RutlandRover wrote:

Bah! Started off on the wrong foot assuming the nuts on the studs would be metric.

Remember, body; fancy, poncy, electronic and metric. Chassis and engine; pure LAND ROVER and a right mish-mash! :-)

I was lucky. I've got Imperial sockets which have travelled around Asia with me, but couldn't buy spanners to save my life, only metric. Then I got offered a load of tools that a guy was getting rid of, only to find that the whole lot was Imperial. Snap-on, Craftsman and Proto stuff as well, as a bonus!

Did my track rod and joints the other week. Made a nice difference as well. The old ones were buggered! Looks like the drag link and joints have been done previously as all is well there.

RutlandRover wrote:

I'll start soaking them a couple of days before I do the work.

Is supporting the gearbox and removing the chassis cross member an essential part of the process is RAVE going a bit overboard?
Unfortunately not.

I replaced my fronts (did mid and rear before) with stainless and sport cats. Despite the fact they came in two halves, the X-member still needs to be dropped.

I borrowed a ramp at my local tyre place, cost me two quid plus the same again for a guy to hold the heavy bits!

One good thing, everything came apart with no issue.

Sorry, this probably isn't helping! :-)

Just as a heads up...

http://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/200186/psa-warning-fuel-hose-failures

Gilbertd wrote:

It's awfully quiet tonight, has the forum broken?

Maybe, just for once, a bunch of happy Range Rovers?

So far!

Two days and still leak free!

One of the reasons I checked!

Anyway, it's in, let's just hope it lasts.

Just goes to show how you need to check stuff.

As you'll know, the two halves of the PCRV are held together by two cross headed machine screws, threaded into the upper body. "I'll just check them", thinks I. One was loose!

So as a bit of additional insurance, I've added spring washers, nuts and some Loctite.

May even get it fitted tomorrow!

It's arrived and to prove it, it's here!

My primary plan today was collect, fit, wake my little assistant, who is off school today for some reason, bleed and done.

It appears her mother has beaten me to it and by the time I got back, they've gone shopping.

Backup plan, put off until Saturday and go for a cold beer instead.

Always have a backup plan, even if it's the same every time!

Funnily enough, that was the first thing I checked!

No, the next one's way off. Thursday.

GeorgeB wrote:

hopefully I'll be able to fit it over the weekend.

Famous last words!

They were the famous last words. Arrival expected Monday!

Orangebean wrote:

"Should be the last job on the brakes"
Hopefully they won't in fact be famous last words

Hopefully you are correct!

All the hard lines look good (the beauty of no winter) and I gave the calipers a thorough inspection when I last changed pads so, given that the flexibles are new SS, once the PCRV is done, there shouldn't be anything left to leak/fail.

It seems that all the areas of issue (aside from the modulator washers) have been 22 year-old bits of rubber in the form of seals and rings. Probably not surprising really!

I've had a report of another recent modulator washer failure here. Fortunately, they were only maneuvering, not tanking down the highway!

Ordered up the PCRV via Britpart yesterday so hopefully I'll be able to fit it over the weekend.

Should be the last job on the brakes.

Famous last words!

blueplasticsoulman wrote:

I like your wheels GeorgeB

Thanks. She had 20" L322 wheels when I bought her but a) I thought they were bloody awful and b) the ride was terrible. I'd always liked the ZU rims, so here was the perfect excuse. Plus the change to 16" transformed the ride, and that was before I went back to air!

Just don't ask about freight or duty. :-(

gordonjcp wrote:

I bet you don't have wet boot carpets :-)

No, but i do get the occasional wet left foot if driving during typhoon type rain!

Taken by the Quirino Grandstand facing Rizal Park and where the Great and the Good all sit when they have a bit of a do.

Did I? Oops!

Well, I am 83 you know and remember when it was all fields round here.

You're not my usual nurse?

I wrote and posted this on another site some time ago, but thought it may amuse...

Friday’s a slow day in Manila. Well, it is where I’ve been...for two and a half hours.

And where I’ve been is the Neo-Classical gem that is the Manila Central Post Office.

Parcels. We all like parcels. Stuff winging its way across the globe to your front door, bringing surprise and joy. Even the most mundane can cause a frisson of excitement, but this was special.

I’d ordered two lots of parts from overseas, some interior bits from the US last April (!) and a brake modulator repair kit posted from Australia on December 11.

Thursday I was handed a card by apartment reception telling me a package was awaiting me at the post office and that I had 14 days to claim it before it became the property of the state.

Which would it be? And what would the Republic of the Philippines do with a 1995 Range Rover brake modulator repair kit anyway, if indeed that’s what it was?

I had bets laid in my head, but as I’ve just about given up on the States (along with much of the rest of the world) the hot favourite was Aus.

It’s a small parcel, maybe A5 envelope size, it necessitates no special lifting equipment, no-one needs to go on a manual handling course and zero Permits to Work are required.

So why one hundred and fifty minutes?

Let me take you through the steps.

You arrive at 8am, the normal opening time.

The reasons for this are twofold; 1) to be early in the queue and 2) to get back out before all the container trucks hit the road at 10am, adding a good half hour on the 3km journey home.

Disappointingly, you are not first there but you greet Mildred with a cheery, “Good morning, how are you?” all the same.

She takes your card.

There’s a Little Old Man and a Young Girl before me, both on the same mission.

Mildred wanders off into the depths of darkness that makes up her work place. She returns with your package. Lovely, you think. She puts it down.

A man arrives behind the screen with a carrier bag. That’ll be breakfast then.

Everything stops whilst Mildred and her mates eat. Come on, they’ve been at work for nearly twenty minutes now. You wait.

Around 8:45 another girl comes along, picks your envelope up. Your hopes rise. She puts it down again and wanders away. Dashed.

I start to wonder if the Little Old Man was actually considerably younger when he first arrived. He has the resigned air and pallid look of a long term inmate.

Five to nine and another girl, looking all efficient, and late, turns up. Ah, that’ll be the actual Customs Lady without which we cannot function. She sits down and fires up her computer. Having done that, so we can all see the screen scrolling through her wedding photographs, she picks the Little Old Man’s parcel up. You can almost see the adrenaline spike. She puts it down again and goes back to her computer. She then decides that some food is in order. She disappears.

Meanwhile, the place is starting to fill with folk. Me, the Little Old Man and the Young Girl wait.

Card after card are passed through the window to Mildred. She, obviously, does nothing with them.

Eventually, a nameless lady, still chewing, takes the pile of Mildred’s collection and disappears.

Parcels are delivered from behind. They are piled on top of mine, the Young Girl’s and the Little Old Man’s.

A name is called. Is it mine? Not unless I’ve changed it to Jennilyn it’s not.

People come and go – with their parcels. The Little Old Man is now older. So am I, now I think on, and the Young Girl will soon be past marrying age.

Another name is called. It is that of the Young Girl. She bounds athletically to her feet and heads to the window where her parcel will be opened in front of her and assessed. It is and it is. The parcel is now passed over to Mildred’s window. Mildred is busy with her card collection. The Young Girl sits down again.

Someone at Mildred’s window asks if it’s possible if she could explain the theory behind splitting the atom. Mildred obliges.

Meantime, the Little Old Man’s name is called. He leaps (poetic license) to his feet. I don’t understand that much Tagalog but, upon opening his parcel, it’s discovered that he needs the attention of a more Senior Customs Person.

The Young Girl’s package is now ready for collection and she stands, but Mildred is now answering a question about solar flares. Young Girl sits down again.

I hear something that could, on a good day, sound like, “George”. Energised, I rush to the window. Customs Girl takes a sharp knife to my envelope. She removes a little bag containing some O-rings and another with two stainless washers to replace the original plastic ones which, by now, will have degraded and are about to cause catastrophic brake failure, scattering nuns and kittens in the wake. She looks at this and then at me. Maybe be some sort of pervert? A third bag contains a memory stick.
“What this?”
“A memory stick”
“Know that, what on it?
“Instructions about all the fun you can have with a bag of O-rings and two stainless washers...what are you doing tonight?”

Envelope is thrown towards Mildred’s window. Was that a look of disgust?

09:50, Mildred has now finished explaining about tectonic plates, continental drift and how this causes the Pacific Ring of Fire and calls the Young Girl over. Money changes hands, parcel received and the Young Girl dashes home before she is over child bearing age.

Meanwhile, the Little Old Man is still having his parcel examined. Not sure what was said but I got the impression that the Customs Lady was wondering why he was only now picking up some stuff he’d ordered on eBay in 1943. He was probably only notified of its existence on Wednesday.

Mildred picks up my envelope, looks and then starts to discuss Newton’s First Law of Motion with a lady with two young children.

Eventually, physics debate over, I am divested of 120 Peso (around two quid) and my envelope is passed to me.

I leave at 10:30, sadly leaving the Little Old Man to it. It takes an hour to get home, because the things you want to happen early never do, and those you want late never are.

So yes, a slow day and I’m guessing Monday to Thursday aren’t much quicker.