The Landblogger

Primary Transport

Wednesday night I was able to put my spare diff back in and all is now well. I drove the truck to Salmon Arm this weekend as our 3/4 Ton Chev diesel needs front brakes and the Mazda mx6 needs snow tires. Blue Weaver again is the only vehicle capable of being my primary means of transport.

Spider Gears

A photo of the broken gears is worth a thousand words.

NWC spectator instead

I had worked with Don MacDonald on the organizing of the NWC this year, but Don kept my activities to ordering Tshirts, buying prizes and keeping the news up on the website. He didn't let me in on the actual event because he wanted me to drive in it.
But now that I was out, he told me where the next meeting point would be — Lodestone Lake. There is the hard way — through Whipsaw Creek trail, which everyone else took, or the easy way — through Coalmont, Blakeburn and a light duty forest service road. Well, for a front wheel drive truck, the light duty forest road served as its own challenge, requiring me to winch up in two spots. Both places I was on the lookout for other off-roaders as I would have been rather embarrassed to be winching up spots like these if I'd been seen. Thankfully no one saw me. I arrived at Lodestone Lake around 5:30 to a warm fire and Rick and Alisha getting dinner ready for the rest of the participants. They were a bit dismayed that the ETA for the rest of the group was not until around 9 PM, since they were just getting ready to start cooking and had already been waiting several hours.
But sure enough the demand for their cooking was huge when the trucks rolled in around 9 PM. Everyone had several bowls of chili and crusty rolls and cake. The result of which could be heard all night long eminating from the tents around the campsite!
Next morning Greg and I encouraged the front wheel drive Rover up the hills from the campsite back to the forestry road and back down into Coalmont. We set up a prize table at the Granite city monument and awaited the return of the rest of the participants who had taken the much more rigorous Badger Trail to get back down.
Everyone was back by noon for prize presentations, tshirts, photos air and a bit more socializing.
The group then broke up with several trucks heading back through Princeton and the rest heading up the Tulameen and over Lawless Road to the Coquihalla.
Although I was disappointed to become a spectator so early in the event, I had a great weekend in one of the nicest spots in BC with a great bunch of people — and I can't wait till next year.

Northwest Challenge

We headed out from Whatcom Road around 6:30 pm Friday evening with Devin Biln and John Parsons. Lost John right away in the torrential downpour, but he's a big boy and abler than most to find his own way. Devin and Greg and I waited for him at Prest Road for about 15 minutes, then gave up. We stopped for fuel in Hope and he must have passed us, because he was already at Copper Creek when we got there around 9:30.
Blue Weaver, the name for my Land Rover, now that Jim Skelton has sold his (was his moniker and I've now stolen it) passed the Technical Inspection with no problems at all. Only I noticed that the handbrake could have been a bit tighter... I suppose I should have gotten underneath and tightened it, but it was a tad wet out. Didn't make a major difference but a wee bit incinvenient at times trying to park on steep slopes. Experience tells us not to depend on the handbrake anyway.
At midnight Don and Jeff started sending off the trucks in pairs on their night run. We got out about 12:30 with Karl Nylund and Gino in Karl's 88 Inch pickup as our team mates.
Greg Sutfin, my copilot was excellent with the GPS and entered coordinates for the first several checkpoints immediately. The first checkpoint we were there with 3 other teams -- 6 trucks in a tiny area and it was a bit of a scramble to make it back up to the road with all the trucks jockeying for position. The second checkpoint spread us out a little, and the third one got most of the teams a little lost and put some much needed space between us.
We went up steep banks, over snowmobile trails, down an extremely steep hill through a meadow -- which scared us the next day when we saw how steep it was in the daylight. And finally arrived at a rocky bank on the final stretch to Placer Lake. Since I don't have a locker in the truck, it didn't take long to determine that we would be winching up this stretch. Greg handled the hookups and the winch handled the rest.
Another kilometer or so and we were at the camp. We found all the checkpoints successfully and had arrived as second team in from the tasks, making up one position -- although I don't think they were counting position for this event.
Next morning, after the drivers meeting and a late start, we headed out for what would be the final event Blue Weaver would participate in in this year's challenge. Bill Eastwood and Andrew Phillips had set up a time trial down a steep slope close to where the rocky grade was we had climbed the night before. About a half kilometer down on a curvey but decent road, followed by a steep ascent up a washed out trail. The first several trucks made it, then one got lost, then one lost all its load, then Devin in the other 88" similar to mine got stuck in a deep wash and then it was my turn. Going down was easy, although there were a few well place potholes to remind you to keep you speed in check. Turned up at the bottom and here's where the trouble started. Greg and I, seeing the problems that Devin had had, discussed in advance that when I got the truck to the point where I could get no further, he would jump out and attach the winch to a tree and pull us up to where we could go again. It seemed there was only one really bad spot so we were hopeful that, although we wouldn't have the fastest time, we would make it up.
When I hit the washout and pushed as far as I could go, I heard a bang as the truck stopped. I just figured we had bottomed out somewhere, and stood on the brakes and kept it idling high while Greg wheeled out cable and attached a strap to an accessible tree. I winched it up and we were beyond the bad spot. Then I tried to move ahead again and after several tries Greg noticed that the rear wheels weren't giving any help. Further checking and we were sure we had busted an axle. I radioed up to the top that we wouldn't be completing and rolled back through the washout to a flat spot off the course.
After pulling the shorter axle out, we were surprised that it wasn't broken. So we pulled the long one. It too was intact. It was a simple deduction from there that the rear diff had expired on us.
Removal of the driveshaft enabled us to drive back out to the highway on front wheel drive, and that ended the competition portion of the Northwest Challenge for me this year.

Final Preparations

In preperation for the NWC, I had to decide what was important and what could wait. My final evening of tweaks was Thursday night, because Friday I had to run into town and pick up Greg, and we had to leave for the challenge by 6 PM.
Anyway, I was able to install new front wing inside mud guards, left and right. When I had the wings off earlier to do the dual power brakes, I was a little dismayed to see the mud guards fall apart in my hands. They were rusted to nothing on both sides. I suppose this was also a contributing factor to the demise of the footwells.
Well, I repaired the footwells with fibreglass, but this is a little larger area to cover. Checked with the local parts shop (Wise Owl) and on eBay (Landrover Orphanage) and figured it would cost me about $50 per side. Hmmm, maybe one day... In the meanwhile, I had some flexible but really strong latex roof sheathing. Was able to cut to size and screw into place with fender washers and it makes for a beautiful replacement mud shield. So, until I can justify stock replacements the Rover now has some plastic body under-panels.
Rolled under it and greased everything, and checked the fluid levels all round. I'm as ready as I'll ever be!

Clean hands for a change

I didn't get my hands dirty tonight for a change. The job I was finishing from last night required a few bits and by the time I got back from Canuck Tire it was pissing down rain and I just wasn't in the mood. I'm watching Batman instead.
Picked up a new brakelight switched shipped to me by Wise Owl, so I guess I'll get my chance to get dirty tomorrow...

Those pesky leaks

The other day hammering away at the left rear frame bushing, several shovels worth of dirt from all over the province fell down on and around me. The only major benefit of the big mess is the dirt nicely soaks up the oil on my garage floor.
I've been chasing oil leaks for some time now. Once one is fixed, there always seems to be another. One would think the system is pressurized so you fix one spot and it pops out another, however I fixed the front diff and then it started leaking out of the back diff. Fixed that, then the engine started leaking. I've come to the conclusion that the only way you can tell if your Land Rover still has any life in it is if its bleeding regularly.
So tonight I chased down an additional engine leak — the distributor seal — and did the rather simple job of replacing it. Not holding out much hope of any less stains on the drive though.

The little blue truck

This weblog is about the repairs, upgrades, customizations and general fiddling it takes to keep a classic Land Rover on the road. In this case, a 1966 Series IIa 88 inch.
I'll be going 2 directions here — posting current work as I accomplish it, and going back in time to post info about previous upgrades as I get time.

My goal is not to have a concours original show winner. Rather, my goal is to keep it looking reasonably original, while upgrading wherever possible for safety, comfort and reliability.
This is an off roader truck first, and a collectors item second, thus I'm not too hung up with cutting holes in the body, or other mods that suit the needs of the truck off road.

Fire Extinguisher

Northwest Challenge requires a fire extinguisher, which of course is a fine idea. Just I hadn't bothered until now I must. Mounted it to the roll cage temporarily until I decide whether this is a good permanent home for it. $24.99

Alternator

Since installing the 2nd battery I've been hearing a whine at 2-3000 rpm, which sounded like it was coming from the alternator. Similar to the whine of a low power steering pump. I took it in to the local rebuild shops. They said it was the Stator, which is a common occurrence when 2 batteries are installed. They checked the charging system and proclaimed it was in fine fiddle, so now I just have another new sound to put up with...