Maintenance speed

Do all preventative maintenance myself to make sure its done right, good parts used, and spot potential issues to fix before they need fixed. Very busy dad with baby...so maintenance can no longer take an entire day - couple hours max at a time working flatout.

Just replaced stub axle seals on Defender 110 1992. Each side took several hours. 1st time doing it yes but I noticed:

Cleaning up parts/ removing grease took as long as stripping and rebuilding

Hand tools only boringly slow

ideas: cordless impact wrench, degreaser/ cleaning station, mobile ramp

How else to cut each sessions by a half?

imo go too fast and you are likely to miss something here or there which will cause bigger problems further down the line.
I tend to take my time doing stuff so that i ensure i do stuff right and don't forget anything.
But indeed, impact wrench saves soooo much time it's unbelievable. Just don't get too confident with it, or you'll start snapping bolts and then you're in the poo

A set of these in 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 can save time trying to spin off loose nuts / bolts in restricted places where you cant get much more than a click or two on a normal ratchet. Combination ratchet spanners like this are also very handy (no pun intended ). Can get both in sets (and cheaper), the links are just to show you the actual type of tools so do your own research as to what suits your needs.

I must say an impact gun does save a lot of time, just all the right tools in general really. I took the discs off my front hubs last week and I think I had all of the disc to hub bolts out in about 25 seconds. Usually its a case of sitting the hub into the wheel to counter hold it then get the 2 foot breaker bar onto them and crack them all then wind them all out. The speed at which you can get things out is so much faster. I was working on a friends car the other day changing wishbones and the bottom ball-joint was just spinning and the metal was like cheese so counter-holding it with the correct neat fit torx bit was just chewing up the inside! Great! Stuck an 18mm socket on the gun and buzzed it out. Time saved on these things is well worth the cost of the tool. A good cordless impact gun was one of the last things on my list of tools but I think I should have bit the bullet and bought one years ago!

As for parts washing even just a bucket of kerosene that you can chuck parts into and give a quick brush down and clean, some parts you can jet wash then throw into a bucket of kerosene to remove water. Dishwasher? I have had cylinder heads, clutch cylinders, alloy wheels etc. in mine! Just don't use caustic solutions on aluminium parts.

Another thing is specialist tools. I am tempted to buy the tool to change the steering arm ball joint simply to save time. I could do it the way I have always done it in the vice and with sockets and things, but if I can change the joint easily with a special tool and some socket and a ratchet then great.

My big time savers are the impact wrench (a Milwaukee 18v in my case) and bulk packs of supermarket own-brand kitchen roll. Much cheaper than that blue stuff, and very handy when everything is covered in grease and sealant and you want to see what's what. The other big time saver is working out all the bits and pieces I need in advance - including nuts and bolts, spring clips and gaskets - and making sure I have them to hand so there's less time waiting for parts or treking round the shops looking for them.

I did one side last year, one tip is to spend some time cleaning the bolts heads which hold the swivel ball with a wire brush and make sure the ring spanner is a good fit all the way onto the bolt head, the bolts are locked with a strong locktite type substance and they are a pain right to the last thread, damage the heads and you are right in it.
Wind them out about 5- 8 mm then squirt penetrating oil down behind the head and onto the thread, then wind it back in, then take it all the way out, sounds like a waste of time but I found it helps speed the job. try and tap the holes before replacing the new ball.
I cut the end off a flat combination spanner and used the trolley jack handle on the spanner to help me get them out.

Edit
Sorry just re read
I am thinking of swivel balls.

Brown said:

My big time savers are the impact wrench (a Milwaukee 18v in my case) and bulk packs of supermarket own-brand kitchen roll. Much cheaper than that blue stuff, and very handy when everything is covered in grease and sealant and you want to see what's what. The other big time saver is working out all the bits and pieces I need in advance - including nuts and bolts, spring clips and gaskets - and making sure I have them to hand so there's less time waiting for parts or treking round the shops looking for them.

Click to expand...

Milwaukee kit is bloody good, Ive had my 18v Fuel 1/2 impact for about 3 years now and its been awesome, so good I bought the 3/8 version and the 1/2 drill, the tip on new nuts and bolts really does help save time and you can get the grinder out if needed, i always feel it makes the job complete if you see what I mean?

Shanec said:

Do all preventative maintenance myself to make sure its done right, good parts used, and spot potential issues to fix before they need fixed. Very busy dad with baby...so maintenance can no longer take an entire day - couple hours max at a time working flatout.

Just replaced stub axle seals on Defender 110 1992. Each side took several hours. 1st time doing it yes but I noticed:

Cleaning up parts/ removing grease took as long as stripping and rebuilding

Hand tools only boringly slow

ideas: cordless impact wrench, degreaser/ cleaning station, mobile ramp

How else to cut each sessions by a half?

Click to expand...

Experience

Practice makes perfect. The first time I did a Land Rover wheel bearing on our old Series forward control it took ages. This included trying to see if tightening the locknuts would help, realising it didn't, taking the bearing apart, cleaning it and seeing all the wear ridges and pitting, trying to find somewhere locally that sold them (Yellow Pages and a land line phone - no internet in those days) going out to buy them, trying to knock the old ones out of the hub with progressively larger hammers, knocking the new ones in and wishing I'd also bought new nuts and lockwashers because the old ones were in a parlous state, getting the drums back on and brakes adjusted and all the while looking at the Haynes manual for enlightenment. Took pretty much all day.

Nowadays it's just part of the routine like topping the oil up.

Shanec said:

Do all preventative maintenance myself to make sure its done right, good parts used, and spot potential issues to fix before they need fixed. Very busy dad with baby...so maintenance can no longer take an entire day - couple hours max at a time working flatout.

Just replaced stub axle seals on Defender 110 1992. Each side took several hours. 1st time doing it yes but I noticed:

Cleaning up parts/ removing grease took as long as stripping and rebuilding

Hand tools only boringly slow

ideas: cordless impact wrench, degreaser/ cleaning station, mobile ramp

How else to cut each sessions by a half?

Click to expand...

I don't really try an work quickly on an old vehicle. It is better to take your time and try and clean up and do a bit of local restoration if needed while you are at it.
Job times are really for main dealer mechanics who work on new vehicles, and get bonus if they finish the jobs in time.

What really saves me time on an old landy is cutting off corroded fasteners and replacing, rather than trying to undo them. Small angle grinder, sharp chisel and hammer can save a lot of spannering. Once you have done a job, and maybe taken extra time to copperslip fasteners etc, it should go quicker next time round.

Can get front stubs off to change seal/ use rtv sealant in about 20 mins tops. Take wheel off with nut gun, got long brake lines so don't touch the calliper, use 14mm ratchet spanner on the 6 stub bolts, stub is free, slide the whole swivel/ hub/ shaft all attached out of the axle about 30cm before brake line is maxed out. Clean both the surfaces up wire wheel on a drill & brake cleaner. Bead of rtv sealant. Slide back on and bolt up again. After you've done it a couple of times you can do it fairly quickly!! Normally both sides up bolted to take a front diff out in half an hour ish..

Back stubs even quicker.. Wheel off, slide shaft out then just two calliper bolts hang it out the way, impact gun 6 bolts and off 10-15 mins..

Oh and I have no major mechanical knowledge, 21 years old. Can rebuild just about anything on a Land Rover now.. Just read up and once you've done it once you'll soon get quicker and learn tricks and easyer ways.