Year Sticker

This a pretty feeble reason to put a post up, but in case you didn't notice in the previous posts, have added a year sticker to the rear of the Land Rover: that red oval beneath the license plate. Just a little custom thing I drew up, produced by an inexpensive service called Vistaprint. Half to help people who know a thing or two about Land Rovers understand that it's not a 2a or 3 series, half to perhaps help those behind understand this isn't a fast vehicle. : )

First Drive with 3 On Board

A little drive to "Tim Horten's" yesterday evening (if you're not in Canada, it's a chain of coffee-and-donut shops), with both daughter and wife along with me - the first time we have everyone together in the Land Rover. New seatbelt arrangement for middle seat, complete with shoulder belt, worked very well. Daughter sat on her booster seat. Shifting gears not a problem, but I had to have an elbow on my daughter's lap - not really a big deal.

Odometer has stopped working - which makes me think the speedometer cable has snapped, just like the original had. Will have to fix that, whatever the problem is. Have been using the GPS as a speedometer, but would be nice to have the entire panel gauge working in any case!

Another Nice Day

Today, inspired by more beautiful weather, went for another drive. This was much longer than yesterday's, and included two highway stints. Things noted:

First, the wing-mounted mirrors are too loose. At slower speeds they're fine, but any faster and they blow down, no matter how tightly adjusted. The bracket holding them onto the arm moves a little, but it's the adjustment 'ball-joint' where things are too lose. The original mirrors were the smaller round ones, and so I think I'll find a good set of those. The vehicle will look more 'period', as well.

Secondly, the Jeager water temperature gauge markings only go to 100, and at speed the coolant is clearly hotter than that. If the needle is still moving linearly, it is indicating approx. 110, but has moved into the oil pressure side of the gauge face.

Third: the engine is leaking oil, which is no surprise, but it's leaking it most from the seal around the fuel pump. I think a different seal is needed there.

Noises: transmission/differential growls a little when taking one's foot off the accelerator, as if it doesn't like being reverse-loaded, but doesn't do this all the time, and most often when at faster speeds. A gradual slowing seems to help prevent this.

At one point, when going quickly, there was an alarming "thack thack thack" sound that suddenly sprang up from the general area of the transmission tunnel/right front wheel, and so I pulled over. When the vehicle moved forwards again, to see if I could pinpoint the location, the noise was gone, and was gone no matter what I did after that. Perhaps the front tire had picked up a stone?

The clutch makes a quiet whirring sound when pedal is pressed, as if the bearing is unhappy. After a while, the sound goes away, and so perhaps it's a lubrication issue? I'll have to check the oil level in the gearbox....

On a more positive note, steering is quite light, and the vehicle tracks very nicely, with only the faintest of wandering due to road camber. Nice to drive, suspension is nowhere near as harsh as I had been lead to believe, even on rough roads, and the vehicle corners well for it's weight and size of it's tire contact patchs. I do still need to learn the knack of not crunching the gears! Probably just need to drive the Land Rover a lot more. : )

Below: note mirrors.

Enjoying the sun....

Nice Day for a Drive

Not a single technical issue today. For the first time, I just started it up, asked my daughter if she wanted to come for another drive, and then did just that. A little pause for some photos in the sunshine, and a good time was had by all. : )

Of course, I'll be inspecting for leaks etc., later, and there are still some things that need doing, but not today!

And so, just some sunny Land Rover photos for you to hopefully enjoy, on this nice Spring afternoon.

A man and his Land Rover. : )

 Every driveway should have one....

Running Again

The new cork gasket for the sump arrived on Friday from 3 Brothers Classic Rovers and so today the sump went back on, and the fluids were put back into the engine. Only the parts necessary for running are presently assembled, in case something required disassembly again. Opened the choke, turned the key, pressed the starter, and the engine started without a problem. It ran for a full half hour, to full temperatures, at various rpm's. Not a single leak visible. Perhaps it's just my imagination, but it seems to run even better than it ever did, quieter and smoother. Or it's just buttering me up for the next set of problems. Either way, can't wait to get out driving again!

A special thanks go to 3 Bros. for having the cork gasket made. It's a high quality part. They are also planning to do other gaskets in cork, as per the original specs.

Below, the choice of sump gaskets. On the left, the paper/cardboard one, in the middle a thicker cardboard one, and on the right the new cork gasket from 3 Bros. I had already determined that the one on the left would almost certainly leak, and the middle one less likely but with still a high probability. The cork one, which matches the original seal, looked perfect.

The three thicknesses. The cork gasket is 1/8" thick. The bolts holding it in place were torqued just to the point where the cork started to visibly spread near the bolt holes.

Voila, with all the principle parts reconnected, after the test run. There just remains the dangling and disconnected wiring, wing, mudguard and wheel to re-install. The Land Rover now has a rebuilt oil pump, water pump and timing mechanism, new front crankshaft oil seal, plus a new heater core, to go along with everything else that's been done.

More Waiting

The Land Rover is presently just waiting for a sump gasket that looks as if it will seal properly. The rest of the engine has been reassembled. The sump is a problem due to the flange not being perfectly flat where it meets the mating surface on the engine block. Due to the way the sump was stamped out, the flange undulates slightly between the bolt holes. A papery-cardboard gasket left enough space between the bolt holes to pass quite a thick feeler gauge through at those points. This would clearly leak. I have a thicker cardboard one, but unless the cardboard is quite compressible, I think there's a high probability that will leak, too.

The original gasket was made of cork, and that would appear to be the correct material to use in this instance. 3 Bros. has asked a gasket maker to come up with some cork examples, and I'm hopeful that with a little luck they will  be available to test some time next week.

Below: Not too clear, but does show the undulating surface. Were later sump flanges flatter?

Heater Core Arrives

Some 4000 km from Vancouver to here, in a very short time! The replacement heater core for the Kodiak arrived today from Falcon Enterprises, and looks good. Of course, haven't put it to the test yet, but it looks in good shape, and must be sealed as there was a slight hiss of a pressure differential when one of the blue tube caps was prised off. The core itself has a sticker attached from Vista-Pro Automotive LLC, and so it's fair to assume the part was made by them.

Did a test fit, and no problem there, unsurprisingly. Now to put the Kodiak back together and re-install the unit.

Below: the new core has the blue tube caps. Very similar overall to the original core.