Normal service may be resumed...

Those odd folks who look at this page (apparently there are some, or the stat counter wouldn't keep climbing - 8K hits to date), may have noticed a bit of a lack of posts this year. (Well, a total lack actually)

Hopefuly, that is going to change, now I'm not fixing Bitsa 24/7. Its been a rough ride the last couple of months, the original engine died on 3rd January, after running a big end (root cause of the problem was low oil pressure, because of a problem with a camshaft bearing).

That engine came out, and in its place went another 200di, this one from Landranger. That lasted two weeks, and then ran two big ends. It seemed that while fitting, we had left the oil thermostat in place, while blanking off the oil cooler feeds. Somewhat predictably, this had led to it opening while headed up the M6, and totally cutting off the oil supply to the big ends... this got rebuilt with another crank, and new shells, also some bits from the other engine. Finally it was back properly on the road in late February.

There has also been a major program of repair works, focused on getting her through the next MOT. Work has been done on everything from the handbrake, to the cab floor.
Still outstanding is to:

Change the rear shocker bottom bushes (not looking forward to this one),
Sort the screenwashers
Fit a new flasher relay (I don't think manually flicking the lever is allowed in the test)
Change the steering relay, and 1 ball joint. Not looking forward to this at-all - I'm not just swapping the relay, but the front cross-member as well, due to the fact the relay refuses to come out. The upside is I can remove several dodgy welding jobs from previous owners and replace them with decent repairs while I'm at it. I'm hoping that will finally sort the issues with cracks appearing round the bump stops. (I've repaired several now, and am getting a bit bored with it).

Not sure how often I'll manage to update this page - the MPG count has been reset, and that at least is dealt with reasonably regularly. (Not sure what will happen once WMO testing resumes, but that's on hold until I've at least a bit more time.)