Doesn't sound like a bit of fun. A broken gearshifter
was my first Series experience, about an hour after I
bought the truck. Can't say I have any experience in
the snow department however. The coldest it's been in
my part of Texas this winter is about 42F.
--- Jean-Leon Morin <offroaddesign@softhome.net>
wrote:
>
> Ahh, the familiar tingling of fingers that means we
> are definitely in the
> grip of old man winter. As I wait for my battery
> charger to top off my
> batteries, dead from cranking, I figure I'd write up
> the last few days'
> worth of adventure.
>
> I put some newer tires on Valdez, the michelins I
> was discussing a few days
> ago, and I'm quite happy with them. I am still
> trying to find a spot where
> there is snow deep enough to really try them out,
> but they seem to work
> great in three feet deep snow drifts. Here begins
> the adventure.
>
> We had a really cold night yesterday, around -25
> degrees celsius I believe,
> and I had an early class so I was stuck driving
> Valdez at about 6 45 am. I
> got in and tried to put the tranny in neutral to
> start. It felt like I was
> shifting a tranny filled with half cured cement. I
> finally muscled it into
> neutral, started the engine, got it into reverse
> after much cursing, and
> backed out into the street. I tried to push the
> stick sideways to put it in
> 1st (weird shift pattern, non-rover tranny).
>
> Bloody gearshift broke off in my hands. Dammit.
>
> So, I'm in the middle of the road, truck's in
> neutral, and I can't move. I
> try pushing it, but the axles are filled with the
> same jello goop that's in
> the tranny, partly solid 90wt. I run to the garage
> in a panic, get a pair of
> channel locks, and muscle the stub of a shaft into
> 1st.
>
> When I swapped the engine, I welded a rover
> gearshift to the ford lever,
> because I wanted to use a stock rover knob and I
> wanted the shifter to look
> "original" to a certain extent. Well, it broke right
> above the weld,
> probably where the hardened gearshift lost its
> temper, further compounded by
> a bit of a weld undercut. Beautiful.
>
> So, I'm trying to shift this stiff as hell stubby
> knob of a shifter with a
> pair of worn out, finger eating, chinese made
> channel locks, while driving
> this cold as hell Land-Rover that doesn't feel like
> moving one bit.
> Excellent way to start off the day. Anyways, that
> night, 10 bolts and two
> 6013 rods later, it was fixed forever.
>
> Today, I was on a brief off-road adventure when my
> clutch started acting up.
> The pedal seemed a bit mushy and upon inspection,
> the fluid was quite low. I
> figured that I had sucked in some air, topped it up
> with fluid, and tried to
> bleed the system. Open bleeder as I've so often
> done, and drip drip drip...
> But it stopped there.
>
> Intrigued, am I. Pumping the pedal would move no
> more fluid. It was as
> though the inlet on the master was plugged and not
> allowing fluid to travel
> from the reservoir to the cylinder. Thinking I might
> have been the victim of
> a pocket of moisture or water freezing, I grabbed my
> propane torch and
> slowly heated the casting to try and melt any ice
> that might have been
> obscuring the passage.
>
> That didn't work. So, I finally broke down and
> rebuilt the master, and found
> that the little end seal had swelled up (brake fluid
> contamination sans
> doute, I remember having non correct brake fluid in
> there for a few days, as
> I couldn't find any LMA on the road) and was
> preventing flow to the
> cylinder. Aha.
>
> So, reassemble everything, and it won't start. Pops
> and kicks, but doesn't
> run. Hmm. I immediately think it's just flooded so I
> crank it with the pedal
> floored. It stops popping, and I crank it for a good
> 30 seconds hoping that
> all the gas will evaporate, and the batteries goes
> kaput. On goes the (two
> amp) charger.
>
> One hour later. I look under the hood, and start
> thinking that it might be
> low fuel, the light was on when I started working on
> it, and I had it idling
> to use the heaters for a while. I go get some gas,
> pour it in. Crank the
> batteries flat. No dice.
>
> One hour later, I try it again. Prime it with gas in
> the carb. Doesn't even
> pop. I look around under the hood and find that the
> coil wire has slipped a
> bit and isn't contacting at the coil. I reset it,
> and it almost starts, but
> the batteries (which aren't fully recharged after
> only 1 hour of charging)
> don't have the juice.
>
> One hour later... That's right now. Hope it
> starts...
>
> So, the two coldest days of the year to date, and
> I've been crawling around
> in my grubbies working on a Land-Rover, outdoors.
> It's supposed to dip
> to -30 tonight. For some reason, this reminds me all
> too well of being a
> kid, working on 30 year old Bombardier snowmobiles
> in the dead of winter. I
> had forgotten how painful frozen fingers are, and
> how cold steel gets when
> it's outside.
>
> Hopefully off for a test drive,
>
> J-L
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Jan 16 2003 - 12:36:55 EST