...and you trusted us again!

This was written over 2 weeks ago but I couldn't publish it from where work has taken me....The saga continues - trying to get a professional tyre balancer/wheel aligner/MoT Centre to sort out the tracking shouldn't be difficult but it appears that Defender wheel alignment is close to bloody Rocket Science, the way these guys are performing. I replaced the track rods and drag link ("cross tube") yesterday. Lying on my back on the gravel, in the snow, with a gale blowing around my ears. I did it because the experience would be valuable, not because I wanted to save the garage any work..actually, based on their recent performance it's probably a better idea to DIY. Anyway, since the parts had arrived in time despite the "Beast from the East" (a barely noticeable snow shower) I thought I'd get on with being proactive and save a bit of time. I tried the "whack it with a hammer against an anvil" method of separating the ball joints with no success. In the end I put the nut back on and just "whacked it with a hammer", underneath, hard - agricultural but effective.

Back at the Well-Known National Tyre Fitter in the morning I showed them how to slacken the pinch clamps and turn the rods by hand - no hammers, blowtorches or Mole grips required - and after a struggle they got everything lined up. I thought. Leaving them the bill for the new rods I drove home, noting along the way that the steering wheel wasn't centred...can you hear the sigh? To quote from an earlier post " a Landrover main dealer for the area is 200 metres away." In the course of conversation the manager happened to mention that they sent their vehicles to him for wheel alignment checks. This is the guy who declared ignorance of 4x4 mechanics, "we don't have much to do with 4x4s" remember? I'm beginning to think that giving the work to this guy was a huge mistake.

So, back home, on my back on the gravel in the snow, I note that the steering drop arm isn't pointing straight ahead. This limits the amount of steering we have left and right. I have 1 and 3/4 turns of left and only 1 and 1/3 to the right....I need to research this as I believe that a small amount of "right bias" is built into the steering geometry, but I don't know how much....in the meantime I'll put the bash plate back on, which is about all I can do before going away for a while. It may be that I just accept that it's "good enough" if the vehicle rolls in a straight line with the steering close to centre, and just move the wheel round to be centred. I don't like the idea, but it'll probably be the least worst option. The reason I wanted the alignment checked in the first place was due to the odd wear pattern on the previous tyres, and only time will tell if that's been cured.
Moving on to other minor stuff, we've modified the attachment for our DIY version of the very expensive "Trasharoo", which is, after all, just a big bag to put rubbish in...

I don't mind spending the money on one of these if it does what it's supposed to do, but the thing I don't like about the design is the way it relies on straps and buckles to hold it in place. Given the cost of the thing I'd prefer a more secure fixing. Straps are OK for something cheap and semi-disposable, but at £65 a pop, these things are worth keeping attached to the vehicle. In Morocco we've had people asking us for our trash, probably because it's imagined to have some useful stuff mixed in with it. We've even been approached by women who were working the fields during a lunch stop; they'd seen Sue putting things into the trash bag and wanted to take it. The bag was, and is, the canvas bag from a "follow-me" shopping trolley-basket. It too was held on by straps like the one above, and was just as vulnerable to being completely removed for its contents.
Our solution, short of investing more cash, is to make use of a plastic-and-fabric wheel cover as a carrier for the bag.

Fastened to the hard cover with short bolts and large washers, it's much more likely to still be with us at the end of the trip and it's useful enough to take the trouble to hang onto it. After all, with no facilities to get rid of our junk other than burying it - which we don't do - we have to have some way of carting it around that keeps any smell, flies and decay outside. The elasticated wheel cover is awkward to get off so is more secure, the bag has no straps to cut or buckles to undo and if we line it with a plastic bag anyone who wants the contents has an easier job. This includes us, so we can empty it more easily. I must be honest, I've been looking for a smarter container but haven't had any luck. I think an old army rucksack might do the job but for now the ex-shopping bag will work.
The Noisekiller engine blanket needed to be replaced.

It'd done good service for over 6 years but was now just a bag of shrapnel; the lead sandwich inside the heavy duty bag had just broken up into small pieces and wasn't doing anything useful any more. I was going to replace it with another, but the amount they wanted to charge me for delivery made it uneconomical - nearly a quarter of the purchase price added on for postage! Sorry, but I won't pay that, it's robbery and encourages the practice if I pay it. So, once again it's the Internet and some lateral thinking...

This is lead/foam sandwich, marketed by these guys. I bought the 1 metre x 600mm size, which is plenty large enough to completely cover the 300Tdi engine with a lot left to slide down behind it. One side is heat reflective but the other is self-adhesive. Since we didn't want to stick it to anything inside the engine bay we had to come up with something that would cover the adhesive, be hard wearing and also fireproof. After a bit of thought, we decided to try one of these:

It's certainly fireproof, cheap and big enough to cover the whole side and wrap over the other a little so we can glue it in place. Because it's quite a coarse fibrous weave it didn't adhere well to the self-adhesive layer on the sandwich so using spray glue to fix it might be best if it comes apart. It's also white so will show the dirt quickly, but we can put up with that. It may not be very hard wearing, though. Time will tell, of course, but the reduction - hopefully - in noise level will be worth it. The cost was less than half of the Noisekiller product and covers more of the engine.

While I'm away, the Base Ops Manager/navigator/head chef/expedition medic has been busy stocking up with all the essential stuff that we can't possibly travel without - in other words "We can't buy it Over There". No arguments with that, but I didn't realise how deprived the Rest of Europe is of some things... 

"Just the kitchen sink to go in and we'll be sorted!"