Suspension sorted
Pat sorts out his suspension and the previously reported hesitation issues
he great thing about owning a 20-year-old Defender with a slightly unusual engine is that there is always something that needs doing to it. I am happy to announce that the hesitation my Defender was suffering is now a thing of the past. I sorted it by emailing a description of the problem to Mike Porter from the Land Rover Service Centre in Cape Town. He said to check the fuel pressure and fuel pump before anything else. Mike is Mr 2.8i in South Africa, he owns several of them and there are videos of him drifting one on sand dunes.
So I dropped my Defender off at Rogers of Bedford, the official Isuzu dealership that knows more about Land Rovers than your average Land Rover dealership. They checked the fuel pressure. It was only 2 bar and this dropped to 1.6 when under
Tload. We had found the problem. The fuel pump, which is conveniently located in the fuel tank, would have to be replaced. I did consider cutting a hole in the floor and putting in an access plate to the tank. Jonathan Rogers was having none of it. He got one of the junior mechanics to do the enviable (not) task of dropping the tank and replacing the pump. The fuel pump pressure is now 3 bar on idle and 3.6 under acceleration. My Kalahari Ferrari was roaring like a lion again. Thanks to the £20 fuel pump, Rogers of Bedford and Mike ‘2.8i’ Porter.
I also reported a few months ago that the ride on my Defender was as harsh as a Siberian winter thanks to the two-inch lift and Terrafirma heavy-duty springs and shocks. Great when loaded with a tonne, but not so if used as a daily driver. David Atkinson from ACHSV
promised to rectify the situation and so I headed to his workshop, which is next to Silverstone, to find out how he planned on doing it. For those that have not been to ACHSV it is definitely worth a visit. They have a new paint shop, quality products on show and staff who know what they are doing. Best of all, David is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to working on Land Rovers. Can’t fault that.
He had a newish set of OEM shocks and springs for me that had come off a client’s car that was in for some upgrades. I once owned a brand-new Defender 110 double cab and did a 10,000 mile trip in it, driving from Cape Town to the capital of Angola and back again. The Angolan roads were of the worst I had ever been on but the standard Land Rover suspension was more than up to the task. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, I say. We got my 110 up on the ramp and David set about taking off the old suspension. Often easier said than done, but I am pleased to report that there were no delays or dramas.
Obviously there are little inconveniences such as having to access the front shocks from the engine bay. This is done by removing the access cover from inside the wing. Once we got one of the old springs off I put it next to a standard one. It was like a basketball player standing next to a jockey. This was also a good time to check for any other signs of wear and tear. The bushes had all been replaced just after I purchased my Defender about six months ago so they were fine. The chassis was like new but this was its first English winter so I put Waxoyling on my to-do list.
Next David took a wire brush to the top spring housings which were then repainted so they looked like new. Nobody likes to fit new parts to something rusty or worn-looking. After it had dried, David starting fitting the new suspension. My Defender was only in the workshop for a total of two hours. This was followed by a short test drive. I straight away noticed the two-inch drop. Then I purposefully hit a few speed bumps at speed. My coccyx broke into a smile as it could not feel a thing. The softer suspension made all the world of difference. I sped back to the workshop to report all was working as it should. David gave me his told-you-so look. Thanks to ACHSV my suspension was now sorted.