Category Archives: My Land Rover

New window glass for the truck

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I replaced three panes of broken window glass on the Land Rover today. Regular readers will recall the hardtop got tossed around by last week’s tornado. Banged up the safari top; some scrapes and dings; and the shattered glass. The replacement glass cost about a hundred bucks so I really go off lucky. Oh, and I had to order a new window for the driver-side door. That should be here Tuesday.

You can’t be around Land Rover folks long without hearing them compared to an Erector Set. I was more of a Tinker Toy and Lincoln Log kid but the comparison is apt. The body of a Series III Land Rover is held together with some nuts and bolts and screws. I’d be very surprised if any civilians replace the glass in today’s vehicles.

Tornado hits Jefferson City

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I grew up in “Tornado Alley” (southeast Missouri) and saw lots of them. But you don’t see them in hilly river towns like Jefferson City, Missouri. Until you do. A three square mile section of JC got hammered last night, including my friend George Tergin. Don’t have a lot of info but it sounds like it destroyed his shop and his storage units.

One of which contained the hardtop for my Land Rover. Looks like it might be scuffed up and a little bent but it’s still there. Stay tuned.

UPDATE (5/23/19): George Kopp and I visited what was once 54 Store More this afternoon. Won’t try to describe it. The hardtop to my truck was balanced precariously on a table at the back of the unit. Were it to topple off it would surely have done more damage so we eased it down to the floor and will complete the rescue when we’re allowed back in. 
Thanks to the ginormus bed on my pickup, I think we’ll be able to use that to transport to a body shop. Got a feeling those guys will be busy for a while but I’ve got all summer to get her fixed.

UPDATE (5/24/19): The hardtop has been rescued. Andrew and George did the heavy lifting but we got it in the pickup and safely home. Have the summer to make repairs.

Land Rover soft top everything I hoped for

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Since switching from the hardtop to the mesh top a couple of weeks ago, I haven’t been able to drive the truck as much as I hoped. Last couple of weeks have been cold and wet. With warmer weather finally here, let’s take a ride. (Just 2 min) I’m loving the open sight lines. And it’s not as loud as the ear plugs suggest.

Land Rover: Time for the soft top

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Tomorrow we begin the process of removing the hard-top and replacing with a mesh hoop  kit. More on that in a moment. The forecast is for rain the next four days (Calling for five inches in the next three days) so I decided to put the truck in my storage unit a bit early.
We were hoping to do the work just outside the unit where we’ll have some light and room to work. But I think we can make this work and I’m eager to make the switch. Here’s what the soft top will look like and here’s the instructional video by the supplier.

Behind the truck are four saw horses with 2×6 planks across them. Once the top is unbolted, we’ll lift it back to rest on the saw horses until this fall. We’ll post progress photos here.

Straight pipe

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Henry put the final touches on the new exhaust system today and it looks and sounds great.

You can see the problem in previous posts but here’s one more photo of the exhaust manifold and the modified bolt/nut (yellow arrow) that was hammering the down pipe (red arrow).

I think the old exhaust pipe was and inch-and-a-half in diameter. The new pipe is three inches and no muffler. Sounds like a tractor-pull and feels like I have 10% performance boost. Hangs a little lower but I’m not planning any off-road adventures.

Part of the reason the exhaust was getting pounded was the left wheel stop wasn’t bent. George replaced and adjusted both wheels so the pipe is now protected.

George and his cohorts just keep making the truck better and better. Next enhancement: replacing oil bath air filter with one that will let my baby breathe!

Old Land Rovers leak

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That might be the first thing I heard about Land Rovers when I started searching for one. If it’s not leaking, your fluids are low” is the oft-told joke. Rover Sage Charlie Pendleton advised, “If the leak is the size of a half-dollar, I don’t worry about it. If it’s the size of a grapefruit or larger, I track it down and fix it.” A few weeks back my truck developed a grapefruit size leak. This week George Tergin tracked it own and (fingers crossed) fixed it.

My rebuilt engine originally had a turbocharger. I had them take it off before installing my engine because it would have necessitated some work on the transmission I didn’t want to do (have done). And I was confident I didn’t need to achieve highway speeds. Anyway…

The turbocharger gets its oil from a hole in the engine block. That had to be capped off. In my case, the cap was a little too long and didn’t thread all the way down on the… plug gizmo? Looks like they might have put some goop in the cap to improve the seal and it held for six months before starting to leak.

George got a new cap and then did some surgery on it to properly cap the gusher. Still have some half-dollar leaks but George is determined to track ’em down.

Update 4/12/19: The Big Leak is no more.

Remember the Land Rover exhaust leak?

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[Update at bottom of post]

Took the Land Rover in to have a brake light replaced. While chugging along at about 50 mph, the truck went from sounding like a big old diesel truck to sounding like one of those gigantic earth movers. Something wrong. Since I was almost to the shop I kept going.

Remember that leak from the exhaust manifold?

The exhaust pipe broke away from the manifold and was dangling from the chassis. Like so many things with my truck, this just wasn’t done right the first time. But George was well on his way to doing it right. Parts ordered. He knows what needs to be done and who will do it. So in a week or two I’ll have a brand new exhaust system that should improve overall performance.

24 hours later. Parts arrived and George met with the muffler pros and explained what he wanted to do. They quickly put together this mock-up to see if everything fits.

The new, thicker flange came threaded. Not what we need so George drilled ’em.

The rebuilt engine in my truck is from a 1994 Discovery (European). People put them in old Land Rovers all the time (or so I’ve been told) but I don’t see how. In the photo below George is cutting off the end of a bolt in an effort to gain a precious half-inch of clearance between the exhaust pipe and part of the steering mechanism. He’ll make it work, with the help of a very talented exhaust guy named Henry. (We’re getting close)