Check your Land Rover regularly

LAST month I enthusiastically reported the success of my ‘new gearbox’. It’s not you get lucky with these things (it was a $50 purchase of unknown quantity) but it is still going strong with several hundred miles now clocked up. Of course, when you fix one thing, it’s not long before something else needs addressing. In this instance, brakes and a nasty clicking sound emanating from the front axle. The clicked had been getting worse and I thought it was my front, rather wobbly, propshaft but I took that off (it needs replacing anyway) and the sound persisted.

I convinced myself it was probably one of the joints within the swivel assemblies (I use that one-shot grease that Facebook forums insist causes all sorts of problems). I limped my way to my workshop (by now it felt like the axle was locking up at times) and got the Land Rover up onto axle stands and removed all the wheels.

As well as addressing the clicking, I also felt perhaps it was time to fix the brakes. Luck was on my side; all four drum retaining screws undid without fuss and soon I was presented with a pair of heavily-worn brake shoes on the front and a pair of oily excuses for shoes at the rear. I also soon found the cause of the clicking – all of the bolts securing the driver side swivel to the axle were loose. Not just loose, but really loose! I have crawled about under this Land Rover many times lately and I am surprised I had missed it.

A new set of bolts and locking nuts were fitted, new rear hub oil seals and a complete set of new brake shoes. Success, no more clicking. But the brakes are still terrible…

We have all heard this before, but I am fairly sure it’s air in the system. How often do we hear tales of woe when it comes to brakes? Everyone seems to have an opinion and a recommendation. Here are some of the usuals: ‘you need to pressurise the system from the reservoir end to bleed all the air’ (I have tried this previously and it exploded, resulting in a significant loss of paint!); ‘use a vacuum system that draws the fluid from the wheel cylinders’ (again, I have tried this and it just seems to suck air in from the thread of the bleed nipples); ‘clamp the wheel cylinders closed before bleeding’ (I don’t have enough clamps to try this); ‘jack the front of the car up as high as possible before bleeding’ (sounds a bit dangerous to me); ‘you need to file off the edge of the brake shoes’ (never bothered with that one); ‘it’s all about setting the brake pedal height’ (I have never been convinced by that one). Anyway, the list is endless.

So that’s my 109 this month. But what of my 88? Well, it’s also been misbehaving. It is meant to have eight cylinders but I was fairly sure it was only firing on six. Power was down and it just felt awful to drive. I spent a bit of time playing around with the Stromberg carburettors to no avail (not surprising really, I have very little knowledge of how these are meant to work). I then decided to clean up the spark plugs (the true mark of a desperate man when you think spark plugs will cure the problem). I found that two of them were really sooty so I decided to investigate the HT leads and distributor cap. They are only two years old so I felt I was clutching at straws but to my surprise I found heavy corrosion where the leads plug into the cap. A new cap and two new leads (more leads on their way) and we are definitely now firing on eight cylinders. What a relief! I had convinced myself I needed a new camshaft. Who else tends to default to the worse possible scenario when something goes wrong? I find it helps manage my expectations.

Based on my experience this month what I am trying to impart with you is the need to carry out regular checks on your Land Rovers. Do not wait for that clicking sound to turn into something more sinister and do not assume something that was new a few years ago is still going to be ‘new’ today. And as for brakes, exercise caution. Whilst it is fantastic if you can carry out your own maintenance and mechanical repairs, always seek credible advice and get things checked by a professional. If you re-do your brakes and they fail, will you be able to blame the Facebook advice you got?

This month I have also welcomed a new addition, a 109 Series III Safari Station Wagon. I bought it on an absolute whim simply because it was cheap and fairly local. The advertisement was really very vague but in the pictures I could see it at least had good bodywork. Really, I bought it as a source of parts but when I got it home I started to think perhaps it’s a little too good to be used for spares. I then made the regretful decision to share some images of it on Instagram, asking, should I use for parts or restore? It was only ever going to get the ‘RESTORE IT’ response. Restoration is not really an option for me currently so I have put it back up for sale. Funnily enough, all the ‘RESTORE IT’ folk have gone very quiet now they have the opportunity to take it on as a project.

When Brit Jack Dobson emigrated to Australia in 2010 he took his passion for Land Rovers along with him.

“But what of my 88in? Well, it’s also been misbehaving. It is meant to have eight cylinders but I was fairly sure it was firing on just six”