2016 Round Up

2016 was a fun if slow year with Katy the Land Rover. I can't entirely call it quiet as you will read. below

At the start of the year there was definitely a need  for some sort outs which I needed some help for. I was working out of the country a lot in january and February so it was not until March when i got started

The first was some electrics which I definitely needed my friend Dave's help with over the course of a couple of excellent days we got the lights and the reversing camera working, but we did have an unexpected result with the lights as you can see in the video

After that it was off to Newport caravans in May for a new skylight and then some work I did myself getting the Radio to work properly and we attended our first show of the year with the SWLRC

Then a real mystery came in when a Geoff Fletcher author of British Military Land Rovers sent me an interesting picture

Katy then became a regular commuter as Rhian's Mini was in for some work in June and July and she definitely got some attention in the BGS car park and in Cheddar gorge

I eventually tracked down that picture and Rhian and I were made welcome by the Scots Guards at the Bourlon Barracks at Catterick camp in August after a trip to Scarborough

Then it was off to Margam with the SWLRC again in September before a year end put away in November because I knew I would be working away a lot again in the run up to the end of the year. This  year I invested in an intelligent charger and so far the investment has been worthwhile as it's been very good to have it on and the battery looked after

The final Land Rover event of the year was our trip with the SWLRC to the Land Rover Reborn tour at Solihull

The final event for 2016 came in as a complete surprise when we were listed on getoffroad.com as one of the best Land Rover blogs to read. I need to add that I have not used them as a supplier, but as they have been so nice I am happy to give them a link back

All in all not a bad year for being so busy doing other things, but I do hope to be out and about more often and doing a few more upgrades in 2017

Do Land Rovers Dream of Electric Sheep Part 1

It was a bright sunny morning today which was excellent news because I had taken up a friends offer of help. Last year at the Margam car show Dave Kilburn kindly offered to help me sort out the electrics I wanted to do on Katy.

Dave had been an Auto Electrics instructor in the RAF so was the absolutely perfect person to help with this sort out.

To set the scene Katy has three sets of Electrics

1. Normal Land Rover Electrics
2. Military Electrics
3. Camper Electrics

The problem is that some were disconnected when she came out of service and some were cross linked when she was converted to a camper. back when we first had her the lights were so unreliable I had to spend quite a bit to get the basic Land Rover lighting sorted out 

Since then we decided in the Alps that we needed more lights as a backup as one failed on us but then was working again - spots and fogs are not strictly needed at the speed we go, but are valuable backup to the main lights. The trouble was which switch works which ? 

there were cables at the front from previously fitted lamps, but no power in the wires so Dave and I started our investigations and quickly identified that without power to the military fuse box none of the yellow (military) wires worked

Once we did it we were able to take a close look at the switches and identify what switch worked which wires

Soon they were labelled up and ready to go

Then whilst I drilled and ran a proper cable to that fuse box, Dave made a start sorting out the mess behind the passenger seat put in as a prior project and removes about half of the rats nest in the following picture 

And all of this mess

One downside - it seems the large Solar Panel is not working which needs to be investigated as the leisure battery will run down as it's not connected to the main battery any more 

So we decided to end the day on a high and Dave kindly wired up one of the spots and one of the fogs whilst I drilled some holes and prepared cables with spiral wrap and he connected them up and we were able to finish with 2 working new lights 

A really successful day and I could not have done it without his expertise 

BTW the power to the Military box has one very non subtle addition... Nee Naww,, Nee Naw.. strictly for use at shows only of course

Thanks Dave !

Lights, Camera, Action

By the end of our Alps Trip we had identified a number of upgrades that were needed

1. A CB had been useful and fun travelling in convoy
2. We'd had headlights problems and spots/fogs would be useful extra's
3. We wanted more charging points in the front and back and had learned about differences in USB performance
4. The fridge fitting had caused some problems with lights and battery discharge, and we were not happy with it's performance

All of this means a good sort out of the electrics so I made an arrangement to get an Auto Electrician to give me some advice and I've now been on a shopping spree and I've now got a whole bunch of new parts in the front room ready to fit.
 

I would put some pictures of all of that, but we went away for the weekend and we were "spotted" by an artist friend of ours so I thought I would give you his quick rendition of us parked up and enjoying ourselves instead

I think his scribbly style of his field sketches fits the dilapidated state of Katy's paintwork very well

THANKS PETE !

Lastly the South Wales Land Rover club was featured in Land Rover Owner this month. We even got a mention which is not entirely surprising as I wrote the article

The Eyes Do Have It Now

After many hours of lying underneath looking at wires that end in knots with second rate scotch lock connectors and corroded wires I gave up

So off to HBH Land Rovers of Caerphilly she went for a short vacation and they have worked magic on her

All new lights were purchased as kit from Foundry 4x4 and despite quite a few comments about Britpart items I have to say that I'm a lot happier than the stuff that was there. With HBH help they are all in and they all work which is a lot more than I've achieved over the last few weeks

Here is a picture here of the nice tidy wiring !

The Eyes have it (or not)

I'm working on improvements again

this time it's lighting which is a bit hit or miss ( a bit too miss to be honest!)

The passenger sidelight was faulty again !

So off with the lens and out with the bulb and yes once again it was a loose connection

So enough is enough and I need some new ones

Trouble is I've seen different kits available so I'm going to need to ask for help from those ever helpful Land Rover forums

So here are the pictures that I'll need to ask for help

This is a closeup of the passenger side light from the rear

This is the whole headlight area showing the original Army Green

And these do not look like any of the standard connections I've seen on lighting kits

And whilst I'm at it - these are the light switches most of which I still can't work out and get anything working when I operate them .. and what is that knob on the left ?

I hope to have some answers soon, and when I do I'll add them here

Little Bits and Pieces

It's been a while since I posted

This is because I've been doing research and getting ready for our gearbox investigation / swap exercise which will be coming soon and hopefully with loads of pictures

There have been some minor bits of work going on however

In the electrics I've found a replacement for the faulty switch that was preventing the instrument cluster lights from coming on. When I took the old one out it was held in with something that looked like a blue foam type gap filling adhesive and clearly broken. Mind you now I think the instrument lighting is rubbish so I need to look into how to take the binnacle apart and check all the bulbs are OK

In the rust reduction/prevention exercise I am currently working on cleaning all of the underside with a wire brush and getting ready to coat it with some form of rust prevention. I haven't decided what this will be yet as I'm undecided between the various modern complex systems or the old fashioned old engine oil and diesel as recommended by the father-in-law. Doing it by hand may seem a strange way to do it, but it is giving me an opportunity to inspect every last inch in some detail and doesn't have the risk of spraying water up somewhere it should not be. The amount of Saharan sand I'm getting out means I need to think about a bucket and spade to play with

I've also been oiling every nut, bolt and screw I can see under there with WD-40 and 3-in-1 in order to hopefully make the next stages of refurbishment a little easier. I've been recommended Freeze and Release for the ones that won't move and I've just bought some of Halford's equivalent to give it a go

In my Element

I can tell that the Lights on Katy leave a little to be desired. I thought I had fixed one indicator bad connection, but it's back. So today I decided to take them apart and do the job properly

I think you can see some of the problem when you see the state of the bulbs and light covers

How any photons made their way past all of that is frankly quite a mystery, and when I say that the contacts for the bulbs were in a similar state you can get the picture

So today I got out a couple of bowls of hot soapy water, a sponge and some wire wool and have cleaned up all of the contacts on the indicators and sidelights front and back and hey presto the lights all work

A couple of the covers are cracked and water's going to get back in again unless I do better so let's hope it stays that way for a while and I get chance to hit an auto jumble or breakers yard for the bits.