The big red beast is showing definite "Yank Tank" wallowy ride characteristics. Seems more at rear suspension related than front. I'm pretty sure that it used to be much taunter, by big 4x4 standards anyway, but its hard to evaluate the handling of your own car as one tends to adapt. Doesn't help that the roads round here are terrible for lorry humps and similar vehicle upsetting features running more or less in the direction of travel.

Normally I'd go straight to shock absorbers but new Boge labelled "OEM" units with the correct Land Rover part numbers went on about 15,000 miles ago. Unfortunately I missed putting them in service record spreadsheet so don't know exactly when. When it stops raining I'll verify that there are no leaks but they certainly looked dry on Friday.

Rear Panhard rod got new factory bushes around the same time as the shock absorbers were changed. All the front end bushes, steering assembly bearings et al have been done over the last year except for the front Panhard rod bushes which, according to the MoT man, are in fine fettle but will be done soon anyway as I have new ones. The rear ones were certainly well past their best so the front ones must be showing their age.

I've heard that dying height sensors can give wallow issues. If so what breed to go for. Britcar show genuine Land Rover factory ones at near enough £64 and £67, cheaper than Dunlop or Britpart. Island show Dunlop about £5 cheaper with OEM quality similar prices to what Britcar wants for the factory version. At Britcar prices I'm inclined to go genuine. Obviously if it is likely to be height sensors I'll change the lot. At that age if one is past its best the rest can't be that far behind. if nothing else the arms on the rear ones are looking distinctly manky.

Anything else I should be considering remembering that all the EAS stuff has been done relatively recently. Airbags, compressor rebuild, valve block re-build and so on.

Thanks

Clive.

This whole viscosity thing and oil behaviour inside the engine is monumentally complicated.

Quite a good introduction here https://www.kewengineering.co.uk/Auto_oils/oil_viscosity_explained.htm .

Fact is once the engine is up at running temperature there is very little difference in absolute units. Probably the major difference in the engine itself is the oil film thickness needed to support the load. Thin oils tend to squidge out of wide clearance bearings whilst thick oils can't get in narrow clearance ones. The actual load carrying film is generated dynamically by the spinning bearing. The effective pressure is huge!

Oil pressure is more a measure of the internal leakage in the pump. If its high enough you know there is enough oil getting around the motor to fill the feed galleries so oil can be swept out into the bearings. If its too low then you can't be sure the galleries are full.

These days with all the modern additives viscosity is more a proxy measurement than a statement of actual lubrication ability. Its arguable that the only thing where viscosity is directly important is in defining the ability of the oil pump to actually deliver enough of the stuff to the right places. Unless the motor is completely knackered if the pump can push enough oil up to the various bearing feed drillings to keep the hydrodynamics fed even an too thin oil will do the deed. Of course if the oil is too thin the bearings need to be spinning faster to build up a thick enough film inside the bearing.

Clive

Re Impact wrench. Does anyone know if there is enough room to get a LiDL (Parkside branded) mains electric one in? Body is about 10" / 250 mm long behind the socket and 3" / 80 mm diameter.

I don't use mine anymore, got me the top end Makita battery one now (a proper beast), so no great trouble to pack it up and send it to you.

Book says 250 ft lb / 320 nm undo, 75 ft lb / 100 nm do up torque. I think the undo is optimistic but its always removed anything I needed to shift. Might take a couple of minutes rattling but its gotten there in the end.

Clive

Just popped over to see what all the fuss was about.

Oh Barf, doubled, in technicolour.

They just redefined seriously, impossibly, unbelievably bad. With multiple McEnroes. Makes Yahoo groups as is now look wonderful.

Seriously pissed that I didn't follow through and scrape the technical contents when tempted a while back.

Would the Wayback Machine be able to find any of the useful stuff?

Clive

Looked at my licence and its a bit scary what old farts like me got as standard.

B+E of course but when you consider it also has things like C1 and C1E which, theoretically, let me loose with 7 tons or so of lorry or 8 tons with trailer (ish) with no checks .....

Especially as its thirty odd years since I've hauled a trailer of any serious description. And that was only the once when a (then) workmate was running off with the postman's wife (don't ask) and a Transit Luton was clearly going to be insufficient for all his goods and chattels.

I shall sign up for a training course should I ever have to go haulin' but how many wouldn't if the extra training and test weren't mandatory.

Clive

Have you verified the condition of the big rubber bushes at the rear of the radius arms?

Also check the tightness of the nut.

Slack panhard rod bushes could contribute too.

When I re-did my front end there were certain issues with the nut and threads on the ones I fitted as recon units in place of my originals so things didn't get tightened down properly. Braking stability wasn't quite what it should have been which I put down to ageing panhard rod bushes not playing well with the new tight parts. When verifying that the new stainless steel exhaust had been fitted correctly I noticed that the radius arm rear bushes didn't seem properly compressed. After re-tightening to the correct torque braking stability was back to what it should have been.

Clive

David

Would that be Steering Specialists at Howbury Bridge?

When I needed mine changed they didn't have stock and quoted at least a week but less than a fortnight to do the job on mine, plus courier times. In retrospect I should have gone with that. Seemed decent folk and quite upfront when I talked to them.

I see there is an outfit offering brand new units at £580 odd. Two business names at same address have my spidey senses tingling tho'. especially with rumours of sub-standard Far East imports floating around.

Clive

David

I've heard of that one a few times. Never felt brave enough or lucky enough to try it.

Not that I have ever run into anyone who admitted the idea went totally tits-up but I've had my suspicions in several cases! Like "if it was that easy why did the whole job take 2 weeks and cost so much?".

Clive

Only two puller holes in the Thor V8 pulley. Dunno about GEMS.

Just need to get good solid connection between the puller holes and the steady bar. I used alloy tube 'cos its what I had and I've got the machine shop gear to exploit it. Many of the economy suppliers just weld a short length of swore or rectangular tube between thick "washer" for the pulley end and the sheet stabiliser.

Clive

Know exactly what you mean about not being as nice to drive. The used box I put on mine last year doesn't feel as good as the old one did.

Any suggestions for a reliable re-builder that is able to test the boxes before sending them back. I'd like to get my old one done but that failed with no power assistance one way, fortunately during the frond end / bush / steering rods / balljoint replacement marathon. Clearly wasn't happy at being pulled hard over onto full lock. Pretty sure the the pressure release valve one side is stuck open.

Clive

The fixing holes are 75 mm apart, i.e. on 75 mm PCD. I've edited my post above to put that in so its complete in one read.

Socket is indeed 24 mm AF. Had to measure my Neilson branded one as the print had worn off!

I think a string of nuts on threaded rod may be too weak and bend under load when you try to undo the bolt. Its quite tight. Around 200 ft lb / 270 nm I think without checking in the manual.

Probably a reason why I made mine with the handle / restraining bar offset rather than doing simple straight in line sheet spanner like most of the usual economy range E-Bay et al offerings. As I recall it there may be issues with clearing things underneath if its too long and reaching something solid if it was too short. I made mine long and bolt on the side because I was going to be working from the top. Long handle meant I could see what it was resting against and hold it if need be. I actually started the bolt from full tight with the torque wrench in one hand and the pulley holder hand in the other. As I recall things pushing them firmly together gave ample torque.

Clive

My version of the LRT-12-080 tool is a short thick walled alloy "tube" turned from solid with 6 equi-spaced holes in it matching the 75 mm PCD of the tapped holes in the pulley that the proper tool fixes to. Its bolted to a 3 ft (ish) long 1" steel square tube handle. Four of the holes are tapped M8 to hold it to the handle. The other two are 9 mm Ø to give a rattling good fit on the longer M8 bolts used to fix it to the pulley.

Alloy "tube" is 60 mm Ø ID, 90 mm Ø OD by 35 mm deep. Handle is 30 mm x 3 mm steel tube made so I can re-purpose it for other duties. 10 gauge steel L bracket holds the alloy tube to the handle via 3 M8 bolts. Handle runs basically tangent to the alloy tube . I assembled it with the line between the clearance holes running at 60° to the handle. Dunno why, can't see that its critical.

I found something strong underneath to bump the handle up against and used my big 3/4 drive Britool torque wrench with long series 6 point impact socket (economy range Neilson I think) to undo the bolt. I left the radiator in. Possibly not the best idea. Seriously limited space in front of the motor. The big Britool wrench is relatively slim and went in OK I suspect a standard breaker bar might be a tight squeeze if you use a long series socket. I'd be unsurprised to discover that a short socket would be long enough with a breaker bar tho'.

Got drawings of the thing if you want to make your own. Or you could borrow the business end of mine. Easy enough to unbolt it from the handle and send it up.

Clive

Got the same message about moderation being needed just now.

Being charitable it may be something to do with the "log in" and "remember me process" as I had to re-sign in the other day.

Seriously P-d off is what this Sussex country boy is. When stuff works why can't they just leave well alone.

But given that its supposed to be commercial now it could either be going tits-up or trying to pivot to a subscription service.

Clive

I always use the stuff. Not so much for the locking effect, although it does seem to make undoing torques more consistent, but more for the sealing action. Especially on exposed parts. Its very effective at stopping things rusting together.

Better than coppa slip in some ways as its an insulator.

Clive

Marty

I know exactly where you are coming from. Buy something cheap and reliable sounds so tempting but, from what I can see there aint no such animal. Maybe if you get lucky and if you don't do too many miles but every time I've got anywhere near such things, as in "Clive can you help me fix ...", not "my new bargain motor" its been something of a disaster area.

As always my attitude is get something well built originally that you can fix without stupid expense and stays fixed if you do it properly. Hello P38, and why I have a V8 Bristol as my retirement restoration project. Worst thing with the older vehicle is figuring out when to switch between on-condition (fix it when it breaks) and lifetime (miles/years) maintenance for things. Especially given the "how good are currently available parts" conundrum.

I'm somewhat horrified by the prices folk pay to keep theoretically less expensive cars running once they get respectable miles on them and by how darn difficult some are to work on. Umpteen years of Car Mechanics magazine is "enlightening". There are darn good reasons why personal contract lease cars are limited to 50,000 miles or so!

Rule 1 of running mechanically powered vehicles seems to be "Its gonna dump on you big time about every 20 years or so!". When your number comes up it comes up independently of what you are running.

Clive

Mazz1

I'm retired too and so would have no problem in coming down to Portsmouth to help out if I knew anything about diesels. Unfortunately I've never owned, driven or worked on a diesel car of any description so I really don't have the experience to help you beyond doing the mechanics mate bit for someone else.

Sorry

I agree with the other guys that if the seals have been replaced its likely that the pump wasn't put back together just so. Seal kits are very inexpensive but re-built and tested units from proper specialists are very expensive. There has to be a reason for the difference.

Clive

Mazz

I'm in East Sussex (Crowborough) and have a NanoCom so may be in range for a visit.

Clive

Not completely sure about the LiDL "Ultimate Speed" branded smart chargers. Good value but I left the Norton connected to one over winter the other year and it killed the twin 14AH batteries. So only got a single summers use out of them.

Now I tend to use the LiDL chargers in short bursts, a day or so max every few weeks to bring the bike and generator back up when they are not being used. (Had the generator 5 years now and only test run it. Its one of the old whisper quiet Honda ones so if I do need it its not going to upset the neighbours.) However I imagine our big Range Rover batteries are a lot more tolerant than itty bitty bike ones.

Clive

Due to low mileage I do that on a regular basis and, so far, nowt has been damaged. 8 years and counting!

However my charger is an old Woolworths (remember them) metal box unit of may be mid - late 1960's vintage up gunned with a mil-spec low ripple transformer and high power diodes around about 1980 (ish) when the original innards went pear shape. When things have been lying around in lab stores for a decade or more its a shame not to actually use them. Happily bounces the (supposed) 6 amp max reading meter off the end stop for the first hour at full charge rate! One day I might actually measure what it pumps out on high range. Voltages are correct as its what the transformer was made for with high and low output windings for both 6 and 12 volt (nominal) batteries. Lord knows what the transformer actually cost Her Maj back in the day. Or what the equivalent would cost now. Something scary no doubt.

Clive

RutlandRover wrote:

Clive603 wrote:

Still can't see why it waited a day before leaking tho'.

Clive

It's because these cars are sentient and vindictive :P

You might have a point. Did the headlining on Monday, two wrinkles and one ex-wasp. Working on the front lawn in "approved by Richard" fashion and slotted the car back into its parking place yesterday. Probably moved six car lengths to do the pull forward, reverse back turning through 90° shuffle. Not running long enough to even take the exhaust manifolds up past warm to touch.

Come out this morning and, yup, its marked its territory. Usual half a teaspoon or so. OK its a bit more nose down than when working on the headlining in front of the garage but not much.

During the headlining job a wasp came to investigate whilst I was cutting excess around the edges. Perfect 6 point landing in the middle. Managed 5 or 6 head nods as it inspected and sniffed things. Then curled up and died. Glad I made sure not to breathe any fumes.

I'm impressed by the Pattex superglue gel and plastic conditioning "pen" from LiDL. Did a good job of repairing three of the four tabs I broke pulling the trim off. One was obviously past resurrection but the others glued up plenty well enough to assemble things. Wipe the broken edges with the pen, coat with gel and voila! Gel is so much easier to control than the usual liquid and you don't have that choice between sticking things together or putting the cap back on! Takes about a minute to go off tho so need steady hands. Tabs will probably break again if I ever take them out tho'.

Clive