this RRC now.

More details and some other pictures here.

More later.

Radiator tested OK

2007-09-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

Finally had some time to repeat some testing with the "cleaned" radiator.
Perfect!
Never over 1/2 temp, so it looks like this particular problem is fixed.

Now let's get to the next thing

Seats

2007-08-20T10:37:00.000-07:00

I am redoing my seats on the RRC.
Cleaning everything and replacing as needed. I decided to do a clean up of the switch box. Glad I did, as the little sparks in there, create a good layer of stuff that will prevent the switch to function 100%.
I heard so many stories about the switches that I was kind of scared to open it. Not too bad, fairly easy and if you don't loose any parts, very straightforward.
Worse part is to open and close, I think it is much easier if you leave it in a solid table and then either pull slowly the lid to open or close fast pressuring with 4 fingers down.
I got 2 donor seats with leather so I am mixing and matching leather and fabric, for maximum comfort, I don't care about looks on my RRC.

One side done and working, one to go.

Radiator? check

2007-08-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

I am done installing the radiator back after they rodded it out.
I'll do some test drive around and see if I had any success or not...

Stay tuned...

Shaver recovery

2007-07-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

This week I've done the new alternator (checked tension on belts too, as the PS one was loose).
Replaced expansion bottle cap and sensor. Cleaned it up and fix a security belt and a seat bolt, that had issues.

Took for a test drive with uphill included and it got hot, not too hot, but over 3/4 as before. At least the new cap did not let the fluid out, which helps.

I'll try this week to have the cooling system checked out by a professional, it's about time. I fear a radiator work at least... we'll see.

We are over 52200 miles now.

Land Rover offroad @ Bald Mountain & Yosemite

2007-07-18T20:09:00.000-07:00

Well,
we took the RRC all the way to Shaver Lake and back (almost).

I am getting a little on the hot side on long steep hills at freeway speeds, causing it to spill coolant all over the place. I am almost positive it is the fan clutch and I will replace. The pressure relief cap on the coolant bottle seems to be worn too, so I'll replace. And as the coolant sensor level failed on me and did a field repair, I cracked it so it will be replaced too.

Did I mentioned I almost made it home?

But, let me explained what happened:

Friday the 13th, we headed north to Shaver Lake, as mentioned we had to stop from time to time to let the RRC cool down and refill coolant or water. At the end I decided to go in Low range, as the final uphill to Shaver Lake is long and very steep (I remember 11% on a signal...)

We met Ron (from LRRF follow links to it, is worth it) when we were stopped for water half way up.

We reached destination a million hours after leaving the LA area (or so).

Saturday,
We met at Dorabella camping site and met the other guys: Tony, Frank, Dan and Mike with their families. Great bunch, I realize soon how nice it is to be able to mix family and Land Rover time. I was just hoping that my girls would have a great time...

I tried to find a new cap for the coolant bottle in the NAPA store... no luck.

We head there anyway, I was kind of expecting it to starting bleeding coolant any second, but to make it short, it didn't happen at all during the trail.

We reached trail head, aired down and the fun started.

Let me show you what I mean:

Unfortunately, Frank's D90 broke a joint and some more stuff, and forced him to return to camp. His brother Tony went with him to help. Here working on the truck:

Our families taking it easy on the shade. Nice day, by the way, almost hot, but nice up there...

Mike's DI and Tony's DII tried the same spot that took Frank's drive shaft.

Well,
it was sad to see them go back to camp, but the show must go on, so we went ahead. Uphill is the word.

My RRC (Spikes as my daugther calls it) showing some muscle:

Until we made it all the way to the top where we had lunch and played around...

Nice view by the way...

And down we went...

And after airing up (thanks Ron and Frank for the compressor and airing down tools...).

A happy family, they had a great time too!!!!!

Well, after all, Shaver Lake is a beautiful place:

We had some fun sharing mojitos, orujo, almonds, sweets, .... back at camp.

Monday we visited Yosemite... I know I'll go back there:

Our return trip was very easy, up to Fort Tejon, when the RRC was bleeding coolant again. After cooling off, refilling and turning the car on again, a rattle noise was coming from the Power Steering / Alternator area.

Well, after losing my Tachometer, I knew the Alternator was starting to do weird stuff. Sure enough it died 5 miles from home, I jump started again and it failed again 2 or 3 miles from home when I decided to call AAA and have it towed.

A new alternator is on its way.

Overall, one of the best long weekends of my life.

David.

2007-07-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

I had a chance to test drive off-road the Range Rover Supercharged (almost $100,000). It was a blast.
It is quite different from the classic (which I took there, of course), but anyway.

DO a google search for pics like these

I didn't take any, good food, great trucks.

Not bad, when these MKIII's go down in price who knows? Maybe I'll get one.

David.

A couple things more...

2007-06-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

OK,
Done with the hoses, then replaced swivel housing grease and replaced the steering stabilizer. It seems to drive much better now.
Also greased the Driveshafts and a couple little things.

Another thing I worked on, is the shifter tape that was incorrectly placed at the bottom instead of between the plastic and the holder. Now it looks nicer and tight no gaps. And I can actually see what gear I am using ;)

Unless something breaks the truck is ready for this summer ;)

It was bleeding and is green!!!!

2007-06-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

Yep,
the hose from radiator to water pump broke.
So I decided to go ahead and replaced all the hoses.
Boy I am tired, and still need to finish it!, but I found out that one of the heater hoses was on its way to hell, so I think I did the right thing replacing them all.
This summer is getting close, I am going to do soon the steering stabilizer and change the housing grease (I got them from Cerrone's) and should be good to go to Shaver Lake this summer.

Later.

Maintenance done (finally)

2007-05-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

Well,
I had two pending issues, one oil & filter change and the other the transfer case.
Transfer case oil was low and black (as always), so I decided to change the oil for fresh ATF + some lucas.
Oil was dirty already and the pressure light was on when idling and hot, so I changed the oil (with Castrol 20w50 and lucas oil treatment too) and filter (now K&N 3001).
I used a little leftover seafoam to clean the engine before changing the oil.
I created a very nice mess all over the garage :)

I think now, I am done with the main issues and maintenance. Miles today 51133.

Getting ready for the summer trip to the North.

Also, got a free Brush Bar (thanks Joe!!) and I've been working on it to get rid of rust and whatnots. I'll install soon. Somehow I always wanted one, I know they are mostly useless, but what the ..., I'll install it for a while. The price was right ;)

Also, last week I patched a exhaust leak I had, we'll see how long it lasts.

Cheers.

Fixing rear door

2007-04-28T21:50:00.000-07:00

This weekend has been more about spending time with my family than working on the RRC.
Although, I managed to fix the annoying problem with one of the rear doors, which wouldn't open from outside unless you tried 3 or 5 times.
Wasn't too bad, but I had to take the whole thing out to clean and adjust the rod properly. Now works great.
I've been driving the truck around town and all the work I've done recently seems to hold very well.
Anyway, more later....

Axle oil and lock actuator

2007-04-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

Well,
I checked axle oil level and not only was low, but black, very black.
So I change the oil in both axles at 51045 Miles (not real total millage).
Swivel housings are OK, they have grease and are not dry. Good enough for me, for now. I'll replace the grease at one point soon.
Also, I took the actuator from the drivers door out and checked it, big capacitor was toasted, replaced it with something I had around, but not quite working properly, so I decided to fix my actuator with a $2 fix.
I bought a double circuit switch from Radio Shack, +V and GND get in there, and depending on the position it goes either nowhere (central pos) , +V GND , or GND +V. It works. You need to be careful not to leave it on too long or the actuators on the doors will fry, but it *does* work for now. Good enough.

I put the headliner back on the sunroof, without the guides, guess what? it works great, so now I have my headliner back there too.

I need to change the oil, I'll do that soon.

Temp still good never over 1/2 so far.

Thermostat and temp sensors

2007-04-15T20:24:00.000-07:00

This weekend I did refill to the right amount the auto transmission. It was a little over a quarter low, added the Lucas treatment too now it drives very smooth.
Check the tires, 2 were kind of low, I am trying with 30ish front 38ish rear.

I did replace all the temp sensors (the one for the ECU and the one for the instruments) with the thermostat. I found out the thermostat there was upside down and probably the wrong type. Other than making a pretty mess with coolant, pretty straightforward and kind of fun.

Refilled coolant and now it seems to work just great. Temp works as intended so I believe it was not overheating just bad reading on the temp sensor.

We'll see how all this holds up.

Rowher trail

2007-04-02T22:08:00.000-07:00

Finally off road.

I thought I was not going to make it, because the fuel pump relay died on me Friday but I was able to find one at NAPA on Saturday.

So off we went, lots of fun and as a sample here are some pictures:

mmmm

2007-03-27T15:36:00.000-07:00

Big emergency the power steering box was leaking!
But then, it was just the adjustment screw/nut that got loose, I should have done them tighter, anyway, no big deal not much fluid out and back to business.
I've found the leak on the radiator, it is not a new one, I can see old coolant dry just there, is in one of the sides (the one that looks like they hit something with as there is a tiny bump on the cross member).
As it is not loosing enough to take the level down from full, I'll keep an eye on it, maybe I'll try adding some stop a leak kind of thing, but down the road I see a new radiator.

sunroof? check

2007-03-21T10:43:00.001-07:00

I fixed the sunroof!!!!!!
the usual ground is missing on #2 and #4 on the microswitch, soldered a good ground to #2 and attached it to one of the bolts of the motor and , TADAAAh ! sunroof works great.
Of course, after getting rid of the headliner there it goes very nicely I'll leave it this way, maybe I'll wrap the sunroof metal with the old headliner so it looks more like "interior roof" that bare metal. I'll think about it.
The thing that made me suspect this one is that #2 and #4 had continuity but there was no continuity for any ground spot, so I said let's see if it is the problem mentioned in rangerovers.net or not.
I realized the stop points are out of place but who cares? I'll live with it unless I can figure it out easily.

Also, I've found some coolant leak under the radiator, but I can't find the leak source and it doesn't seem to be too much (expansion bottle is still full) so I'll keep an eye on it.

I had 3 bolts on the exhaust headers very loose, so I tight them up a little.

It never ends, does it? good thing I am having fun (still)

more body/electrical stuff

2007-03-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

Well,
regarding the passenger seat, the motor that handles the reclining part is dead, it wouldn't move and will take the Volts down, probably too much crap in there. As removing it without removing the seat is hard, I plugged my drill into the cables to adjust the seat to a reasonable position and I am done for now.
After making the stereo work, I realized the speakers are pretty much useless: 2 dead ones on the back, 2 almost dead in the front doors and 2 way rusty although good in the lower end of the front doors. Oh well, I'll have to replace them all, I am wondering where could I get something cheap that works OK?
The sunroof on my RRC wasn't working for 2 reasons, the headliner and the roof. The roof itself had been beaten very badly, I tried to fix it, but there is always something that could touch the sliding mechanism. Also, the design is not too good, so the whole set headliner-sunroof is just too heavy, too easy to get stuck and not so easy to move. I decided to try without the headliner part and it flies now! I got no Voltage on the microswitch, so next day, I'll see what is going on, I suspect the ground because the fuse is intact and the motor worked before, plus I get no V on the cables so it is either the 12V or Gnd failing. Then again, I'll find out.
I tried to plan a little route to Ojai this Saturday but the offroad trails are closed. I really wanted to take my daughter wheeling in her birthday!
I'll see if I can get anything else around here not too extreme so she could come along and maybe even the little one.
ENOUGH said.

radio

2007-03-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

Finally I have a radio!
after playing around with the cables I figured it out, it works great now (well some speakers are gone).

The leak is gone too, no more coolant leak so far.

Nice day of work

2007-03-10T18:14:00.000-08:00

I did again the steering backslash adjustment, and now it does make a big difference!
The steering feels just right, no extra tight spots just great and the vague steering is all gone. I love the handling now.
Also, I fixed the fiber optic that lights up the speedometer gauge, now I get my red needle!
Next is the passenger recliner, the cable is broken and the motor goes one way for now. Oh well, I'l'l work on that one day.
Now that I can see how fast I am going on the night and can actually steer properly there is no reason not to go offroading.
Also, I addressed a coolant leak, it looks like the bolts were too loose in the intake warmer thing, so far no leaks but they may be back, it is a Land Rover :)

Dirt, there I go!!!!

Road trip or something

2007-03-09T16:38:00.000-08:00

I took this thing to work yesterday.
It went and came back!!!!
I guess it works (still), I need to play around with the steering adjustment a little bit more it is way too loose to feel responsive, but anyway...
Also, the coolant sensor (still works!!!!) reminded me that I have a tiny leak and that I needed a refill (well, the truck).
It also runs a little on the warm side, I'll have to keep an eye on the cooling system to avoid overheating it.
Other than that it can keep up 65-70 Mph when asked (well it says more like 60-65 but if you do the math with the tires...) and the only "but" I've found is the kickdown, it doesn't seem to work from 4th to 3rd.
I read it could be a seized valve on the tranny. Oh well, I hope it is not too bad. I'll check the kick down cable just in case.
I think next week I'll try Area 51 in Rowher flat and see what's up with this truck offroad. Is about time!

Photo

2007-03-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

here is a picture of the truck sleeping :)

Trail ready, or as ready as it is going to be

2007-03-04T16:53:00.000-08:00

Well,
another weekend of work on this RRC, I adjusted the steering wheel (what a pain to reach there) not much difference but at least it is more predictable when steering.
Did some painting and oiling of rusted spots and faded areas (black areas).
Also got rid of the disgusting sun shade film on the windows.

Anyway, it drives nice now and it is pretty much ready for the trails, so soon I'll head somewhere to give it a try off road.

I'll post a pic soon.

Electrical stuff

2007-02-23T18:23:00.000-08:00

I did some more research and finally I solved the problem with the oil light.
I can't believe it, but it turned out to be a broken copper line in the instrument cluster PCB.
It is a tiny, invisible pretty much, crack. I found it with the tester because it didn't make sense I had the right stuff at the connectors but the light was not on *ever*.
Anyway, that is fixed.
The lights for the instrument cluster were all gone, all 6 of them!! talk about weird stuff.
Oh well, at least, now I have the oil light functional and it was easy enough.

More soon...

Electrical assorted work

2007-02-18T20:39:00.000-08:00

Well,
this weekend was the turn of the assorted bulbs. Replaced some, although I cannot find the side markers on the rear ones (12V/4W) or the whole bulb/holder (12V/1.2W) for the warning lights on the instrument cluster.
Good thing I did, because I discovered cables that lost the isolation completely on the left side flasher/parking light, I replaced the whole set of cables, just in case.
I did the whole installation to the radio/cassette I got with the RRC, but it doesn't work at all, I think the radio is broken, it won't do anything. Oh, well, I guess I may try to repair or I'll just try to get a cheap replacement.
The oil warning light and the lights (6) for the instrument cluster, won't work. I do suspect the multi-function thingy in there, but I'll have to dig deeper.
I found out that some previous owner "bridged" a cheapo flasher (F550) on top of the original unit, it works, it's just, "lame".
I tried to check the oil level on the swivel pins. I'll try later, that is some serious stuck bolt, no way I can move the bolts for now.
I did close the sunroof manually, for the time being, I won't use it, although, I'll attempt some repair later on.
Other than that, It seems to be OK, as soon as I fix the oil light/instruments light issue I'll be on my way to the trails.

First weeend

2007-02-12T10:11:00.000-08:00

Well,
it happened!
After the first weekend, I know this truck much better.

Miles on the clock 50,658 (not real, of course)

This is what I did:
- Whole inside out (well, mostly) deep cleaning including headliner, plugging back lose cables, *lots* of dirt, but *lots*, probably hadn't been cleaned since 89 :)
- Fixed the coolant level sensor (the cable inside was corroded)
- Fixed driver door lock mechanism.
- Fixed read tailgate lock mechanism.
- Check levels.
- Knock the roof back up, it was badly bump, probably dancing on the roof kind of action ;)
- Replaced clock
- Replaced driver side security belt.
- Replaced driver side rubber seal around the door

Standing issues:
-Rust on driver's door, big hole in the floor, oh well, nothing too bad, but a hole is a hole, I'll have to fix it one day
- Lights on instrument cluster won't work
- Some bulbs not working
- Sunroof stuck again.
- I'll check the swivel pin housing levels.
- Install radio-cassette
- Central locking mechanism.

Well, it could be worse for a 1989 RRC.

Later.

OK, so what have I driven before?

2007-02-02T16:41:00.000-08:00

Well,
I thought I should post some pictures of my previous Land Rover, the amazing Discovery Tdi300 pretty much stock, back in Spain.

These pictures in the heart of Quijote's Land:

This one in Alcaraz:

And these pictures in Cuenca, one of my Disco and another one from my Disco:

Also,
I drove a Ford Explorer 4WD (hated it) and a Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 4x4, which was OK, but nothing like a Land Rover, the best 4x4 by Far.

2007-01-30T10:42:00.001-08:00

Well,
First things first, I just got my "new" Land Rover. I got a 1989 Range Rover Classic from Roverdude (John) , engine and the important stuff looks great, but it sure can use some love and cleaning, that would be my role in the next months (or years).

This is how it looks at John's place:

More to come shortly after I get it delivered...

2007-01-25T16:20:00.000-08:00

Welcome,
I'll be posting here my varied adventures and endeavors related to Land Rovers in my life.
Before moving to the US I was the happy owner of a Land Rover Discovery 300Tdi.
When I moved here I've tried several SUVs but nothing I liked as much.
So now I am in a quest to find the right Land Rover for my little offroad excursions.
I'll keep this site with pictures and posts about the various adventures and misadventures Land Rover related.
Enjoy.