Some more little work to it

I did some more touches into the RRC, I put the plastic laminate from 3M and the central console and it does look good.

I also got an invitation to share this results about the top off road trails in the US, just in case anyone needs ideas:
2014-top-off-road-trails-in-america

Assorted maintenance on the RRC

It's been a quiet summer for me, I don't really like going out much because everything is so crowded, so I haven't had time to test offroad the RRC, but I did some minor work to it.
One of the most satisfying is the exchange of the cruise control ECU for a DiscoII one, I followed the advice in here and after identifying my flavor of cruise control cables

It was a very easy thing to do and it works!
A pity the diaphragm is rotten and I need a new one.

By the way, I can only say good things about Dan Harris who has supplied most of the used parts, I've been using. If you need anything shoot him an email at 1roverdog@gmail.com 

Also, I've been messing around with the center console, replaced the shifter tape, got rid of the half gone wood and waiting on a laminate replacement for it.

Oh well, overall very happy with the way things are turning out with this RRC, it may have a tiny head gasket issue, so I may want to do that down the road one day, but so far is very manageable.

I can't wait to go camping on this thing, as soon as the weather cools off a little.

transmission fixed

I finaly had time to finish assorted work on the transmission, I replaced the bad viscous on the BW transfer, replaced the broken differential and add a needed rear OME HD spring pair

Clack

Well,
I knew that driving around with a seized viscous on the BW could break something along the drivetrain. Didn't expect what/where happened...

We were getting out of the grocery shop when I heard the dreaded metallic loud "clack"
It kept repeating about each revolution of the rear tires.... something was broken.

After some "constructive" thinking I got to drive the car home and today, I took the rear axle components out to find out what is wrong.... at least I was right on my diagnosis broken rear diff, ring and pinion are toast.

Some pictures for your enjoyment....

Ventura Offroad Expo

I took my daughter to this event and we had some fun, although most of the stuff is not for Land Rovers, is still pretty cool stuff. I'll post some of the pictures:

I always liked this old trucks, this one is particularly nice.

The little RCs had a place for action too.

The big red truck... and diesel, maybe one day!

Armor!.... wait, armor?

A proper Land Cruiser...

Ah, no, this is the Big Red Truck!

Checking out the RVs

You could get lost in this one...

Cooling system overhaul

After all the weird issues with the hose and coolant spilling out and what not, I decided it was time to overhaul the whole thing.

I took the radiator out and took it for a good rod/clean out. Thing was a mess, but the results are great, if you need someone in the Valley for this check them, here

Rad out:

In the mean time, I had noticed than from the 3 fans I should have, barely half was working: no viscous and A/C fan motors were dead.

I also got new oil hoses since the ones I had were leaking bad.

All of that was straightforward enough, but the motor fans, gave me some issues.

First I found posts where they claimed that VDO PM9116 was a compatible part for Discoveries. Since the RRC 95 is pretty much the same, I ordered 2 of those. They arrived and guess what?

Yeah, they don't look the same to me either.

Went back to the source and I saw that they actually had a Discovery *II* not I, so this motor is no good.

Back to finding something for it, after much google use, I found this time, that some CR-V from Honda have the same fan motor, so this reference 38616P3G003, actually did the trick and I got myself 2 fan motors that were pretty much the same as the ones in the 1995 RRC, they just push the fan a little closer to the radiator, but I checked clearance and all was good:

So after a lot of swearing and sweating, I did all the little adjustments (the connector wasn't the same but the cables were the same colors).

Also notice, how easy it is to access all this when you remove the big radiator.

So here we go some images for your enjoyment and I am happy to report that today the RRC was not hot at all, and the hoses did NOT collapse after driving. No coolant has been lost. No over pressure. All is good so far.