Rover still Running Strong

Not much too exciting going on with the Rover. Been working on a few projects. Bought and installed a metal Land Rover Badge for the rear of the truck. Looks really good and sets the truck apart even more. Installed a nice CB rig, patched up more water leaks and a few other minor projects. 2 Major projects, headlights and electronic ignition. I'll start with the headlights, they decided to start working only rarely maybe 2 months ago. I finally got a chance to delve into the front wiring harness to try to determine the problem. Turned out that the switch inside the horn/direction indicator switch on the steering column had gone bad. For some reason the contact where the headlight power comes into the switch assembly and where it goes back out again is bad. Luckily the previous owner had a complete extra assembly. Just took out the bad one and installed the spare and everything started working just fine. I did take the chance to clean up some of the wiring, redid a few connections and installed another relay to run the headlights. 2nd project has been to get the engine good and tuned up. I installed a Hot Spark electronic ignition kit, new plugs and plug wires this week. Going to borrow and timing light and get that all dialed in. The inside of the distributor was not near as scary as I thought it would be. It was actually a very easy install. I did have to modify the base plate slightly and ordered a spare dizzy from a supplier in England in case I ever have to go back to points. Anyway, planning on setting the timing Friday this week and then pulling the front wheels off to check the brakes. I'll also do an oil change and top up all the fluids. That is it for now, Happy Motoring!

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.

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.