The project has landed!

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LOL..
"I love rebuilding my Landy at times and at other times I wonder what the hell I have started"

think most owners of older landies feel the same at times,
but for me, it`s when I climb into mine, get comfy, turn that key to start, and as it idles while I get my seat belt on, phone charger connected, first gear - handbrake of,
I`m already smiling again....

One day my friend one day.......;)
 
Bleeding Brakes.

Main
Posted by min200 Mon, November 10, 2014 23:29:47

This is always a fun job trying to force the air out of a new brake system and get the nice new brake fluid through the shiny pipes so I have treated myself to a shiny new tool that I have been told will solve all of my problems from the above and quickly to boot!

Here is the new toy...



So any ideas on how it works? No? Me neither and do you see the white instruction pages at the top right of the picture? That was nicely tucked away so you couldnt see it in that slot so I did my best impression of a monkey on the Krypton Factor trying to solve the winning puzzle before I knocked the whole case off of its perch on top of the motorbike scattering the whole bloody lot across the drive and the instructions took on a new lease of life at being freed making a gentle fluttering dash into the dual carriageway that runs past my front door. Once I picked up the mess up the manual was very helpful!

Once I had the kit put together I remembered to take the top off of the fluid reservoir...



which is most helpful as is putting the fluid in the system! You work the vacuum pump in order of nearest to the servo first then working away from it. The first three corners went well enough, apart from a small puddle of fluid on the front nearside wheel where I had forgotten to tighten the pipe nut up then had me crawling around checking them all convinced I must be getting early onset dementia, and left me thinking what a good investment I had made but would the last and furthest corner bleed through??? No it would not.

After an hour of more right hand action than my wrist has seen in years I threw in the towel and dug out my old bleeding pipe with the non return valve on the end and the last stubborn corner was finished air free with a firm brake pedal and a huge smile on my face!

The brake pads were then adjusted up properly and I went and grabbed some lunch. As the day was going so well and I had a couple of hours to kill before having to meet one of the many daughters for an evening meal I thought I would whip off the old rotten exhaust. This too went really well with old rusty nuts giving in to my spanners at the first hurdle and the three nuts on the exhaust manifold played as well! What a day I was having this really is superb!

The rear and mid sections fell off no worries that just left the front section. This is still stuck under the bloody car. Can I get the damned thing out? Nope its still out there laughing at me. I need to jack the front of the motor up a lot more to get the damned thing out and the new section in, oh that and an angle grinder. Im chopping the old one out first because it has a bad attitude has been laughing at me and just needs teaching a lesson, by "teaching a lesson" I mean I am going to kick its head in cut it into small pieces and bury it on the allotments out back.
 
Yes, there's a lot of air can hide in a Land Rover braking system and it takes quite a while to bleed it all through, particularly on the passenger side rear. You might want to let it settle overnight and bleed it some more the following day and you'll get even more bubbles out. I got one of those things that pressurizes the master cylinder and it still takes me ages.
 
My thoughts as well on the bleed it again front! Bought some more fluid yesterday but couldn't face them again today after two days straight on the bloody things lol maybe at the weekend again!
 
Showers of sparks

Main
Posted by min200 Tue, November 11, 2014 16:02:50

There were chores to do. I couldn't put them off any longer. The dog was following me around like a lost puppy wanting a walk the warm autumn still had the grass growing so I had to coax one last cut out of the old knackered mower that the wheels keep falling off and last but not least the driveway had all of the leaves from every tree in the neighbourhood piled high in the corners.

On the plus side it didn't take too long to get sorted and then the fun commenced! I dug out the grinder and went smirking to myself to the stuck exhaust piece...



What a shame I was finally going to get to kill it!



It took all of 30 seconds to cut it away and we were then in business!



The reason for fitting a new exhaust isnt because the old one looked rusty it was solid enough but the problem was this....



A bit flat to say the least and it wasn't letting a great deal of exhaust gas through. Out with the old and in with the new. I jacked up the front of the Landy another notch on the axle stands which gave me enough clearance to fit the new front pipe without a repeat of getting stuck again. The whole system fitted in no problem along with new brackets and bolts.



All shiny and new!!!! It wont take long to cure that problem.

With that done quicker than expected and while the grinder was out I went to work on removing the last of the FFR brackets out of the rear tub. I had to move a couple of boxes around and somehow managed to set off the fire extinguisher with one...
At least I know it would have worked if I had needed it!



I attacked the FFR brackets with the grinder and gusto then soon enough they were all out as well.



Onto Ebay they will go! Every penny helps towards the rebuild. Then seeing as I had nothing better to do I fitted the rear seat I had picked up. That was an easy job just two holes to drill and hey presto all sorted.



It's been a good few days off of work and I feel like I have now come over the hill top with this project. With any luck it will be on the road soon and then I will have to choose another project to be getting on with! Maybe a Discovery next time....
 
Not a lot doing.

Main
Posted by min200 Sun, November 16, 2014 16:21:06

Autumn weather sucks. Its bloody dark early and cold normally wet then nonsense like Christmas shopping turns up out of the blue that I get dragged along to God knows why its not like I get to give any input into the choice of anything at all. Well that last bit is not strictly true I get to give my input which duly gets a nod from Wifey who then tells me I am wrong and does what she wants anyway.

So I managed to grab an hour earlier to have a go on the Landy. I thought I would get the old girl started so put in some fuel and bled it through. Turned the key to find out that the batteries are about flat so no turnover there. I mean endless hours of having the lights on sorting the electrics shouldn't flatten two old batteries that havn't been charged in three months should it eh! Ok I know I was lucky to have them last that long but dumb ass that I ma should have put them on charge yesterday but hey ho if that was going to be the worse thing that happened today then it will still be a good day.

The replacement fuel tank leaks.

I'm hoping its because the seal has been dry for some time and it will swell up again but I suppose I will find out tomorrow. If it needs a new fuel tank then so be it we are that far in now it doesn't really matter.

I then jumped underneath the Landy and spray painted the prop shafts and axles black to tidy them up. Forgot to take pictures of that and I wasn't getting back under it in the wet to do it so that can be saved for a future post.

Then I changed the back wheels over to the new ones that are going on and removed the axle stands...must be getting somewhere a set of axle stands is away!



I have been meaning to buy black paint for the front window frame for months and today forgot it yesterday so seeing as there was no rain I painted the bugger green for now.



While the paint was out I gave the battery cover box a once over as well.



Then it was time to go out with the youngest daughter to buy something she "desperately" needed. Luckily I looked in the mirror before I left....



Paint on the nose...without noticing....I mean how???
 
Not a lot doing.

Main
Posted by min200 Sun, November 16, 2014 16:21:06

Autumn weather sucks. Its bloody dark early and cold normally wet then nonsense like Christmas shopping turns up out of the blue that I get dragged along to God knows why its not like I get to give any input into the choice of anything at all. Well that last bit is not strictly true I get to give my input which duly gets a nod from Wifey who then tells me I am wrong and does what she wants anyway.

So I managed to grab an hour earlier to have a go on the Landy. I thought I would get the old girl started so put in some fuel and bled it through. Turned the key to find out that the batteries are about flat so no turnover there. I mean endless hours of having the lights on sorting the electrics shouldn't flatten two old batteries that havn't been charged in three months should it eh! Ok I know I was lucky to have them last that long but dumb ass that I ma should have put them on charge yesterday but hey ho if that was going to be the worse thing that happened today then it will still be a good day.

The replacement fuel tank leaks.

I'm hoping its because the seal has been dry for some time and it will swell up again but I suppose I will find out tomorrow. If it needs a new fuel tank then so be it we are that far in now it doesn't really matter.

I then jumped underneath the Landy and spray painted the prop shafts and axles black to tidy them up. Forgot to take pictures of that and I wasn't getting back under it in the wet to do it so that can be saved for a future post.

Then I changed the back wheels over to the new ones that are going on and removed the axle stands...must be getting somewhere a set of axle stands is away!



I have been meaning to buy black paint for the front window frame for months and today forgot it yesterday so seeing as there was no rain I painted the bugger green for now.



While the paint was out I gave the battery cover box a once over as well.



Then it was time to go out with the youngest daughter to buy something she "desperately" needed. Luckily I looked in the mirror before I left....


"Paint on the nose...without noticing....I mean how???"

ever seen the statue - "the thinker" - think its called..
sitting, hand on head,
or in your case hand on nose perhaps.... :eek:

Oh, the landie -- Its looking cracking mate....or good job as the yanks, or my 5yo grandson would say - hees an essex boy also, so cant explain that either :confused:
 
Last edited:
Ticking over

Main
Posted by min200 Mon, November 17, 2014 12:09:49

Last night I charged up the batteries so this morning I could get the engine running again.

I popped both of them into place wired them up and turned the ignition over but it wouldnt start! I figured I hadnt yet pulled enough fuel through the new pump and pipework so pumped away again to my hearts content for a couple of minutes. It's bloody awkward reaching that pump handle you have to bend over and practically lie on the engine top to do it...well a short arse like me does.

That was enough to fire her up and I was happy to hear the exhaust system was sealed and the dash dials were working nicely. I watched as all the old dust and dirt in those hard to get places burnt away and the temperature needle started to climb.
I forgot to say yesterday that I tested the brakes out with the help of my youngest again and they all worked! I had to tweak a couple but all is well there now so that pleased me no end!
Back to the engine though the temperature had hit the middle of the dial so I thought it best to check that the thermostat was working seeing as it has been in there for so long. I reached for the pipe running from the top of the housing to the radiator and this is where it got interesting.

You know those big metal fan blades that help cool your rad the ones that are normally painted blue...mine are red now.

The Landy demanded a larger blood offering this time before I am allowed to finish it completely well that's what I am going with anyway because it sounds better than "I am a dozy pillock that shouldn't be allowed near moving engine parts".

I felt for the top pipe to check for heat slipped and pushed my fingers into the rotating metal fan blades.



To say I have been lucky is an understatement. My first finger went in and got skinned on the side and split next to the side of the nail, my third finger came worse off with a blade going in and out just below the finger nail on the tip very deeply but coming out again before it took the whole tip with it! All fingers are nicely bruised and bloody painful but hey it could have been so very much worse.

Now we all hurt ourselves often when playing around with motors and normally just shrug off the pain thinking "knobhead" and the like but you know that feeling when you KNOW you have done some real damage...I have not felt that in a long time and am in no rush to do it again. I have to take the week off of work, just what I need on the run up to Christmas, but at least its only a week. I can remove the Steri strips on Saturday after a good soaking but until then I am not allowed to get it wet, dirty or put any pressure on it at all. Doesn't it seem like a lot of fuss for a cut lol

The nurse seemed to take sadistic pleasure in cleaning it out that smarted a bit!

A week to kill and nothing to do because if I touch The Landy Wifey will kill me. I cannot write a great deal because dong it left handed is an interesting experience and this blog entry has taken me an hour...best get some books out of the library!
 
"Paint on the nose...without noticing....I mean how???"

ever seen the statue - "the thinker" - think its called..
sitting, hand on head,
or in your case hand on nose perhaps.... :eek:

Oh, the landie -- Its looking cracking mate....or good job as the yanks, or my 5yo grandson would say - hees an essex boy also, so cant explain that either :confused:

The thinker..me?..nah lol You want to hear the nonsense my kids come out with! I often ask them "When did we move to America then?"
 
Getting there.

Main
Posted by min200 Mon, November 17, 2014 19:45:30

Nothing better to do this evening so I put this picture together...




A bit of a before and shot. It does look a bit different now!
 
Caught red handed!

Main
Posted by min200 Tue, November 18, 2014 16:38:43

You know I am banned from doing anything on the Landy until the weekend at the soonest so my poor little fingers get a chance to heal a bit well Wifey was at work the kids at school/college and after somehow cleaning out the chicken coop and the Dragons vivarium one handed over a couple of hours I got to sit down with a cup of tea.
As I sat there looking out of the dining room window at the Land Rover the devil inside started chipping away at me.

"Just have a look around it that will be ok"
"Might as well have a sit in it and smell that project oil"
"No one is in...no one will ever know"
"Its ok as long you don't do anything to it"
"You have your "good" clothes on so you wouldn't dare get them dirty!"

My resolve soon crumbled and I found myself sitting in the drivers seat with the keys in my hand, what harm could starting it do?

The key turned the engine coughed into life and I sat surrounded by the sweet burble of the 2 1/4 petrol engine ticking over. Seeing as it was running I decided to let it get really warmed up and watched the temp gauge rise steadily. Now there is another way of seeing if your thermostat works rather than shoving your fingers into the radiator blades and this is by watching your temperature gauge. It will climb and climb while you sit with the engine running then it will drop down a fair bit once the thermostat opens then steadily climb a bit until it finds it running level.

This is what I did. I sat there with my fingers throbbing with worry about a repeat of yesterdays performance in the warmth of the heater looking at the dash water and oil temp levels sitting nicely bang in the middle where they should be and the only fault I found with the arctic heater in that the air seems to be blowing out of the bottom of the unit rather than out of the pipework it was supposed to come from so no biggy just a bit of a fix. All is well my project is nearing completion.

This is when my eldest daughter walked up the drive. I didn't see her coming because I was sitting with my head back in the drivers seat just enjoying the engine noise...caught red handed.

She had that look on her face that daughters can only ever learn from their mothers, you know the one that look that you remember from childhood the on ewhere its a mixture of stern consternation and disapproval that you are doing exactly the thing you KNOW you should not be doing...Busted!

"DAD YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE WORKING ON THAT WITH YOUR HAND YOU WILL MAKE YOURSELF WORSE!"

"How do I get out of this then?" I thought to myself. In a split second my mind ran through thousands of possibilities and settled on a winner. She's learning to drive you see...she is getting a bit of a thing for Land Rovers now and really quite fancies a SWB you see....she has never sat in one and really wants to drive one....I had to be subtle to pull this off.

"You are right kid you are right that's why I am just running the new exhaust in" (A vicious lie I know but she has no idea about mechanics so why not) "I have to do it before servicing the engine properly...fancy a sit in the drivers seat to help?"

The look in her eyes changed from suspicion to excitement as she jumped into the seat and revved the engine a few times. "Like it?" I asked. "Yea" she said with a massive grin on her face...I might just pull this off...

"Good kid its great eh! Look don't tell your Mother I was in it not that I was "working" on it just sitting there but she will just worry and I will let you drive it as soon as it has an MOT on it"

She looked at me sideways with a mix of knowing what I was doing and temptation...temptation won. She says it's a deal so I may dodge the wrath of Wifey on this one but if the daughter is anything like the mother it will cost me dearly!#

Just turned 40.
 
Crikey that is a high risk strategy indeed!
On a different note this really is an excellent blog. I've greatly enjoyed reading this

You are not wrong on the Facewipe stuff...havnt a bloody clue! People are asking to be added and theres a long lost relative in Zimbabwe who says I have loads of inheritance out there and all he needed was my bank details!

Seriously I am glad you are enjoying t my driffle because I do like writing it!
 
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