I think I understood the concept behind the high range/low range gear lever on my Land Rover. But I had never had a real opportunity to use it this weekend’s snow (about a foot).
Went down the hill in 4WD (high). Came back up in 4WD (low) and it finally clicked for me. I need to remember to engage these gear combinations from time to time to make sure all the doodads are working.
I’ve had the Land Rover for four months and just got around to taking Henry for a ride. More of a photo shoot than a ride, really, but we had a good time. I’ll post some of his excellent photos tomorrow
The Land Rover brakes have been feeling a little spongy so today Mechanic George put it up on jacks to take a look and he let me watch.
You can adjust brakes without removing the wheels but for this first look George wanted to pull the wheels and drums.
He made some minor adjustments to the shoes and bled some air from the brake lines. Noticeable improvement.
In the photo above George is adjusting the emergency bake. Land Rovers of my vintage have a transmission brake. Works like drum brakes by keeping power from getting to the rear prop shaft.
Yes, I did pay extra to watch.
Everybody jokes about the heaters in old Land Rovers. Mr. Wolf told me to expect the amount of warmth one feels holding a hand over a toaster. It was cold and rainy today but once the the motor got warmed up I had just enough warm air to give me a little visibility. Don’t know how this is gonna work come January and February.
Not much of a snow (so far) but a chance to try out the defroster. Took about 10 minutes to warm up enough to keep the windscreen clear and the wipers did their job. Not sure I’d want to go far in a real blizzard but that’s unlikely. Four-wheel drive seemed to work fine coming up our hill. Let’s hope the pickup does as well.
Shortly after getting the Land Rover in late August I discovered I was unable to engage four-wheel drive. There’s a plunger-like doodad (with a bright yellow knob on it) you push down to switch from two-wheel to four-wheel drive. Mine just never worked and I had visions of owning the only Land Rover in America without 4WD (sob!).
My friend (and wizard mechanic) George Tergin investigated and determined some of the linkage in the transfer case (look it up) was worn so we ordered replacement parts. Since some of them had to come from the UK, it took a while but today he fixed the problem. After which we took the truck for a drive on the Tergin Motor Sports Off-Road Test Track (a field behind his shop)
Turns out it was a combination of worn parts, wrong parts and improperly installed parts. And he let me look over his shoulder (and occasionally assist) for three hours, patiently explaining what he was doing and why.
We’ll eventually get a big snow in mid-Missouri and I’m ready now.
When I leave it parked in the driveway, she will sit by the truck to make it clear she wants to go for a ride. This is our ritual end-of-day drive.
I love the horizontal sliding windows in the Rover. Now that it’s getting cooler, I’ve tried to “lock” them closed with the little knob thingy but once underway the vibration causes the windows to slide open. There’s probably a way to adjust the knob (or replace them) but I went the broomstick-in-the sliding-glass-door route.
Found these little plastic tubes at Lowe’s and cut them to fit in the groove. The little tape “handles” make it easy to take them out if necessary.
Please note, these are not for security. Just a lo-tec way to keep the windows closed. Sort of. There’s about a 1 inch gap between the two sliding panes in the back but I need that to vent the carbon monoxide. According to google, a diesel engine generates less but not zero.
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been recovering from a little outpatient surgery and my doctor didn’t think it was a good idea for me to be driving a 40 year old truck with power nothing. So I’ve been renting a boring little Chevy which isn’t that bad if all you’re trying to do is get from point A to B. Today I got the green light to start driving the truck and and I took a short drive just to see if anything hurt. Nothing did so in the immortal words of George Costanza, “I’m back, baby!”
