So, been meaning to post something up and introduce myself for a while.
Finally, a quite lunch at work so...

A few weeks ago I bought my first landy (yet to be named). Having only driven defenders before, I went to view it rather skeptically. Thinking it would be a loud, bumpy, agricultural beast. Oh how wrong was I...well, slightly wrong. Having been pleasantly surprised with the ride, I went back and test drove it again before buying it (on the third visit). Oh...all in a foot of snow might I add.

So, I'm not sure exactly what broke the happy bubble but I think it started with coming out one morning to the landy sat on its rim.





Ok then, just pull the spare off and swap it over and be done with it. It turned out I only had half a jack handle, no worries, then it turned out the locking wheel nut key had lost both pins in it. So, some tyre sealant and a quick drive back to the workshop. Chucked the locking nut key in the press to get it round again, cut two bits of 5mm bar down and gave it a try. No luck, just splayed out again. Pressed it round again, welded it up. It snapped the welds. This time, I decided to press it round, weld it up and then make the pins on the inside out of weld as well. Thankfully this worked.





Plugged the tyre, got it on and then noticed the rear was also partially flat , couldn't plug it so swapped them all over like musical chairs and dropped the rear off to the garage. All sorted by the weekend, although the spare does seem to be going down slowly.

So amongst other things (won a brand new set of wheelnuts on ebay for £22) I bought a full cruise control kit. With a few long trips in the pipeline as well as my mom living in Lancaster, I thought it would be £50 well spent.

It was sold as a full kit on ebay, steering wheel back and both switches. When it turned up I was very pleasantly surprised to find the best packaging I had ever seen. All in individual bags and labelled up, even down to the screws!









Tested it on the drive home and had a few interesting moments working out how it all worked (accelerating towards slow traffic at 40 )
All working and with my mom coming down for the weekend I thought I would take it to the garage and give it a clean when...no indicators, great!
What I haven't said yet is over the past few weeks I have been having some rather bad BCU issues. More on this later (all sorted now though fingers crossed).

A couple of weeks ago I got to go out and have a bit of a play on the now permanently shut (unless with prior consent) part of the Ridgeway, due to having a scout hike running along part of the route and my checkpoint being on it :tup:
So, we got there and setup. A few hours later one of the radio team burst out laughing. It turns out one of their team had driven down a lane off the Ridgeway as a 'shortcut' back to the road and next checkpoint...in his ford focus.
Credit where credit's due, he made it the best part of a mile down the lane, a lane where my diffs were toughing the centre between the ruts. He only came to a stop after deciding speed might be the answer to a very clay'ey puddle.
After the radio man had stopped laughing long enough for me to find out where the bloke was stuck, off I went to go have some fun. A quick trip down the lane, pulled him out and drove back across the grass having told him to follow me so he didn't do it again.

Where we were setup.


Where he got stuck. Although it doesn't look like much where I'm parked, it did turn into a sheet of clay a couple of meters further before going back to dry track again.


I went back after closing the checkpoint, the same way the focus had tried to, before seeking out a few tame BOATS on the way to HQ.

Shortly after the hike is when all hell started to break lose, like someone had let a tiny little daemon out in amongst all my electronics.

This started with me having to go pick the missus up from the train station, hopped in, went to turn the key, beep beep beep and a flashing B on the dash, oh ****.
Had to push it round the drive as it was blocking everyone else in.

Long story short, after a new BCU and Chris (vkssmica) popping over on Tuesday night, she is all working again. Well, I can't indicate right due to the relay giving up, but the rest of her is working.



This was standard from the factory right?


Also replaced the front left wheel bearing and ABS sensor on friday as the old one gave up the ghost quite quickly. I'm going to at least do the front right before my trip to Scotland in August, if not the two rears as well.

A nice new parcel arrived today as well



The diff plugs will probably wait until next month when i do a fluid change before they get done. I'm not sure whether to fit the lights before I replace the bumper (mine is cracked) or to wait.
With no knowing when i will replace it, I might do them sooner rather than later. Could do with finding a standard latching switch to wire them into (as well as being reversing lights).

Been busy recently with a quick trip to wales last weekend (to the same place I had to take a different vehicle to two weeks before, when the wheel bearing went).




Then last night I decided to undertake the quick task of fitting the egr delete kit I bought a while back. All went swimmingly until both bolts into the manifold snapped.
I couldn't really get a drill in there and I don't think a stud remover would have touched it. Plan B, dragged the welder outside and got to work. With the bolts not being able to be nicely cleaned, all 17 attempts at welding nuts on, snapped further and further in each time. At 9pm, with the want to go home ever growing, plan C was sprung into action.
I went and cut a 25mm disc out of 3mm plate, cleaned the manifold with a flap wheel on a drill, pre-heated it a bit and welded it in (it looks really messy in the photos but its actually quite neat).

Before the carnage.


Oh crap.




The last try.


Issue resolved.


Done.


I also found my mystery water leak. This was cleaned up and refitted with a small amount of PU18 around it (god forbid I have to take the pipe off again).




Also, if anyone needed any bits this is currently down at my local scrap yard (there is also another D2 down there). They are normally reasonably priced (wanted £40 for the rear bumper).


All caught up now, sorry for the long reading