1968 Land Rover IIA
Blood-curdling screams no longer emanate from Theo’s Land Rover
1968 LAND ROVER SERIES IIA
Old Land Rovers make plenty of little noises. Rumbles, rattles, squeaks, thuds – even the occasional bang and splutter. But an ear-splitting ‘blyuaaaagh’ is less easy to ignore. It may only have been a slipping belt causing it, but anyone who didn’t know better could fairly assume that some angry rodent was under the bonnet being slowly skewered.
I put off fixing it for a couple of weeks as the problem got gradually worse, until eventually I could take it no more. Overalls on, spanners out – the swine had to be sorted.
It couldn’t be a simpler job. The belt loops around the alternator pulley and is tightened or slackened according to the position of the alternator, which pivots around two bolts at its base and is secured by one bolt in a sliding bracket. Slackening the bolts, sliding the alternator to tighten the belt, then tightening the bolts up again, is a fiveminute job, and now the four-year old Britpart belt is silent again.
While in tinkering mode I decided to get an engine oil change done and dusted. Annoyingly, the can of 20w40 I’d set aside actually contained the old oil from last year’s flush (yes, that was dumb) so I took the opportunity to splather some of it on the chassis. Living near the sea makes this a frequent necessity. Using old oil every year or so is a foul job, but it saves a fortune over professional rust proofing, and also ensures that I’m eyeballing every component, so I therefore feel I have a pretty accurate picture of all the little jobs that need doing. It’s a growing list, and one that has made my recent investment in a few Wolf rims (militarystyle strengthened wheels that look the bee’s knees, but are yet to be fitted) feel a bit extravagant.
One thing at a time…