Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2022 i Land Rover Monthly

BEFORE you think I’m about to offer you some New Year dietary advice, let me make it clear that it’s the semiconductor chip I’m writing about. It won’t have escaped your attention that there is a global shortage of these clever little blighters. And that’s a problem because they now exist inside pretty much everything, including cars, where there are often dozens, if not hundreds, of them lurking in the shadows. The world’s automotive manufacturers have been loading their vehicles with ever-increasing amounts of chip-controlled electrickery for years now, most of which nobody ever uses. It’s something I’ve never really been able to understand and something I certainly don’t warm to, but car industry people always tell me the vast majority of buyers insist on it. But that’s not what…

THIS is my last column for LRM, so I hope you’ll allow me a bit of room for nostalgia. After all, when I started writing about Land Rovers, the 300Tdi – as was the second-generation P38 Range Rover and the Discovery 1. I well remember my first sighting of a pre-production Discovery 2: I was near Southam in Warwickshire when an unusual Disco drove past in the other direction. Slow on the uptake, it took me a minute or so to appreciate what I’d just seen. It seems like yesterday, but in Land Rover terms it was light years ago. In my early years as a Land Rover journalist in the late 1990s, the company was owned by BMW and still joined at the hip to the Rover car business.…

ONCE I had finished installing the wiring loom on the Series IIA I had a few other minor jobs to attend to, including a passenger side door which tended to pop open on bends. Most Land Rover doors, even very old ones, have two-stage catches to minimise the risk of a door flying open on a corner: it is quite common to see doors which will latch securely on the first stage but not the second. Fixing this problem is not usually hard. On the later Defenders with push-button doors the cause is normally wear in the striker plate. There is a plastic sleeve which is gripped by the jaws of the door catch and this gradually wears away. The solution is to fit a new striker plate and then…

13 PAGES OF THE VERY BEST CLASSIC VEHICLES CLUB DATA FILE CVC REGISTER SCOPE: A Facebook group for enthusiasts and owners of vehicles that were owned and used by Land Rover when new. Originally founded to search for and rescue pre-production and press launch 38A Range Rovers which usually bore an M—CVC registration. In 2015, because of demand, the group extended its scope to include any Land Rovers that were registered to, and used by, Land Rover Ltd. The name CVC was re-assigned to mean Company Vehicle Collection. These are often pre-production, press launch and engineering vehicles, but also include any vehicle registered to the factory. FOUNDED: Founded in 2009, the page now has over 1000 members. NEWSLETTER: Discussions, vehicles-finds and new images are shared on Facebook WEBSITE: facebook.com/groups/cvcregister. MEMBERSHIP: The…

Get a FREE SEALEY Mini Pen Light when you subscribe SAVE OVER £14 The Sealey Mini Pen Light features all this: • 360° swivel ball-joint function enables the light to be positioned in any direction. • Each light houses 7 super-bright SMD LEDs, illuminating the whole work area. • Includes an additional high power 1 W LED in one end for use as a regular torch. • Features a belt clip with integrated magnet on the back of the light and a strong magnet on the bottom that allows hands-free operation. • High quality 1.1 Ah lithium-ion battery for longer life, no memory effect, and a much slower discharge than traditional Ni-MH batteries. • Micro-USB charging port (supplied with charging lead). 13 ISSUES FOR JUST £49.99 by Direct Debit SUBSCRIBE…

DEFENDER 110 2.8i Year: 1998 Mileage: 310,000 km Power: 193 bhp Torque: 206 lb-ft MPG: 20 Irecently lost a good mate, Julius Kettle, to Covid. He leaves behind his wife Elmi and three daughters Emma, Julianne and Jesse. I was in the army with Julius’s wife Elmi and we went to the Military Academy together. Very happy days on the west coast of South Africa. Not long after I left South Africa for the UK in 2012, Julius and Elmi and their beautiful girls followed. He started working at Nene Overland and took out a subscription to Land Rover Monthly magazine. I may have sorted him out a good deal: I can’t remember, it was a long time ago. Julius was a larger than life individual. He was always giving…

PAGES 15 OF EXPERT ADVICE AND TIPS Vital winter checks AIRLESS tyres may be coming our way in the future. Michelin’s revolutionary Uptis tyre uses a central structure of composite radial spokes surrounded by a tread section. The spokes support the weight of the vehicle while allowing the tyre to flex. The system means punctures and blow-outs will be a thing of the past, as will throwing away otherwise good tyres because of a nail hole, kerb damage or premature wear from incorrect inflation. It will be interesting to see how the tyre performs off-road, though that won’t happen soon – the tyre is expected to be launched in 2024, and then only in Asia where roads are considerably worse than ours. But no one has solved the problem of…

WE’RE not talking about the sort of antics that will get you nasty letters from the Inland Revenue, but rather doing careful research into the road fund licence rates for your potential purchases. The days of the paper disc in the corner of your windscreen might be long gone, but we still have to tax our cars every year. If you have a Land Rover which is over 40 years old, you just need to go online, smugly click in a few boxes and not pay a bean. This makes these classics more attractive to buyers as they can use their cars sparingly and not worry so much about the running costs. But the rest of us still have to pay, and the amounts can vary by hundreds of pounds…

Send us your shot Email your pics to patrick@lrm.co.uk and you could see your Landy in LRM!…

THE Land Rover showroom in Baghdad now has the new Defender in stock. It arrived in late spring and takes pride of place as the first vehicle you see on the showroom floor. It is also, without doubt, the most eye-catching. I have just popped by to say hello to Land Rover Baghdad’s PR manager, Sabah, view Baghdad’s fleet of pristine new Land Rovers (ignoring the Jaguars, of course) and to drop off a copy of LRM, which includes a column about my previous visit. But, with the famous Iraqi hospitality, there’s really no such thing as just popping by to see anyone. And there’s always news in Iraq, including in the world of Iraqi Land Rovers. Sabah is full of enthusiasm for the new Defender, and excitement about a…

RICHARD HALL bought his first Land Rover, a Series III, just after his 18th birthday and has since owned, maintained and restored these vehicles for over 30 years now. He runs a small Land Rover repair and restoration business in Norfolk and every month he lets off steam in LRM. AS everyone knows, the electrical systems on old Land Rovers are powered by smoke. The battery is a large container for smoke, which is then piped around to the various components in the vehicle through the wiring harness. You may have experienced the situation where your wiper motor emits a puff of smoke and stops working. The reason it has stopped working is that all the smoke has come out of it. New wiring harnesses and connectors are usually smoke-tight,…

LAND ROVER LEGENDS DICK ELSY I have to say that I share Dick Elsy’s view that the most exciting time to be working at Land Rover was the period from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. But while my opinion is formed through the prism of an enthusiast and historian, Dick was there and living every day of it at Canley, Solihull and Munich. And he left a successful and lasting legacy that is still at the heart of JLR’s engineering design philosophy to this day. “I joined Land Rover in 1983 after a spell at Coventry Climax on forklift trucks, which I’d joined after completing my education at Loughborough University,” he says. “At Land Rover I was sent initially to Drayton Road and I found the development workshops a…

RANGE ROVER CLASSIC VOGUE SE Year: 1995 Mileage: 93,740 Power: 182 bhp Torque: 230 lb-ft MPG: 19 MY recent reports have majored on my Series I, but I’ve another Land Rover, my 1995 Range Rover Classic Vogue SE, which I’ve had for a decade now. It has been all over the UK, from the Isle of Skye to Port Isaac, in Cornwall, and never let me down. So why, if it is that great, has all been quiet lately? When the pandemic hit, in early 2020, I’d just sorted a stalling issue on the car, so was eager to use it. That problem needed nothing more than a new battery to cure (and to leave it on the car, not borrow it for my Series I). As lockdowns fell, I…

NEED TO KNOW Time: Around five hours. Cost: £92.64. Difficulty: Models: Defender Td5 90, 110, 130. Tools needed: Wire cutters, wire strippers, crimping tool, screwdrivers, 22 mm socket wrench. Parts used: Cruise control parts as itemised below, £15.40; Td5 engine ECU connector gold-tipped terminals and wire seals (pack of five), eBay, £3.50; waterproof stainless steel push button momentary push-on switch (pack of 2), eBay, £3.95; rocker switch 12 V 20 A, on/off LED illuminated, eBay, £1.95; 2 m length of 7 core trailer cable, motor factors, £4; selection of electrical terminals and connectors, £2; optional new instrument cowls via BLRC: instrument cowl (plastic), Britpart MTC2808, £62.50; alternatively, instrument cowl (mild steel), Brooks Engineering, £37. Work safely: • Wear eye protection when drilling. • Take care when cutting or stripping wiring.…

FEATURING OUR STAR RATINGS, EXPERT OPINIONS AND BUYER’S TIPS EARLY SERIES I 80in, 1948 to 1953 RATINGS: PRICE GUIDE Poor: £3500 – £6000 Average: £6000 – £7500 Good: £7500 – £18,000 Excellent: £18,000 – £50,000+ SPECIFICATIONS 1948-1951: 1.6-litre fourcylinder petrol, 55 bhp, 83 lb-ft torque. Four-speed manual, two-speed transfer box with permanent fourwheel drive (to 1950), later selectable. 1951-1953: 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, 52 bhp, 101 lb-ft. EXPERT OPINION: THIS is the ultimate classic Land Rover – 73-years old and more desirable than ever. The early 80in models fetch the highest prices. The earlier and more original, the better. Pre-production and historic examples are the most sought-after, and 1948-50 models the most expensive. Even barn-find derelicts are in demand for restoration projects. The Holy Grail of all Land Rovers is…

WHEN I wrote my last column it had been three months since my Achilles injury and I was mobile again, revelling in being able to drive a manual – all our vehicles are manuals so not being able to operate a clutch for three months had been a major inconvenience. The joy was short-lived. I am now back in a moon boot and last week I had the pleasure of having my Achilles operated on for a second time having ruptured it walking up a garden path. I am, of course, in disbelief. I had just been planning my return to work and getting various projects back online. This setback will be another three months, maybe even longer. A day after snapping my tendon, and before surgery, I hopped my…

SPEAKING of tools, and while we are still on the subject of electrics, I recently acquired a very simple piece of kit which has changed my life. Perhaps I am exaggerating very slightly, but one type of electrical connector which causes me more problems than most is the old-fashioned Lucas 3/16 inch bullet terminal. These turn up absolutely everywhere in the lighting systems of older Land Rovers. They consist of a simple round-ended brass terminal with a hole through the middle, of varying sizes to take different diameters of wire, and which plugs into a tubular two-, four- or sometimes six-way rubber-insulated connector. These connectors suffer from dirt and corrosion in exposed positions but at least they are cheap. There are two main ways to attach a connector to a…

THERE are a couple of things I don’t like about outdoor events. Bad coffee and unnecessary noise, like that of a never-been-serviced generator. Nigel Davis from Off Road Bean has made it his mission to eradicate these two from the great British countryside. He was once a man who thought he had it all, including the big-bucks job at a major bank and the large house. Those two are now a goner and I bet Nigel is much happier. He is currently renovating a remote cottage and serving world-class cups of coffee out of a Defender 110 at shows. I caught up with him and his very efficient team at the recent Adventure Overland Show where I enjoyed a cuppa and a tour of Off Road Bean, his incredible Defender…

PACK OUT ALL LITTER: Make sure you’re collecting all litter, packing it out and disposing of it properly, ideally in a place with good infrastructure, not at some remote bin at the end of a single-lane track. One easy way we’ve found to limit the amount of litter you produce when you’re out in the sticks, is to pre-dispose of all the food packaging while you’re still in a town or village and transfer everything into reusable bags. STICK TO THE BEATEN TRACK: Whether hiking or driving, rather than blazing your own trail to explore or to find your camp, stick to the tracks. This will ensure no wildlife or native vegetation is harmed in your adventures. REDUCE THE IMPACTS OF CAMPFIRES: Use a stove or an elevated, off-the-ground, fire…

DEFENDER 90 Td5 Year: 2002 Mileage: 65,023 Power: 122 bhp Torque 221 lb-ft MPG: 28 HAVING run my recently acquired Td5 90 around for a thousand miles or so, it became very noticeable how noisy the tyres were on the road. Whilst I used to enjoy the hum of some old military tyres on my Land Rovers of old, it must now be my age – or the fact I’m no longer driving a Lightweight at 45 mph for fun – but it can get quite wearing. Sometimes you just want to crack on, and when your current steed has two aged Goodyear all-terrains fitted up front, and two very old Avon Rangemasters on the back – and the spare a very shiny and aged Michelin XZL tyre fitted to…

DEFENDERS, DISCOVERYS, RANGE ROVERS – AND A BMW Year: Various Mileage: Various Power: From 180 bhp Torque: 260 lb-ft and more MPG: Economy if you wanted, but most went for ultimate power JOSÉ Amorim of Td5 Inside/Performance Inside was at my workshop this month, as part of his Ireland tour. It has been an annual event of late because of the pandemic – and the associated travel restrictions – although José is determined that his visits will be every six months, with a return around April 2022. He ran a two-day remapping clinic, where owners of modified Defender and Discovery TDCi/Td5 vehicles had the tuning characteristics of their ECUs tweaked. There were over 30 delighted Land Rover enthusiasts who left my workshop with big grins on their faces. The renowned…

NEED TO KNOW Time: 4 hours. Difficulty: Models: Discovery 2. Tools needed: Socket set, spanners, filter straps, screwdriver, seal pick, brake fluid tester, coolant tester, rags, torch, water pump pliers, cable ties, grease gun, pry bar, brush and anti-seize paste and lubricants. Parts used: Britpart service kit with engine oil DA6004COM, from £57. Work safely: Wear eye protection when working under a vehicle. Always support a vehicle on suitably rated stands, never rely on a jack. Use the right tool for the right job. If in doubt, get a professional. Thanks to: Britpart and Steve Grant for their help with this feature. SERVICE attention is a vital part of maintaining the mechanical health of any Land Rover. On top of the by-the-book fluid swaps and filter changes, time spent around…

ARCTIC PANDA Germany-based Christian Salisbury spends every spare minute he has in magnificent Iceland. He talks exclusively to LRM about how he made sure that his big foot Defender on portal axles would not let him down when off-roading there. HAPPY IN HAMPSHIRE Pat and friends take on some lanes in Hampshire. They enjoyed it so much that they decided to camp on the farm of a UK Camel Trophy legend. Can anyone guess who it is? DJ DEFENDER Find out how the Defender that used to belong to George Clarke from Amazing Spaces has been transformed into a mobile DJ box. PLUS ‘How to’ workshop articles and Land Rover product reviews. FEB 2022 ISSUE ON SALE JAN 5 or download and read the digital issue from Jan 3 bit.ly/lrmpocketmags…