Once again off to a pay and play.  Got abit stuck on some occasions but like normal managed to get out on our own.  Our first dent was made also, I slightly bumped the front drivers wing on a small tree, its ok – hasn’t broken the paint.

Clicky

Off to the Explosive museum in Southampston for the winter tour

Clicky

Finally me and dad managed to make it along to Brick Kiln Farm, this is basically a couple of acres of land where you can just drive about and do what you want (there is also a motorbike track).  We bought some recovery gear last weekend at the Newbury Land Rover jumble, so were ready to be pulled out of somewhere, luckily it didn’t get to that stage, though we were stuck a bit of patients and brains and we were out of it.

The last pictures of the day when I managed to drive down quite a big bomb hole and round a corner steering the opposite way (and in high range – so when I put my foot on the gas it shot off) and ended up across the track but my front left side up on the bank about 3ft higher then the rest.  It was great to see the standard articulation of the Land Rover doing its job well.   As always I learnt allot on this outing, its so much easier leaning feathering the throttle on a  3.5 v8 then a 1.4 4 cylinder!  The other thing I put in practice to day was the good old bumps, just stand on the rear bumper and jump up and down, really does work well.

Clicky for pictures of the day

Today I went about the task of replacing the ignition switch; this is placed on the back of the ignition barrel behind the console.  The need for this started when some tinkering was being carried out and the accessory heater wire connection broke on the back of this unit, the temporary fix was attaching the existing cable to the fused side of a interior light switch.   The second issue happened on its first day out on the road, I was going down a small lane when a car was coming along, ahar! no problem I though, just pop over these holes on my side and carry on going, well the first bit went ok – but then the engine cut out. 

After sitting there turning the key over for a couple of mins it still wouldn’t start, it turned over but just didn’t start! Maybe this is a big problem…?.  I started troubleshooting around the fuel tank area, off came the seat and seatbox cover to get to the petrol tank.  I turned the key, hang on the pumps going and I could just here petrol being pumped round – so the issue isn’t here. 

A cigi or two later, having a look if everything’s was ok under the bonnet I was getting really confused.  Sitting in front of the console I then noticed that as I turned the key the battery charge light and engine light were not illuminating!?  I just had this feeling to open up the console, so out came the toolkit and of came the console front and there my problem was, a thick white wire was just dangling around, there were a couple of wires not attached to anything but this white wire had a broken terminal connection on the end.  With the door wide open I could just about see where this might have to connect to, held it in place,  turned the key and the beauty started up fine!  Ok I though the issue has been found so I don’t need the AA, but still stuck in the middle of nowhere, luckily this wasn’t a really quite road and a short time later I flagged down a friendly painters van and nabbed some ducktape off them, that’s the only thing I could think to ask for, what would you ask for!?  All stuck together off I went to Halfrauds to get some superglue to secure the connection rather then duck tape. 

I though that was the issue resolved and kind of forgot about it. Then remembered and then forgot again up until our trip off-roading in Aldersmaston.  The off-road bit went fine, as you can see in my previous post, but the problem came about when traveling down the motorway in an average speed check area meaning there where 3 dinky lanes on a motorway all itching to go more then 50, me I was plodding along fine at 40 ish until nothing, just nothing, no drive – it actually took a second or two to realize as at low revs on a motorway the engine noise isn’t that much – its just the tyre/road and axle noise.

Once again I noticed no lights on the dash board so off came the console in a flash and checked the glued on terminal, that was fine but I ripped it off and manually held the connection on before turning the key and all started up fine, so things might have slipped abit.  Onwards we went, in a safe fashion of course, one hand down the back of the console holding the wire onto the ignition and the other on the wheel until we got to the motorway junction and could have a better look.  This was fixed securely for the small drive home.

So off to Land Rover in Basingstoke (Houndsmill) for a replacement, well I say Land Rover, I actually had to go to a BMW parts department to get the bits!!! I was shocked to say the least, shite service there as well!  Anyway the part wasn’t in stock but it was ordered, supposedly be ready for Thursday and a call to let me know, Thursday came and went, no call, I was in basing the week later so popped in to check as after sitting on the phone 3 times earlier with no response I was abit annoyed. The new part was in.

Original replacement part from Land Rover for a ‘1985 V8 90 with steering lock’ :
Material-  579085
Description- Switch Assy
£19.somthing

Sorry forgot to take a picture of new part before I put everything back together.

Tools needed:
Medium size Phillips screwdriver
Small size Phillips screwdriver

Below are the steps taken to replace this part, this is the faulty part.

Read more »

Today me and dad took the Landy to a 4×4 track just up from AWE at Aldermaston, other side of Basingstoke from me.   The day was layed out by 4×4 Without Clubs, the hints all in the title really, it’s a pay and play site that doesn’t require you to be in a club, just simply turn up pay and play!  The course has 3 stages – road – off road and advanced, the road stage can be done with road tyres, the off road sections are for well off road vehicles and the advanced section requires a roll cage at to be honest 38’s, 2inch+ lift and a bobtail to even attempt them!

The Landy went well, as it was standard we kept off the advanced courses and found that there wasn’t anything that we came up against that would hold the Landy back, be holding the Landy back is another things.  As I have said in my previous posts this is the first time I have driven an offroader and getting use to how it handles as well as what can be attempted with it.  The mud finally started to stick (dam, need to get waxing more!) which was great after some of the looks when we pulled into the car park with a very very shiny offroader. 

We tried to stay away from the water holes as the job of waterproofing hasn’t been started yet (as it’s a V8 it doesn’t really like water) and I had the intention of keeping away from the mud as I just wanted to see what the Landy can do, but it’s a proper off road so go for it and we did!  Ok it wasn’t advanced stuff and when looking at some pictures it may not look much but some of the bomb holes we where going up and down where about 8 feet above and 8 feet below the ground, so when driving in and out you literally see the sky one second and the ground the next. 

We had abit of a slippy moment going down abit of a twisty hill where to the entrance of a corner tree roots where showing through the mud in a downwards direction meaning that when we went over them the Landy started to slip down the hill,  no matter what you tried there was no way out as soon as you start to slip there are trees about a meter and a half in front of you (I have tried putting me foot down once or twice when out on little lanes to get over these issues and well have come to the conclusion V8’s cant do it, or I just don’t have the skill yet).  We got around it by managing to roll onto some mud with the front wheels to get the front around and then just letting it role in 1st with a hard right steering lock (sorry forgot to mention there was also trees to our right, i.e. the width of the ‘lane’ was about 2 foot more then the Landy!

We did most of the course, given the bits we left out as with the waterproof issue stated above, anyway we decided to head for home with a 100% working Landy, very chuffed!  It was funny in away, the Landy did great off road, but half way down the M3 on the way home after turning on from Basingstoke, it cut out- no drive- dials where working – lights ok, just no engine, bugger I thought.  Quickly I noticed that when turning the key the battery charge and engine light where not coming on, the same problem as I had before (sorry I forgot to post about this, basically the wires on the back of the ignition had broken off but  little super glue and electrical tape and it was sorted for now).  The wire was still connected to the ignition but for some reason, nothing. So I decided to prize the wire off and manually hold it on (this is after taking the dials out of course). Bingo all started to work again, so with the Landy started ‘I safely drove to the next junction not with my hand holding a wire on the back of the ignition under my dash panel with one hand and steering with the other).  Once we where off the motorway a quick fix was sorted and home we went.  I have ordered another ignition barrel PCB board where all the wires attach to and will be posting a guide concerning how this part is installed/replaced.

Overall a good day, nice bit of mud, no off-road incidents and pretty dam chuffed with what we have to be honest, yer we could have just got it running and ragged it about, but this way we have pride in our Landy and am not going to chuck it into any bomb whole or dust pit not bothering if it gets damaged.  Yer we get scratches but there battle scares really, and anyway a polish and you xan hardly see them.

Take a look at pics from the day… Clicky