Rear left caliper is leaking past the seals.. .oops!
Couple of rear brake pipes while they're at it.
Let's see how they do with the bleeding!

Rears are easy but no matter how much you pump the pedal no fluid will come out. They are on the power circuit so you just rest your foot on the pedal and turn the ignition on.

Yep, they managed fine :)
New rear disks/pads - the pads were totally soaked in fluid and the disks were pretty well shot anyway.

I've also got a new list! Plenty of advisories which I suspect just might have a bearing on the handling issues... just maybe ;)

1. Drag link end ball joint has slight play Offside Front
2. Track rod end ball joint has slight play Nearside
3. Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not excessive movement (Front bushes in NS OS Axle mounts to tie bar) - WTF is that?
4. Anti roll bar linkage pin or bush worn but not excessive Offside Front
5. Suspension Arm ball joint has slight play Offside Front Lower (BINGO!!)
6. Wheel Bearing has slight play Nearside Rear. (Damnit, didn't think of that)

So, err yeah. I'm not totally pleased by the drag link as that was replaced within the last year or so but I guess the rest will have to be done. There's a Land Rover specialist called Blackpaw4x4 who aren't too far away so I think I'll give them a try. I'm not as heroic as you guys!

Morat wrote:

Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not excessive movement (Front bushes in NS OS Axle mounts to tie bar) - WTF is that?

I suspect that is the panhard rod bushes which will allow the axle to move from side to side and result in some very weird steering. When you turn the steering instead of the wheel turning it pushes the axle from side to side.

If you've got a rear wheel bearing with slight play, it's well knackered. One of mine was rough as hell but there was no play because the half shaft kept it solid.

I had to replace my drag link a few weeks ago. Slight play in one ball joint was an advisory on my MoT too which I wasn't expecting as I'd fitted a new Lemforder one for the MoT 2 years ago. Admittedly it has done the best part of 40,000 miles between the two tests but even so I'd have expected it to last longer than that. Boots, some sort of vinyl rather than rubber, were split on both ends too.

Thanks Gilbert! I'd never have got Panhard rod from that description.
I'm taking this as good news. I'd rather have a diagnosis to go at so I can get the parts in. The Duchess has been wobbling around far too much!

Does this look about right?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0m8vyrzf3u1wfwx/PartsList.PNG?dl=0

Sorry for the crappy dropbox link, I had to reinstall this machine and don't have my FTP password to hand.

The prices could be worse I guess. Obviously I've avoided Britpart and I've had good experiences with Lemforder in the past. I hope they live up to expectations. I was pricing up the LR originals out of curiosity. It wasn't too bad until I got to the Rear Hub Assembly at £500! ouch. I've got an Allmakes hub on the front left which has been on for 20k miles now, I don't know of anyone round here who is happy to press out the bearings on these things.

In light of discussions on the other thread I've gone with drag link and track rod complete instead of bearings, hoping to save on labour. I couldn't find a RHD panhard rod - is it worth looking harder or are the bushes OK to replace on them?

I'm hoping this will all be reasonably straight forward - at least until it's time for the balljoints. I guess that's down to luck and experience!

RHD panhard rod is ANR3666 and is listed by some of the suppliers, not cheap though at just over 100 notes a go. Don't forget that for some reason the Lemforder drag link and track rods don't come with nuts so it might be worth ordering them too.

ahh, nice one. Thanks!

Is 1&2 the bar from the steering box to hub ?
If so I’ve got my old one that was changed when I was chasing the clunk, nothing wrong with it.
The panard bushes are an easy change, 3-4 quid each

I've hit "buy" now - thanks for the offer Chris but I reckon the postage would make it more of a ball ache that it's worth. Maybe if we had a meet up next year... ;)

Folks, am I right to assume that if you're changing the lower balljoint one one side you'd also do the upper balljoint at the same time?

Might as well while you've got the hub out. Seems the bottom one wears first which puts more stress on the top one that that follows shortly afterwards.

Morat wrote:

Folks, am I right to assume that if you're changing the lower balljoint one one side you'd also do the upper balljoint at the same time?

I would, as you have to remove the top one to do the bottom one, the press goes through the top ball joint hole.

Hah! that makes total sense :)
The next question is: Have my local garage over-promised or do they have the special axle spacing tool thingy. Watch this space (but don't bother tuning in until Thursday)

If they haven’t got a press there not gonna get them out, lol, I’m curious, did they give you a fixed price, many garages won’t as it can be a fight

Oh, they've got presses and a load of experience. I was just surprised when the "Land Rover Specialist" had to turn down the job. Apparently he has recently moved location and lost access to diagnostics and Land Rover tools. I'm not sure what he story is there :(

If the locals have the bits, happy days. They're far too old and wiley to give a fixed price, but they're not gougers either. Basically the two old boys (in their 70s) use their brains and the young lads get to do the heavy lifting.

I did a set for a guy who works for Land Rover as a mechanic, or was he a technician ?.
There not that bad to do once you get the hang of them, but a good few hours to do them, quickest I’ve ever done all 4 was 3 hours, but everything came undone easily which doesn’t happen that often.

I'm hoping it won't take them too long to do one side of the front, and put new drag link, track rod, panhard bushes and roll bar links in when building it back up. At least they'll be able to hack away at a lot of the old stuff without worrying about putting it back later. The next step is obviously tracking it all up afterwards, I daren't send them the RAVE pages as they get grumpy when soft-handed office types try to tell them their job - but I can get the "specialist" to track it for £50 if necessary. I reckon Smiler would call that a bargain ;)

Bah. The Duchess is still in dry dock :( They had a merry time with the ball joints, although they're on the way back in now. The guy doing them knocked off because he'd had enough and they're waiting on an oil seal for the rear axle. Apparently it was leaking so they may as well do it while they're there. Monday night - fingers crossed!

While they're there? Aren't the ball joints on the front axle?