Ownership Verified: I'll have some off - 1990 Land Rover Discovery Bobtail

I did some work over Christmas to finally fit my headlight warning buzzer...


...and then didn't even turn this thing over for weeks, so I decided to drive the usual pair of green lanes yesterday but in reverse order. I also tried a new location for the GoPro to catch the splashes.

 
Going through and updating the photos at the moment and apparently I didn't post any pictures of Bob in the snow we had at the end of last year and the start of this year. :dunno:

First, from December last year:

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Then from February this year:

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That is not that much snow. We call that a heavy dusting here.
 
Those pictures aren’t a good representation of what we had unfortunately, it was several feet deep in some places where it had drifted. The most snow we’ve had in my lifetime. Great fun to play in. :D
 
Think how much fun it can be, when there's more of it. And some tracks to play on.. :mrgreen:
 
DaBoom;n3551309 said:
Think how much fun it can be, when there's more of it. And some tracks to play on.. :mrgreen:

That would be huge amounts of fun, if you know anyone that has one of these spare to bring it over to you let me know because I'm certainly not driving it all that way. :p

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Also you would need all of the other cars in a 2 mile radius to pull me out if I ever got stuck, the winch would no doubt be frozen. :lol:
 
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As you may know I've been doing a lot of work on Bugsy recently and some jobs on Bob have been patiently waiting for attention, so with Bugsy sorted it was time to move on to these.

First was to deal with this:

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This was the only thing mentioned to me when it went for the MOT last year. The little rubber shock absorber mount on the rear exhaust section has fallen apart, poor thing. Fortunately the allen/hex screw in the top and the nut on the bottom came free easily enough and they're cheap on eBay. I probably have some in a bag that I got with it but for £5 it isn't worth the effort of dragging the Smart out of the garage and rummaging through everything...

Next was to try and deal with my pond as the nice, dry area in the photo below collects water. I drilled a couple of holes to let it drain but as the floor isn't completely flat these aren't completely effective.

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There's evidence that the water is coming from behind what's left of the headlining, judging by the green edging and the fact that it was soaked.

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I intend to clean and paint the floor as I did on the other side when the fuel tank was out but first I'd like to try and track down the source of the water. Out with the headlining then to reveal lots of condensation but no apparent leaks, understandable as it hasn't rained for a few days. I'll monitor it and see if anything needs sealing, clearly there's a condensation problem. If it stays dry I'll paint it with the same truck bed liner paint I've used elsewhere, then if water does collect at least the metal will be protected.

I'm tempted to fit one of these spinning air vent things to help with the condensation problem:

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Anyway, even after sitting for a month since last starting Bob fired up without an issue today. I'm very impressed. :)
 
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Final update of the three, more jobs are now done on Bob. Firstly, the exhaust mounting rubber has been replaced and I now have three other spares. Secondly, the headlining was removed to reveal lots of condensation. This has now dried out and I've sealed up a couple of areas where water could've got in. The holes I drilled in the floor to let the water out have also been sealed.

Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can get back out on the green lanes, I still need to paint the floor though.
 
Bob rides again! I haven't driven Bob much this year as the Smart was getting all of the attention, however I did get to play at a Land Rover show off road course the day before heading down to S2 Smarts at Watford. They got some nice shots.

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I got some video too, will post when my PC is working properly again and I can edit it.
 
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Videos finally done, came out pretty well I think. Hypersmooth on the Hero 7 works well here.


 
The bobtail goes in for its MOT this Friday and the underside was still covered in muck from the off road site, so I decided to give it a 'power wash'


Probably the deepest water I've taken it through, a little bit quick but keeping the revs up was more important. Next years project may be to replace the transfer box with a Defender one to lower the gearing. I also forgot the mounting arm for the second GoPro so I had to hold the thing for the slo-mo shot.

It didn't clean it either, I had to stop at a petrol station and use their power washer. MOT should be interesting too because the glass both door mirrors is cracked. Going to get some Defender ones anyway and will see if it fails, I'll then have 10 days to fix it.
 
Bob is getting a new steering column. Well, new to me anyway. The MOT picked up a shot bearing at the base of the column, something I hadn't noticed but is rather obvious once you know. The column isn't serviceable and is rather expensive if bought new, so I have a used one on its way. I'll take the old one out tomorrow.

Aside from that I just had to change one ball joint, it's my fault that the old one failed as it had a grease nipple fitting with no nipple so naturally it collected crap. New one was in stock and already has a fitting. Mirrors were fine but I have some Defender ones coming to replace them anyway, much bigger and tougher while being easier to fold in.
 
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Turns out I'm an idiot. Of sorts anyway.

I fitted the replacement steering column, only to find that it was too short for the existing lower shaft. It was possible to extend the column to make it fit but, surprise surprise, it then wobbles around like the old one did. Clearly there's nothing supporting the lower bearing at this extension and the old one probably was actually worse due to crap getting in the bottom of the column.

So, after checking against the shaft used in a friend's Disco of the same age, another part was ordered. Brand new this time at the eye-watering cost of 40 quid. I got it in the middle of the week (no thanks to a delivery company that shall remain nameless but simultaneously don't allow for a parcel to be delivered in a safe place and will also return it to the sender after three failed attempts with no option to collect it) and was fitted the same day.

New shiny bit:
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Now I have a shiny new MOT. Defender mirrors are also fitted and had a test run today, much better visibility while being much tougher.

I realised that I haven't posted anything about the fuel tank work, I should sort that.
 
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that's all play in the steering mechanism we're looking at?
why does that locking pin have so much free space??
 
that's all play in the steering mechanism we're looking at?
why does that locking pin have so much free space??

It's all tight, the free play is for assembly, you have to slide the thing down to connect it to the bottom of the steering column and it wouldn't be possible if it wasn't splined. There are little cut out flat spots for the locking bolts at every connection and it won't be going anywhere. :)
 
Sometimes I would hear a noise from the engine while Bob was idling, probably from one of the pulleys but it never became an issue. I looked into it today and I think I've found the issue.


I should probably get a new water pump...
 
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A month or so on and progress has occurred. The new water pump is fitted and through some miracle the system bled up fine.

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After that I wanted to check the condition of the winch ropes to determine if I should re-splice the rear rope* or buy new, this of course would mean spooling out some rope to check the condition. The last time I ran either winch was last June when I traced the fault on the rear to a loose connection on the isolator (I didn't post this) and neither have been used in anger since I bought the truck 3 years ago.

Neither winch worked with any control. Odd. Checking the aux. battery voltage gave me 2V, clearly not enough to run the winches or anything else. The truck has a split charge system that uses a voltage sensitive relay to link the batteries together only when the voltage exceeds 13.3V, however checking the fuse holder that is linked with this relay revealed that there was a large air gap between it and the main battery +ve terminal. Testing the fuse revealed it was dead and tracing the cable from the relay to the second battery revealed another air gap between it and the aux. battery +ve terminal. I never checked any of this stuff when I got the truck, NAUGHTY SLAP WRISTS.

This has taken some time to sink in, as I didn't remove any cables this means that in the entire time I have owned this truck and have used either winch unloaded, there has been no real charging for the aux. battery. Only a small link cable remained and this was only enough to get the voltage to 4V during testing. My conclusion is that either:

- The aux. battery capacity was staggeringly good and kept going with only trickle top up from the main, or...
- It was just very good and this tiny cable was able to sustain it, while the battery has degraded and is now close to useless through not being charged. After all, if it is still permanently connected by any cable you would expect the voltages to balance out.

Jumper cables stood in for the link between the fuse holder and main battery and showed that the 200A fuse was toast, probably due to the load from winching. Bypassing this and going straight to the voltage sensitive relay, after reconnecting the loose cable on the aux. battery side, got the whole thing working and the aux. battery showed 14V with both winches working. I measured current draw with my clamp meter and it hit 80A while running the winch with no load, no doubt because the battery is still depleted. Whether or not it will actually take a charge or if I'm in the market for an Optima yellow top is yet to be seen, some new mega fuses are on order (150A instead of 200A as the relay is only rated to 140A and I don't fancy melting it) and I think the link cable is in one of the boxes I got with it.

Never a dull day in Land Rover... land.

*After an idiot at an off road site hooked his tow tope to it instead of the tow eyes and it snapped - that's what you get for being helpful.
 
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