Sunday 2 November 2008

In case I wasn't sufficently distracted

Since I am a man who spends his entire life doing nothing (not), I have naturally been on the look out for another happy way of wasting away the hours I don't have spare on some other heavy lump of metalwork.

Hence today I did a deal on an elderly 31ft canal boat, in order that I might have somewhere to live. I've been given a fairly short period to get out of my current lodgings (flatmate/house owner is getting married), a it looked like the options were either 1) spend a fortune on rent, or 2) spend a fortune on a boat. I figured that a boat would be more fun for my fortune, and took action accordingly.

Some time next week I should be taking possession of a NB Bluebell, a 1979 Rugby boats 31'er.
Its old, but in reasonable shape. Todays survey (guess who didn't do any work on his poor old landrover today), revealed that the bottom plate needs overplating, but otherwise she is fine. The bottom replate is scheduled for December, but isn't going to cost me anything - the owner reduced the asking price to match the required work.

In other news, the Reliant has blown its head gasket, and even "K seal" isn't completely sealing it, so thats another day due to be wasted shortly on sorting that, and NOG's exahust manifold is being welded again...

Strangely this week I have done a grand total of nothing to Bitsa, poor old girl. Still, I'll get there in the end, whenever that is...

Sunday 19 October 2008

I'm now a wizz

... at doing Reliant front brakes.

Reliants Robin/Rialto's basically do all the stopping on the single front wheel, which has a rather small and tiny drum brake. This means that I get through a set of shoes somewhere in the region of one set every 3 months. Depending on the shoe type, this can also mean a new front brake drum - older riveted shoes tend to wear scores into the drum as they reach the end of their lives, while bonded shoes generally live to fight another day.

It now almost takes longer for me to jack the front of the car up than it does to get the wheel off, shoes out, changed, and back togther...

Sadly, I've still not had time to do anything to Bitsa, and now I've lent out the spring bush tool to a man in greater need than me...

Saturday 18 October 2008

Springs bushes...

... are evil. Fact.

So far I've changed 1 of the 8. It wasn't too bad, the tool makes a nasty job none too bad.

Rather less satisfactory was an attempt on one so worn the inner rubber had fallen out - it seems that the tool doesn't work on these as it doesn't centre well enough... result - I'm going to have to hacksaw the beggar. Joy.

Still no mig gas, but I've a pile of other jobs to do, mostly on other vehicles. NOG needs a front brake stripping for investigation(seems to be grabbing), the fan belt tightening, the rear drive flanges need new gaskets, the cylinder head needs retorquing, the hardtop needs bolting down and painting... the Reliant needs new front brake shoes and drum, and a replacement rad hose.

I also have to claim my new rear stop/tail lights from the local motor factors. I'm fed up with the Wipac ones letting the bulbs fall out, so I've ordered some from Durite. I belive they will be quality items - at £13 a pop they better had be.

Tuesday 14 October 2008

Killing a boingy

I'm not sure how relivent it is, but I might be about the become the proud owner of a second tdi engine - this time with a whole tdi disco attached. If this happens I will finally get to take the big 9" grinder to a discgay with a vengance, and supply someone with all the bits to make a seriously quick series IIA... anyone want any disco bits...?

I notice that 110 prices have been falling through the floor of late. A 200tdi went on eBay the other night with full T+T for under £1200... a couple of years ago that would have just about bought a 2.5NA 110. By comparison IIA prices seem to be on the up - good SWB's are pushing £2K now.I suppose this means that once Bitsa is alive again, I could trade her in for two 110's.
Not that I will be, I'd rather push a IIA than drive a Boingy...

Tuesday 30 September 2008

I've still not got any gas...

...but I have now got a rather fancy spring eye bashing tool - on loan from Mike Buss (top chap BTW). Very handy looking thing, I'll probably find out if it works on Saturday. 

I've also been having fun with a Stage 1, not that its mine. Someone has put an 80s Jap diesel under the bonnet, and I was amusing myself trying to get most of a transit exahust and a bit of flexi pipe mounted underneath, to repace a really nasty mess that mostly consisted of a 2.25P silencer and half the nissan exahust, welded together in the middle.

I've also got to fix a novel problem with the rat - idle speed when warm is about 3000rpm, and it runs along a 35mph in top without any feet on the pedals. I've not altered anything except the manifolds recently - I swaped an exahust manifold, and thereby had to remove and repace the inlet side - maybe I've unwittingly fixed an air leak that had been causeing a poor idle, which a P/O had masked by turning the idle screw up a bit - apart from that I've no ideas...

Friday 26 September 2008

Welding, and yet more welding

The chassis is now totally bare, and so far a dodge crossmember has been replaced, along with a front dumb iron. I've also cut out one engine mount, and measured up to fit a new one, and cut out the rotten bottom section of the main chassis rails under the back 1/4 of the chassis.

I would have done more, but I've run out of gas, so everything is on hold until I can get the bottle exchanged. I've also been welding a few other things recently, most notably some significant repairs to a Stage 1 the belongs to a chap in New Mills - I fabricated the bottom half of a rear crossmember, and fitted it, as well as doing a couple of spots on the main rails.

The rear axle has had a quick coat of black paint while its off. Amongst my next missions is to replace the spring eye bushes, which are all in the same condition - almost totally rubberless.
To this end I'm borrowing a "bushwacker" which apparently makes this horrible job rather easier... expect to see me white haired some time soon.

Wednesday 27 August 2008

I now have the IKEA flatpack Landrover

A bank holiday having been and gone, the old Bitsa is no more. From a pretty much complete vehicle, I'm now down to a bare chassis apart from the back axle. The engine and box are sat out under a tarp looking rather sad, the rest of the truck is mostly packed away inside the back tub.

The next mission now is to weld up the large nasty rust patches in the chassis...

Monday 25 August 2008

Its been a while, but work has finally restarted...

For various reasons, I've not touched Bitsa for ages. The main reason is that I've been finishing NOG off - she passed an MOT a couple of weeks ago, after a project that has taken some two years, on and off... its nearly three years since she had last been on the road.


Once that was done, it was MOT time for the farm Range-rover, which meant new sills, new floor, the exahust welding up... its also meant about a week of fulltime work. Still, its got another years ticket, before I've got to weld it again.


The final push for the two MOT's has meant that I've not really even thought about Bitsa much, apart from to use her as a handy shed, and to nick small bits from (that where half the lights have gone, nothing like having another vehicle to steal from when you are in a rush)


I've never actually had both LR's up and running at the same time, so now there is a new challenge on - get Bitsa an MOT before NOG comes out of ticket again...

Tuesday 3 June 2008

More engine stuff...

Well, a little more progress... we now have a heater valve.

One of the nicest aspects of working on members of the Landrover maque is the way in which the parts old and new still share similar layouts, and as in this case, the heater outlet thread hasn't  changed since 1965 at least. (That being my guess at the date of Bitsa's current 2.25D, from which this valve was pinched)

The only snag with fitting this tap valve onto a tdi is that the rocker cover has to come off while fitting is in progress.  Inside the rocker cover everything looks all neat and tidy, and very clean. More good news...

Friday 30 May 2008

Cambelt chamber, and some nettles...

I've been meaning to post a picture of what a Tdi timing case looks like for ages... note the lines and tooth counts on the cam pulleys, so I get the timing right when the new belt goes on.

Meanwhile, the undergrowth around Bitsa's itself continues, maybe I should rename her "Nettles".



Its the nesting season...

... and the blackbirds have taken up residence under Bitsa's bonnet. Looks like I'll be doing even less to her for the next couple of week, than normal.
I've also done a little more to prepair the 200di lump for life under the bonnet of a IIA. The top hose connection on a tdi points in the wrong direction for a series, but fortunately its possible to fit a 2.25 top hose fitting in its place, all that its needed is to cut two of the securing bolts down a little.

Thursday 8 May 2008

Talk about a nice supprise

I was cleaning the block on my 200di in preparation for painting last Saturday, and got bored. I had cleaned off most of the passenger side, was running out of clean rags.

I occurred me that while the starter motor was off, it was worth jamming the flywheel, and trying to remove the front pulley to fit a new cam-belt. Changing the cam belt is reputed to be a killer job, but not on this engine. I just couldn't believe my luck.

The pulley bolt cracked off with a moderate heave, the pulley that should need a puller came off with nothing more than a tickling from a crowbar behind it. (Incidentally, should you feel the need to try doing this, remember that you are levering against a fragile timing case cover - do not get a scaffolding pole in there and heave, or its highly probable a new timing case cover is going to be on your shopping list) All the timing cover bolts came out as well. Its a while since a job has gone quite this well. Next mission is to get a new timing belt, as I'd not been planning on doing the job when I left home that morning. Then I can put it all back together.

I suspect that the reason it was all so easy is that the P/O has been a good bloke and looked after the engine, including changing the belt at the required intervals. Probably the belt that is on there is actually a recent one. But, safety first, and a new one will go on anyway...

In other news, I collect a Reliant Rialto Estate from Oxford tomorrow. Its going to be a bit of a culture shock, having been used to driving nearer 2 tons than half a ton. But with the price of fuel, a cheep commute mobile is in order. And while people may call me mad, they cannot deny that (like just about every car I'd had) its "interesting".

Hopefully it will be well behaved, or it may find that its back on eBay where it came from... I'm not going be becoming a Reliant restorer (if I can help it anyway).

Thursday 1 May 2008

Now dumped on all good kitchen tables...

...is a tdi exahust manifold. In my case, because I'm trying to make some drawings for my replacement 200di manifold. I'm rapidly concluding that the whole business is a conspiracy to frustrate, not least as the more I measure, the more complex the thing appears to be. I've done the easy bit now, the twin port centre plate. Its the weird sightly offset end plates that are driving my round the bend. Still, I'll figure a way of doing them at some point. Probably tommorow night.


Monday 28 April 2008

More parts for the pile...






A vist to a fellow club member on Saturday has yielded some more handy items. This time round, its chassis spares, removed from a scrap chassis. The crossmember is to replace a badly butchered one, the was caused by various things not fitting in its early days of my ownership, which I cured by simply cutting a lump out of the crossmember.

Also I aquired a set of engine mounts and battery tray. Replacing the engine mounts is a tradition that has so far been followed at every rebuild/overhaul of this vehicle, and I'm intending on actually getting them in the right place this time...

Tuesday 22 April 2008

No, its not Bitsa...

But you would be hard pressed to tell. Random photo of a rather nice double cab with which Bitsa and I once shared a laning trip. Bitsa wasn't blue then, more multicoloured, or I could have tried for a double vision type photo...

Monday 21 April 2008

As she lies there...

Its a bit worrying how fast vehicles looks abandoned... I mean, this one was in daily use until 9mths ago, and the tax still has four months left. But it doesn't stop it looking like it was dumped there years ago.

Still, I'm hoping to get a little more use out of that tax disk... it would be nice to have her back on the road before the end of this August...


Thursday 17 April 2008

Happy (well maybe) Memories - 2

While looking round my computer I found this peice I wrote in July 07, when Bitsa had an impressive gearbox faliure. I'd written it to send into a Landy magazine, but its getting a bit dated now, so I suspect this will be as far as it ever gets...

I do have some pictures, but blogspot is being tempremental, so I'll add them later...

----

I spent a good part of last week listening to one Bod Dylan CD. Not particularly from choice, it was mostly the Landrovers fault. The gearbox on the Bitsa had finally gone bang, and that was seriously bad news - I was using her every day to commute to work and back. One Saturday afternoon, after a pleasant time at the annual local farm auction, (mostly spent towing lesser 4x4's back from the mud they had strayed onto), I jumped into her cab, fired up, shoved the gear-lever into reverse, lifted the clutch, and she moved back an inch and stalled. Assuming I'd just been indulging in some sloppy driving, I flicked the key, and tried again with a bit more throttle. Result – another stall.
This was getting less amusing. I tried to select a forward gear, guessing that the handbrake had jammed on. The lever refused to shift out of reverse. I selected neutral on the transfer box, and lifted the clutch. The engine stalled.

That was the last trip out for that gearbox. A friendly farmer towed me out to main road, I phoned the breakdown recovery and spent an uncomfortable couple of hours waiting for the lad with the truck to arrive. I wasn't altogether surprised the gearbox had died, just rather annoyed at the timing.
The box had been giving warning signs for most of the year, and at least 20,000 miles had passed since I had first associated the whine in 3rd gear with the layshaft bearing. Things had gradually progressed until I couldn't hear the engine over the scream from the bearing whenever I picked third. As my daily journey to work involves a climb of a good couple of miles with the engine and box screaming at 35mph in third I was acutely aware that a replacement was overdue. I secured a replacement gearbox on Freecycle, and had been planning to head up to Leeds to collect it on the following Tuesday evening. Somehow, I felt my plans were being just slightly re-arraigned.

The breakdown truck eventually hove in slight (as usual the claim “we will be with you within the hour” was about as reliable as the offending gearbox), The truck was winched on, strapped down, and I was gently relayed home. Its nearly a year since Bitsa's last ignominious return strapped to a lorry, which isn't bad for an old lady of 36, who is expected to drive nearly 30,000miles a year. Even so, I feel I am becoming too acquainted with the process of being recovered from some inconvenient location. It seens that it always involves a long delay and that I've always cleared the cab of all food, books, or anything else interesting, just before a breakdown occurs. My cynical side suggests that if I never tidied the cab, I would get 100% reliability.

Dropping Bitsa off into the local rugby clubs car park opposite the house, (my drive is too awkward to even consider), I walked home, starving hungry, tired, and frustrated. One good square meal, and an hour on the 'net and I was feeling rather happier. A helpful Series Two Club member had offered to deliver the gearbox from Leeds on Monday night, for his diesel money. Considering my only other option was pallet line at £70, I nearly bit his hand off. I arranged to borrow my mates 110 to get to work on Monday, and we towed Bitsa down to his house (it is usually fixed in his garage) and went to bed.

At half four on Monday morning my alarm clock went off. I staggered out of bed, jumped on the push bike, and shot down to the garrage. By five am, fuelled with some good hot toast, Sam and I were savagely attacking Bitsa. Cab off, screen down, seats cleared and removed, floor out, seat-box out... by five to seven, the last two stubborn seat-box bolts were out, and the gearbox was visible. A quick hand-washing, and we leapt into the 110, and headed off rather rapidly. I dropped Sam at the farm, and drove to work.

Around six pm I was back, and work restarted. I removed the prop-shafts, undid the handbrake linkage, removed the gearbox mounts, jacked up the back of the box, and got engine sat on a block of wood between the flywheel housing and the cross-member below. A short spell on my back saw the bell housing nuts off.

Wok was then interpreted by the welcome arrival of another 70's landrover, along with Dave, and the 'new' gearbox. A good chat, tea drink, and Dave headed back north, while work restarted.

I can't even begin to give a detailed account of what happened that evening, but suffice to say, it was at this point things started going down hill. The old gearbox was a SIII box, and the new one IIA, which has a totally different clutch release mechanism, for a different clutch. Simple then, to know what to do – fit the SIII bell housing to the IIA box, and I wouldn't have to muck about with the clutch plates, or find a release assembly for the IIA box. At this point, we put disk 2 of “Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits” into the CD player, and set it to repeat all. This was to prove a mistake.

We took the bell housing off the dead gearbox first. This was a piece of cake, apart from the fact that the bolts were so stiff I needed a scaffolding pole to crack them undone. Then I took the bell housing off the IIA box. First off, I had a massive battle with the split pin on the layshaft nut. Then, once that had finally admitted defeat, the bell housing came off, and we hit rock-bottom.
Not only did the bell housing come off, but out also came a large mass of gears, shafts and other important looking gubbins, and a tidal wave of old Ep90. Now, I have had most parts of my Landrover in pieces at various times. I've had my diesel engine strewn round the workshop in little bits on several occasions, I've put clutches in several other people's trucks, welded most parts that can rust away, but I'd never before found out what is inside a gearbox. Now I knew, I wasn't at all convinced that I was in any way a happier individual. It was half eleven, the truck was still broken, I'd been up rather more hours than I liked, and to crown it all, the garage floor was like a re-enactment of the Battle of the Somme, with various critical bits washing up and down it. My hands were far too filthy to touch the CD player, and as Dylan had now been round 4 times, I was starting to get tired of it. Sam and I just stood there, as if transfixed, by the sight of the mess we had created...

After a minute or so, the spell was broken. I picked up the pieces, and cleaned the worst of the garage floor off them, while Sam busied himself in putting dirty fingerprints over the valuable words of wisdom in the Haynes Manual, “Assembly is the reverse of removal”. After conferring briefly, we felt that shoving all the bits back in randomly, then bashing it with a sledge hammer, while a perfectly adequate approach to dismemberment, was unlikely to yield effective long term running.
A certain amount of head scratching later, I had deduced the order everything was supposed to go back in, and found that actually doing the deed was a little like doing a Chinese puzzle with an extra piece. Doubtless its simple in daylight, on a proper workbench, with everything clean, but at one in the morning, when feeling very sleep deprived, and enduring the seventh repetition of Bob Dylan's greatest hits (I normally do like the man), it really starts to get beyond a joke. Eventually, everything was induced to drop into line, the bell housing slid on, and I declared that enough was enough for the night, even if that meant borrowing the 110 again. Its better not to know how long it took in the shower to remove the worst of the Ep90 stains, suffice to say I had been up for over twenty two hours when I finally got into bed.

At work on Tuesday I arranged to have Wednesday off. I also felt like death warmed up. Tuesday evening also saw me fit the clutch release mechanism back into the bell housing, (its better not to ask what I had to do to the input shaft first, or my reputation as a total bodger will be made for life), and drop the box back onto the engine. After that, I was too knackered to contemplate further work that night, and went home to bed.

Wednesday morning saw everything bolted back down, and the gearbox filled with the cheepest thin oil I could find, to flush out any remnants of garage floor. The engine was started up, and I left it turning the gearbox in various gears for a few minutes. The oil was then drained, and the box re-filled with proper Ep90. After doing that, I threw the whole truck back together, and took it out for a test drive. Talk about luxury – I couldn't even hear the box any more, even hammering over Monks Road (about the steepest hill round here, ) in third, changing up and down the top two gears no-longer needed a double de-clutch, and all in all, things were pretty much perfect.

I got a fiver for the scrap man for the old box, after the obligatory pulling apart to find what had happened to it. I found a couple of teeth, and some random bits and pieces floating round in the oil. Judging by the evidence, one of these had worked its way into one of the main drive cogs, and locked it.

So, a little under 24 hours working time, and I had a living Landy again, total cost £30 including the gearbox oil change. Bitsa is still a right old shed, but it seems I love her anyway. Oh, and its strange to say, I've not been listening to much Bob Dylan lately.

Tuesday 15 April 2008

Exhausting manifolds...

After a certain amount of fun, I've done drawings and got a (very reasonable) quote for getting a set of steel blanks cut to fabricate a non-turbo exahust manifold.
Now all I need to do it get the drawing checked (better now than after £40 worth of laser cutting) and pay the price tag. Oh, and fabricate the rest of the manifold from steel pipe. I anticipate a fun afternoon with a pipe bender, the angle grinder and the mig set.

Anticipated outcome: 2x good manifolds. At least 1x scrap manifold. At least one burnt finger, and at least five cutting discs dead...

Friday 11 April 2008

Happy memories - 1

Back in the good old days, before everything blew up, and the MOT ran out, Bitsa is on the roam in Cumbria...

Disco parts...

As part of the 200's modifcations I've ended up with a pile of disco parts I don't want...

So if anyone wants a
- Clutch plate (nearly new by the look of it)
- Pressure plate
- Alternator
- Power steering pump
- Inlet manifold
- Turbo (belived to be good, 117K miles aprox)
- Fan (assuming I don't just end up taking the grinder to it)
- Alternator etc mounting bracket
- Disco engine mounts

just leave a comment...

Wednesday 9 April 2008

The 200di itself

Well, these days I have a 200di sat in the shed, nearing vehicle-ready status.



The turbo has come off, not without a fight, (its better not to ask what the fate of the hard to remove stud was... :-*) and the oil cooler lines have been deal with (as in welded shut)


I've been weighing up the options for manifolds, and come to the following conclusions.
1) The 2.25D inlet is by far the best for the job. Ports seem perfectly in line, and it more or less bolts straight on. All that is needed to fit is to remove a very small slither from edges of the top securing lugs (see photos below).
2) The 200tdi exahust can be used alongside the 2.25D inlet as ^^^, without modification.




However, this still leaves for me the anoying problem of the 200tdi outlet for the exahust being not in an ideal place. I'm toying with the idea of fabricating a manifold, as while its probably more work than fabricating an exahust, it would be a much nicer result to be able to use a std 2.25D side exit exahust...

I've pulled all the power steering pump, alternator, and asociated bracketry off, and experimented with putting a 2.25D one in its place. On balance, I think I'll probably just fabricate a bracket, that way I can use a totally standard 16ACR, with a normal pulley etc.

One question, which still has been bugging me a little is how to take the viscous fan off the waterpump. I know that if all else fails I can brutally attack it with an angle grinder, but I'd rather do things more gently if I can.

Next eposode will probably be sorting the exahust manifold out, and swapping the oil filter, but that may not be for some time yet...

Monday 7 April 2008

Winds of change...

Well, poor old Bitsa has been laid up since the end of August 2007 with a sad malardy that is best discribed as being generally knackerd. The engine is dead, the gearbox leaks, the chassis has holes in, the brakes don't hold pressure and the electrics (mostly) don't work.

If I'm honest, its partly my fault - the poor old thing got a hammering last year, being forced to do many thousands of miles, with maintance that just never quite caught up... its also partly that she was pressed into service with being finished propperly, and hence never was.

Now, a wind of change is blowing gently through the workshop (Not that is stops it smelling strongly of pig... isn't life on a pig farm great). Back in January I went out and spent a lot of money. Two and a half time what Bitsa had originally cost me in fact. But then, I did get a 200tdi engine in reasonable nick.

Its not a 200tdi now - the turbo has been removed. The Series Landrover world seems to have been devided by the merits of this. As far as I can tell, that divide basically sums up two different aproaches to running series Landys. One is to stay low key, low powered, do the minium moderniseing to get a bit more MPG etc. The other says that as IIa's are aren't the fastest thing on the planet, then they need a lots more bhp, so they can keep up with modern traffic.

Having found that a 2.25D with mild tweaking is more than enough for my daily commute, I'm working on the logic that a 200di should be perfect for me. Same sort of power and insurance group. Better MPG, and fully SVO compatable...

Watch here, as the plan is for a blow by blow rebuild account. Things are slow at the moment, I'm really just gathering parts. Come July/August, I expect the be making real progress with the rebuild...

Friday 18 January 2008

A bit of background...

This blog should be about the rebuild of my Diesel LWB landrover...

The post should give some idea of what had happened up until now...

This is the first Landrover I bought, and currently my daily driver - Its changed a lot over time, but I rather like it...

Base vehicle was a 1972 SIII 109" 2.6 SW - quite a low chassis numbered one at that. (about no 250 IIRC)


By the time I  bought it, it had had sixteen diffent owners, four coats of paint, more rust holes than a cheese, and a rather badly fitted 2.25D under the bonnet. It had been last on the road in 1997, some 4 years earlier.


I collected it, put the engine fuel injection gear back together, and managed to get a running engine and working clutch.
It got used, for some period of time on the Welsh Highland Railways Porthmadoc works like this.
I got tired of only being able to access via the rear doors, as the front ones were falling off the bulkhead side pillars, so I obtianed a new(er) bulkhead... off a 4cyl SIII. Which didn't fit propperly, but got fitted anyway.



Eventually, I deceded to get somthing done, to get the truck on the road, and so I got a 99p chassis off eBay, with a load of new repair sections, and put it back together round the remnants of my original chassis...




All the steel bits of the SW body were scrap, and it wasn't overly straight either, so a basic back tub was fitted off a IIA. This started a phaze of IIAisation, which left me with a IIA bulkhead, IIA milliary bumper, SIII wings, and plasitc grill. The bulkhead was a late one, the windscreen was an early one - four wiper conversion anyone...?




Loss of the storage site meant I went mad on geting it an MOT... A big session with Mike Buss and the brakes, and a couple of late nights (well, all night, when it went for the first test I had been up for 30hours solid)




It passed second attempt, after failing on few minor items - swivel bush, binding brakes, couple of shock bushes, exahust knocking on the chassis...




2 hours later I was on the M60 heading for Langerly Farm show, with no roof, and trusting to a good weather forecast. I do not condone the driving of totally untested vehicles long trips, but the exahust had just gone on the classic rover car, so it was scrap the show, or trust to luck and my breakdown cover...

I made it, survived all the comments about what a shed it was, and got home again...


It then got used for a couple of months, and then the engine packed up, with a burnt out pair of valves, due to a rad hose blowing, and dumping the coolant while in the center of Llandudno, with a 2 ton car trailer, and my attempting to get it out of the way. The engine died litterally 100yards from a parking bay I was heading for, on the biggest roundabout, with the trailer completely blocking the thing.






After this happy incident, I left it alone for a bit, until it was wanted, at which point an engine was won off ebay for ?5, and fitted (thanks to Twm, Mike, and Pabs) who between them got the engine from somewhare on the M1, and into the truck for no cost to myself... apart from about 6 weeks worth of (ptich dark) evenings.



As driving to work with no roof in january is a mixture of foolhardyness, and madness, I shoved a truckcab on - thanks SurferJim...


In this format she then did about 10K miles in two months, mostly on the motorway. 2.25D's are very happy being run near the red line all day, just get a good MP3 player with earphones, then shove ear defenders on top...

It was a good job I had put the roof on, while up in Glossop in Ferbuary it took to snowing hard...




One day the front wings started unbolting themselfs while driving through Matlock in the middle of the night - I noticed as the headlights were earthed through one of bolts which fell out, and I lost main beam. Result - fixed with a replacement front grill with the lights in the grill. I also had a sutable passenger wing, but not a drivers one, so it ran with three headlights for a month or so, after which I moddifed the other front one to match...





It gets used on the lanes from time to time, last big session was the North Wales Greenlaning day Jim and I organised...


One day while heading up the M67 it bunged most of a sump full of oil out of the breathers in about 10 miles, so the head was pulled, and the engine re-ringed, as they were rather suspect... I borrowed tools as I was away from home, and thanks to a dodgy pistion ring compressor, knocked a lump off no3 pistion. Thanks to Dave Hall and the OLLR squad a "new" pistion was sourced, and fitted, and normal service was resumed... the "running in" trip back to Wales was rather grim though, something to do with the fact I had set the top speed down to about 40 to stop me blowing it up...


Finally, after much prodding, I threw some blue paint over it, what a transformation...