campbell58
New Member
I bought a new Defender in 2000, so I could commute from a property we bought, 18km out of town on a very bad dirt road. We have (almost) sold the place now, so nice sealed roads from soon onward.
I have joined this forum as I was very impressed with how easy it was to get info online when I needed help removing lock barrel from old rear door latch to the new one I had just installed. I tried everything -hammer and nail etc.
I purchased the new latch from an online UK supplier at one third the cost of same from here.
Thanks Landyzone members for the help.
My Defender has put up with shocking conditions over it's (nearly) 14yr life. eg: 6-8 rocky creek crossings a week, many around 500-600mm deep and swift, very dusty, hilly, bumpy, washed out and generally rough as guts.
While doing this last job on it, I realized all my neighbors (6) have fairly often changed their vehicles, I am the only one who hasn't. The Defender has had some work. Like new axles all round, shocks, a steering arm, and I removed the spare wheel and bracket from the back door. The bracket was breaking at the welds. But it's never let me down. I haven't even changed the battery!
It has nearly past 220,000km.
There is something about these vehicles, is it their repairability, durability, dependability. And amazingly it still gets plenty of looks in town from some blokes, -if only their misses would let them eh?
I wouldn't mind keeping it. Needs some work, feels a bit all over the place below when going slow over uneven ground, has a thump in something when changing gears, (usually down) and the steering shakes while doing around 100kmh in a sweeping bend, both left and right.
Apart from that just need to somehow get all the bloody dust out and see how I can get some mechanic here to install the parts I intend to import from the UK.
Cheers
I have joined this forum as I was very impressed with how easy it was to get info online when I needed help removing lock barrel from old rear door latch to the new one I had just installed. I tried everything -hammer and nail etc.
I purchased the new latch from an online UK supplier at one third the cost of same from here.
Thanks Landyzone members for the help.
My Defender has put up with shocking conditions over it's (nearly) 14yr life. eg: 6-8 rocky creek crossings a week, many around 500-600mm deep and swift, very dusty, hilly, bumpy, washed out and generally rough as guts.
While doing this last job on it, I realized all my neighbors (6) have fairly often changed their vehicles, I am the only one who hasn't. The Defender has had some work. Like new axles all round, shocks, a steering arm, and I removed the spare wheel and bracket from the back door. The bracket was breaking at the welds. But it's never let me down. I haven't even changed the battery!
It has nearly past 220,000km.
There is something about these vehicles, is it their repairability, durability, dependability. And amazingly it still gets plenty of looks in town from some blokes, -if only their misses would let them eh?
I wouldn't mind keeping it. Needs some work, feels a bit all over the place below when going slow over uneven ground, has a thump in something when changing gears, (usually down) and the steering shakes while doing around 100kmh in a sweeping bend, both left and right.
Apart from that just need to somehow get all the bloody dust out and see how I can get some mechanic here to install the parts I intend to import from the UK.
Cheers
