2001 

This page is intended as a historical/hysterical record of the the past breakages/new breakages and soon to be breakages....and other bits that have happened to Cartman (and fallen off) since we first adopted him. This record is in the order of most recent happenings at the top to the past at the bottom.

Work still on Cartman's ongoing to do list....!!!!!

Make a cubby storage box Shaft seal area repair on transfer box inlet and outlet shafts to reduce leaks. Vellerman/Maplin electronic ignition mod to fit with MSD Blaster 2 40kV sports coil.

December 2001

• Brickiln Farm Shire LRC play day was the first outing which saw the new Guyane's putting up quite a good show. We even had a bit of snow !!!!

• New tyres fitted on the 26th. Black-Star 'Guyane' mud terrain profile in 7.50x16 at £70 each including fitting etc. Micheldever tyres are now a part of the 4 Site group (Southam Tyres) and sell them. Have had quite a few discussions with the importer Trans Global Tyres in Poole Dorset and these look set to easily replace (even outmatch) the previous offerings from the like of the recently demised Colway. The first off-road play day on the 30th at Brickiln with these fitted resulted in no 'stickings' at all and allowed the S3 to go wherever it was pointed. On-road they hum very slightly but only a tad more than the all terrains that were previously installed.

• Salisbury Plain Green Lane day on the 16th went well despite the freezing cold weather. Not a problem with water on the ignition this time after I applied a smear of silicone RTV to the inside of each cap on the distributor before they were fitted and the large piece of rubber fitted across the front of the rad grill.

A view of Stonehenge from the byway

• Leak on the transfer box seems to have eased off with the leakage over 2 week now down to almost nothing.The main box needs topping off around 50ml every 2 weeks but runs smooth. Maybe the new seal is 'bedding-in'?
• Oooh the drafts !!!! The front vent seals are now leaking on both sides and need either resealing or replacement. On taking off the seals I managed to tear one and found that luckily the bulkhead behind was still in good condition. Rubbed the surface down anyway and applied a coat of Hammerite primer and left it for 5 days. New seals sourced from Paddocks for £11 a pair and stuck in place using solvent based RTV Silicone. But there is still a slight draft. :) This will take a bit more investigation.
• The fuel consumption seems to be dropping off now mainly due to the cold weather front that has desended. Choke has to remain partially on for at least 3-4 miles each morning. Changed the thermostat anyway from an 84 to 73 Deg.C as it was almost 18 months old.
• Oil change with Unipart Green 20/50 and a refresh of ProLong additive plus a new oil filter. The last oil change was only oil and no filter but that was only 6-8 weeks ago. Acted as a good flush though as the dumped oil was very black for only 1500 miles.

November 2001

• Green Lane clearance day around Alresford/Alton. (Pictures to be inserted).
• Now the weather is beginning to chill Cartman has decided to run a bit weak and stalls on the way to work before getting up to temperature. Richened the mix by half a turn ACW on the Webber. Pick-up is much better and it didn't stall this morning.
• Shire green lane clearance day to the East and West of Basingstoke. Even managed to get 4 of the local Venture scouts to assist! A tiring day was had by all and was not helped at the end of the afternoon when the RUPP was blocked with a parked car and a 'mound' of logs. Apparently the guy who lived in the house at the end of the RUPP believed that it was not a 'road' and was private, despite the sign above it saying 'Byway'. HCC informed as this will most likely be regular occurance (grid ref. for info. SU552 408).

October 2001

• Gearbox is leaking again!! It is less than before but it must be from the selector rod seals -bu**er! Cannot be arsed to get it all out again and I will just have to live with it. But after 2 weeks the TX box needed another 200mL so hopefully that is the main point of leakage so a shaft repair (Speedi-Sleeve available from BSL part No. CR 99162 @ £16.50+VAT each) looks like the way to go.
• While the tunnel was off I could install a breather pipe to the top of the gbx and blank off the original breather hole. Everything now has an extended breather except for the hubs.

Breathers now on gearbox/transferbox & overdrive

• Gearbox cover oil leak. After realising that the leak was not mainly from the transfer box oil seals, but on the top of the main box, out came the floors and the transmission tunnel. The cover over the top of the box was plain to see but removal would be interesting as I did not want to drop the selector rod detent balls into the gbx case! In the end it went well but the cover plate cannot be completely removed without taking off the seatbox - stuff that! So the cover was raised 1/2" and cleaned around the mating surfaces with alchohol (there was no gasket sealant or paper gasket fitted). Silicone gasket sealant was then applied and the lid dropped back into place. Hopefully this will stop the leaks, but oil could still be coming from the selector rod seals. As I could not remove the cover I could not inspect for broken 'O'-rings. Fingers crossed then.

• Checked play in the steering again only to find that there was not 1" of play but 3". Not surprising that it was veering about over potholes! Adjusted to about 1" of play on the steering box. Much better now and tracks well.

• Adjusted valve clearances which were out by about 1-2 thou. larger. Changed plugs to a new set of Valeo (cheap from Paddocks) and Cartman is running much smoother now and pulls up hills better than before. Still runs on though.

• Changed the oil and filled with Prolong. (75450 miles)

• New rear prop fitted with gaiter. No more snatch on low speed drive take-up. Superb!!!

• Rear handbrake oil seal replaced. Not as difficult as I first thought and the original seal was in good condition but it looked as though the last time the seal was changed it had been removed rather brutally with a screwdriver around the edge which had damaeged the aluminium casting on the speedo housing and very little sealant had been applied around the seal during installation. The scoring was cleaned up and the new twin lip seal was fitted with a good application of gasket sealant around its outer edge. The driver hub running surface was also cleaned up with some fine wet and dry, though it was in good condition.(Note that 4 months later it was leaking again!)

• Decided to bite the bullet and get on with the leaking rear hub. Second time I have done one of those distance pieces and from wheel off to re-assembly only took 1/2 hour! The old oil seal looked A1 (it had only been on 2 months) and was the preferred twin lip type, but I fitted a new seal which was a single lip rubber one. The original distance piece was worn and rust had formed around the edge so it was a good idea that I changed it anyway. Also fitted the rear axle breather (original brass one didn't seem to be blocked) and tidied up the original pipework on the other breathers.

• Passenger side rear hub seal had been leaking before - that is why the original shoes had failed the brake system during the MOT -and is now leaking again. My original thought had been that because of the blocked axle breather the pressure was forcing the EP90 out. Thinking again I haven't fitted an extended breather to that axle yet so that still may be the case even after I have cleaned the standard breather? I have ordered the parts anyway so I will look at this again later this week.

• Despite my insistance to everyone else to A) Go laneing accompanied, and B) Don't drive a lane that you don't know you can get through or easily back-up. So what do I do drive down a tight route on my own in the pouring wind and rain and think, 'Ooh this is tight'. Couldn't get through and had to cut a large hole in the vegitation to turn the LR round. Its now covered in twigs and leaves inside and out. What a wally?

Steaming after the escape - not a coolant leak but after a quick wade!

• Heater control valve started weeping coolant. Could not find a replacement so I have installed a manually (get under the bonnet and turn it on and off) replacement. Works too well and it is getting a bit warmer in the cab than it ever was before. I could even replace this unit with a ball valve with a larger bore to allow even more flow rate, therefore, more heat ?

'Locally' fitted heater control valve in the engine bay (MK1)

September 2001

• On holiday in Tunisia and I was 'sad' enough to spot another Series 3 on the beach in Hammamet. Used by the local beach sport activity type place for towing boats about etc. Sand tyres and 2.25 petrol engine. Bit shabby but a runner. They probably do not have MOT testing in Tunisia :)

• Gearbox and transfer box oil leaks are getting too bad now. More than anything it is the annoying puddles under Cartman than the amount of fluid. I know they always leak but it is getting worse. I have ordered a new handbrake oil seal anyway.

• Front passenger side parabolic spring squeaking. Needs investigation. Could be bushes that need lubrication or bush problem? Seems to have gone away so they may just have been dry? Checking them out reveals no obvious problems.

• Passenger side recoil seat belt fitted. It has only been lying on the shelf of the garage for around 18 months but required modification to fit correctly (was intended for a Range Rover). So now passengers will not have to be trapped in their seats with the old style belt.

• Modified the overdrive and transfer box breathers to pass into the engine bay and stop in a 'U'-bend at the top of the bulkead. Better than the direction that the original pipework ran. Also made up a new gasket to fit under the transfer box plate that the breather passes through. Also, the first axle breather fitted on the front axle. So main gbx and rear axle still to do.

• Fitted extended breathers to the transfer and overdrive boxes. Hopefully will reduce the amount of EP90 ending up on the drive after a long run? My suspicion is that the heat generated causes the air to expand, so the pressure has to be relieved somewhere - through the shaft seals - which allows oil to pass. The main point of leakage is around the transfer box rear output seal but as the box was only fitted in Jan. I would hope the seal was new etc.? There are vent holes are in the boxes anyway but these are very small and block easily. I still need to fit one on the gearbox when I can find an easy point of installation.

First breather install, vent pipes wrong direction. Have now moved vent to bulkhead.

• Moved the CB to above the parcel tray. This avoids contact with passengers knees and is much easier to use and hear.

• On the second attempt at a the M.O.T. retest Cartman passed on the front brakes. I had found that after replacement of all the front shoes the adjusters would not reach the stub on the shoe. Not sure that this had been a problem before though? New shoes fitted and adjusters re-built on both hubs. At least I can now say after all this experience that I can replace front shoes in around 10 minutes per side without any problem.

• Put Cartman in for a retest and the rear brakes passed but the fronts failed again. All I could initially see on the first inspection was some oil deposits on the shoe surface which I had assumed had come from the distance piece and seal which failed a month or so ago - but this was not to be. With the shoes off I stripped down both brake pistons only to find that the upper one had NO RETURN SPRING! Had a new Girling caliper but with a stripped thread so I fitted the new piston and seal with the spring into the original upper caliper. Re-assembled and bled the system through. Cartman back in for a front brake check Fri/Sat.

• A 'good' start to this month - NOT. Cartman booked in for his MOT on the absolute last day of the current one and he failed. I should look on the bright side as he past on everything except the brakes. The garage I use is local but they know Land Rovers (they used to trial them) so I have no worries with their familiarisation with the mark. Apparently the pass. side rear was 70% low in efficiency when compared to the opposite side (they suspected brake piston leakage); and the fron drivers was 25-30% low, 25% variation being the maximum allowed.A strip down of the rear hub first revealed the extent of the problem. The blocked axle breather had not only caused a small leak at the prop end of the rear diff but the rest of the grease and EP90 had been entering the hub/brakes. What a mess!!! Shoes are completly written off but the brake piston 'was' OK. I say was because I tackled this job after mixing 1 tonne of concrete by hand and while attempting to fit the new shoes I forced the piston which caused the opposite side to fly 6ft. across the garden, spring and seals scattered to the four winds!

• Found all the bits though, so the piston internals were thoroughly cleaned and parts re-fitted after checking.

This was the state of the shoes after the drum was removed!

August 2001 (75000 miles)

• While checking the axle breathers I noticed a small oil leak around the rear diff prop oil seal. When the breather was removed I found it to be completely blocked with grass and mud. No wonder the seal was leaking. Cleaned the breather and refitted.SEE PROB RELATED TO THIS ABOVE!!

• After Billing I had a problem with fuel starvation to the Weber. The vehicle had been standing unused in the sun for a week so I put it down to evaporation as it re-primed without a problem. But 4 weeks later it happened again and now would not re-prime. Luckily Mark had a spare unit so the old one was removed and the manual suction between the two beared no comparison. The was some suction from my one but it was not any near as great as Mark's. So Mark's went on and fixed the prob. Top end may have improved to....?

• Sitting at the club stand at Billing I noticed that the rear spring rear bushes were completely shot. No wonder I was feeling a lot of stange vibs through the rear! Now with the extended shackles this happens easily with the standard springs (asked around) so I hocked them out and replaced with Bearmach polybushes. Has made the rear handle a tad better but you can feel each pebble passing under the rear wheels now.

Before and after bush replacement

• Check all transmission oils for contamination. No problems at all and levels had only dropped slightly from the 300 mile run back and forth to Billing (100mL in tx box).

July 2001

• Cleaned out the fuel pump filter (bits of sand etc.) and added some Prolong fuel system cleaner to the tank (given free while in the USA). Seems smoother but again it could be that Psycho' thing? Also fitted a new in-line filter at the carb and replaced the fuel line 'rubber' hose which was starting to perish anyway.
• Wing tops had been looking scaggy for some time (after I jet washed the paint off - plonker). So in a spurt of 'inspiration' I resprayed them with underbody protection black stuff. No reflection and harder wearing? We shall see.
• Front offside side light had stopped working. Investigation revealed that the wiring inside the light had broken off. Fived the fault and recovered the cabling under the wheel arc with butol robber.
• Fitted two low wattage high level brake lights on the back of the safari roof.
• Despite topping-up the transmission etc. last month I noticed that the gearbox was a tad noisier than usual. On investigation the fluid was dumped only to find that it had achieved a rather grey consistancy (water had wormed its way in probably after all that wading earlier in the year?). Dumped the Gearbox,transfer box, overdrive and rear diff oil. Front diff was clean and new. The transfer box and rear diff also had water contamination. Replaced all except the gbx with EP90 GL5 and the gbx with EP80/90 GL4 plus Wynns gbx additive. Also added some diff additive I picked up in a trip to the USA into the rear diff,O/D,and transfer box.
• Beaulieu 4x4 show on the 9th July - Marshalling on the 'Safari' course and Cartman left on the Shire LRC stand. Billing next month!!!!!!

June 2001 (74000 miles)

• Strip out front prop and relace faulty UJ. Usual fault - blocked 'oil-way' within the joint. Also fit new gaiter.
• Leaking off-side front hub. Distance piece on stub shaft very worn. Drilled out and driven off with a cold chisel. Replaced with new and new seal fitted.

Worn distance ring against the newly installed one

• Steering damper fitted (it has been sitting at the back of the garage for 2 years!). Off-road and on-road steering has improved no-end now. Very much reduced kick back from the steering. If you have taller tyres than standard then I would say this is a must fit install. And at a cost of around £20 all in.

• Three out of 4 of the front track rod ends look decidedly dodgey and a bit of wander has crept into the steering. Steering box tightened up very slightly but the problem still exists. Track rods removed to fit new ball joints only to find that 3 out of 4 could not be removed due to extensive corrosion, and the fourth good one had had very little lubrication for some time as the grease nipple had been sheared off (and I thought it was a sealed for life type due to the gunk covering the hole:/ ?). New rods ordered from the usual source (Paddocks) and arrived within 3 days. Tracking set to the Land Rover S3 guide distance (and tweaked until it seemed about right).

Rusted and non-removable (except with a 'gas axe')

• Checked and topped up gearbox,transfer box, over-drive and hub oil levels.
• Ignition timing retarded. Boy what a difference! Much better! Fuel consumption now around the low 20's again.

May 2001

• Fitted a couple of new reflectors on the rear of Cartman to replace the useless ones that were there.

• Removed front head-lining to install some 1" thick sound-proofing in replacement for the original felt (which was no-longer adhering to the roof after 23 years anyway). Original head-lining frame then fell apart due to the complete corrosion of the two side frame strips. Remade from stainless strip. Some of the side padding also suffered from the metal tabs original spot elds falling off. Re-tacked those.

• New rear ACR silencer arrives and fitted along with a standard exhaust centre section from Paddocks. Definitely louder than the original (or what was left of it). It feels like there is a bit more 'Go' but once the Maplin electronic ignition circuit and MSD2 40kV coil are fitted Cartman is due to get a full tune (eventually). In conjunction with the K&N this should show up any faults and make an improvement? The new silencer is of a far heavier gauge than the original and should last for ages (But I gave both the new sections a coat of VHT paint anyway). Exit pipe is approx. 1/4" bigger than the original to.

• 

• Drained both front hubs and refilled with a blend of 100ml bearing grease blended with 100ml EP90 per hub and topped off with EP90 to level.
• Water started to come in and drip down the window hinges into the drivers footwell. The RTV that I applied 2 years ago was now peeling around the windscreen seals. Cleaned body joints between top and bottom of windscreen and hard-top joints. Wiped with RTV primer and silicone sealant was then applied. But will it 'stop' much water getting in? A none damp Land Rover - eh?
• Cleaned up the chassis in all the accessable places. Two coats of Hammerite primer on bare metal folled by a thick coat of underbody waxoyle.
• While under Cartman investigating the knocking in the drive-train I discover a patch of rust in the gearbox crossmember. Further poking reveals a larger hole than 'anticipated' - surprise,surprise. Nothing unusual there then? So the initial gets things done day ends up as a 3 hour grind & weld (also commonly known as slug scattering) under the LR. Two coats of Hammerite primer and a further coat of black Waxolye underbody finishes the job.

• Reason for the vibration in the drive-train turns out to be the rear prop (despite the fact that the UJ's had both been replaced in Jan. The transmission brake end had failed on one bearing cap which had turned to nothing more than metal filings blended with grease, and before anyone askes it was fitted correctly. I still had a spare mint GKN UJ from when I replaced both in Jan so that one went in (after cleaning and packing). While there I checked the other only to find that I could not get any grease in due to the failure of the 'new' UJ grease nipple. Nicked the one out of the failed UJ (after checking). Contacted Paddocks who originally supplied the pair of Britpart UJ's in Jan. They were most apologetic and agreed to supply a further pair FOC. No know problems in the past.
• Adjusted handbrake.

April 2001 (74300 miles)

• Car park spares relieves a dumped Montego of one electronic flasher relay. The only additional wire required was an return GND to the relay. We now have a nice even flash. Novelities abound! Also aquired a good as new diesel 700A CCF battery in the process.

March 2001

• The ongoing problems with carb icing during cold damp mornings may have been found. Examination of the Weber choke flap revealed that it was not opening fully when the choke was depressed. So the mixture was rich right across the rev range. The choke cable had been left too long so it was chopped stripped & greased. Nice operation now. Smooth and precise. Warm up now only takes 1-2 miles from cold at 3 Deg.C.
• K&N filter removed, cleaned and re-oiled. Probably unnecessary with only 7k miles but dust and mud had made a right mess of it.

February 2001

• Shire LRC first New years green lane day (luckily prior to the Foot & Mouth crisis). A good day was had by all. We had a major turn-out as this followed the 10 page club report in that months Land Rover Owner International.

Matt almost got stuck. Which was then followed by..............

Matt stuck No.1

Matt stuck No.2

Matt stuck No. 3

Mark looks out appreciating the fact that Matt has got stuck again!

January 2001 (***** miles)

• New forward facing/removable rear seat fitted from BLRS. Now room for three !!
• Rear prop removed. Diff end UJ totally shot and strip-down reveals that no lubrication had been present on two of the lobes for some considerable time due to the blockage of the grease passage. A usual problem with very little past maintenance (Photo). Both UJ's removed and replaced with new (front GKN one still perfect). No-longer any snatch on transmission pick-up or 'clutch' judder at very low speeds. Also noticed that transfer box end of the front prop has a slightly bad UJ. I'll look at replacing that one as well.

Jeez, that's worn !!

• Slighty vibration (something out of balance?) and knock from the drive train when the clutch is depressed at low speeds. Probably the rear prop universal joints? Need to take a look this week. Cheap repair if it is, approx. £15 (came to £20 for both with postage from Paddocks).

Any comments regarding manufacturers or suppliers parts or services are only from my personal experience. Those items I find to be less than satisfactory I will state that they are not up to scratch, and if they're good then I will say so. I am not associated my marriage, employ, or money (unfortunately) with any of those companies mentioned.

Paul Maidment - 11 June 2000

Updated 13 January 2003

me at pjboomer@freeuk.com