Green Mamba rides again

Patrick’s Green Mamba is ready for the summer

SOME OF you might recall my struggles with the Defender ‘death wobble’ last year. Despite the fact that we twice replaced the panhard rod bushes the problem still persisted. I just have to say

thanks to all the useful emails that I received from several readers on how to rectify the problem. Thanks must also go to Greg King, the former JLR employee and Defender expert who suggested that I get the swivel preloads checked. They say it never rains but it pours. So while my Defender was in to get this done another little disaster occurred. As it was driven down to the workshop the fan once again shattered into a thousand pieces, damaged the radiator (which I recently had restored for an astronomical fee) and also the brand-new fibreglass cowling. Remember I picked up a new cowling, viscous and fan while in Africa over Christmas? After inspecting it all I suspect that the cowling popped out of the bottom railings and then the fan hit it and basically exploded. So we were back to square one with that. Bedford Radiators this time repaired the radiator for me for only £100. I now officially own the most expensive Land Rover radiator in the world. A new fan was acquired from BMW and some modifications were made to the cowling to ensure that it does not come loose at the bottom and that the fan does not hit it again. We also made some modifications to the fan; in fact we cut a piece off each blade to ensure that it won’t hit the cowling, crossmember or air con unit. I have been driving it for a few weeks now and while the smaller fan sounds a bit different it is doing the job. Fortunately we are not in the middle of the Sahara desert where every inch of fan blade makes a huge difference to a Defender that traditionally has suffered from running hot issues.

After the above was completed the swivel preloads were checked and the shims adjusted. Rogers were confident that this time the ‘death wobble’ problem was definitely sorted. I have been driving it the last few weeks and so far so good. So come on summer, the Green Mamba is ready for you.