Clock's ticking....

Time to get stuck in to the work we need to get done before the end of the month. I have to be away for over 3 weeks in March and with the departure planned for early April we need to get ourselves sorted out. By removing the CB aerial I was able to get Elly's front end far enough into the workshop to protect me from the howling gale and driving rain that always seems to be a feature of working on anything nowadays. At least I can shelter behind the truck for at least half of the job if the wind direction is right.

 But, as you can see, there's not a lot of room to spare. Certainly, if I want to jack the front end up then I have to be aware of how little room there is! Doing the same with the back end isn't possible because of the roof tent.

New windscreen wipers were a necessity after driving against the seasonal low - and blinding - sun a couple of weeks back. With the screenwash freezing on the glass and the wipers like toothbrushes I had to resort to a sponge and a puddle to see where we were going.




The second job last weekend was to sort out the brakes. I doubt, from the colour of it, that the brake fluid has been changed in quite a while...

...and while I was at it I decided to check the wheel bearings, swap the wheels and tyres for our "desert" ones and replace the rear brake pads. As usual, this became a much more involved set of jobs than I'd planned. First of all the parts I ordered took an age to arrive after the supplier declared some things were "out of stock" despite saying the opposite when I placed the order. Then the courier delivered everything to the wrong address and I had to spend 2 days tracking it down. I know that it's not my responsibility, but if you don't help yourself, nobody else seems to give a toss. Then I opened the box....

Anyone reading this that does their own maintenance knows the reputation of the "Blue Box Bits". Had I known what I was going to get I wouldn't have ordered, but the ad didn't make it too clear, or maybe I didn't read it carefully enough. Anyway, having waited nearly 2 weeks for the stuff I needed to get on with the job. I can see myself replacing the pads sooner rather than later, though. The fitting kit that I ordered seemed OK with all the new bits - retainer pins, springs and split pins.... 


First stage, then, is to get the wheels off. Now, having had the wheels balanced a while ago I hadn't tried to take them off since. The usual tools had no effect on the nuts whatsoever - they were seriously tight; so much so that I managed to bend the Landrover-original wheelbrace.

It should be the shape of the one on the top. A good job I discovered it now as to have this problem with wheel nuts while at the side of the road wouldn't be too great. It took an impact socket and a 5 foot lever to get the buggers off.






Stripping the hubs back to the bearings is easy enough and the front wheels had a tiny bit of play that I felt needed to be taken out. Sandy at the garage suggested that a "tiny bit" of play is OK, but what's a "tiny bit"? I decided to set the bearings again with the torque from the manual and see what happens. I replaced the drive flanges while I was at it, since these seem to wear out quite quickly. 

Getting the wheel spacers off was quite easy  -I was expecting a fight - and the front drive flange bolts had been replaced with some with socket heads. I was a bit worried that if these "rounded" when I put the key in, I'd have more trouble getting them off than if they were the standard hex bolts, but they came out really easily despite being coated with more Loctite than they really needed.

It took a lot of work with taps and dies to get it all off and clean the holes.








Difficult, but if you look closely you can see the difference in the shape of the "teeth" on the flange and the space between them - the new one's on the top. On "Daphne" I replaced them with heavy-duty items but never felt totally convinced that this is the right thing to do. The flanges are a sacrificial item and a bit easier to change than a halfshaft, certainly easier to carry spare flanges than spare shafts. If the flanges are stronger the next item in the chain to wear out would be the splines on the halfshaft....I think I'll stick to carrying spare flanges.

With all that done  it was time to replace the brake fluid. I used one of these to make the job "easier"....which equals not needing any help. 

This is a Gunson "Eezibleed". You fill it with brake fluid and pressurise it with a spare tyre, the idea being that as you take fluid out at the caliper it gets replaced automatically at the reservoir so removing the need for a helper to pump the brake pedal to achieve the same result. And it works....but only for the front brakes - the ones closest to the master cylinder. I had no joy at all with the rear brakes despite pumping the "system" up to over 30psi - the maximum advisable is 20 - and taking the risk of something bursting and spraying brake fluid all over the place. In the end I gave up and The Sorcerer's Apprentice had to be dragged out of the kitchen to assist.





Then it was time to replace the rear brake pads. An easy job, takes mere minutes, and we've got all new parts, right, so no scratching around for replacement split pins and all that....Now, you'll recall my wariness of the "Blue Box" contents? Here's a typical problem:

The new retaining pins are shorter than the old ones. The part number is supposed to be the same as the ones I'm replacing. The result is..... 

....the new ones are too short and the split pin that holds the whole lot together won't fit. Britpart, AKA "Sh*tpart" to many people. I had to reuse the old ones. Nice new springs, though.

Finally, on with the new boots. Shiny wheels, too. Good to go.

Finally, the annual MoT test will be due when we get back, and the rules have changed so that any removal of emission regulators etc will mean Elly not getting a "pass". Since the PO had removed the EGR regulator - and I did the same on Daphne since they do nothing but gum the system up with old oil - this bit of the engine needed to be replaced. A search of the internet revealed that the cost of these things is enormous, and added to that all the bits of hose, solenoid etc needed to put everything back was even more expensive. Given that most people would've thrown the parts away after removing them years ago, there is probably going to be a lot of folk searching for cheap bits from scrapyards across the country. I reckon, anyway, so I picked up some stuff from eBay to refit. Might be a waste of money but maybe not. Anyone want to bet?