I drove mine today ,as I have every day for the past 3 months ,without as much as shake a spanner or screwdriver at it.Gonna give it a break indoors of the garage for the winter as soon as the tax runs out at the end of October.tHAT GIVES ME PLENTY OF TIME TO GET MY oops,not retyping that,Alfa sorted and ready for winter.
 
Put mine through its MOT passed with three advisories

1. Near side front track rod end slightly corroded but serviceable.

2. Front brake pipe slightly corroded.

3. Near side front back plate loose.

Not bad I think for a 1986 2.5NA defender 90

Pre this MOT I changed the cylinder head for a second hand emmissions right engine only revved once for MOT

It will live another year!:)
 
Removed bonnet drilled out rivets,undid and removed wheel holder and rubber bungs.Bolted and riveted again and filled the.three big holes with epoxy putty.Ground rusty areas onframes and painted twice with red oxide.Topcoats on frames ,vibrasorb soundproofing and chequerplate to follow tomorrow.:)
 
Fitted a bulkhead removal bar which i made the mistake of ordering from Paddocks which didnt come with any of the fixing kit ! Appartently the rest is now in the post.

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Fitted a new clock (got sick of the Mrs whining about not knowing the time - like her mobile doesn't have the time on it:doh:). Gonna grab some lunch then, back out to sort a sticky rear door lock & finish sealing the underneath.
 
Drove teh 110 for the first time..... I love it :D Soo much satisfaction after all the hard work :) And a women in a 110 waved at us :cool:

Got a few werid looks with the L-plates :D Bring on London 2 Brighton
 
Topcoated the bonnet frames.Jaced up chassis removed wheel,broke track rod balljoint,removed nut and washer from arm pulled and beat on arm,pondered going to borrow bigger pullers,welding torch etc.but couldnt be arsed.Fitted ball kit in situ,fitted steering guard(had to use big levers as the holes didnt line up too well!).A slow day cos I had to fre up some fixings,find a few nut s and washhers,copper eze stuff and paint afew bits.So Ididnt get the rock sliders onl ike I wanted:mad:
 
swapped round the bottom door hindges cause I'd managed to fit them on he wrong side first time:5bblush5:.Got two yokahama a/t tyres put on the front.
 
Replaced the clutch slave cylinder and damper only to discover it was the flexi pipe leaking after all:mad::mad::mad:

Back to the shop monday for more parts
 
Previous six weeks or so.

Bought her on Ebay, collected her from seller's home near Loch Ness 110 miles from home.

Got her home and went out to play, erm I mean check her out. 98 miles later lost my gears about 5 miles from home, tried to crawl home in 1st and heard some horrendous squealing noises, broke down & wouldn't start, so got towed home the last 2 miles or so.

Paid garage bill for towing it in from home (just around the corner but they got it started and drove it in stuck in 1st gear,) repair to gearbox linkage (yeah, the dreaded grub screw was all that was wrong,) supply and fit new gearbox seal, supply and fit new hand brake shoes (contaminated by gear oil,) supply and fit replacement top pulley on fan drive (knackered & squealing.) drain & re-fill my diff oils for me

Got her back from garage then - Bought alloys from a mate and had them fitted with new General Grabber AT2's all round. Bought and fitted bonnet, wing and sil chequered plate kits. Bought & fitted wrap around bull bars. Fitted new angel eye headlights & surrounds fitted new spotlights to bull bars (not connected yet, needed relays.) Made my own side, front & rear quadrant, front doors, rear door inner card & outer panel chequered plates, then fitted them all. Replaced seized viscous coupling. Broke down, but managed to get her started and got her home.

Cleaned oil out of ECM. Bought Haynes workshop manual, relays for spots, full set of filters. Broke down & got towed home.

Put battery on trickle charger for a few days & got her going again. Bought & fitted a new genuine LR injector harness & fuel filter, cleaned MAF sensor and surrounding area, cleaned MAP sensor. Cleaned more oil from ECM. Got her started again (ordered EGR blanking kit - not fitted yet,) changed all the filters and oil, ordered Hawkeye Diagnostic Tool and ordered a bunch of spare filters (I plan to change oil 3 or 4 times after a few hundred miles or so to clean her out.) Ordered new Sump plug and water sensor, my sump plug is round, water sensor wires are broken and thread is damaged. She is running like a dream now.

Friday - replaced knackered DTC connector then played with my new Hawkeye for the first time. Broke down & got towed home again.

Saturday - Had planned to fit EGR blanking kit, but thanks to yesterday, instead I tried to start her again (and when I get her going again I plan to duplicate the problem so she dies on demand - should help me narrow down the fault.) Sent a begging PM to Shifty with an appeal for help & his opinions.

Today (Sunday) - I will try start her again and if she's still a no go I'll take battery out to put it on trickle charger for a few days - re-charging the battery off the vehicle & cleaning oil out of ECM socket is all I did last time she died and she started again no problem. ECM socket now totally oil free after the new harness and frequent checks/cleaning, but I plan on taking the ECM out and opening it up to check that it's clean and dry inside.

Just to put all this into perspective. When I collected her from Loch Ness the mileage was 119386 (or thereabouts) mileage now reads 121256. I've covered a total of 1,870 miles, only 110 of that was on the way home from the seller's.

At the moment, with the exception of one theory about the breakdowns, which I am keeping to myself until I can test it out first, I am at a bit lost for ideas.

Ron.
 
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