Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Wire Nightmare

Finally dived into the one thing I really hate working on in cars, wiring. I had been trying to source the cause of a short in the wiring circuit of the Rover. For some reason, whenever I hit the brakes, my parking lights would come on. This short also worked the other way as when ever I turned my lights on the brake lights came on. This is not a real good thing to have happening when trying to drive the Rover at night as I effectively had no brake lights. Anyway, I started by pulling the steering wheel off and getting to the back of the instrument panel. What do I spy but a wire with the insulation falling off that is not connected to anything. What the? Start pulling the harness apart and it appears that I had found the original culprit behind the non-functioning spot lights. My guess? Who ever wired the spots wired them direct, left them on for a loooong time and the wire melted and shorted out. At this point I figure that this wire has melted the insulation of a few of the other wires and that is the reason for the brake light short. Get through inspecting the harness and repair a few spots in a few other wires but do not find the short.

On to the back of the car where all the rear wires are tied together up under the rear bumper, boy that is a fun place to work on wiring. I pull off all the vampire connectors and replace them all with wire nuts. Once done with this I fire the car up and what do you know the problem seems fixed. Excellent. I use some of the self bonding electrical tape my company sells and wrap all the wires up making everything look neat and tidy. A few days later I notice the the short is back. What the heck! Pull the front harness apart again and reinspect, nope nothing wrong there. Pull the rear harness apart and start testing individual lights and wires. I isolate the short to somewhere in the left rear wiring. I test right at the bulb connections. Turns out there was some kind of short in the left rear brake light. Sometimes it would short and other times it would not, I think it was heat related. So, I go buy new bulbs all around and the short problem was fixed. A damn $1 bulb. Isn't electrical work fun? I did manage to get my CB hardwired in along with running new wire to the rear work light and wiring it up to spare switch on the dash. Works well as a reversing light at night.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Weekend Wrenching...

Worked on the Rover a bit this weekend. Topped up the oil in the transfer case and overdrive. Going to need to replace the transfer case oil sump gasket sometime soon. Also tooled around with wiring a bit. Still cannot find the rear work light wire inside the truck. Going to give it one more shot and then I am going to run a new power wire (confirmed that the light works by running a temp wire directly from the battery). Also plan on hooking up my cb sometime soon. I do need to source a new antenna as my old magnetic mount will not work with the all Aluminum body of the Rover. That is it for now.

Happy Motoring.

Monday, August 03, 2009

Caffeine and Octane....

Headed over to a monthly car show here in Atlanta early Sunday morning. The show is called Caffeine and Octane and is held the first Sunday of every month at the Avenues in East Cobb. It is free for all and is open to pretty much and car. There was a pretty good turnout even with the threat of rain. Kel and I loaded up the twins in the Rover got there around 8:30am (show runs from 8-11am or so). I would say there where close to 150+ cars there. All sorts showed up: new exotics, classic British roadsters, tons of old Porsches, classic American muscle cars, a few trucks and three Rovers (a '65 Series IIa LWB Truck, a mid 90's Defender TDi and my '73 Series III). The 109" got a fair amount of attention. Lots of questions about the right hand drive. I know it caught the younger crowds attention as well as any car there. The twins did well, we broke out the Baby Bjorn carriers for the first time. I took a fair amount of pictures, should have a link to them in the next day or two. Anyway, if you are bored one the first Sunday of the month and want to go see some pretty neat cars head on over.

Friday, July 31, 2009

First Rain in the Rover....

Ok, I knew going in to purchasing the Rover that they are not know as the most waterproof car out there. Land Rover even printed and released an official "Water Ingress Manual" for the Defender! The previous owner did say that it leaked a little but did not mention where. Well, I drove the Rover to a tennis match last night and it ended up storming quite hard. Walking back to the truck after the match I was fearing water everywhere inside. I get in and and welcomed by a nice splash when my feet hit the floor mat. Great, inside of the car is swamped. Turn the lights on and grab my flashlight to take stock of the situation. Turns out that the only water that got in the car pooled on top of the rubber floor mat on the drivers side. Pull the floor mat our carefully and dump the water, feel the carpet that was underneath and it is bone dry! Look around and try to find the leak but the dripping has stopped. The ingress manual mentions water leaks around the clutch pedal box, this would explain why there was only water on the floor mat. Figure I'll hit the areas described in the repair manual with some clear RTV and see if that takes care of the problem!

Great news is that the Rover started up and ran great on the way home. The high-beams and the aux lights really light the road up, glad I got those wired up correctly.

This weekend I plan on continuing to try to get the rear work light functioning. Going to try to determine where the rear wiring harness leaves the frame to enter the cab so taht I can continue to trace the power and ground wires. Also hoping to trace the extra wires coming off the spare dash switches.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Starting Work on the Rover

Dived right into the electrical issues on the Rover this past weekend. Turns out that the highbeams where not connected to the correct circuit and the driving lights where wired directly to the higbeam circuit. Switched this around and got the high beams working. I then installed a new 12v 30amp relay to power the driving lights. Had it hooked up and found out that both the bulbs where bad so I need to pick up replacements some time this week.

The rear flasher issue ended up just being a slightly loose connection in the rear wiring harness.

The last two things to get working are the rear work light (I have another relay that I am going to power this with, I was also thinking of maybe trying to wire it up to use as a reverse light) and the fuel gauge. Work light should be pretty straight forward but the fuel gauge is going to be a bit more difficult. Figure I will start from the gauge and work my way back towards the tank with that one.

That is it for now. I am going to hit everything with the grease gun this week and try to find someplace locally to source gear oil.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Introducing the Purple People Eater....



Here it is. The new-to-me 1973 Series III Land Rover 109" Station Wagon (say that three times fast). Kel and I drove to Nashville, TN and picked it up this last Sunday. It drove surprisingly well on the interstate. With the overdrive and up-rated engine (2.5L 4 cyl out of a mid 80's Defender) it was able to cruise right around 70 at 3100 rpm.

I'll be kicking the tires and sorting a few electrical issues out for the next few weeks (left rear turn signal, fuel gauge, aux lights) but it is a blast to drive. Now I just need to find a little dirt to play in!

As for the name, the offical color it is painted is actually a '75-'76 Jaguar color called Ocean Blue. Some angles it looks Royal Blue while others it looks dark purple. Thus Kelly dubbed it "The Purple People Eater". It seats 12 so that works for me! A few more pics below.





Roof rack is coming off for now so that I can fit the truck in the garage.

Monday, July 13, 2009

New Ride: A Preview of the Land Rover

Well I think I have officially sourced the replacement ride for the TR6. Found a nice 1973 Series III Land Rover that I have agreed in principle to purchase. NOw all I have to do is find a day to go pick it up. Looking forward to getting to know the Rover. I have been wanting a classic off-roader for a bit and having twins somewhat accelerated the process. As longtime readers may remember, I flirted with a project 1969 Nissan Patrol for a bit when I sold the TR4a. After that my attention turned to a Short Wheelbase Series Land Rover, an 88". I looked at a few and was hooked. I also almost picked up a 1970 AMC Jeepster Commando. A very sweet ride that looks like is up for sale finnaly but alas the timing is all wrong and the Jeepster is just not quite what I am looking for in a classic truck. Upon learning my wife and I where having twins, my attention turned to something I could fit the whole family in and have room to spare in the back. That dropped my choices down the the Long Wheel Base Series Rover, a 109". I guess I could have picked an old Jeep Wagoneer or maybe Bronco or an IH Scout. But with my twisted love of all things British I went with the Rover. Right now it looks like I might be able to pick it up next weekend. I'll have some more pictures as well as a trip report next week.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

5 Years with the MINI

Well, the 5th anniversary of my owner ship of my '04 MINI Cooper S came and passed last month. Why am I just getting around to writing about this? Well life happens, but better late than never. I picked up my first MINI in October 2003. This one was lost under odd circumstances that I won't go into. My second and current MINI is a May 2004 build. I picked it up sometime in the middle of June. In the 5 years that I have owned it I have put just over 75k on the clock. In that 75k I have done some thing I would have never guessed I would get a chance to do in my life, I have also met some great people. I have somewhat lived out one of my childhood dreams of being a race car driver (Autocrossing), I was paid the ultimate complement at a driving school when my instructor asked me to slow up a bit so the guys in the Dodge Vipers behind me can catch up! I have driven all over the Southeast US looking for and finding countless great driving roads. I have carved up the dragon too many times to count and hand motorcycle riders complement my driving ability. I have helped out my fellow motorist, helping with flat tires or overheating cars. Overall, I have had an amazing time in an amazing car and I look forward to the next 5 years and 75k in it as I have no plans to replace the MINI any time soon.

I do have a few maintenance things to clear up, I need to get the drive belt replaced and I think the belt tensioner is going bad. I also need new tires and to get the coolant flushed. Other than that she is still driving like a dream!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

TR6 is sold!

Finally sold the TR6 this weekend. Unfortunately it was a day late as the Rover I wanted was sold the same day. Ohh well, I'll just have to start hunting Series III 109 Station Wagons. If anyone out there reading this knows of one for sale drop me a line! Thanks.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

I am a GM owner.....

Great, so the US government is going to end up owning around 70% of GM as part of their bankruptcy settlement. Fabulous. Does that mean anyone will be able to get employee pricing on a GM now? I sure hope this goes as well as the British takeover of British Leyland. That turned out great, just ask anyone who owns a new Triumph, MG, Original Mini, Morris, Austin, Rover, Riley, Austin-Healey, and Wolseley. What? There aren't any of these new cars? Why? Because British Leyland pretty much went belly up after the government bailout and all the above marks where split up and sold off. So say good by to even more of our tax dollars as they are flushed away into helping an obsolete company try to stay afloat.

Friday, April 24, 2009

My long nightmare is over...

Yep, the Lexus is now officially sold. Dang that took way longer than I thought but again, it is not exactly the best time to be selling a car.

In other news the TR is still for sale. Hoping to get it sold soon, the babies are just a few days out and I was hoping to have the Landy in the garage by now but it has to wait until the TR leaves.

A good buddy of mine surprised his wife with an '06 MINI Cooper S Convertible this week. She has wanted one forever and he found a pretty cherry Pepper White / Black one for sale. He asked me to test drive it with him and give input. Car was tight. I have done so much work to mine I always forget just how great the MINI is in stock form. Especially the '05s and '06s with the revised gear ratios, feels very quick in first and 2nd gear. Anyway, it is always nice to welcome a new member to the MINI family!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Being a used car salesman...

Is no fun. Still trying to get the Lexus and TR sold. May have the Lexus sold and I have a few more guys coming to look at the TR this week. Unless you couldn't read the date of the last post I don't have a new car. Just a little bit of April Fools fun for the readers.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

New Car!!!!

Quick news. Found a guy right around the corner from where we live that has a sweet Austin Healey Sprite that we wants to get rid of. Said he was fine trading me straight up for the TR6! More to come!

Monday, March 09, 2009

Dragon Slaying....

Ahh, had the opportunity to drive up to Knoxville, TN for week today. Jumped at the chance as I knew that I would be taking the long way via US 129 and the tail of the dragon. Been almost a year since I had gotten some good mountain driving in. Glada I have the chance as it looks like I m going to miss the MINIs on the Dragon event this year due to the twins being scheduled to be born the same weekend as the event. Got a great run in. Plan on getting a few more good ones in on the way home tomorrow.

Not much goings on in the car world other than feeling like I should be wearing polyester slacks. Still trying to sell the TR6 and the Lexus. It is amazing what kind of offers you will get trying to sell cars. It is a pain but alas a necessary one. Hoping to get the Lexus sold this month, as for the TR don't really care when it gets sold as long as I get the price I am looking for out of it. I'll have a full dragon report sometime this week when I get back.

Happy Motoring!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

It's a hardtop again....

Installed the new clutch slave cylinder a week or so ago, I also go the new seats installed. After trying them out my wife asked why I hadn't gotten new seats earlier...... Gee hon, I don't know...

Anyway, decided to throw the hardtop back on the car. I had forgotten how great the hardtop looks on the car. My wife and I took it for a spin and out to dinner for our 6th anniversary. It really is a fun car to drive with the hardtop on. Now wouldn't you know it, as soon as I get the hardtop on the weather turns really nice. It has been in or near the 70s here in Atlanta for the past week. Ohh well, a small price to pay for good looks I guess.

I have had some more interest in it. Had one guy that came to drive it that liked it mainly because of the hardtop. He has some interesting plans for it if he buys it. Wants to drop a Ford 5.0 liter in it along with a Ford 8.8 rear end. More power to him, it actually sounds like a really cool project. Now if he will only actually buy the 6 from me.....

Friday, January 23, 2009

Mazda 5 review

Wow, a new car review!

I know I haven't done one of these in a bit but here goes.

Rented a car for my quick in and out trip to South Florida this week. When the rental agent gave me my choices (Chevy Malibu, Mazda 6, Pontiac G5 ect.) I went with something new, I said yes to a black Mazda 5 with 2k on the ticker. I have been wanting to check one of the funky styled wagon/van things out for a bit. The styling is a bit strange but I don't mid so much.

Interior:
Front seats where comfortable but I wish I had been able to raise just the front up in order to support my legs a bit more. Controls are in all the right spots and very easy to reach. Steering wheel controls are nice, and the wheel tilts and telescopes (yeah!). Driving position was nice, dead peddle was a bit close but not as bad as some cars and there was plenty of room to put my foot to the side. Back seats (middle row captains chairs) are comfortable but you have to raise the head rest or else it digs in your back. 3rd row seats where small but could hold kids pretty well. Storage in the behind the 3rd row seats was a joke, my lap top case barley fit back there so I had to drop the seats in order to stow my carry on. Visibility was good but there was one huge problem. With the back seat headrests up (or if someone in the seat) there is a HUGE blind spot. I could not move the side mirrors to a place that I felt comfortable being able to see all around the car. My only solution was to just put the headrest down, problem being if people are riding back there it really isn't an option to have them ride bent over the whole time. This is a serious issue in my mind and would cross this car off my list of cars to buy, it's too bad to since the rest of the car was pretty darn good.

Exterior:
Is it a wagon or a microvan? Well it looks a bit more like an Aztec or Matrix so I suppose it is more of a wagon, that is until you open the rear doors and they slide like a van. Boooo! I guess the sliding doors give you more access to the rear but I really don't think regular doors would cut down on the access any and they would not look near as minivanish. Those doors are really the only thing I don't like about the exterior.

Performance:
The biggest thing that kept me from really liking how this car drove was the transmission. It was out and out terrible. 1st gear was much to short. Found myself almost getting whiplash every time I took off from a dead stop. It just lurched if you got on the gas just a tad to much. If you wanted to take off smoothly you had to press the peddle like you where stepping on a grape and didn't want to squash the thing. It handled great, just as I expected from a Mazda, was pretty neutral which was nice. Got to test the handling out on one of those neat spiral parking deck ramps at the airport. But for as much as I liked that it was still stifled by the transmission. 1st gear was awful (as stated above), it couldn't make up its mind on when to shift, would take way too long to downshift when trying to accelerate, would upshift way too early (1.5 to 2k rpms usually) which made city driving a pain in the arse. About the only way to make driving somewhat fun was to use the manual option. Using that you could get the engine into its torque sweet spot (3k+) and have some fun. A manual tranny in this car would probably be great to drive.

Overall:
I really wanted to like this car. Great handling, pretty peppy when using the manual shift option and keeping the revs up made it a hoot to drive sometimes. Alas, the blind spot issue, non-existent storage space (which really just turned the car into an overweight 4 seater wagon), terrible transmission and quirky sliding doors pushed it away from my good side. I really don't know who would buy this car. I guess if you had to have a small hatchback but needed to be able to really seat 6 instead of 5 then this would be the option for you, but I would suggest it.

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Good and the Bad.....

The Bad: I decided to take the TR6 on a short drive before we headed up to the mountains for the weekend. Car was running great, weather was good but cold and the drive was going quite well until I pulled back into my subdivision. That is when the car decided it just wasn't going to let me put it in gear at all. The clutch peddle went to the floor and nothing but grinding noises would come from the transmission when I tried to put it in gear. Luckily I was able to match revs and get it into 2nd gear which allowed me to limp it home. Got home and took a look, no fluid in the clutch master cylinder and a new spot of liquid on the driveway where I had stopped while pulling out to let the car warm up. I have not gotten under the car yet but I am betting the slave cylinder finally went. Figured as much since it looked a bit rough when I replaced the master last year. Got the new slave ordered today along with a rebuild kit for the front right brake caliper and new seat covers! That will give me a little to do in order to spiff the car up for any potential buyers.

Now for the good: The first long road-trip in the new XC70 went great. Car handled the full load well. Cruises very nice on the highway, very comfortable and has enough umpfh with the turbo to make passing easy. Handled remarkable well on the twisties although you can definitely feel the extra weight and higher center of gravity on the car. It was nice to have the AWD for the drive home, roads where a bit slushy from the snow storm Saturday night. Seat are great, much more comfortable than the Lexus and MINI seats. I don't find my self getting as tired driving this car as I did the Lexus, the seating position is just better. All in all a successful shakedown cruise for the new land yacht.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Swedish Invasion....

Well we now have a nice '06 Volvo XC70 Cross Country parked in the garage next to the TR6. The MINI is still relegated to driveway parking and the Lexus sits out front of my wife's uncles house with a for sale sign on it. Really happy with the new Volvo, only has 16k miles and looks new every where. It is a bit creepy how much it drives like my old '87 245 wagon. I drove it around most of the weekend and was having a serious case of dejavu. It handles like the old 240, the way the body leans a bit in the corners is the exact same, the rear view mirror is in the same exact spot, even the clock control is the same type knob. Now, the XC70 is a much more comfortable car than the 240 was, seats and the interior are amazing. I just hope they hold up to 2 kids! Anyway, I'll get some pics up here sometime. Until then, happy motoring!

Friday, January 09, 2009

New Cars all around...

Ok, looks like we will be picking up a new car for the wife this weekend. We found an '06 Volvo XC70 we really like. Going to go pick it up tomorrow. I guess that mean I finally convinced my wife to buy a wagon! Haha, my wagon fetish has finally rubbed off on her. I'm excited about the new car, always loved my old 240 Wagon and hope that we get as much use out of this one as I did the old silver bullet. Now we have to get the Lexus cleaned up. I put it up on craigslist already and I figure we will stick it out in front of my wife's uncles house for a bit.

Now for a new car for me, well not really new. Just a new obsession that has lead to the TR being for sale again. Think I have settled on trying to find a nice Series III 109" Land Rover Station Wagon. Yep, the big one that seats 10 (well not really that big, about the same dimensions as a late 90's Grand Cherokee). Figure it will be a bit more useful than the 88" and easier to haul the twins and other stuff around in if needed. I have my eye on a nice RHD '75 one, just that pesky thing about selling the TR first. Hopefully I can drum some interest up for the TR in the next 2 weeks or so. That's it for now.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Ahh, that New Year Smell....

Welcome to 2009 here on Adventures in British Motoring. The possibility of the TR being joined in the garage by a member of the Swedish Bikini team are increasing every day. We have a few Volvo XC70s pegged to look at this week, just hope one of them is the right one. That leaves selling the Lexus. Figure I will throw it up on Craigslist this week and see if anyone bites.

News on the TR6 front, not much doing right now. Heck, I haven't even had a chance to drive it since I got back in town from the Christmas vacation. I am planning (and more importantly have received the ok from the wife) to do the front brakes and recover the seats by March. Taking the seats out to recover will also give me a chance to clean up the under dash area and fix a few things on the interior. It looks like the transmission and rewiring project may be put off until next winter. It is a big project and one that will require me taking the car off the road for a few months. Hopefully I can stage everything well and just spend a few nights a week on it when I decide to start.