Marty and I had a textathon last night to work out whether it would be a good idea to have a "Camp" again, but with the aim of replacing Radius Arm Bushes on our P38s.
Marty is happy to host us at his workshop again, which is very generous and is a better option than my house because he has a press (essential) and some air tools (probably very useful).
The proposal would be to find a date in March/April when we could do a two day weekend and plan to get everyone's bushes changed by Sunday afternoon. Whether that would be done as an end to end job or a production line like the Headliners we can discuss later.
We reckon on everyone buying and bringing their own parts, including new bolts etc so that we don't have any emergency parts runs on a Sunday! And pooling whatever tools and expertise we can to make the process as slick as possible. Hopefully the hopeless folks like me will learn some skills too.
I guess the first question is: Who would be interested in changing their Radius Arm Bushes?
and the second one: Exactly what parts and tools do we need to achieve this?
As you know, I'm not a mechanic so I'm really just throwing this out to the experts while offering to help, cook and gofer in exchange for getting my bushes changed with everyone elses. I'm keen to get underneath and wield an airgun though, that sounds like fun :)
As I understand it, the struggle is taking the arms off rather than putting it all back together so we should be able to avoid having lots of Range Rovers in bits on the Sunday afternoon :)
So what do you guys think? Is anyone interested?
Happy New Year folks :)
After replacing lots of steering parts, there's still quite a lot going on under The Duchess.
There's creaking from the back, which I suspect is brake related, but there's also some nastly clunking noises from the front (I'm pretty sure) which seem to be related to moving and/or changing between forward and reverse. If you spin the wheel lock to lock while stationary the steering is silent. There has to be weight on the wheels to get the car to make these noises, I've had some trusted people probe with bars and they can't find any movement.
The only suggestion so far has been "Hockey Sticks" which I take to mean front radius arm bushes - is that correct?
Here's a super high quality video of The Duchess looking filthy in her winter plumage (and her Ladyship looking worried) you can hear the triple clunk at the very start of the video, at 10s, 18s and 25s.
Let me know the good news! :)
I'm putting this under Electrickery but it's just a guess...
Recently, with the colder weather, the Duchess has decided to be a little bitch to start when cold. She used to start absolutely immediately, hot or cold, but now she can take repeated attempts to start. The starter/battery seem perfectly healthy and the engine cranks over nice and quickly. Eventually she'll start on a few cylinders and then the rest cut in over 2-3 seconds.
Where should I start looking?
So, I was rushing.. left the key in the ignition, went to open the boot, caught the door pin on the way out, got to the boot button to see the door swing shut. Locked. No second fob.
Is there any other option to breaking the window? the tops of the doors look a lot sturdier than my old E30's.....
Help!
The car is at work, near the boss's bedroom and the headlights are on. If the alarm goes off overnight, the car probably be dragged away by a tractor.
Just to keep me on my toes and because I've been feeling smug about how well the fob has been working with new batteries and covers... I went to the car this morning and pressed the fob. Nothing.
Tried a few times, checked the red light was coming on the fob.. nothing
OK. unlocked the drivers door to get in. No central locking. OK, this'll be a resync I thought - I'd left the fob in range of little fingers last night, perhaps it's been pressed too many times for the rolling code.
So, fob into the lock, Position 2, tried lock/unlock. Nothing.
Hmm, is that the correct procedure? So I looked it up and did some dance with key to p2, out, hold unlock while pressing lock three times - it didn't work.
So, Nanocom, EKA, start and off to work.
I still can't lock/unlock on the fob and I thought the key should have resynced by now due to friendy sync in a 2000 model. What should I have done?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8qWwy0o8nk
He's put some thought into that!
OK, I want to fit the silicon hose that bypasses the heater throttle body direct to the expansion bottle. The Duchess is using too much coolant, and I'm worried that the many-joined pipe will let go some time and cause a big problem.
So, I can't fit my sausage fingers behind the aircon compressor to get to the stub pipe on the top of the... whatever the stub pipe sticks out of. It looks like I should be able to move the aircon compressor if I undo a couple of bolts and also remove the plastic belt guard. Is that all it is? Should I be wary of anything else? Will I break something, release the gas and kill all the dolphins?
I do have the remote clippy pliers/clip remover things but I can see that there's pink staining the stub pipe so the seal isn't great. I really hope I won't need a jubilee on there because the access is woeful...
The Duchess is now steering better than ever, but the wise old mechanic said that the next place to look would be the Radius Arm Bushes if I wasn't happy. This has got me wondering if there's more improvement to be had. Is there a way to tell how good/bad the bushes are from a visual inspection?
Then if they are suspect, does anyone happen to have one of these?
http://www.lrseries.com/shop/product/listing/7650/3809/LRT-60-004-BUSH-FITTING-TOOL.html
that maybe I could borrow?
If not, would it be something we could buy/share as a group?
I've got a bit of an issue with the Sat Nav. It's hardly crucial but it's a bit annoying. The location keeps resetting to London, and it takes about 45 minutes to an hour for the system to pick up the location. Once it's on, it's perfect - but then the system loses the location when you switch off. I'm running the latest disk that OB sent me, and stupidly I threw out the old one so I can't test but the problem only started a few weeks after I swapped disks.
Has anyone else had something like this before?
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!
Been trying to get the RL height sensor off. The bottom nut undid OK but the top one didn't turn before smashing the plastic ear off. This means (as I'm sure many are familiar) with a nut secured to a bolt, which passes through the bracket and is neatly held on the other side by a plastic bushing so you can't hold it tight enough in pliers to stop the whole lot turning.
I can't get a hacksaw in there to cut through the bolt. I don't have a file to file some flats on the round flange at the back of the bolt.
What have you guys done in similar situations?
I'm a bit grumpy :(
I ordered this: https://www.island-4x4.co.uk/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=ANR4687G+&x=0&y=0
and got this: https://www.island-4x4.co.uk/rear-height-sensor-9702-britpart-anr4687-sold-with-warranty-p-35227.html
I'm not very pleased with Island - especially as the part I got is marked "Sold with no warranty" across the top of the page!
Harumph :(
I seem to have lost my copy of RAVE. Could someone link/send me one? It might be my imagination but I thought there was a link on a sticky on this forum but I might be dreaming. Or maybe Gordan was getting nasty letters?
Thanks!
Folks, the Duches started to look a bit pissed! She has moaned about "LH R sensor out of range" three times in a week and when she's parked up she's very high at the rear left and low on the front right.
The EAS goes up and down OK but starting from access height everything is level. By the time you get to normal, there's definitely a lean (measured the lazy way by comparing the bonnet line with lines of bricks on a wall)
Should I just replace the LHR sensor and recalibrate? or are there any other tricks?
Also... I need to get some calibration blocks :( Are they sold anywhere - I don't have any tools up to cutting that much Nylon!
Honestly, if it wasn't already dead I've have got out and shot it :(
So, that's a colour coded grill I'm looking for now. There seem to be two codes for Epsom Green. I shall hunt down the correct one!
Sorry, bit of a rant - but Arrgh.
Folks, I don't know if I've mentioned it but I'm due to move house this summer (once the new place has been built) so I've been informed that I'll be fitting a lot of shelves/curtain rails and general crap. Normal, I guess. However, her ladyship sweetened the deal by suggesting that I get an electric screwdriver. That has, of course, been translated in my brain into an opportunity to buy an electric impact gun. I've been very impressed by the ones you guys have been using at Summer Camps - what would you recommend?
I have a very few impact sockets in my socket set, so do I need to get some more of those too or do electric guns not really need them?
Sadly, I don't think I'll get away with air tools at this point ;)
Sorry Marty but you picked the wrong month to come to Yorkshire!
I've just replaced the EAS compressor!
I can't find a leak in or near the valve block/dryer but according to the nanocom the exhaust valve does seem to be open then shut quite a lot even when the compressor is running. How should it be behaving?
For the record, the compressor filled the reservoir in about 6 minutes and then shut off, so I'm confident that bit is OK. When I shut the boot and let it lift to motorway height the compressor kept running for another 5 minutes before I shut it off. I guess there's either a leak to or in a bag or the valve block is doing stupid things. I'll have to do some grovelling in the snow and see what's up.
Let's hope Marty's compressor didn't die the comprehensive death of its predecessor and I can use my new rebuild kit to provide a spare!
Just so you know :)
Morat