Well you've had a bit of a mission! If mine doesn't start steering straight very soon you might be unlucky enough to get a visit ;)
Yes, there's a bit of tension building!
It's not really big bumps, it's asymmetric bumps. If you hit a speed hump straight on, no problem. If you hit one at an angle the wheel will tank slap left and right 3-5 times in about a second. There's also a lot of vagueness in the steering, especially when on cambers. It adds up to making a wide car feel even wider on narrow roads.
She needed a rear hub as well :)
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!
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 ;)
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.
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)
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?
They're pretty much the gold standard...
12 ton ram doesn't do it? Hell, no wonder we spent hours on Marty's!
Something like a Nanocom. Honestly, they're worth the cash.
Gilbertd wrote:
Welcome, although you might notice a few differences here from the other place. There's no admin to argue with (or ban you when you do) and we refer to the parts of the car as they are meant to be so you'll need to learn English. So it isn't a hood, it's a bonnet, it has wings not fenders and tyres are spelt correctly.
It'll be a hell of a trip if you want to join us on a summer camp though. But you'd be more than welcome (as long as you buy everyone a pint).......
Don't worry about Gilbert, I think his pet cat was run over by a Cadillac or something. Everyone knows a Fender is a type of guitar....
Well, that was a long time ago... but not long enough to forget how shit Defenders really are :)
Welcome :) I'm jealous of your off-road opportunities already - send more pics :)
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... ;)
ahh, nice one. Thanks!
That must have been a hell of a shock!
Thing is, in the diagnostics menu it's seeing satellites - just not working out where it is. It's like it's going from scratch each time instead of reading the almanac data to get a head start. And then after an hour or so it gets a fix and tracks perfectly after that.
But yes - it's still worth checking that antenna connection. Thanks :)
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!
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!
