I've seen someone do the same with contact cleaner and an angle grinder. I think the motor would be preferable out of the two

Nothing quite as dramatic! (You didn't by any chance read the can first?) :)
I just did 1400 miles at an average of 70 mph driving down I-5 to San Francisco to pick up a trailer (about 3500#)
and dragged it back up here to Oregon, the current Base of operations for the Waveney.
Used not a drop of water, and used about 1/4 cup of oil (leak from a valve cover)
Towed back in 90-115 degree heat and did the 6 mountain passes in about 95 degree heat.
All ran sweet! A/C blasting the whole way. Averaged about 15 miles to our US gallon.
Only issue was cruise control hose got really hot and started leaking down, so could not hold speed.
Zip tie to the tube at the tee, and back in Biz!
Did the same trip last month but hauled a trailer with 1950 Willies and a lot of other stuff (apx 5500#) back up here
in similar conditions, with the same results! (other than being slowed down to about 50mph on 2 of the short steep bits!)
So, as for this topic, Today, I did an oil and filter change.

Ordered a new track bar, balljoints have some nice freeplay!!!!!!!

Cleaned the glass, rubbed some wax into the black plastic trims, put the pollen filter covers back on, removed the dehumidifier from the car, checked the tyre pressures and took it for it’s first run since March to get some LPG and Petrol.

After all the work it’s had during lockdown, it really is driving like a different car now.

Tomorrow is tracking and air con recharge day.

Need to do the tracking on mine!

How does the P38 compare to the L322 in the handling and ride stakes?

They’re a different league.

The L322 is much smoother and is much more car like and precise thanks to it’s rack and pinion steering. The L322 we have here is a 4.4 TDV8 so 313bhp and 700nm of torque. Coupled to the 8 speed ZF gearbox, it’s silky smooth and really quick. When you floor it when towing the caravan or trailer you’re hard pushed to know it’s there.

I drove the L322 back from Fort William the other night, 110 miles of A roads, I wasn’t hanging around, doing 60-70 most of the way and by the time I got home I’d averaged 32.7mpg.

I had a 4.2 Supercharged L322 previously as well and really wish I’d never sold that one but I wouldn’t have either of the Vogue SE’s if I’d kept it.

David.

I cleaned up a spare panhard rod at my workshop yesterday, pressed out the old bushes, pressed in the new ones and swapped it over on the RR

Today - whilst not on my RR, I did an installation of 2 front door latches, and a reconditioned HEVAC for another owner who brought his P38 to me.

Just got the key fobs, RF receiver and BECM board I had sent to Marty in ordered to get them synced. Apparently the brand new lock set I got from LR were not synced to my VIN.
Installed the Lot and now I can say with confidence that the LINLEY is as good as the day it came out of the SV shop 20 years ago this November.
Thanks Marty for being the final piece in the jigsaw!
Central locking works remotely!

I want also to thanks Marty in "public" for helping me sort out the remote access which had never worked on my RR!
I knew sooner or later I was going to end up in some BeCM "service" type thing, but I am happy I held until we got in contact (probably should secretly partially thank the COVID-19 but this not nice to do....).

I finally got the beast running again, Marty did a lot of stuff on the BeCM and fobs everything is sync. There was some problem as I could not get the thing started, and we exchanged a lot of emails wondering which pin/cable/connector to address, until one of my mates suggested "get a jerrycan and put some fuel on it just in case" and ... and ... it was just empty! No wonder was never going to run! I had totally forgotten how much fuel was left ....

Now I am re-energized to tackle the remaining, starting by finishing wiring additional stuff (aux instruments, aux lights, 12V in the rear, and much more), finish the seats, re fit the dash, in a way, get the interior back so I can move on to the next stages of the refurbishing!
Will fish back my topic and update there ... so far so good!

Centralised the steering box, re-set the steering wheel which has eliminated about 75% of the free play in the straight ahead position (and it was only out 1/8 of a turn of the wheel). Next will be a new intermediate shaft and that should make it as tight as a drum. (The old one, which is original, has some radial splitting in the rubber coupling. Still safe, but leads to a little movement).

I think the original problem came when I fitted a new drag link and tie rod. I got it about right, sent it off for a wheel alignment and the guy doing the job altered the drag link length to centralise the wheel, resulting in the box being set a little to the left.

Marty has been busy sorting everyones central locking by the looks of it, he did mine back in March too.

For some reason the codes transmitted by my fobs weren't the codes stored in the BECM. A quick trip to Marty has the remote locking working for the first time in the 3 years I've owned the car.

David.

Continuing with my 400,000 mile service, a bit premature as it's only showing 399,776 at the moment, but I should hit the milestone later this week. I've had a tiny coolant leak for about a year, only needing a top up every 1,000 miles or so, but it still needed a top up which annoyed me. Drips could be seen off the RH engine mount so I figured it was probably coming from the corner of the head gasket as David, Rutland Rover, had a similar leak some time ago. Having just replaced the head gaskets to cure the oil leak on the same side, I expected it to stop. But it didn't....

So, today was earmarked for dealing with the coolant leak and a gearbox fluid and filter change. Cobbled together some bits of hose and a Schrader valve so I could get some pressure in the cooling system and wound it up to about 25 psi. Laying under it I could see a little drip appearing from the edge of the middle core plug, running down and dripping off the engine mount. The core plugs were changed 120,000 miles ago when V8 Developments rebuilt the engine and it's always had anti freeze in it so it wasn't rotten just leaking around the edge. I briefly considered K-Seal after Bolts success, then epoxy putty over the top of it but as I'd got a couple of new core plugs in the garage figured I'd do the job properly. Off with the front wheel, wheelarch liner and starter motor to give me a way in and a bit of room while the cooling system was draining into a bucket from the drain on the bottom of the rad. A tap with a punch ground down to a bevelled edge soon had the old core plug out (along with at least another 3 litres of coolant, the first half litre of which went down my arm). Went to put the new one in (with Loctite around the edge to make sure it sealed) only to find I couldn't get it to go in square as the engine mount was in the way. So the engine mount was going to have to come off but the top bolt was hidden behind the exhaust manifold. So that would have to come off too. As it has only been on for just over a week, and the wheelarch liner was out so I could easily get to the remaining heatshield bolts and all the manifold bolts (including the rear bottom one), that was pretty straightforward, surprisingly. Out with the engine crane and a strap around the alternator mount meant I could lift that side of the engine. Engine mount nuts off and unbolted the bracket from the block. Now I know that I put those brackets on but I must have been feeling stronger then than I was today, bugger they were tight! Second attempt with a new core plug and Loctite and it went in nice and straight. Before going any further, bunged two or three litres of antifreeze in it and connected my pressure tester. No more leaks, even when I cranked the pressure up to 40 psi. So put it all back together. As Mr Haynes says, reassembly is the reverse of the above. Refilled and bled the cooling system but decided against starting it yet as I'd still got the gearbox fluid and filter to change and ATF is pretty horrible on your hands and hot ATF is even worse.

Drained the gearbox fluid, which was clean and not burnt looking at all, just a bit dirty, into a washing up bowl so I would be able to check how much came out and put the same amount back in when the time came. Expected the dipstick tube to be a pita but with a big pair of Stilsons it came undone easily. Off with the sump, went to undo the Torx headed bolts that hold the filter and pickup tube in place only to find they are T27 and my set goes from T25 to T30 with nothing in between. Went hunting and found another set, which included a T27 (at least it meant I didn't have to send Dina down to Toolstation to buy one). Undo the bolts and another half litre or so of ATF dribbed out. Over the floor this time as I'd moved the bowl out of the way.......

Having seen the state of the filter that Strange Rover had taken out of his, pulled the old one apart only to find hardly anything in it at all. New filter fitted, sump back on (with a new gasket) and stole the Pyrex measuring jug out of the kitchen to measure how much had come out. 5.2 litres plus what came out of the filter, so the 6 litres I'd bought was about spot on. Fortunately, the GEMS has a dipstick tube that doubles as a filling tube but my funnel was too big to fit in it so more bodgery required to make a funnel. Filled the gearbox and finally thought about firing up the engine. Ran through the gears a few times and checked the fluid level, spot on. Made sure coolant was properly bled and took it out for a run.

Did about 10 miles or so, got back, suspension on high and get underneath. No oil leaks, no coolant leaks, no ATF leaks, bugger me, it'll start going rusty now!!

Spent most of today doing steering geometry on mine..

New track rod turned up today for the old bus, like everything for this P38 it came from Rimmer Bros, their OEM is MOOG which is nice..

I've not had much luck with cheaper suspension parts on this car!

New one..

Love the look of new parts in the Mornin'!

Wheels off!

Upon clambering underneath and trying to free off the nuts, the joint just turned in the taper, which made getting the nuts out an impossibility
They were all rusted to shit too.

The "big blue spanner" as my sister calls it came out and the POS was liberated

To avoid the tracking going to the dogs, got the rod to the same length as the old one,

In my case it was 54 inches exactly!

New unit fitted an torqued up, no play in these joints!

As you do I took her to work to get an alignment, after a 30min Laser therapy I took her for a good drive to see if there was any improvement, or a new problem!

I'm happy to say it tracks straight and true,

However with every good there must be a bad

On my way home a pheasant decided to cross the road, however because they haven't got a brain it went into mid flight right infront on my car!
The result was it hitting the corner of the bonnet and propelling at great velocity into my mirror, which in turn caused the glass to fly out!

Not only that the bird came in my open window and missing my head by at most 2 CM and landed in the boot

What a fiasco

So i pulled over and got the bird out, was tempted to keep it for sunday but eh

My mirror glass was found in a grass verge and put back in, only downside being it cracked!

Bastard birds are thick as shit..

I had to fill up too, no LPG this time due to the pump at my local doing a vanishing act!

Half a tank of Pez gets around 200mi which ain't bad for this bus...

when i replaced my steering arms i measured everything and put it back together exactly like it was, when i drove it, it felt like it wanted to turn left into every driveway , when i got a wheel alignment it was only out by 22 millimetres? it was perfect on the bench tho. i also done ball joints and that was the wear in every thing according to the bloke that done the alignment.
how far out was your alignment ?

mad-as wrote:

when i replaced my steering arms i measured everything and put it back together exactly like it was, when i drove it, it felt like it wanted to turn left into every driveway , when i got a wheel alignment it was only out by 22 millimetres? it was perfect on the bench tho. i also done ball joints and that was the wear in every thing according to the bloke that done the alignment.
how far out was your alignment ?

My Alignment was slightly off, it was before the new rod though!

It didn't pull if anything it drove better with the new "unaligned" rod!

After a full laser alignment it drives superb!

And yes it takes stupidly small things to knock it out!

Mine was tracked yesterday, am just waiting till I've got time to go and fetch it now. It'll be nice to sit shivering in it on the way home too.

Checked the oil before driving 3 hrs back from the boat. Found the Coolant Cap sitting on the fusebox lid. Oops.

Nice work Strange Rover.....
For what its worth, I’d be careful putting your vehicle on jack stands with gravel as a base. My best friend in Ireland lost two fingers when he bumped against underneath of car he was working on and the jack stand slipped of the gravel. Luckily his arm was only under the car at the time....
Not wanting to be the car repair safety police .......

I get that you're saying and you'r absolutely right!

I might get a solid workshop in the future!

Cleaned the 3M bra junk off the front of my P38 on Sunday. I used a plastic joint knife, a heat gun, and gasoline.
And I changed the oil.

You guys think I should stay with the basalt 'RANGE ROVER' emblem or go silver? I bought the silver ones already but my friend has almost convinced me to leave it. The Safari's and nerf bar are also waiting to go on too, if you think that matters.