good work min..
your mention of work equalls body wear is well know to myself.
last year while topped up daily with pain killers for my existing worn hip & leg joint wear/pain all came to a crashing stop..to a point of being unable to do much at all.
but then I was digging out tonns of essex clay in ground preporation
and concreting over a hand hammered hardcore base..
midway through the concreting the 50foot`ish driveway it all stopped due to me being exhausted....
have always worked hard in work or play, but I was 65 last year.
took me best part of 10 months off to "get going again to finish all the drive off to include the kids garden fence and increase the patio, but, to be honest, my do or die attack on it all has left me more disabled than before,
or is it because I am another year older. ??

being 40 is not a problem, being 45 or 55 or 65 is.....
your mind may think at being a 40 year old, but dam sure you body cannot keep up at 66....lol

love to read your updates min....
but maybe think of a lump of chain wound round your brake and clutch then passing through your steering wheel as a precaution against theft eh.. plus maybe one of them round steeringwheel disc locks too....
the landie is becoming a great thing to own, so make it harder for someone else to own it eh..

Feeling a bit worn on places now chap and it sounds as if we are cut from the same cloth! I just plod on with something until its done work wise and then my body just say..."Really?" then I pay for it lol.

The Landy is now well secured but I shall not post exactly how

Festive friends.

Main
Posted by min200 Sat, December 20, 2014 20:19:47

Crazy busy today on the Landy Wifey buggered off out first thing this morning to spend more money than I want to know about on Christmas treats before our friends were due to arrive at lunchtime so I managed to jump straight into my babygrow grab a wolly hat because it was bloody cold out there this morning and get stuck into the niggly jobs that had been grating at me for a few weeks.

First up was changing the spark plugs and being 24 volt the set up is a bit different so I loosened the leads on the end of the plugs using an adjustable spanner because for the first time in this rebuild I have not had the size needed in either of my toolboxes so that has been added to my "I want" list. That was the first problem and I soon arrived at the second one. After liberally dosing up the old spark plugs happily they came straight out but it was immediately apparent that I have bought he wrong plugs to fit...



See the difference in the bottom of the plugs and to think the chap who sold me them at the Peterborough show was so adamant that they were the correct ones! Oh well whats done is done so I will now have to find out the correct part number for them.
The old ones are rusty to say the least and left a pile of rusty gunk right at the top of the spark plug hole on the head...



Now that lot was just waiting to fall into the piston chamber and being in a really deep ingress I pulled out my trusty magnet to help fish the crap out...



If you have not got one of these in your toolbox I suggest for a couple of quid you grab one because I have used this old thing so many times I have lost count!
I have popped the old plug back in and nipped everything back up again because even though they are rusty on the outside they work and will keep any moisture out of the piston chambers.
Then it was onto the oil and a quick drain down of the old mucky stuff...



By removing the sump plug first of course...



And it was then onto removing the oil filter from the housing which is ccunninglydesigned to be in such a place that it is really awkward to get off without getting oil all over the shop!



I undid it a few turns until the oil just started to dribble out into the tub and left it like that for a few minutes until the worst of it had gone into the bucket instead of all over me then took the housing off binned the old filter, fitted the new and refit again. In went 6 litres of oil and I then found my batteries were flat....so they have been put on charge until tomorrow.

Then in perfect timing my friends turned up (yes I do have real life ones you know...not many admittedly but I am rather picky about folks who do my nut in and chat ****) so it was time for tea and biscuits until Wifey returned home. She wasn't long so us men folk retired back out into the cold like the hunter gatherers we are and had another pop at the project.

I soon put the good fellow to work fitting the new spare wheel strap onto the bonnet...



You can just see in the picture the bonnet needed a new front rubber bung for the wheel to sit on. Well don't go paying the stupid prices the spares folk want for a a new set just order yourselves a set of 40mm x 10mm rubber suitcase feet for the princely sum of £2.99 delivered! Keep an eye out because you will see where the rest were used shortly. Once the strap was fitted I grabbed the spare wheel and put it into place with a very sturdy padlock to stop the scumbags...





Now it's on I think I would like a plain black cover for it as well...added to the list as well now but is not needed for the MOT so will have to wait.

Lunch was at this point forced upon us so we came into the warmth for good food and better company, I love catching up with true friends you know the ones you may not have seen each other for months or years but when you meet up it was like you saw each other last weekend. So after a lot of laughter and with full bellies we ran away from the washing up declaring we were in the middle of something important that had to be done on the Landy ( I WILL need another excuse once this is finished to keep running away from the washing up. Suggestions via email please) and decided that the seatbelts just had to be fitted.

I set my friend on with that while I fitted the replacement seat back supports on the drivers side...



Those suitcase feet are back again! Well I did have to buy a set of four so why waste more money buying the official land rover rubbers? These will work just fine!

I tidied up some loose ends in the back refitting the rear light panels that have sat in the tubs since I played with the wiring. How confident am I that the electrics are now sorted that I am putting covers back in place....give it a week and they will probably be off again! The very last bit of underseal went onto the chassis where the passenger side fuel tank was removed and this is a job I have been putting off for months...bloody black awful stuff that it is and how do I always without fail end up bathing in the stuff? There is not that much of it in the damned can!

The seatbelts were soon fitted (gotta love having a proper mechanic working with you) and they are looking good!...







At this point the flash was kicking in on the camera so I knew it was time to call it a day outside. So we forced ourselves to pack away and soon learnt that we had just missed watching the film Frozen....the Landy gods were being kind today.

More food and more laughter were the ingredients of the late afternoon which has set us into a very festive mood. More Yuletide food with the extended family tomorrow which will be nice as I am the eldest of six children and for the first time in many years we will all be in the same place at the same time for a seasonal meal.

So this I expect will be my last post before the Christmas holiday so I would like to take the opportunity to say to you all please have a great Christmas however you celebrate it whether that's at home staying out of the way of it all or travelling to see your families. Enjoy the laughter or the peace smile at a stranger and say hello to a friend.

Merry Christmas everyone and I will see you on the other side.



Just turned 40.

a happy restive period to you too min

Plugs look the same as the new plugs I have bought for my 24v lightweight, they havea special tip or summat, can you post the plug number and I will check with mine tomorrow.
Regards, Peter.

I will have to dig them out Peter but the ones I need are RSN12Y I am told and they look the same as mine!

Merry Christmas

Mine are RSN13P (I guess the P stands for platinum) and they look the same as your new plugs. If in doubt then try first and see how it runs, a plug chop would not come amiss.
Regards, Peter.

Building and Bumps.

Main
Posted by min200 Sat, December 27, 2014 18:45:17

Well it was a nice Christmas day the kids were happy and so was Wifey then best of all the traditional visit to the mother in law was cut to a 30 minute stint...beat that! (I do her no justice here she has a heart of gold and yes I am being held at gunpoint here)

But the only day off I get is Christmas day because I work for a large multi national that worships the retail gods and you only get Christmas day off because they have to give it you. Remember when the shops were shut for a week at a time? I loved that as a kid and it is with a heavy heart I realise that my kids will never experience such things. Enough with the melancholy I am warm well fed (a bit too well !) and live in a place that offers a good life so I shall stop moaning for times gone by.

Boxing day started well with a good ride to work enjoying the seasonal lack of cars on Nottingham's ring road and the day was a steady plod on with even my work colleagues being somewhere near to normal breathing everyday folk instead of the usual bunch of "what the hell can we find to moan about today to anyone that will listen to my crap because being miserable and making others feeling the same is the only source of enjoyment I can find in life any more" chaps they usually are, Christmas was truly in the air! About 5pm it started to rain...heavily...nothing unusual about that I just donned my wet weather gear and carried on. I had not seen the weather forecast for the day. It started to snow. Nothing too bad just wet stuff that melted as soon as it landed so I carried on. Before I realised 20 minutes later I noticed the snow settling and settling well at that...I made a call into the office..."It's snowing like hell out here settling well and I am on a motorbike so I am off now!" Again it must have been the Christmas spirit about because no one complained about me leaving 30 minutes early...I wish I had left an hour before that.

I kid you not it took me ten minutes to get my gear on and clock out by which time the snow had settled well and was coming down in proper blizzard fashion. As I walked outside I had to wonder at my sanity of getting onto the bike but I didn't want to get Wifey out in it after spending the last 15 years experiencing her driving in ideal conditions I convinced myself that the main roads would be ok. I mean I live in a major city that is travelled well by lots of traffic and has a mass of gritters on hand so the ring road I had to travel 8 miles on should be just fine. First I had to travel the mile to the ring road though....I nearly made it...it was 3 inches deep in snow and I could see the finish line of the ring road entry just 50 feet away when my world started to look kind of strange. Seeing as I was only doing 10 mph I did what can only be described as the best ever slow motion fall off of a motorbike in the history of bike crashes. First I realised of any sort of problem was when the horizon appeared to be vertical then what can only be described as a falling into a mound of feathers as I impacted onto the road. The bike went left up a kerb and I slid in a nice comfy line creating the longest snow angel in history. Feeling like a right pillock I got to my feet walked back the 15 feet to my bike and with the help of the kerb picked the bloody thing up.

At this point you are thinking "why would you get back on it?" I know you are because in hindsight I thought the same thing but I was convinced the ring road would be alright and I put my faith in the local councils ability to keep the roads passable. In my defence I had just fallen off of a bike and banged my head was running on adrenaline and was getting colder than I realised really quickly. The old girl started again and I set off like a kid with both feet down riding at 5mph.

I didn't get above 10mph for the next hour. The ring road was ok to start and better than the side road had been but it was still bad. My visor steamed up in 30 seconds flat. My glasses then froze in another two minutes so I pulled over and took them off. Then I had to convince myself I was a brave man and carried on off into the storm. At this point the road was turning white and the blizzard was blowing directly into my face. God knows what I looked like squinting like I needed to have some glasses on (I did) with frozen eyebrows and frozen snot down my beard with my feet down either side because I didn't want to fall over again whilst riding next to the gutter on a major ring road at 10 mph but it couldn't have been half as bad as I felt.

This was the singular worst riding experience of my life and I have ridden for years all year round in just about all weathers but I will never ride in the snow again.

I nearly made it home.

I was less than a mile away, just, but there was a roundabout and the blizzard was in full flow.

I nearly made it around it.

The off was quick and I mean real quick maybe it was because I was near frozen at this point or the fact I could barely see right anymore because of the storm or the fact I was exhausted that I didn't realise I was off until I was sliding into the third exit. The motorbike had left at the second exit leaving me to carry on by myself I think it had had enough as well. I lay there thinking "ok then that was a good bump" knowing I hadn't broken anything but knowing I was going to hurt in the morning.

The first four cars just steered around me lying in the road and carried on their way....arseholes...but then my faith in humanity was restored as a nice couple pulled up behind me with their hazards on and helped me up. Then by a quirky coincidence an ambulance pulled alongside them with lights flashing and helped me pick up the bike whilst blocking the roundabout completely. Sorry if you were stuck behind me for a few minutes but that was far better than me getting run over...I am a selfish git like that.

We blokes don't know when to quit do we. We don't like going to the Dr's we push on when we shouldn't we don't like making two trips from the car with the shopping. We see it as a challenge and we accept that challenge because we are the hunters the gatherers and the protectors. We do not like to admit defeat.

I quit.

I had got to my breaking point with my nerve the cold and I periodically could not face falling off of the bike again. I had been lucky twice and any "off" of a bike you walk away from is a good one. I dumped the bike on the pathway and hiked the last of the journey home through the storm and quite frankly with all that moving it was the warmest I had been for what felt like hours.

When I hit my driveway I was greeted by this sight...






Looks good eh! Like it should be out and about in the snow...wish I had already finished the rebuild and registration!

I awoke with some really impressive bruising and collected the bike this morning but instead of snow it was ice to dance with fate seems to enjoy having a laugh at the moment at my expense.

I'm glad to say no real damage done to either the bike or me but once I got back in today I have spent the rest of it building a massive dolls house that my youngest daughter got for Christmas and if I am honest I think I may just stay in nursing my bruises all weekend and watching the weather forecasts.

www.justturned40.co.uk

Looking good matey

v8geoff said:

Looking good matey

Click to expand...

Thanks fella nearly there now

Sorry to hear about your off Min, I once (about 10 years ago) rode my bandit 600 2 up home from Scarborough to ilkeston in the snow, 5 hours it took, was settling on the m1. Dropped at the bottom of my street even though we had FOUR feet on the ground! Said I'd never ride in the snow again.

Anyway, the landy looks mighty fine with that snow all over it.

I agree I will never ride with snow on the ground again either but unfortunately it's not my first off but I walked away so all good there.

Bloody sore all over now though lol

Bike tires + snow never works. I've done exactly the same but I've had that same 'get home' feeling. Landy looks great, just wait till you get that first drive.

Huddy84 said:

just wait till you get that first drive.

Click to expand...

I know cannot wait to get it on the road!

Hard Frost & Heaters

Main
Posted by min200 Sun, December 28, 2014 15:07:42

I would love to be able to play in the snow with my old Landy and that time should come soon enough so today with aches and bruises from Friday nights adventures I thought I might mop a few of the little outstanding jobs on it.

An early Christmas present arrived on Christmas eve in the form of four replacement spark plugs of the correct spec for my old motor. I was amazed at this because I had only ordered them the day before so how on earth they made it to me so quickly during the Christmas rush I do not know but I was happy to see them.

It wasn't until today that I managed to get around to fitting them and I was pleasantly surprised that the old plugs and leads came out and off with no issues at all. These normally make all sorts of strange sounds when I am involved and I have even had the odd plug snap off in the head on me in the past but I was one step ahead on these ones as I had soaked the buggers in WD40 a week ago and left puddles of the stuff in the spark plug recess to soak in...it worked a treat!

So it was out with the old and in with the new....





A turn of the key and the engine fired into to life and seems to have lost the worst of the odd misfire it had before which is nice so I left it ticking over and thought I would see how quick the Artic heater would warm the motor through which it did in a matter of minutes so hopefully I wont be victim to the normal frozen winter feeling that most Landy drivers suffer from...what a smug git I will be!

Seeing as this was going so well I decided I better get the passenger door top fitted that has been kicking around for a while. Better to play indoors with this though so I snuck the top window and the runners that needed to be fitted into the dining room like a ninja on a mission as Wifey was distracted by some girly film on the box. The first she realised what was happening was when I was drilling the pilot holes for screwing the runners in but by then I was in and refusing to go and play in the cold again until I had to!

With everything laid out I got stuck in...



And once it was built I headed out into the frost to fit it but of course the old bolts wouldn't let go so I then had to drag out the grinder along with 50 feet of extension cable to do two ten second cuts. There was a sizzle as the old bolts dropped into the snow and the new one dropped straight into place...



The old wreck is now wind proof and water tightish which pleases me no end

Looking for something to do I then found a pair of old mesh light covers I bought months ago put at the back of the shed and promptly forgot about so this was a nice surprise or the early onset of dementia who knows. I remembered that I wanted to spray these black so I grabbed a can of poundland special and set to work...



They look good but I wont be fitting them until after the MOT as the headlights need adjusting so best keep that easy access just in case well that and I will probably forget about the light guards again and find them in a few months which will be a nice surprise for the future me.

All that is really left is to secure the batteries now so I best be getting the transport to the MOT centre sorted out.

justturned40.co.uk

Transport????

Discokids said:

Transport????

Click to expand...

Yep I am still waiting for the tax man to tell me I owe nothing on import duties...crazy eh! So I don't want to insure it on the VIN plate yet as you only get 30 days to get the registration number from the DVLA which I cannot get until the tax man gives me the all clear and a NOVA number to say so to the DVLA who then in turn will want it insuring once that is done so they can register it but God only knows how long it will be before the Tax man says its ok because we have had Christmas and New Year and as we all know civil servants do like a very long winter holiday so I don't want to waste my money insuring the old motor more than once because it's taken longer than 30 days but would like to get the MOT done so it can be registered...

And breathe.

Oh.

Discokids said:

Oh.

Click to expand...

That my friend is the best reply ever! LMAO Superb!

So I have read the compleate story in one sitting and all I can say is fully respect to you, from what looked like a lost cause, to a beautiful machine... and how little money it cost is amazing! Well done sir!