The lay of the land
1988 Land Rover Ninety
It’s been a year since I put our pre-fender on the road. How did that happen?! This frightening reality was highlighted by a letter asking me to tax the thing (£325pa – yikes!), and its MOT was due. In the past twelve months, my wife and I have put 3400 miles on it (no, I daren’t work out the cost at the book 18mpg…). In that time we’ve enjoyed a head gasket failure and subsequent replacement, an ongoing fight with leaking rear half shafts, the occasional flat battery and an alternator failure – but such is our love for this rugged old bus that we forgive it these foibles and work through them each and every time. So, it was with a little trepidation that I carried out my pre-mot checks. There were a couple of split track rod gaiters to be seen to, which I replaced with upgraded polyurethane versions from
Britpart, and one front and one rear sidelight required a jiggling session with their bulbs to work properly – I’ll investigate LED upgrades all round soon if for added reliability and visibility. Then, on the way to the test, as the mileometer clicked over to 120,000 miles, the speedo cable snapped. Joys. On the plus side, it passed with flying colours, save for an advisory on a fluctuating rear brake (warped drum I suspect, but
I’ll investigate), so should be fit and ready to tow my Austin Seven Special down to Oxfordshire Sevens next month where I’ll be dropping the ride height in anticipation of getting it on track with the 750 Motor Club’s Historic Formula.