Last Saturday (17th) my uncle came over to help, in fact this weekend coming will be my first without any help for a while. We managed to remove the inoperative windscreen washer, as we couldn't repair it. The water had caused limescale residue to lock the nut to the washer barrel so we couldn't remove it to repair it. Also the rubber head jet had perished and the hole through which the water is intended to pass, had totally closed up. A new one is now on order, for the princely sum of £2.30 + VAT!

My uncle looked at the problem with the rocker shaft we'd tried to tackle earlier and decided that it wasn't worth fitting the other locating screw. We'd need to remove most of the top of the engine to fit it, and it's not worth it.

We also moved the flasher unit that had been floating around the dash area on long wires, to a direct connection behind the dials. As it wasn't the proper one for the vehicle, we adapted the bracket to fit it. Whilst we working in that area we also got the dial illumination lights working, and got the headlights connected up properly, even if one still wouldn't function in full beam mode.

We couldn't get the charge/ignition light to work on the dash, which could mean that the alternator isn't working properly, but out attempts to prove this were inconclusive. I intend to leave this as it is for now, and worry about it once it's gone for an MOT, as a reconditioned unit is about £30.

On the following Monday, the recently moved flasher unit shorted out. I suspect this was because it had a live casing, which is totally inappropriate and would explain why it was flapping around in the "glove box". I've ordered the correct one for the Land Rover, so hopefully this will mean the indicator will work once again. I also managed to get the cold start light to work as per the manual, which was good as this had been refusing to work for ages.

On tuesday (20th) I worked on the bonnet catch, and managed to get the bonnet to lock down fully, previously it was only on the outer catch. However it still springs up if you tap it, so I'll need to move the latch to the left a little to stop this. I couldn't do this at the time as I didn't have my spanners handy, and the nuts are not any that I have sockets for in my set. I also got the last headlight working in fullbeam mode, which I'll now need to disconnect again to fit a new headlight bowl..such is life.

Yesterday I removed the driver's floor panel and fitted a new rubber gaiter on the transfer lever. I also removed the 4x4 enabling lever to see why it wasn't locking down as it should. The reason seems to be a broken spring, so I've ordered new parts to see if that solves the problem.

As I haven't posted in a while here's a potted history to bring this up to date.

04/06/06

My step father (Ken) came over to assist me with the Land Rover, and was a great help. He replaced the block connectors I had used to temporarily get the rear lights working with proper connectors, which means things are a little more robust. On the downside however, we found that the brake light switch on the pedal is not working properly and will need to be investigated. If the pedal is not pulled upwards before being depressed the stop lights do not work consistently.

Ken also helped get some of the bolts back into the rear crossmember/tub, but we couldn't get them all in, nor tighten them up due to not having a crowbar nor an extension for the socket set. We also discovered that one of the supports on the bottom of the tub had broken away and that the bracket it attaches to on the chassis had rusted out and will need to be replaced.

06/06/06

The parts arrived from Craddock's but sadly one part (a split pin) was missing.
Since we had found problems with the tub, during the previous weekend, and combined with the fact that I knew the chassis needed some welding, we decided to get some professional advice on whether is was worth continuing with the project. Ken asked a friend of his, a mechanic, to take a look at the vehicle and determine if the vehicle was worth saving. Mick, the mechanic kindly agreed to take a look and promised to visit over the weekend sometime. As I had my car back from the garage I used my tyre pump to set the tyre pressures on the Land Rover correctly.

09/06/06

The owners handbook, I had ordered, arrived.

10/06/06

Mick and Ken came over, and inspected the vehicle. Mick was satisfied that the vehicle was generally sound and that the tub and chassis could be repaired as could all the rust holes, by a competent welder. He also noticed some holes that I had missed and that the rear leaf springs would needed replacing. This was overall postive news!

After Mick left, Ken and I continued working on the Landy. As we were now equipped with a crowbar, we managed to get the last bolts into the rear crossmember, although as before we only got them finger tight. We also worked on attaching the replacement parts that I'd received in the week, but unfortunately didn't get to far. The locating screw we tried to put in the rocker shaft, couldn't be fitted as the shaft has rotated out of alignment and the holes no longer line up. This will be a difficult task to complete as the nuts holding the rocker shaft clamps on couldn't be undone by either of us meaning we will have to use a tool to rotate the front shaft back into alignment, but this requires removing other parts of the engine to gain access. We also tried to remove the bulbs behind the dash board, but just couldn't seem to get them free. We also discovered that one of the heater controls had been disabled, the wires just hanging in the engine bay along with the actuator rod. According to Haynes this is for the heater water valve which seems to be absent so more work is required there to see what has been removed and bypassed and if it can be replaced.I did however manage to get the rubber bung in the hole in the side of the gear box tunnel, which while small was a job that needed to be done.

11/06/06

I only managed a few hours work on sunday as the temperature was soaring, and working inside a metal box was not too appealling. I managed to easily remove the bulbs that had thwarted us the previous day which was a little odd. I'm assuming either leaving the WD40 for 24 hours had worked, or the fact I was working before the day had reached it's top temperature meant the metal had not expanded at all.
After all that the bulbs were fine, so the problems are in the wiring or switches.

Just a small update to say the seats arrived yesterday, and the bottom pieces have already been fitted. I would have added the new tops too but I needed some "R" clips to do that, and the the old ones were not salvagable. The old seat backs are in much better condition that the bottoms, I may sell my old set off to try and defray some of the cost of the newer set.

Whilst working under the bonnet I drilled new holes and reattached the sedimentor but still couldn't get the driver's windscreen washer to operate. That is now top of the todo list.

I've ordered a lot of parts from John Craddock's in Staffordshire, so when they arrive I will be able to sort out a lot of the little things that are broken, and that should at least make the vehicle feel closer to going for the welding etc and it's MOT.