no matter how much love and attention (and money) you spend on your landie - they still bloody hate us and have a massive chip on their shoulder about doing anything at all. Must be the commy brummies who built them - the lack of ethics and appreciation has probably rubbed off on them.
So pre MOT check dawned today and out i went,
first wheel wobbled and sounded a bit rough when turned - hmm. So break open the spares box and arm myself with a new set of bearings and seals. Oh no. cant be that easy. Inner bearing has welded itself to the stub axle. Its all oily in there so no idea how that happened. bit of (VERY) careful grinding later and the bugger came off,
Sorted one corner. Is my motor giving me a sign of things to come?
next corner. Wobbled a bit. RIGHT! STUPID LANDROVER. get another set of bearings out. Then give my self a hernia trying to undo the calliper bolts. No joy. Get a longer bar and try again. I managed to twist off the 1/4" drive head from the ratchet!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought the bolt would snap off first, but there you go. It aint shifting.
Toyed with the idea of getting the gas out and a) putting some heat on the bolts b) burning the fricking thing to the ground. Nope, bolt is too close to the flexi hose and aint got one of them in my spares. No brake fluid either. Feck it. Take the hub nuts off and slide the front bearing out. All looks 'ok-ish' inside so repack it with grease and retighten everything as it should be. It can wait......
i just know that brake calliper will come back to haunt me. This motor is vindictive if nothing else.
rear wheel hub oil seal leaking. fair enough. no probs except one of the drive member bolts sheared. Bit of fannying around and that was all sorted.
Bloody awkward sodding car.
exhaust hanger had rotted off.
no problem, got that sorted except i somehow tore my knuckle open taking my hands out of the area on something completely unrelated. Ungrateful swine.
Rear fog light not working. Do you have any idea how hard it is to trace 15 year old foglight wiring back to the switch in the cab on a defender? Found a break in a wire where it had chaffed.
The idea of getting the gas out as per plan B earlier is sounding more like common sense.....
Wiper arm fell out of hte steering column. Fixed it back in with some aroldite but them managed to glue the edge of my hand accidentally to the edge of the plastic surround. Now that HURTS!
Handbrake needing adjusting. Thats not problem - EXCEPT the mud that manages to fall at a 45 degree angle into my bloody eye around my glasses!!!! How does it do that? You could mount that sh!t on to a sidewinder and save the military millions on guidance systems!
Still to do. steering column UJ at the top has a load of play. Not looking forward to that as its a bit tight down there on a 300tdi. I reckon my hands will be fully flailed of skin by the time thats done.
That car frikkin hates me, and i hate it now. If it DARES fail the mot... out comes the gas axe!
5 hours and i ache everywhere. I'm getting too old for this, if it carries on i;m selling the thing and getting a toyota.